Windows Defender Notification Icon Startup

17.10.2019
Windows Defender Notification Icon Startup Rating: 3,7/5 8206 votes

Windows 10 Anniversary Update v1607 and later will now display the Windows Defender icon in the Notification Area of your taskbar. In this post, we will see how to hide, disable or remove the Windows Defender icon from the System Tray when you have enabled Windows Defender – as well in a situation, where the Windows Defender Notification Icon still shows, even when you have a 3rd-party antivirus software installed. Remove Windows Defender IconEarlier, in Window 10, Windows Defender ran silently in the background, without displaying the system tray icon, and you would see the icon and be informed only if there was something which needed your attention. But now it displays all the time.If you open the Taskbar, under the Process tab, you will see a Windows Defender notification icon process – MSASCuiL.exe. You can right-click on it to end the process, but when you restart your computer, it may appear back.What you need to do is, open the Startup tab and disable the Windows Defender notification icon entry. To do this, select the entry and press the Disable button.The Windows Defender icon will be removed. Windows Defender notification icon displays even with 3rd party Antivirus installedNow here is the case which happened to me.

I have a 3rd-party security suite installed, and yet the Windows Defender icon used to be always displayed in the Notification Area.Windows Defender was turned off and so was the feature – yet the icon would not go away.I could see the Windows Defender notification icon process in the Task Manager as a running process, but it was not being displayed under Startup tab of the Task Manager.So how could I disable the icon? What could I do?Well if you face this issue, from the WinX Menu, open Settings and select Taskbar in the left pane.

Settings Personalization Taskbar Select which icons appear on the taskbar. Or Task Manager Startup tab. Or something else? Hiding the icon is very different from turning off Defender. I would only turn off Defender if you are actually running 3rd party anti-virus software. Upon further investigation, I notice that what's in the startup is the Windows Defender Notification Icon (MSASCuil.exe). What I'm still not clear on is what's stated within the highlighted bit on the top image below. The bottom image shows the Windows Defender Notification Icon (MSASCuil.exe) within the Startup.

Scroll down and click on Select which icons appear on the taskbar link, to open the following window.Here you will see Windows Defender notification icon. Toggle the switch to the Off position and you will see the Windows Defender icon disappear from the System Tray.This is what helped me, and hope it helps you too.If this does not help you, open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:HKEYCURRENTUSERSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRunCreate a new string value, name it Windows Defender and set its value as follows:“%ProgramFiles%Windows DefenderMSASCuiL.exe”-runkeyRestart your computer.The icon should have been disabled.

Windows Defender is a free anti-spyware and spyware scanning and removal tool that protects computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware, adware and other unwanted software in real-time. Previously Windows Defender is called Microsoft Anti-Spyware and after installing Microsoft Anti-Spyware, there will be an icon in the notification area (system tray).However, in Windows Defender, you won’t be able to see or find any Windows Defender’s icon resided in notification area or system tray, as the icon is not enabled by default. That’s mean Windows Defender icon will be missing from Windows system tray unless you specifically select the option to display the Windows Defender icon.

Windows defender notification icon startup

To display the Windows Defender icon in Windows notification area (system tray), go to Tools and select Options under the Settings section. Scroll down the Options page, at the section of “Real-time protection options”, there is an option “ Choose when the Windows Defender icon appears in notification area“.

Windows Defender Notification Icon Startup

By default the selected option is “Only if Windows Defender detects an action to take”, which means the icon will only appear if there is any action by Windows Defender. To always show the Windows Defender icon, select (check) “ Always“. Click on Save when done.

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