Is space on your hard drive or solid-state drive suddenly getting low? You can be a victim of an unanticipated Microsoft Defender problem that eats up storage by cramming terabytes of data into Windows 10 boot discs.
A specific folder starts to accumulate thousands of files as a result of the Microsoft Defender flaw; some customers have reported a loss of up to 30GB in total folder capacity.
Unbelievable Microsoft Defender Bug Balloons
A recent update to the Microsoft Defender antivirus engine, version 1.1.18100.5, brought about the problem.
Some customers noticed that the C: ProgramDataMicrosoftWindows DefenderScansHistoryStore started to fill up with very small files, ranging from about 600 bytes to no greater than 2KB after the automated update was installed.
The total amount of files changes depending on which user reports the problem. On the official Microsoft Q&A Board, however, a user stated that “Over a 24-hour period we ended up with about 950,000 files and it was eating 30 GB of space.”
Even though some customers estimate having up to 11 million files, they only use about 11GB of storage.
Both consumer and business clients are impacted by the problem, which appears to be related to real-time security provided by Microsoft Defender.
To fix the bug, update Microsoft Defender.
Microsoft has updated the antivirus engine from 1.1.18100.5 to 1.1.18100.6 in response to the Microsoft Defender real-time protection file generation bug.
Identifying the Microsoft Defender version you’re using:
Select the Best Match after entering “windows security” into your Start menu search field.
Choose Windows Security Options.
In the bottom-left corner, choose the Settings menu.
Choose About.
The Microsoft Defender antivirus engine you are presently running can be seen from this location. Go to Windows Update and look for the most recent update if you’re still using the outdated version.
Open the Settings window by pressing the Windows Key + I.
To download and install any pending updates, go to Update & Security. Security Intelligence Update for Microsoft Defender Antivirus is the update you’re looking for.
To complete the installation of the update, restart your computer.
There is no evidence that the files are challenging to delete, even though a Microsoft Defender problem eating extra storage space is annoying and time-consuming (especially for individuals in a company or enterprise).
To permanently delete all of the files from your system, simply press Shift + Delete after pressing CTRL + A to pick each file in the Store folder (you can see the complete file path above).
