After months, Microsoft finally fixed an annoying Microsoft Defender Antivirus issue

Microsoft published a fix for an annoying Microsoft Defender Antivirus issue that has been plaguing Windows 11 users for months.

The company confirmed the Microsoft Defender Antivirus issue in March 2023, stating that users might see the error message Local Security Protection is off. Your device may be vulnerable” after installation of recent Microsoft Defender Antivirus updates.

Affected Windows 11 devices would display the error message to users. Administrators could enable the feature on affected devices, but this led to a follow-up issue. Now, users would receive persistent prompts to restart their devices.

Microsoft also tried to remove the option from Settings, but this too did not resolve the underlying issue.

Microsoft attempted to fix the issue in May 2023 when it released an update for Microsoft Defender Antivirus. The company had to pull the update shortly after release as it led to issues that Microsoft did not specify.

Today, Microsoft confirmed that it has resolved the issue through an update for the Windows Security platform antimalware platform: “This issue was resolved in an update for Windows Security platform antimalware platform KB5007651 (Version 1.0.2306.10002). If you would like to install the update before it is installed automatically, you will need to check for updates”.

Windows 11 devices will receive the update automatically eventually via Windows Update’s automatic updating functionality. Administrators may speed up the installation by manually checking for updates.

This is done by going to Start > Settings > Windows Updates and activating the check for updates button there.

Microsoft notes here that administrators may also run the command Get-AppPackage Microsoft.SecHealthUI on an elevated PowerShell prompt.

Windows 11 users may check if the Local Security Authority Protection feature is available on their devices in the following way:

Use Windows-I to open the Settings application, or go to Start > Settings.
Switch to Privacy & Security.
Select Windows Security on the page that opens, and then open Windows Security.
In the Windows Security window, select Device Security.
Open Core isolation details.
Check of Local Security Authority protection is available.

Selecting Settings > About in the Windows Security window reveals the currently installed versions. The Windows Security Service Version should be 1.0.2306.10002 after the update is installed on the affected device.

Closing Words

Windows 11 users who did not encounter the Local Security Authority Protection is off issue do not have to do anything at this point. Microsoft will release security updates for Windows 11 later today as part of the July 2023 Patch Tuesday.

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