Gold Shield with black exclamation mark

[audsnends]

Gold Shield with black exclamation mark what is it for?

This icon appears in my taskbar almost everytime I turn on or reboot both my laptop & pc, slowing all processes down.


When I hover the cursor over the icon it shows updating at 0%, never increasing in percentage, in a min or two the icon dissappears on it's own. I've tried clicking on it yet nothing happens. I've searched my files, my programs, the internet trying to figure out it's origin and purpose to no avail.

 

[deathwalker]

I believe that is the windows update feature. Go to the control panel, select system, then the automatic update tab. From there you can either turn off automatic updates (it will make that shield go away and not bog your system down while updating), or you can select other methods ...i might suggest the notify me but dont download selection.

 

[audsnends]

That was my first thought weeks ago too, that it was Windows update and I've changed the settings for the automatic update to set times, manual and back again hoping that would stop this icon updating. But it remains.

 

[corkyg]

It means you need to get an update. There is also a cautionary yellow shield that indicates Windows is unhappy with your firewall setting. What does a right click on the icon bring up?

 

[audsnends]

I was finally discovered that this icon & constant updating was for Windows Defender only because it finally did a full update.

Despite setting it for daily updating at a specified time, it still likes to run a check periodically throughout the day especially if I reboot. Too, if it doesn't have anything to actually update it won't allow left or right clicking, remains at 0% for anywhere from a minute more often several minutes slowing all my PC processes down. Nor does it indicate it's Windows Defender until it has an actual update.

Whether continuing using Windows Defender or not, time will tell.