Microsoft Tells Users to Ignore False “Antivirus Is Turned Off” Alerts

Microsoft asked customers to ignore incorrect Windows security pop-ups claiming Microsoft Defender Antivirus is turned off, BleepingComputer reported August 31. The company says the alerts are false positives for affected builds and that protection remains on while it works a fix. Fake or buggy security notifications are dangerous because they train people either to panic-click or to distrust real warnings.

Guidance in the report is to sit tight rather than “repair” a healthy Defender install with random third-party tools. Until Microsoft ships the correction, the safe move is verify Defender status inside Windows Security settings and treat the toast itself as the bug.

Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-asks-users-to-ignore-antivirus-is-turned-off-errors