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

I went to Control Panel > Security and Maintenance > Change Maintenance and Security Settings. There is nothing at all about scheduled scans. There are only tick boxes for security and maintenance messages.

I am running Windows 10 Pro Version 1511 Build 10586.122.

I appear to be in a loop here on the answers site -- the links all lead to each other like Ouroboros.

The Windows Defender Scheduled Scan task is triggered by Automatic Maintenance (along with the other tasks in the maintenance package), and you would reschedule Automatic Maintenance by following this path: Right-click on the Start button > Control Panel > Security & Maintenance >Maintenance > Automatic Maintenance > Change maintenance settings.

However, Automatic Maintenance only runs when the system is idle in order to avoid interfering with your work, so it will only run on schedule if you stop working at the scheduled time and then wait for it to finish. If you want a scheduled scan that starts on time and runs without interruptions, then you’ll have to set up an independent scheduled task:

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

GreginMich

If what you say is true (runs autoscans by itself) then why when I last opened Defender did it list my last scan as occurring over 1 month earlier (a manual scan run by me) and the virus definitions shown as out of date? Empirical evidence suggests you aren't correct. I haven't changed any settings. I've also looked at a friend's win 10 PC and it had out of date definition settings as well and does not list any scans being performed at all.

Just a suggestion: when you folks setup a good thing, like Defender in Win  7, that is easily configurable, please leave it alone. As it stands right now, with your pared down Defender interface, I have absolutely no confidence that Defender is actually running scans or updating definitions on either machine. Both are set to install Windows updates automatically. To manually set daily definition updates and daily or weekly scans you have to be a Windows programmer to set it up through the task scheduler. This is really aggravating to your average user trying to gain some confidence that Defender is actually doing anything.

You really don’t have any basis for being confrontational here. What I say is true, and it’s based on extensive empirical research with Automatic Maintenance – and it’s also been thoroughly corroborated. So if this isn’t how things are working for you, then that just means that your system is broken – not that what you’re seeing is the norm and that I’ve made some kind of mistake about how this works. Ergo, your “empirical” proof against Automatic Maintenance really doesn’t amount to anything more than an inductive generalization based on insufficient, unrepresentative, or inaccurate observations. The technical term for that kind of mistake is the fallacy of hasty generalization.

But if you can somehow shake off your self-assurance, and stop playing the critic for just a minute, then you might be able to turn your attention to solving the problem with your PC. You can do that by starting your own thread in this forum and providing a detailed description of the problem and its context.

GreginMich