Potential Bug - Microsoft Edge (89.0.774.48) and Windows Defender

[DJ-1701]

We appear to have a bug with the latest Microsoft Edge (89.0.774.48) and Windows Defender, so just posting this here in case anyone else does.

 

Edge tries but fails to load, and the CPU increases usage for Specifically Antimalware Service Executable, on older machines taking up 100% CPU time.

 

As I don't have any option to uninstall Edge from Add/Remove programs as the Uninstall button is greyed out. Only way I have found to fix it is download the installer for the latest MSI version of Edge (the problematic 89.0.774.48), install it, uninstall it, then download the previous version of Edge (89.0.774.45) and install it.

 

After that I would recommend disabling the service 'Microsoft Edge Elevation Service' to prevent auto updates, but please note that if anyone goes to About Microsoft Edge it will still pull the latest version.

Edited March 9, 2021 by DJ-1701

[DJ-1701]

Seems to be happening at one school but not the other. Anyone else finding they are having a problem?

 

So far we have tried uninstalling Impero as that has caused some strange issues in the past with updated programs, but that doesn't appear to be the cause here.

Edited March 10, 2021 by DJ-1701

[DJ-1701]

This article has a better method for disabling updates and pushing out an older version of Edge if anyone else is having an issue.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/edge-learnmore-rollback

[mattysmith80]

We had this exact same issue at several sites today... after testing... It is actually linked to the new version being incompatible with U-EV Templates.... reverting to the previous version enabled U-EV to work... The new edge update kills U-EV

[DJ-1701]

We had this exact same issue at several sites today... after testing... It is actually linked to the new version being incompatible with U-EV Templates.... reverting to the previous version enabled U-EV to work... The new edge update kills U-EV

 

Darn, so that's what's causing it. Thanks @mattysmith80, do you use any specific template for Edge or is it just the defaults?

[DJ-1701]

Edge 89.0.774.50 no longer has this issue with the UEV template. We have however decided to just use account Syncing now instead as this feature is available.