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

mkoundo

Level 8
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Well-known
Jul 21, 2017
358

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.
 

Gandalf_The_Grey

Level 76
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Apr 24, 2016
6,505
Fix is planned for tomorrow:

Defender modul version: 1.1.18100.5 is the bad one, upcoming 1.1.18100.6 the good one (y)
Yes, but I'm still on 1.1.18100.5 😭 and no update offered through Windows Update.
 

blackice

Level 38
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Apr 1, 2019
2,730
Yes, but I'm still on 1.1.18100.5 😭 and no update offered through Windows Update.
Same here. Meanwhile the folder hasn't grown today, but I haven't run any scans today.
 

show-Zi

Level 36
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Jan 28, 2018
2,463
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.🥊:)
 

Stopspying

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Jan 21, 2018
814
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.

Defender Store files 2nd - 06.05.21.PNG
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

Defender Store files 1st - 06.05.21.PNG
 

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