Windows Defender - "Actions recommended" - but what are they???

I use 3rd party protection, but exactly the same, no problems in the past. I keep the security center on the system tray and on three machines now I'm getting the same thing you are - the yellow caution and everything green inside the Security Center.

Good question!

Here's an idea. Let's run it up the flagpole and see if anybody salutes it:

How about we ask Cortana to open the Windows Defender Security Center and see what it says?

I use 3rd party protection, but exactly the same, no problems in the past. I keep the security center on the system tray and on three machines now I'm getting the same thing you are - the yellow caution and everything green inside the Security Center.

I searched for information about this issue before posting, and I saw that a lot of people have been having this issue off and on for at least a couple of years now, but I felt like none of their situations fit mine exactly-- either they did in fact have some sort of recommended action that was indicated but which they didn't want to perform (because it wasn't a security issue at all but was instead some sort of recommended setting claiming to "improve" performance in Windows or even just wanting to display tips about Windows features, which the users did not wish to enable), and their complaint was that these sorts of recommendations should not cause a caution icon in a utility that's supposed to be about security; or they did in fact have a problem which they were eventually able to resolve.

In my case, there are no warning indicators inside the Windows Defender Security Center-- everything either has a green check mark (as shown in the screenshot that janeythegeek posted) or, in the case of "Family options," no mark at all (as shown in the screenshot). I've clicked on every option on the left side of the screen-- Home, Virus & threat protection, Account protection, etc.-- and nothing anywhere indicates that there is some action which needs to be performed for security reasons or which is otherwise recommended for performance reasons, for providing educational tips, etc.

Presumably Windows Defender knows that there are actions it recommends, otherwise it wouldn't have turned on that caution icon, right? All I want to know is WHAT ARE THESE RECOMMENDED ACTIONS? What would be really helpful is if right-clicking on the icon-- which pops up a little menu-- gave me an option to "View recommended actions" or something like that, which would send an appropriate notification to my notifications list, or something like that. Instead I'm supposed to just open up the Windows Defender Security Center and go through each and every screen trying to find anything that doesn't have a green check mark on it-- and I've done that, and can't find anything in the way of a warning or recommendation.

Good question!

Here's an idea. Let's run it up the flagpole and see if anybody salutes it:

How about we ask Cortana to open the Windows Defender Security Center and see what it says?

Aside from your color scheme and window dimensions, my Windows Defender Security Center looks exactly like that-- all green checks, except for the "Family options."

And I didn't need to use Cortana-- which I don't use anyway, because I don't have a microphone connected to my computer and don't want one connected to my computer. All I had to do was left-click on the icon that I posted about, the one in my system tray with a caution sign and "Actions recommended" tool tip display.