PSA: Windows is Reporting Fake "Defender Antivirus Turned Off" Warnings
After installing the latest Defender Antivirus update for Windows 11, users have started reporting that their operating system is sending…
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Only TechPowerUp has this. It is here on that single source, so read it as one outlet's reporting until somebody else confirms it.
Single-sourced. No second organisation has confirmed it yet.
Link-outLink-out, because only one organisation carries it and no first-party source is on it. Link-out means we point at the publisher and say nothing of our own.
| Factor | Weight | Score | Contribution | Where it came from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corroborationleads | 0.35 | 0.39 | +0.135 36% | 1 independent org on the story. Tier-3 aggregators never corroborate — they can show something is circulating, never that it is true. |
| Source trust | 0.25 | 0.44 | +0.110 29% | TechPowerUp is the highest-trust source on this story. Trust is taken from the best source, not averaged. |
| Pickup rate | 0.20 | 0.00 | +0.000 0% | One counted organisation, so there is no spread to measure — nothing has picked this up to set a rate. |
| Freshness | 0.20 | 0.66 | +0.132 35% | Halves every 10 hours from the newest item on the story. This is the only factor that rewards a story for nothing more than being recent. |
Corroboration counts distinct organisations, once each, and only from tiers 1 and 2. Freshness halves every 10 hours, so this ranking is a snapshot and will differ at the next build.
What happened
After installing the latest Defender Antivirus update for Windows 11, users have started reporting that their operating system is sending notifications stating "Microsoft Defender Antivirus is turned off." Despite the Defender Antivirus protection working correctly, Windows has been pushing these notifications to users, with many of the TechPowerUp staff experiencing the error themselves. These notifications typically appear when the operating system is freshly booted up or immediately afterward. Interestingly, Defender Antivirus can send out notifications even when notification settings are turned off, and all versions of Windows or Windows Server are affected.
How this story arrived
Ordered by when each source was first observed, which is what the velocity figure is computed from. Publishers backdate; observed order does not.
- 01 Techpowerup first seen PSA: Windows is Reporting Fake "Defender Antivirus Turned Off" Warnings
Overclock clusters coverage from independent sources and grades it automatically. The figures above are computed, not editorial. This page summarises and links to reporting by the outlets named — follow the links for the original work.