Microsoft admitted on January 13th that the Microsoft Defender update caused the mistaken deletion of application shortcuts in the Start menu and taskbar in the Win10 system. In today’s updated Health Dashboard, Microsoft admitted that the Win11 system is also affected, and these accidentally deleted shortcuts cannot be restored.
"After users install Microsoft Defender 1.381.2140.0 Security Intelligence Update, the Start menu, pins to the taskbar, and application shortcuts on the desktop may be hidden or deleted. In addition, errors may occur when attempting to run executable (.exe) files that rely on shortcut files. Affected devices primarily have the Atack Surface Reduction (ASR) rule "Block Win32 API calls from Office macros" enabled. After installing Security Intelligence version 1.381.2140.0, the detection results in the deletion of certain Windows shortcut (.lnk) files that match the error detection pattern."
Windows devices used by home or small business users may not be affected by this issue.
List of affected versions.
Clients.
Windows 11, version 22H2
Windows 10, version 22H2
Windows 11, version 21H2
Windows 10, version 21H2
Windows 10, version 20H2
Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019
Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2016
Windows 10 Enterprise 2015 LTSB
Server side is not affected
Microsoft adds.
"Next steps: This issue has been resolved in Security Intelligence Update version 1.381.2164.0. Installing Security Intelligence Update version 1.381.2164.0 or later should prevent this issue, but it will not restore previously deleted shortcuts. You will need to recreate or restore these shortcuts through other methods."
