Windows Defender Beta 2: Update

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Hi all,

We’ve gotten some great feedback from places like this blog and our support newsgroups about the recently released Windows Defender Beta 2. We really appreciate the enthusiastic participation!

Some of this feedback has allowed us to identify a couple of problems with our setup on non-English versions of Windows: 

  • We have a problem installing on systems which don’t have a group named “Users”. On these systems, the group typically exists but it is in another language.
  • Sometimes the link to Windows Defender creates a new group called “Programs” at the top of the start menu.

Our international users are very important to us and so we are currently testing an updated version that fixes these issues.  That update will be available soon through the same links where you installed the original version. Until we make this version available, users may follow the steps in KB915087 to workaround these issues and successfully install Windows Defender Beta 2.

Another problem that was appearing in the newsgroups:

  • Uninstalling and reinstalling can temporarily cause problems updating signatures.

This will automatically get fixed in the next update of our signatures, which is scheduled for Tuesday. Please see KB915105 for more information.

Finally, we have also received a few questions about the tray icon. A consistent point of feedback from Windows users is that there are just too many icons that appear in the system tray.  With this in mind, we decided not to display a system tray icon for Windows Defender if no action is needed.  This way, we can help the industry move towards a model where the items in the system tray are programs that need a user's attention instead of items that are simply running.  As always, your comments on this are welcome.

Thanks again for all the support and please keep the feedback coming !

Adam