Microsoft Defender bug may fill your hard drive with thousands of files

[mkoundo]

Windows Defender bug may fill your hard drive with thousands of files - gHacks Tech News

If you are using a device with Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system and Windows Defender as the default security solution, you may be impacted by a bug that is filling the hard drive with files.

www.ghacks.net

If you are using a device with Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system and Windows Defender as the default security solution, you may be impacted by a bug that is filling the hard drive with files.

Windows Defender puts thousands of files in the folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Scans\History\Store if a device is affected by the issue. More than 10,800 items were placed in the folder on a test system running Windows 10 version 20H2. Other users reported over 950,000 files over the course of a 24 hour period and 30 Gigabytes of storage occupied by the files. Most files are small in size, between 1 and 2 Kilobytes.

The bug may affect certain operations, such as synchronization or backup tasks. Backups and syncs may take longer to complete, and may occupy more space. Storage devices may also be filled up quickly, depending on the severity of the experienced issue on a device.

 

[CyberTech]

Mine 6,526 files and 9.66 MB

 

[blackice]

I see 86,000 files using 300MB.

Edit: Everything in there is from yesterday. hm...

 

[ForgottenSeer 85179]

Fix is planned for tomorrow:

Windows Defender MsMpEng.dll füllt den Ordner windows defender/scan/history - Fix kommt am Donnerstag 6.05.21 - Deskmodder.de

Defender modul version: 1.1.18100.5 is the bad one, upcoming 1.1.18100.6 the good one

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Fix is planned for tomorrow:

Windows Defender MsMpEng.dll füllt den Ordner windows defender/scan/history - Fix kommt am Donnerstag 6.05.21 - Deskmodder.de

Defender modul version: 1.1.18100.5 is the bad one, upcoming 1.1.18100.6 the good one

Yes, but I'm still on 1.1.18100.5 and no update offered through Windows Update.

Microsoft fixes Windows 10 Defender bug generating thousands of files

According to user reports and our tests, Windows Defender is dropping thousands of files on the system drive of Windows 10. The problem has been widely reported by users who have discovered that a faulty Windows Defender update is responsible for the mess. Microsoft Defender comes pre-installed...

www.windowslatest.com

 

[blackice]

Yes, but I'm still on 1.1.18100.5 and no update offered through Windows Update.

Microsoft fixes Windows 10 Defender bug generating thousands of files

According to user reports and our tests, Windows Defender is dropping thousands of files on the system drive of Windows 10. The problem has been widely reported by users who have discovered that a faulty Windows Defender update is responsible for the mess. Microsoft Defender comes pre-installed...

www.windowslatest.com

Same here. Meanwhile the folder hasn't grown today, but I haven't run any scans today.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Same here. Meanwhile the folder hasn't grown today, but I haven't run any scans today.

I emptied the folder today.
Now it has 31 files and is 14MB in size.
No scanning done today...

 

[ForgottenSeer 85179]

Yes, but I'm still on 1.1.18100.5 and no update offered through Windows Update.

That's why I wrote "Fix is planned for tomorrow:"

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

That's why I wrote "Fix is planned for tomorrow:"

Reading proves to be difficult, thanks

 

[show-Zi]

It was updated to 1.1.1810.6 earlier.

In my environment, it had a capacity of about 50MB. With less than 30% free space on the c drive, I'm nervous about even the slightest increase in capacity.
I think it's similar to boxers taking care of their weight self-management.

 

[blackice]

Got an error a few times with a definition update, then it went through and low and behold I see engine 1.1.1810.6

 

[SeriousHoax]

Does anyone know if these updates contain only the signatures or does it contain new engine updates too? If anyone is having trouble getting the automatic update then you may try manually downloading from here and check:

Latest security intelligence updates for Microsoft Defender Antivirus and other Microsoft antimalware - Microsoft Security Intelligence

 

[Stopspying]

For a comparison this screenshot is from a PC where I installed Win 10 on a new partition on 25.04.21. Soon afterwards I installed F-Secure SAFE on it, so I believe that these files were created up until the point where I set SAFE as the AV.


From the same PC, from the the old OS install partition where I had again used SAFE as the AV, there are a few more files and they are from a longer period, but only going back to January 2021 although the OS had been installed in August 2020

 

[blackice]

After the update last night I checked the folder this morning: 2,292 file 16.4MB. Seems it is back to usual.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

After the update last night I checked the folder this morning: 2,292 file 16.4MB. Seems it is back to usual.

I deleted the existing files after the update and now the folder contains 3 files, size 8.00kB.

 

[jay dacanay]

Mine 6,526 files and 9.66 MB

Is it safe to delete the definition update folder?

 

[ForgottenSeer 100397]

Windows 11 shows an empty folder.