Hi Mowatb. I'm Greg, 10 years awarded Windows MVP, here to help you.
That's not Defender it's User Account Control. What that does is notify the User that something is being changed on the PC. It's especially useful if a hacker is accessing from outside, or a Standard User on your PC is trying to make changes that he must have you approve with Admin password in the same UAC notification before he can make those changes.
So it's important because it screens everything being changed to make sure nothing is sneaking by without your approving it. Here is more about UAC and why it's important:
https://www.howtogeek.com/124754/htg-explains-w...
You can eliminate it however for specific apps here:
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-eliminate-uac-pro...
It works the same in Windows 10 and 11.
If you ever suspect infection or Defender does give you unresolved threat notifications, do a full scan with the best on-demand scanner Malwarebyes from
https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/. Enable Root Kit scanning in it's Scan settings. You can turn off the free trial in it's Account Settings if you want to keep it, which I would do because nothing else comes close to its thoroughness. But you don't need the Real Time protection if you don't get routinely infected.
Report back results for each step so I know what else to suggest.
Feel free to ask back any questions. Based on the results you post back I may have other suggestions if necessary.
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