Missing shortcuts and apps from the Start Menu and Taskbar

On January 16th, 2023 Microsoft Windows Defender decided that several Start Menu and Taskbar application shortcuts were a potential risk, and accordingly decided to delete them. This has impacted many organizations.

Workarounds:

• Creating new Office Document: if you have problems creating a new Office document, 
  1. open an existing document and 
  2. select File  / New Office Applications

• OUTLOOK: Outlook can be found and opened from this location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16

Solutions:

• Lost shortcuts: Your computer may be impacted where your shortcuts have been deleted, at the moment there is no quick remote fix to restore these items. Note that the applications are unaffected; it is just the shortcuts to open the applications that may have disappeared.
• Microsoft have been unable to suggest how to restore Taskbar shortcuts, so these will have to be manually re-created.