App & Browser control section is completely missing from windows security center

fg2001gf11F · Jun 29, 2022

BrianInEngland said:
Just deleting that folder fixes the problem if you're already on 22621, no need to repair install

I think I tried that already, and it did not work for me, I had to delete that folder before upgrading to 22621.
I'll give it another try anyway. Thanks.

fg2001gf11F · Jun 29, 2022

BrianInEngland said:
Just deleting that folder fixes the problem if you're already on 22621, no need to repair install

@BrianInEngland.
Yes, that worked fine too. So, the folder can be deleted before or after the upgrade to 22621 or 2514x.
I think I know why it did not work when I tried earlier, I had already tried the suggestion of reinstalling the old version of security and that messed everything up.
I should have known better, than following a dubious suggestion.

This makes it easier to fix.
Not sure why MS left that folder there.

I saw it was not there on the boxes that did not have the problems, that is why I was pointing to that folder as the culprit.

BrianInEngland · Jun 29, 2022

fg2001gf11F said:
@BrianInEngland.
Yes, that worked fine too. So, the folder can be deleted before or after the upgrade to 22621 or 2514x.
I think I know why it did not work when I tried earlier, I had already tried the suggestion of reinstalling the old version of security and that messed everything up.
I should have known better, than following a dubious suggestion.
This makes it easier to fix.
Not sure why MS left that folder there.
I saw it was not there on the boxes that did not have the problems, that is why I was pointing to that folder as the culprit.

Yeah seemed the most likely cause. I did it on the second PC and now it's fine, no in-place upgrade needed

fg2001gf11F · Jun 30, 2022

BrianInEngland said:
Yeah seemed the most likely cause. I did it on the second PC and now it's fine, no in-place upgrade needed

Well, 22621.169 downloaded today, but I don't know if they fixed anything about this bug, because I previously deleted that folder already in 22621.105 so it is still good with 22621.160.

BrianInEngland · Jun 30, 2022

fg2001gf11F said:
Well, 22621.169 downloaded today, but I don't know if they fixed anything about this bug, because I previously deleted that folder already in 22621.105 so it is still good with 22621.160.

The bug was fixed for me - I nuked my Windows install yesterday. The problem folder is gone, along with C:\Windows

18 hours later, all good again. Everything re-installed and running well.

fg2001gf11F · Jun 30, 2022

BrianInEngland said:
The bug was fixed for me - I nuked my Windows install yesterday. The problem folder is gone, along with C:\Windows

18 hours later, all good again. Everything re-installed and running well.

The only way I can prove that is by restoring the image that had that folder present and then update to 22621.169 to see if the update removes that. We already know that SecurityHealth is empty on a clean install of 22621.xxx

C:\Windows\System32\SecurityHealth\1.0.210927002-0

fg2001gf11F · Jun 30, 2022

fg2001gf11F said:
The only way I can prove that is by restoring the image that had that folder present and then update to 22621.169 to see if the update removes that. We already know that SecurityHealth is empty on a clean install of 22621.xxx

C:\Windows\System32\SecurityHealth\1.0.210927002-0

As I suspected the update to 22621.169 did not fix the problem. It left the incriminating folder as it was previously, did not clear it out.
Again, I had to delete it manually myself to get rid of the problem.
Clearly there was no issue if I already previously deleted that folder which was created on this box on 5/19/2022 when the Security platform was updated.

At least we know how to get rid of the problem, till MS comes up with a fix to clear up that folder automatically after the update.

C:\Windows\System32\SecurityHealth\1.0.210927002-0

PerpetualCycle · Jul 24, 2022

I was having the same problem and it prevented me from upgrading. I will try your solutions/workarounds. Thanks!

fg2001gf11F · Jul 24, 2022

geneo said:
I was having the same problem and it prevented me from upgrading. I will try your solutions/workarounds. Thanks!

Keep in mind that that folder requires system authorization, so you may boot in recovery mode (Shift + Restart) and go to command prompt.
Then use the rmdir /s <path> to remove the directory with all its contents.
Keep in mind that the drive letter can be different when you boot up recovery mode.

rmdir

Reference article for the rmdir command, which deletes a directory.

docs.microsoft.com

PerpetualCycle · Jul 24, 2022

Yes I know. That did the trick! Thanks.

