"Turn on Virus Protection" Notification pops up after reboot

blownwiththeWin · Aug 5, 2026

Hi, everyone! I lately discovered a weird bug. For now I think it can be reproduced by performing a system restart... A few minutes after restart and logging in I get a "Turn on Virus Protection" notification. It says that it's now turned off and I should click to turn it on. But when i click, it's already turned on..... I googled a bit, seems like some users experience the same lately, but nobody knows how to fix it. Any ideas?

Update: not sure, but seems like it's related to Chrome Browser unless it's a coincidence. Notification pop-ups when I launch chrome or something. I completely removed it from my computer and reinstalled. Fun fact that this notification popped again the first second when I downloaded Chrome installer from Edge... might be just a coincidence or whatever.. just my observations

glasskuter · Aug 5, 2026

Do you now or have you ever had any 3rd party AV app installed? Or do you use Windows Defender.

rtorres · Aug 5, 2026

I have the same pop-up come up after I turn on my PC. I didn't click on the notification to turn back on and check the actual dashboard and I see it's already turned on... I'm thinking considering PCs/Laptops don't turn off all the way (fast startup) it might be something cached? Idk but it's a little annoying.

I don't have any other AV installed and I am running Windows 11 Enterprise 26H1 28000.2608

blownwiththeWin · Aug 5, 2026

I think it's not chrome related after all, since I uninstalled it but still got this notification. I also tried to perform System Restore, rolled back a few days ago. And the pop up stopped for some time. But then appeared again. It only started a few days ago, never had it before... Maybe it's some Windows Update related issue?

FreeBooter · Aug 6, 2026

You should scan for malware infection use MalwareBytes AV.

glasskuter · Aug 6, 2026

You never did answer the question I asked in Post #2. Do you now or have you ever had any 3rd party AV app installed? Or do you use Windows Defender.

It would really help if you could post a screenshot of this popup. You should also delete all cookies and cache in your browsers.
In each browser hit CTRL+SHIFT+DEL. You get this page. Check the designated options then select "clear now"Restart your browser. You will have to login again to any of your sites.

wiganken · Aug 6, 2026

Do you Bitdefender installed?
I have Bitdefender Total Security installed and when that updates itself it is temporarily disabled and I get a 'Turn on virus protection' popup in the system tray area but it disappears when Bitdefender restarts itself after updating.

blownwiththeWin · Aug 6, 2026

No, I never had any 3rd party AV installed. Never. Also I deleted not only all the cache, but also the whole browser. But like i said, later I discovered that even without the browser it seemed to trigger that notification. Now i'm confused even more. If i try to reinstall Windows over my installed copy, will it help?

wiganken · Aug 6, 2026

Have you tried running the Windows Powershell (In Administrator mode) command sfc /scannow

blownwiththeWin · Aug 6, 2026

wiganken said:
Have you tried running the Windows Powershell (In Administrator mode) command sfc /scannow

Yes, I also performend a dism restore health command. It's weird that it wasn't sending me this notification for a longer time when I restored my system to the latest restore point (which as usual messed up with my installed\removed apps lol which I hate). But even so, after some time I again got this pop-up. Today I booted my PC from sleep, and for almost an hour there's no notification. I will try to reboot now, and probably get it.

I also tried to check Event Viewer but found no suspicious recordings there, but maybe i didn't look in the right place.

FreeBooter · Aug 6, 2026

Try in-place upgrade to repair Windows 11.

You can also perform in-place upgrade of Windows 11. In-place upgrade is to use to replace the current operating system files on your computer. Unlike a clean installation of Windows, you can start a Windows in-place upgrade when your OS is still running. And an in-place upgrade can keep your files, settings, & apps during the upgrade process. You can perform a Windows 11 in-place upgrade is to use the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool. Make sure to select Upgrade this PC now and click Next. Follow the on-screen guide to perform a Windows 11 in-place upgrade.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

blownwiththeWin · Aug 6, 2026

Thank you! Look what i've discovered. I tried to translate some logs from Event Viewer I found:

"The Software Protection service has successfully scheduled the restart at 2126-07-13T08:23:47Z. Reason: RulesEngine." code 16384

"The Software Protection service has stopped." code 903

Source: Security SPP.

wiganken · Aug 6, 2026

I agree with @FreeBooter . Just be aware you will need to be patient. On my GMKtec device it took 1 3/4 hours via the Settings > System > Recovery > Fix Problems using Windows Update method.

