Microsoft says it’s investigating an issue in Windows that is causing application shortcuts in the Start menu or taskbar to disappear.Multiple IT admins have detailed the problem on Twitter and Reddit this morning, and it appears to be related to a recent update to the Microsoft Defender threat detections.The problem is affecting businesses and organizations using Microsoft 365 and Defender for protection against malware, viruses, and other threats.IT admins are currently trying to work around the issue by setting the “Block Win32 API calls from Office macro” rule to audit only.IT admins have been scrambling to fix the problem and bring the shortcuts back, with many having to tell their Windows users to manually launch their apps from where they’re installed or by using Start > Run and the executable name."