Windows 10: Windows Defender Taskbar Icon

O.k.....I have now updated four W10 laptops to the latest version (1703)......the 1st three are fine, but the fourth one has a minor problem......the Windows Defender icon on the taskbar is not showing the green "everything o.k. tick".....there is nothing else showing, no exclamation mark or yellow triangle, and WD says that everything is fine and up to date.......anyone know what could cause this ?.........Del.

:)

 

windows defender tray icon

Right click the Taskbar

Click Taskbar settings

Scroll down to Notification area

Click Select which icons appear on the Taskbar

Toggle on Windows Defender Notification icon

 

Removing Windows defender icon from taskbar

Right click the Taskbar

Click Taskbar settings

Scroll down to Notification area

Click Select which icons appear on the taskbar

Toggle off 'Windows Defender notification icon'

 

The green tick appears when all four items in the Windows Defender Security Centre are OK, and a yellow mark when any one of them isn't. Presumably no mark of any kind means the security centre has not yet polled the system to determine the state of each function. This can take a while to update itself, I've seen a yellow warning remain on the icon long after correcting a minor 'Device performance and health' issue that had caused it.

I'd try opening Defender to see which one(s) are not showing a green tick, and click on each that isn't to try and see why. Having done this the Defender icon may well have the information it need to determine what colour of tick to show on its icon. Try a restart if it still shows nothing.

 

O.k. Thanks for that.......am away from laptop at the moment, but will try it later...........

 

The other thing that is different, is that on the first two laptops, if you point the arrow at the WD icon, it says "no action required".......right clicking the icon opens the WD window.......on third laptop neither of these happen.......

 

A double-click should open it too. Those symptoms confirm the Defender icon is not working properly. Is the real-time protection working? Look for MsMpEng.exe in Task Manager's 'Details' tab. Test it with the EICAR test file (you can make one with Notepad). Intended use ° EICAR - European Expert Group for IT-Security

The icon, if it is running, should also be seen in Task Manager. It is MSASCuiL.exe. This process can be stopped and will remove the icon from the taskbar without stopping the AV protection. The icon can be put back again by running C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MSASCuiL.exe.

The icon is meant to open the Windows Defender Security Centre. Can you open it from Settings > Update & security > Windows Defender ?

 

Mmhhh.........a bit technical for me , but will give it a go later in the week, when I am back near the machine.......Thanks.

 

O.k.......everything seems to be working fine now, not sure how.......the shield icon disappeared from the notification area, but I got it back by dragging and dropping......and, it has the green tick in it !!......a little strange but it works o.k now.....it says "no actions needed"....and it opens the security centre...........Del.