Good luck.

blownwiththeWin · Aug 6, 2026

wiganken said:
I agree with @FreeBooter . Just be aware you will need to be patient. On my GMKtec device it took 1 3/4 hours via the Settings > System > Recovery > Fix Problems using Windows Update method.

Good luck.

I agree, this is what i'm gonna do and report.

idainc · Aug 6, 2026

I have the same issue going on and I'm running defender and have never used anything else. I'm runnning the Beta version of Insider.

blownwiththeWin · Aug 6, 2026

idainc said:
I have the same issue going on and I'm running defender and have never used anything else. I'm runnning the Beta version of Insider.

Like i said, the issue was triggered by the latest update. However, it's not persistent on my second PC which received the same update. However, we know that Windows might behave different on different machines. I also never used any 3rd party AV and I don't remember changing any settings lately or adding\removing exclusions.

blownwiththeWin · Aug 6, 2026

Okay so I performed an in-place reinstall through Windows update service. No notifications so far after 2 system restarts after 15 mins each (usually it popped up at around 3-4 mins after the last boot). So I will just pray this was an update bug which isn't there when you perform the fresh install of the latest build, not updating over the previous one....

No notifications for now and i disabled the quiet mode which was automatically triggered after reinstall. If the issue persists I will probably then just wait for another update, cause I spoke to two users with the same issue appeared lately and they all reported the same behavior after the latest update: notification pops after 3-4 minutes, once, after system restart or after logging out and logging in back.

blownwiththeWin · Aug 6, 2026

Okay at this point i'm going to give up. Not sure if it's related but my PC got a few security updates and on the next reboot I again got code 903 and notification... before that it was working perfectly. Any ideas if it will be fixed?

Also wondering if it might be related to the latest error "V2 Protocol AIK certificate requests with P-256 ECC public keys are not supported. Public key algorithm: 1.2.840.10045.2.1, Key length: 256".. discovered it in event viewer and googled it. Many people have it too.

blownwiththeWin · Aug 8, 2026

Quick update on the situation. I managed to figure out that the notification is "scheduled" to pop at the same exact time - 4 minutes after startup. Found more similar threads on the internet. Microsoft Support checked my PC via remote control, they found no issues with my Defender or anything. So they suggested that if more people will report this directly via Feedback Hub, they will consider it a bug and try to fix it.

I've seen people mentioning the same issue and it all seem to start happening during the last week. So, anyone who is experiencing this, please submit your feedback with a screenshot to Microsoft. I also suggest checking if it appears the same time after each startup and make a screenshot with taskmanager CPU uptime.

I also keep getting that Protocol AIK certificate request error, so I believe it might be related. So if anyone has this, please also check your event viewer if you get the same error or not.

I believe this bug might be triggered by those windows certificates updates that they were talking about, but maybe it's just a coincidence.

EB2XR6 · Aug 8, 2026

wiganken said:
Do you Bitdefender installed?
I have Bitdefender Total Security installed and when that updates itself it is temporarily disabled and I get a 'Turn on virus protection' popup in the system tray area but it disappears when Bitdefender restarts itself after updating.

The Windows Security Centre has a delayed Automatic start setting when 3rd Party Security Software is installed.
I use Webroot Secure Anywhere and noticed this behaviour.
I contacted Webroot support and I ran a diagnostic application they sent me and the logs went back to Webroot.
Webroot contacted me that there was no issue with protection.|

I asked Google A.I. about the delay with Windows Security Centre and was told about the setting.
There is a Registry Entry to Edit but I could not get the Entry to Stick due to Permissions even though I was running Reg Edit in Admin Mode.
I downloaded PowerRun from Major Geeks which lets you run Windows Utilities like Regedit with the highest elevated privileges and got the change to stick.
Webroot is not listed on boot up in Windows Security Centre.
The Registry key is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wscsvc
Locate the DWORD value named DelayedAutoStart and change its value data from 1 to 0 to remove the boot delay.
Ensure the Start DWORD value right beside it is set to 2

"Turn on Virus Protection" Notification pops up after reboot

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