Windows Defender bug fills the trash

According to user reports, Windows Defender appears to be creating thousands of files on the Windows 10 system disk. The problem started after a faulty Windows Defender update that is responsible for the mess.

Microsoft Defender is pre-installed on all versions of Windows 10 and is regularly updated through Windows Update. After a recent update to Windows Defender last week in April, many people noticed that Windows started creating thousands of files on the system disk, that is, where the operating system is installed.

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Affected users began reporting on Microsoft forums and Reddit that the Windows Defender history folder (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Scans\History\Store) was filling up with files. The files were tiny and harmless, but in some cases they were using up a huge amount of storage space.

The same bug was observed in Windows Server installations, with some reporting that it created 18 million files.

“We have three Server 2016s that are affected. Our HDD space alerts started last night. One server has 18 million files in the Store folder. Another has 13 million. It takes hours just to discover all the files so they can be deleted. And because of the size, these files are taking up 50-60 GB of disk space. This is a big problem from Microsoft,” a user wrote on Reddit.

How to check if Windows Defender is creating files

The easiest way to test your system is through File Explorer:

Open File Explorer and make sure "Hidden items" are allowed on the View tab.
In the address bar, type "C: \ ProgramData \ Microsoft \" without the quotation marks.
Click on "Windows Defender".
Click "Continue" if the folder requests administrator privileges.
In the Windows Defender folder, look at Scans \ History \ Scans.

If you are affected by the bug, you will see hundreds or thousands of files smaller than one megabyte each. You can delete them safely.

Windows Defender in version 1.1.18100.6 fixes the problems

The good news is that the problem seems to have been resolved with the new version of Windows Defender 1.1.18100.6.

To install the update, look in Windows Update for a new update called "Security Intelligence Update for Microsoft Defender Antivirus".

You can see the Windows Defender version number by opening the "Information" page in Windows Security.

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