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A recent Microsoft Defender update has caused some Windows users to lose shortcuts to their programs.
The bizarre issue resulted in Windows icons and application shortcuts being removed from the taskbar and start menu without any warning.
Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 users appear to be affected, with the antivirus causing problems for customers around the world.
Microsoft Defender ASR issue
While apparently only some shortcuts are affected, and not the actual apps, many users are complaining about the timeliness of the error: Friday 13.
Many of them have gone to online threads like Reddit (opens in new tab) and the Microsoft technical community (opens in new tab) complain.
A Reddit user explains that the Start menu is also affected: “I can’t open firefox by using the Windows key and typing its name, I have to go to program files”.
Microsoft has one pronunciation (opens in new tab) that reads: “Customers of Windows Security and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint may have experienced a series of false positives for the Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) rule “Block Win32 API calls from Office macro” after updating to security intelligence builds between 1,381 .2134.0 and 1.381.2163.0.”
The author goes on to explain that the bug “primarily affects Windows shortcut files (.lnk)”, and that users who don’t have the “Block Win32 API calls from Office macro” rule enabled shouldn’t be affected.
Another user managed to solve the problem, but discovered that certain icons in the taskbar had become invisible.
The company has a corrective solution for it antivirus, but many companies still report that they have not been properly cared for. Some complain that the fix “does not fix Microsoft Office shortcuts deployed per user”, while others have asked for steps to deploy the fix through Intune.
With new comments being added every day, it is clear that Microsoft needs to do more to fix the ongoing Defender bug. Tech Radar Pro Microsoft has asked for clarification.