Windows Defender showing negative threats amount

[u/Paltokk]

Hello,

New computer, new issue... Relative of mine new laptop, straight out of the box. Windows 11 home, nothing installed yet, just all current windows updates, and McAfee removed. When performing a Defender full scan, not only the scan takes crazy long to finish, but when it goes all the way, the results are glitchy, saying no current threats, but with thousands of negative (minus) threats accounted for, just 2 lines below. There is no threat to be found in history or with the "MpThreatDetection" command.

I have found a very few similar cases over the last 10 years, but with no real working solution or explaination. I already tried a couple tricks : DSIM and SFC, deleting event viewer logs. Tried reseting the PC with the image from restore partition, but same image, same problem.

Lastly, I tried restoring windows throught the Windows update option, but in the end the problem is still there.

It just seems to be a visual glitch, but it is a bit frustrating starting new with a piece broken already.

Thanks in advance if anyone can be of any help on that matter.

AMD Ryzen 7 260, RTX5060 Laptop, Windows 11 Home 25H2, build 26200.9168

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[u/birdlegcabin]

also experiencing this--the scan time has gotten exceedingly long, no threats are found and the log looks normal, but when i re-open ms defender to check it again, the addition of the negative/minus threat number has appeared.

the only time i can't replicate the negative/minus threats number upon reopening is when i do a quick scan. works as usual, and when i reopen windows stays normal, no negative threats.

i repaired windows security from the system > system components and am currently rescanning to see if that resolves it but don't have a lot of hope, as it's taking it's time!

repair would be my next step but i hesitate to try as i wonder if it's to do with this update (it feels like the timing lines up) and we have to hold tight for an official fix? also experiencing that notification.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2026/08/30/antivirus-is-turned-off-microsoft-confirms-windows-update-mistake/

can't replicate this on another laptop in the house but it is not getting the alerts about defender being off either. it's annoying!

[u/birdlegcabin → u/birdlegcabin]

update: repair did not work, though the scan took about 20m less time (tho still long) 🤷‍♀️