Windows 10, How do I set Windows Defender's scan schedule?

Anonymous

I installed the Windows 10 on the 29th of July, 2015 Windows Defender hasn't ran a scan.

I started getting alerts that a scan is necessary to keep Windows 10 protected.

In the settings there's no scan setting like there was on Windows 7

I can manually scan, but I want it to be a full automatic scan every day.

How do I set Windows Defender to run a full auto scan every day?

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

The location of the Automatic Maintenance settings actually did change in Windows 10:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/change-security-and-maintenance-settings-in-windows-10

So this is where you have to go now to change the schedule for the Windows Defender Scheduled Scan task: Right-click on the Start button and choose Control Panel > Security and Maintenance > Maintenance > Change maintenance settings.

It’s been 3 years now, and there are still way too many people (including Microsoft documentation authors) who just can’t quite seem to get a grip on how this works. The fact that the controls for the scheduled scan went missing in the new Windows Defender user interface doesn’t mean that the feature was dropped and that you’ve been left to your own devices – it means that the scheduled scan was reengineered so that it now runs reliably without any user configuration. It’s now fully automatic just like the definition updates. So you don’t have to change any settings at all to get the scan up and running; and you certainly don’t need to add a trigger, or otherwise reconfigure the Windows Defender Scheduled Scan task. This is a system task, and you would be well advised to just leave it alone. Full Scans don’t need to be scheduled, but if that’s something that you really want to do, you can use the Create Basic Task Wizard.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/protect\_defender-protect\_scanning/scan-schedule-for-windows-10/c53a0110-04eb-431e-9bc5-9d6db0ffcff7

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/protect\_defender-protect\_start/how-to-schedule-automatic-virus-scan-in-win-10/64640690-f0f0-4a11-bc7d-c47f232cd9ec

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/protect\_defender-protect\_start/how-do-i-make-windows-defender-start-automatically/b4948f9f-60bb-4829-aecc-cdf646d098a2

GreginMich

0 comments

55 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-12-13T21:45:35+00:00
"It’s been 3 years now, and there are still way too many people (including Microsoft documentation authors) who just can’t quite seem to get a grip on how this works."

That's probably because:
1. Things like this change in an operating system where some people like me actually have been paying attention to the scan schedule, because we know we can and want to; and then,
2. Something is just "reengineered" and we're supposed to go searching the KB for worthless things; because:
3. I get a DAILY notice that "Windows Defender needs to scan your system."
If after 3 years "way too many people"--including Microsoft documentation authors--don't really know how something works, maybe it's not actually "working."
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2016-01-24T01:26:55+00:00

If I have it set to scan at 2am, WTH is it scanning at 4pm. It practically shuts down my computer with the resources used and it certainly interferes with what I am doing when all the activity messages keep popping up. I just want an easy way to make sure all scan functions are happening at a time convenient to me - not Windows 10.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2016-02-17T08:49:12+00:00

Corporate IT requires a full scan every week if I am to connect to the corporate VPN. A quick scan is detected and my connection is refused. How can I run a full scan from the command line or the task scheduler?
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2016-02-17T15:12:13+00:00

Corporate IT requires a full scan every week if I am to connect to the corporate VPN. A quick scan is detected and my connection is refused. How can I run a full scan from the command line or the task scheduler?

Please note that a Quick Scan is performed daily by Automatic Maintenance without any scheduling – that’s the main point of the answer here. Copy and paste this command at the prompt to put the CLI syntax on your desktop:

"C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MpCmdRun.exe" -h >Desktop\WDcmd.txt

Batch file for a CLI Full Scan with optional shutdown:

@echo off

powercfg -change -standby-timeout-ac 200

Cd C:\Program Files\Windows Defender

MpCmdRun.exe -Scan -ScanType 2

powercfg -change -standby-timeout-ac 20

shutdown -s -t 300

Batch file for a Windows Defender UI Full Scan:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/protect\_defender-protect\_scanning/windows-defender-scan-stops-when-windows-sleeps/f34df2d2-4245-4a24-906c-bada11b6d457?page=2

Simple scheduled Full Scan with wake/don’t sleep enabled:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/protect\_defender-protect\_scanning/how-do-i-set-windows-defender-to-a-custom-auto/ec19aab4-10ce-4f41-9990-343056fd104f

Full-featured scheduled scan:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/mse-protect\_start/running-mse-full-scan-as-a-scheduled-task/f627f5ce-0b74-4b1d-be64-d6ceeb4d9b02

GreginMIch
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments