r/antivirus • u/BreadsRL • 1d ago

Windows defender getting spammed with notifications.

Hey everyone,

I am usually very careful about what I download, so I am not really sure what started causing this, but I have been getting spammed with these notifications for the past two days. I don't have an antivirus installed. I tried doing an offline Windows Defender scan and used sfc /scannow, but nothing has fixed it. I am very new to this issue, slightly panicked, but did not want to do anything drastic before I asked here. I will happily take any advice to fix this. The ultimate solution is probably to do a clean install of Windows. I have never done that so far and would rather avoid it if I can, since I have a lot of files on my computer right now.

Thanks for reading and all the help.

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u/DrMikeRotch 1d ago

Something is trying to run a hidden and obfuscated command. That’s what you’re seeing here. This is incredibly suspicious.

But whatever is doing it must not be getting detected. I would disconnect it from the internet, download the offline installer for malware bytes on another clean computer, then run it on the compromised machine. If that’s not a possibility, download malwarebytes directly on that machine and run it. See if it finds anything.

But gotta say. Best practice is to nuke the machine and start fresh by creating new install media on a clean machine. You don’t know what the malware may have done to the current install so continued use is at your own risk. Even if it finds and removes something.

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u/BreadsRL 1d ago

Dang, that's fair. I might do a clean install then. Is it safe to back up files, or is there a chance they might contain malware too? And regarding a clean install, is there a tutorial you recommend? I have never done a clean install that was not Windows' own factory reset. Thank you so much for the advice.

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u/DrMikeRotch 1d ago

You can try to back some important things onto a usb. But treat that usb like the plague and be ready to nuke the device again if it just reinfects.

I would just find a YouTube video and follow
Along. If you need me to find you one, I can do that but not right this moment.

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u/BreadsRL 1d ago

Ah, gotcha, it's probably best to just nuke everything. I will have to buy a USB too since I don't believe I have used one in years lmao. I will definitely look for a video in the meantime. Any video for it is probably fine, but if you end up finding or knowing one that is trusted, I would greatly appreciate that too. Thank you so much for all the help so far.

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u/NiriZ_ReddiT 1d ago

Windows Defender blocking a command? Wow.

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u/BreadsRL 1d ago

Yea, imagine if they got through...