Microsoft launched an investigation into the disappearance of start menus and taskbar shortcuts on corporate Win10 devices

CTOnews.com, January 13, Microsoft said it was investigating a problem in Windows that caused application shortcuts in the start menu or taskbar to disappear. Several IT administrators described this issue in detail on Twitter and Reddit this morning, which seems to be related to recent updates to Microsoft Defender threat detection.

This problem is affecting businesses and organizations that use Microsoft 365 and Defender to protect against malware, viruses, and other threats. In a note to customers, Microsoft said they had received reports that a rule to reduce the area of attack (ASR) caused these problems. The IT administrator is currently trying to resolve this issue by setting the block Win32 API calls from Office macros rule to audit only.

Microsoft said it had now "restored the rule to its previous state to prevent further impact, while we investigate further". Microsoft has not released a solution, nor has it provided any guidance on how IT administrators can restore shortcuts on affected machines.

CTOnews.com learned that three IT administrators are currently experiencing this problem in their organization, and they confirmed to The Verge that all shortcuts are gone, and not just Microsoft application shortcuts.

Users said the problem occurred on Windows 10, although Windows 11 could also be affected.

It is worth mentioning that the average Windows user and consumer will not be affected by this strange error, only the management machine within the organization.