Microsoft Defender
The latest Microsoft Defender coverage — news, analysis, and updates from the WindowsNews.AI desk.
Windows 11 June 2026 Patch Tuesday: Secure Boot Fix & New NPU Tools
Microsoft will release its June 2026 Patch Tuesday updates for Windows 11 on June 9, 2026, delivering mandatory security patches alongside a suite of user-facing enhancements. This month’s...
Microsoft Quietly Deletes Article Saying Windows 11 Users Don't Need Third-Party Antivirus
Microsoft has quietly scrubbed a Windows Learning Center article that bluntly told most Windows 11 users they don’t need third-party antivirus software. The article, first spotted in April, was...
Microsoft Defender Hits Perfect 100% in AV-Test, Sparking Third-Party Antivirus Debate
Microsoft Defender scored a perfect 100% protection rate in the latest AV-Test evaluations for Windows 10 and 11, marking the fifth consecutive certification with top marks. That single statistic has...
Soleno Biotech Cuts Alerts 65% with Microsoft Defender & Purview
A Microsoft customer story published June 3, 2026 details how Soleno Therapeutics, a rare-disease biotechnology company based in the United States, transformed its security and compliance posture by...
Defender labeled "best antivirus for 2026" in now-deleted Microsoft Learning Center post
Microsoft quietly removed a controversial Windows Learning Center article that declared Windows Defender the best antivirus for 2026, reigniting the long-standing debate over whether built-in...
Microsoft Zero-Day Exploit Ban Escalates: No Patch Until June 2026, Defender Misses Variants
A prolific Windows vulnerability researcher operating under the alias Nightmare Eclipse was banned from GitHub on May 23, 2026, after publishing weaponized exploit code for multiple zero-day flaws in...
Update Microsoft Defender to 1.1.26040.8 to Fix CVE-2026-45584 RCE Flaw
Microsoft dropped a critical security update on May 19, 2026, for the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine—the silent workhorse behind Windows Defender and several other Microsoft security products....
Microsoft Patches CVE-2026-41091: Defender Engine EoP Fixed in v1.1.26040.8
Microsoft patched a high-severity elevation-of-privilege vulnerability in its Malware Protection Engine on May 20, 2026. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-41091, could allow an attacker to gain...
Microsoft Patches CVE-2026-45498: Denial-of-Service in Defender Antimalware Platform 4.18
Microsoft has disclosed a denial-of-service vulnerability in its Microsoft Defender Antimalware Platform, tracked as CVE-2026-45498, as part of its May 2026 security update batch. The flaw affects...
Staying Safe on Windows 10 After 2025: Gizmodo’s Free Antivirus Picks Hold the Line
Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. Security updates stopped. Patches dried up. The operating system that still powers millions of PCs entered its twilight with a target on...
CISA Flags 7 Actively Exploited Flaws: Old Windows Bugs & 2026 Defender Flaws
CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog grew by seven entries today, a mix of decades-old Windows and Adobe bugs alongside two brand-new Microsoft Defender flaws. The update, released...
Microsoft AI Turns Attack Blueprints into Instant Security Logs for Detection Engineers
Microsoft Defender Security Research quietly dropped a game-changing capability on May 12, 2026: an AI-assisted pipeline that churns out realistic synthetic security logs directly from adversary...