There are a number of people on the Microsoft support forum that have this issue for some time, like me. I will point them here.

fg2001gf11F · Jul 24, 2022

geneo said:
Yes I know. That did the trick! Thanks.

There are a number of people on the Microsoft support forum that have this issue for some time, like me. I will point them here.

@geneo,

This was also reported on June 25, 2022, in the MS insider forum page 1 when updating from 22000.xxx to build 22621.105 and above.

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Windows Insider

maurice naggar · Sep 6, 2022

@fg2001gf11F Just stopping by, to say, Thank you for your posts above, plus also your link to your last post on MS Answers. Bravo.

fg2001gf11F · Sep 6, 2022

maurice naggar said:
@fg2001gf11F Just stopping by, to say, Thank you for your posts above, plus also your link to your last post on MS Answers. Bravo.

@maurice neggar,
It looks like the problem has now been fixed by MS. With Build 22621.457 and 22622.590 I no longer needed to delete the folders in SecurityHealth.
Windows security now looks fine without changing anything.
App & browser control is still missing in public Build 22000.918 in View security dashboard.

Missing App & Browser control in Build 22000.918:

fg2001gf11F · Sep 7, 2022

maurice naggar said:
@fg2001gf11F Just stopping by, to say, Thank you for your posts above, plus also your link to your last post on MS Answers. Bravo.

@maurice naggar,

The platform update Version 1.0.2207.20002 works fine with Builds 22621.457 and 22622.590, but it appears to have introduced the problem back on public build 22000.918.

If I remove that platform update and reinstall the previous version the problem goes away.
It looks like they made a mistake allowing that update on 22000.xxx builds.

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Previous version in builds 22000.xxx and security platform 1.0.2109.27002.

BrianInEngland · Sep 7, 2022

fg2001gf11F said:
@maurice naggar,

The platform update Version 1.0.2207.20002 works fine with Builds 22621.457 and 22622.590, but it appears to have introduced the problem back on public build 22000.918.
If I remove that platform update and reinstall the previous version the problem goes away.
It looks like they made a mistake allowing that update on 22000.xxx builds.

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View attachment 38579

View attachment 38574
View attachment 38577

Previous version in builds 22000.xxx and security platform 1.0.2109.27002.
View attachment 38578

What happens if you delete the '2109' folder? I have the 2207 folder on 22H2 build but the old folder didn't get created when I did a clean install of 22H2. The Malware Platform update was installed today with a Defender update.

fg2001gf11F · Sep 7, 2022

BrianInEngland said:
What happens if you delete the '2109' folder? I have the 2207 folder on 22H2 build but the old folder didn't get created when I did a clean install of 22H2. The Malware Platform update was installed today with a Defender update.

With Build 22000.918 version 1.0.2109.27002 works fine, the problem starts when they add the updated for platform 1.0.2207.20002 which does not seem compatible with builds 22000.xxx.
Deleting 1.0.2109.27002 does not help, I have to delete 1.0.2207.20002 and reinstall the previous version to get the problem fixed.
Unfortunately, that is only temporary, because W.U. reinstalls 1.0.2207.20002 again, as soon as I check for updates, and adds back the bug.
I think MS made a mistake using the same update 1.0.2207.20002 for both 22H2 and 21H2 Builds.
While it fixes the problem in 22H2 it ends up adding the same bug in 21H2.
I think they need to make an update compatible for both 21H2 and 22H2 or stay with the old version 1.0.2109.27002 in 21H2.

This below is with Build 22622.590, same as you show, and works fine with either 22621 or 22622 but not with 22000.918.

