Windows 11 Security
The latest Windows 11 Security coverage — news, analysis, and updates from the WindowsNews.AI desk.
Microsoft Defender Earns Perfect Score in Latest Test, Narrowing the Case for Paid Antivirus Suites
Microsoft Defender Antivirus just aced its latest independent exam. In AV-TEST’s March/April 2026 evaluation of Windows 11 consumer security products, the built-in protection scored a flawless 18...
July 2026 Windows Patch Fixes Privilege Escalation Flaw—Here’s Why Some Dell PCs Are Blocked
Microsoft's July 14, 2026 security update patches a local privilege escalation vulnerability in the Windows Runtime that could let attackers seize full control of a system after gaining limited...
Windows 11’s July Update Seals Off a Path from Low-Privilege Account to Full Control
On July 14, 2026, Microsoft released cumulative update KB5101650 for Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2, extinguishing a high-severity local privilege-escalation vulnerability tracked as...
CVE-2026-50385: The Windows 11 Race Condition Bug That Demands an Immediate Patch
Microsoft’s July 14, 2026 security rollout closed a high-severity weakness in Windows Runtime that lets a low-privileged attacker hijack a Windows machine without any user interaction. Cataloged as...
CVE-2026-50305: July 14 Update Fixes a Use-After-Free Flaw That Could Give Attackers SYSTEM Access
On July 14, 2026, Microsoft shipped a fix for a high-severity local privilege-escalation vulnerability in the Windows Brokering File System, part of its monthly Patch Tuesday release. The...
Prepare for Heavier Windows 11 Security Updates as AI Finds More Flaws, Microsoft Says
Microsoft has told IT administrators that Windows 11 security updates will become significantly larger in the coming months because the company is using artificial intelligence to find and fix more...
Windows 11’s 2026 Security Overhaul: Mandatory Secure Boot Certificate Renewal and a New Consent Model
Microsoft is preparing a foundational shift in Windows 11 security that will touch every device running the operating system. In 2026, the company will enforce a Secure Boot certificate rollover...
Microsoft Defender in 2026: The Best Free Antivirus That Comes With Windows 11 — And Its Limits
Microsoft Defender once was the security equivalent of the \"I have a friend\" excuse. You’d tell your tech-savvy relatives to ditch it immediately and install something — anything — else. That...
Microsoft Plans to Make Sysmon a Native Windows 11 Security Tool by 2026
Microsoft is poised to embed Sysmon — the Sysinternals system-monitoring staple relied on by incident responders and security operations centers worldwide — directly into Windows 11 as an...
Riot's Vanguard anti-cheat goes on-demand, requiring TPM attestation on Windows 11 25H2.
Riot Games is adding an on-demand mode for its Vanguard anti-cheat software, allowing League of Legends and VALORANT players to run the kernel-level driver only while playing—if their Windows 11...
June 24, 2026: The Day Microsoft's 2011 Secure Boot Key Expires – Are Your Devices Ready?
As the calendar inches toward June 24, 2026, a little-known but critical component of Windows security is reaching its end of life. Microsoft's original Secure Boot Key Exchange Key (KEK), issued in...
Windows Security to Add Secure Boot Readiness Indicator for Certificate Migration in April 2026
Microsoft is preparing to add a long‑awaited Secure Boot readiness status to the Windows Security app, with the feature set to roll out in April 2026 as part of an ongoing certificate migration...