Windows 10 - Defender Offline Scan not working

Hi Cass,

I think what you are seeing is not the WDO GUI, but what I call the "Splash Screen".

That is the screen that appears as WDO prepares to run.

This is the the screen for WDO running.

WDO Running

The launching screen does appear to be an indication of something running,

but unless they have changed it, it is just WDO preparing to run.

How many ways can this thing fail? Ole's problem sounds altogether different!

Good Luck,  Glen

Windows 10 Version 1703

No errors, Offline Scan asks me for confirmation to make changes to my hard drive, I click yes, window closes. Windows Defender updates the last scan time but nothing actually happens, or at least there is no indication that anything happened. Says it should restart device when it is finished but that has never happened yet either.

Win Defender Offline Scan not starting, not rebooting, nothing happens (?)

Moved from  Windows

I had this problem today while troubleshooting a user's machine. My users do not have admin rights. I failed to realize this. So I logged in as an admin and I was able to start the offline scan with no issues.

Hi Florian,

Windows Defender Offline may experience issues due to a lot of factors. To better isolate the issue, we'd like to ask a few questions:

• Have you made any changes to your computer prior to this issue?
• Do you have other antivirus or any third-party security software installed on your computer?
• Is Windows Defender working online?

We look forward to your response.

Regards.

Literally just bought my computer and Windows Defender Offline Scan doesn't do anything.