BrianInEngland · Sep 7, 2022

fg2001gf11F said:
With Build 22000.918 version 1.0.2109.27002 works fine, the problem starts when they add the updated for platform 1.0.2207.20002 which does not seem compatible with builds 22000.xxx.
Deleting 1.0.2109.27002 does not help, I have to delete 1.0.2207.20002 and reinstall the previous version to get the problem fixed.
Unfortunately, that is only temporary, because W.U. reinstalls 1.0.2207.20002 again, as soon as I check for updates, and adds back the bug.
I think MS made a mistake using the same update 1.0.2207.20002 for both 22H2 and 21H2 Builds.
While it fixes the problem in 22H2 it ends up adding the same bug in 21H2.
I think they need to make an update compatible for both 21H2 and 22H2 or stay with the old version 1.0.2109.27002 in 21H2.

This below is with Build 22622.590, same as you show, and works fine with either 22621 or 22622 but not with 22000.918.
View attachment 38642

Would it work if you 'cheated' ? Delete the 2109 folder and rename the 2207 folder as 2109? Just an idea

fg2001gf11F · Sep 7, 2022

BrianInEngland said:
Would it work if you 'cheated' ? Delete the 2109 folder and rename the 2207 folder as 2109? Just an idea

@BrianInEngland,
I did not try that, but I think that just renaming the folder would not work since the installer file of the Windows Security App is in that folder and it is the one for 1000.22621.1.0 instead of the one for 1000.22000.251.0.

Perhaps the other way around if it prevents W.U. from updating it again.
Delete 2207 and rename 2109 as 2207?

This is what gets installed:
Microsoft.SecHealthUI Microsoft.SecHealthUI_1000.22621.1.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Using Power Shell command, it returns the version below:

As a curiosity I can give it a try, but I'd rather wait for a proper fix from MS rather than messing up my system.

Version 1.0.2207.20002:

Version 1.0.2109.27002:

fg2001gf11F · Sep 7, 2022

BrianInEngland said:
Would it work if you 'cheated' ? Delete the 2109 folder and rename the 2207 folder as 2109? Just an idea

Here is the experiment, it seems to work as a temporary fix, but not the way you suggested, the other way around.

I needed the old 2109 version to eliminate the problem and then trick W.U. to think that the update 2207 was already installed.
Here is what I did step by step:
1) Booted to recovery command prompt.
2) Select the proper disk where Windows is installed. (The letter may be different from C: when booting in recovery mode if you have a multiboot system)
3) cd Windows\System32\SecurityHealth
4) rmdir /s 1.0.2207.20002-0
(Asks for Y/N and I replied Y) and deleted the folder with all its contents.
5) rename 1.0.2109.27002-0 1.0.2207.20002-0
6) exit and rebooted
After the system came up, I reinstalled the old version of Windows Security App from the folder that I renamed.
7) Checked that "App & browser control" were back to normal.
8) From W.U. checked for updates, this time it did not try to install the new version because it was tricked to think the update was already installed by the presence of folder that was renamed to the latest version 1.0.2207.20002-0 even if it actually contains the old 1.0.2109.27002-0 files and subfolders.

Now I can restore the original system with the bug and wait for an official MS fix.

Here are a few shots to help explain the process:

Here it shows that the old version was reinstalled:

With the old Windows Security Version "App & browser control" are now available again.

maurice naggar · Sep 8, 2022

Realizing that this thread originated many months ago. Plus it is easy to get lost since some people are on different Insider builds; others on regular releases. But just as a potential tip. There is a handy Powershell query that can help.

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.SecHealthUI

for Windows 11, Version 21H2 Build 22000.856 this is the expected output result ( this is a 64-bit system)

Name : Microsoft.SecHealthUI
Publisher : CN=Microsoft Corporation, O=Microsoft Corporation, L=Redmond, S=Washington, C=US
Architecture : X64
ResourceId :
Version : 1000.22621.1.0
PackageFullName : Microsoft.SecHealthUI_1000.22621.1.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
InstallLocation : C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.SecHealthUI_1000.22621.1.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
IsFramework : False
PackageFamilyName : Microsoft.SecHealthUI_8wekyb3d8bbwe
PublisherId : 8wekyb3d8bbwe
IsResourcePackage : False
IsBundle : False
IsDevelopmentMode : False
NonRemovable : True
Dependencies : {Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00_14.0.30704.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe, Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.4_2.42007.9001.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe}
IsPartiallyStaged : False
SignatureKind : Store
Status : Ok