Windows Defender Offline definitions out of date

Anonymous
2016-04-24T04:02:30+00:00

Windows 7 64 Bit.  I have been using Windows Defender Offline on a USB thumb drive (4 GB, uses less than 1 GB) for years without problem.  Last week updating Windows Defender Offline definitions to an already working USB thumb drive seemed to install correctly.  When I boot to the USB thumb drive the program boots and runs but I get the message the "definitions out of date", and it will not scan the computer.  I tried formatting USB thumb drive and then installing the whole Windows Defender Offline with definitions instead of just updating the definitions to the already working USB thumb drive.  Everything went correctly, the size of the download appeared to be correct.  I booted to the USB thumb drive and still got the message "definitions out of date".  Since the Windows Defender Offline program started offline, and was installed onto a completely formatted USB thumb drive, it must have downloaded and installed correctly but the definitions are still "out of date".  Are the definitions being updated by Microsoft or has the program been discontinued?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Security and privacy

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Anonymous
2016-06-08T20:47:31+00:00

Not sure that matters at this point, the messages appear to be pointing to 2 unrelated failure points.

I have an update.

We have identified the problem and are working on a new Windows Defender Offline release.

Paul...

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-05-06T10:07:30+00:00

    Okay thank you 😘

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  2. Reza-Ameri 45,896 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-05-06T07:30:30+00:00

    In Windows 10, open start and search for Create Recovery Drive and then open it and insert USB and create this.

    Then boot into your Windows 10 Device with this USB and you have option to run Diagnose and Repair tool, run it and in options, you have Windows Defender, run it and check the result.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-05-03T20:45:01+00:00

    Windows Defender Offline (which is what we are talking about here) is only for earlier versions of Windows (XP, Vista, and 8). See http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-defender-offline-system-requirements

    Windows 10 has it's own built-in offline scanning mechanism which will run automatically from the recovery environment if needed. See http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/using-windows-defender-offline

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-05-03T20:19:11+00:00

    I have the same problem, same error message, and am using Windows 10.

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