Windows Security Actions Recommended but no actions listed

Since the past few weeks I am having a problem with the Windows Security icon in the taskbar. It shows Action recommended with a yellow exclamation mark. Please see the screenshot given below for more details



When I go inside the Windows security windows, I see green check mark across all the "Virus & Threat protection", "Account Protection", "Firewall & network protection" and "App & Browser control" Please see the screenshot given below for more details



The things that I have tried
I have run a quick scan after updating the AntiVirus definitions and still the issue persists after a reboot. I have Windows Defender Antivirus as my security provider. The definitions of Windows Defender Antivirus are upto date as of my posting this thread.
I have enabled Reputation based protection (Windows Security > App & Browser Control > Reputation based protection) and still the issue persists after a reboot.

How do I fix this issue? Is there some action that is hidden that has to be carried out? Is the computer at risk?

Have you clicked on each of the categories in Windows Security to see if there any warnings in the individual categories?
If there is not any warnings you can reset Windows 11 Security to default.
There are a couple of methods to do this use your favourite search engine to see which method you are most comfortable with.

Yes I checked the setting under each of the heading.

In App & Browser Control > Exploit protection, everything is on, i.e. Control Flow Guard, DEP, Mandatory ASLR, Bottom-up ASLR, etc is on.
In App & Browser Control > Reputation Based protection almost all of the items are enabled. Smart Screen for Microsoft Edge, Potentially Unwanted App Blocking, Smartscreen for Microsoft Store Apps is on. Phishing protection is on with the option "Warn me about malicious apps and sites" is enabled. This is the only option that is enabled.
In App & Browser Control > Smart App Control is on.

Firewall and Network protection is on with Windows Firewall being on. Only Web Protection is not enabled as there are no providers.

In Device Security, Secured-core PC is enabled. So are all the options under "Core Isolation". Security Processor and Secure Boot is also enabled.

In Device performance in Health, the Health report is all green.

Is there any way to go into the Event Manager or any log file to check why the exclamation mark with the "Actions recommended" is being triggered?

Some PowerShell command which can give this information?

In event viewer you can check the security logs.
Is the system fully patched, no failed Windows updates?
Have you ran any DISM Commands to check for system file problems?
Open Command Prompt or Terminal as Admin and run
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
If a problem is found run
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
If No Problem is found or when the RestoreHealth finishes the run
sfc /scannow

Run
Get-MpComputerStatus
in PowerShell. This is my list and compare:

Fabler2 said:

Run
Get-MpComputerStatus
in PowerShell. This is my list and compare:

View attachment 163534

Click to expand...

Apart from the following keys all the other values are the same. The "FullScan" values maybe different because I have never run a full scan on the computer till date. The QuickScanSignatureVersion field is different maybe because I did the scan yesterday.
FullScanAge: For me it is 5 but in the screenshot it is 5.
FullScanEndTime - Field is empty
FullScanSignatureVersion - Field is empty
FullScanStartTime - Field is Empty
LastFullScanSource - Is 0 for me but 1 is given in the screenshot.
QuickScanAge - Is 1 for me but it is 5 in the screenshot.
QuickScanSignatureVersion: 1.445.94.0. Higher than what is given in the screenshot.
SmartAppControlState: Is "On" for me but is "OFF" in the screenshot.
TamperProtectionSource: Is "Signatures" for me but is "UI" in the screenshot.

I have omitted comparing the dates, like QuickScanEndTime, AntivirusSignatureLastUpdated, etc since the screenshot will have a different timestamp compared to mine due to timestamp and timezone differences.

Among the items that are given above anything that stands out that I should be focusing on?

EB2XR6 said:

In event viewer you can check the security logs.
Is the system fully patched, no failed Windows updates?
Have you ran any DISM Commands to check for system file problems?
Open Command Prompt or Terminal as Admin and run
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
If a problem is found run
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
If No Problem is found or when the RestoreHealth finishes the run
sfc /scannow

Click to expand...

I checked the Event Viewer security logs (Path: Windows Logs > Security). There was no log with the level of Critical or Error or Warning. All the logs were of the level information. Is there some specific Task Category that I should be looking for?

Yes the system is fully patched, with no failed Windows update. I checked in Settings > Windows update. Is there a command or a PowerShell snippet that I can run to confirm the same?

I have not run the DISM commands to check for system file problems on this system for a long time. I ran the command DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth in an elevated administrator command prompt. It did not return any error. The output is given below

I did not run the second command, i.e. DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth, since the first command as given above did not show any error or warning message.

I then ran the command sfc /scannow. That also completed without any error. Its output is given below

Is there something else that I do to fix this issue?


The screen shot from the elevated command prompt where the commands were run is given below

I did a web search and there was mentions of similar issues to yours from some time ago but no solutions.
It was put down as being a bug / glitch.
The only other thing I can suggest is to reset Windows 11 Security.
If you are running standard settings it is a not an issue, but if you have tweaked your settings, edited Group Policy etc then you lose those settings.

I have had this happen to me and it just goes away in a couple of days.

Were you using Windows Defender as your security provider? Or was it something else? And what were you using for Web protection?

Did you check Protection history in Windows security

Sometimes it's waiting for action decision in that area?

In Virus & Threat protection area, Protection History

On my system Device Security also has a checkmark.