Windows Defender Notifications Not Working — Even After Clean Installs, BIOS Reset & Full Repairs
Hi everyone, I’m facing a strange and persistent issue with Windows Defender notifications, and I’m hoping someone here may have encountered something similar. During routine system maintenance, I noticed that Windows Defender has completely stopped showing notifications — no scan completion alerts, no threat‑found pop‑ups, nothing at all. Troubleshooting I’ve Already Done To rule out corruption, configuration issues, or hardware‑related causes, I’ve carried out extensive testing across multiple clean installations: Reinstalled Windows using the Media Creation Tool → still no Defender notifications Reinstalled Windows again using Rufus → same result Reset BIOS / cleared CMOS Installed an older Windows 11 build (offline, before updates) → still no notifications Deleted all partitions on every reinstall (full clean install) Verified all Windows Defender notification settings, including Enhanced Notifications Checked Windows notification settings to ensure Windows Security is allowed Ran SFC Performed DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth Confirmed no registry or Group Policy entries suppressing notifications Reinstalled Windows Defender components Scanned with third‑party tools and Microsoft MRT — no issues found Ensured Windows Push Notification System Service is running Despite all of this, Defender notifications never appear on any fresh installation. Microsoft Support I opened a support ticket with Microsoft. One engineer performed an in‑place repair install Another advised me to post the issue here for deeper investigation Ticket reference: 710148747 Additional Technical Findings 1. Notifications are not being suppressed No GPOs applied No Intune configuration profiles No registry entries modifying notification behaviour Local notification settings fully enabled Defender notifications fully enabled It’s not a profile corruption It’s not a user hive issue It’s not a local DB issue It’s OS‑level 2. Windows Notification Platform (WNP) appears to be the root cause Across multiple clean installs: ShellExperienceHost exists on disk. Focus Assist toggle produces no toast (not sure it does) other apps like mail, Logitech, steam can toast notification, i don't see defender toasting any scan notification. WNP is partially working Defender is partially registering The scan‑completion channel is failing specifically This behaviour is consistent and reproducible. 3. Defender functionality validated using EICAR I manually created the EICAR test file and ran a scan: Defender detects and removes the file correctly Detection appears in Protection History A threat notification appears Scan completion notifications do NOT appear This confirms: Defender itself is functioning The notification delivery layer (WNP) is not working question at MS QA- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5864084/windows-defender-notifications-not-working-even-afNot enough disk space and can't clear temp files?!
Hi, I am having problems with my acer aspire 5. I have very limited disk space and it says 700+gb are taken by temporary files: When I try to press on temporary files and clean it, it gives me like barely any files to clear: I have trawled this forum trying all the commands I can find but they're all making no difference! This is making my laptop unusable, any advice? TIA
WhatsApp Windows app: No way to sync to phone, no way to backup chats
Windows 11 v. 25H2 When I installed the Windows WhatsApp app, I linked it to my phone. 99% of my messages are on the Microsoft App, not on my phone. There seems to be no way to link them, or to backup. The two devices are not connected, and there is no way to sync them. According to AI, they are likely running separately, on separate programs --- one on the phone, and one on the Windows App None of my backups are saved anywhere on Windows. AI had me look in several places, and they just aren't there. There seems to now be no way to update the app or backup what is there without forwarding it chat by chat to myself, but even then, it can't be restored. Is there something AI missed? Is there any way to fix this without losing all of my chats? My son lives in Europe and all of our chats are on the Windows WhatsApp app.
To the security / permission developers
Please refrain from working on any and all software for the rest of your lives. Get a job shoveling dirt. There is no reason as a single user with admin rights, should be denied from accessing / modifying any files or folder on my PC without having to jump through a thousand hoops. Even after granting ownership, I'm still getting screwed. And by the countless forums I see about other people experiencing the same issue, there's still no light at the end of the tunnel. So, for the love of god, just stop what you are doing before it gets worse.
MS account is locked
I have been trying to get into my wife's MS account for about 3 weeks and keep going around in circles with no success. I finally reset the laptop and am now using a new MS account for her. But there is a subscription on the old account that needs to be cancelled and the laptop device needs to be removed from that account; can you help?Minecraft UWP save failure on Windows 11 Insider due to sandbox regression
I am experiencing an issue where Minecraft for Windows (Bedrock) does not save data correctly on Windows 11 Insider builds (Canary, Dev, and Beta). After extensive troubleshooting, the problem appears to be caused by a UWP sandbox initialization regression in these Insider channels. Summary of the issue: Minecraft creates a fallback folder at: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Minecraft Bedrock This folder should never exist for the UWP version of Minecraft. The correct UWP save locations remain unused: LocalState SystemAppData\wgs SystemAppData\Helium The Helium folder stays empty and the wgs folder is never created. Marketplace and cloud save features fail or behave inconsistently. What has been ruled out: File system permissions (ACLs verified and correct) Incorrect launcher (Start Menu points to the correct UWP AppX entry) Corrupted Minecraft installation (package re-registered successfully) Microsoft Store or Gaming Services issues User profile corruption Missing or incorrect folder structure AppX registration issues System file corruption (DISM and SFC clean) Reinstalling Minecraft or Gaming Services Reinstalling Windows using Insider ISOs (Dev, Beta, Canary) Key findings: The Minecraft UWP package installs correctly. The launcher is correct. All ACLs are correct. AppX re-registration succeeds. Despite this, the UWP sandbox never initializes, so Minecraft cannot access its restricted storage. As a result, Windows forces Minecraft into a Win32-style fallback mode, creating the Roaming folder. Microsoft Support Response: Microsoft Support confirmed that this behavior matches a known limitation or regression affecting UWP sandbox initialization on Windows 11 Insider builds (Canary, Dev, and Beta). They stated that there is currently no supported workaround on affected builds and recommended either filing a report here or installing the Windows 11 Stable build. Conclusion: This appears to be a UWP runtime regression in current Windows 11 Insider builds that prevents Minecraft (and potentially other UWP apps) from initializing their sandbox correctly. The issue persists across clean installs and multiple Insider channels. A fix would require changes to the UWP/AppModel runtime in Insider builds. (I am about to reset my entire PC for a 3rd time, this time with the Windows 11 Stable build. Fingers crossed it fixes this issue.)How much space does Windows 11 Need?
I honestly am fairly new to Windows 11. I know it is one louder than Windows 10, but wondering how much disk space it requires. I have a fairly new HP r14-fq0070nr laptop I inherited from my Aunt. I just formatted it and installed Windows 11. I went to install Office365 but wasn't even able to run updates because of lack of disk space. The hard drive on this is only 57GB and Windows seems to take up 27 GB with another 11GB of "apps". (I have installed nothing here yet.) I tried to remove "tempoarary internet files" and cache. but there doesn't seem to be anything. Is there any way to make this take up way less space? Seems odd that a generic version of Windows is taking so much disk space. Thanks!
