Microsoft Defender showing with special looking characters

Hello @de Fisser, Winifred ,

That indeed looks abnormal,

I would assume that your question is about Windows Defender, and that this behavior can happen because of a malicious scheduled task, startup entry, browser extension, compromised application, or another infected device or network location reintroducing a malware.

Check these ressources out:

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/defender/troubleshoot-problems-with-detecting-and-removing-malware
• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/defender/getting-started-with-anti-malware-in-microsoft-defender

Otherwise, lookup relevant help articles by doing a search here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/help-and-support

Regards,

Said