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Since the implementation of W10 V2004, Windows Defender has now been defaulted to identify
PUPS as a threat. As a result, many are now made aware of their presence. And they are "remediated",
on the spot, to prevent them from causing any mischief.
The problem occurs on the subsequent scans with Windows Defender. It identifies the same PUP again,
and again. It has been determined that this is caused by the presence of the PUP in Protection History.
It appears that the default remediation that Windows Defender applies to PUPs is to Block them,
then leave them in Protection History .
EDIT: It has been found that malware other than PUPS, can require this same procedure.
Some have discovered, that even Trojans exhibit this same characteristic, when remediated by
Windows Defender in W10 v2004.
If you have any malware, remediated by Windows Defender, that alerts repeatedly, this procedure applies to
it as well. In order to cleanup the malware completely, find the file in the "container file" in the Protection
History record, and delete the file that is described. If you can't find or access the file, run the Microsoft
Safety Scanner. It uses the same definitions as Windows Defender, and should remediate the file.
Then proceed to delete the Protection History info.
END EDIT.
Windows Defender is defaulted to scan its own "Scans/History". Resulting in the discovery of the malware over
and over again. Even though, other scanners see no evidence of the malware on the PC. It doesn't exist!
Until Microsoft sees fit to fix this problem, you can prevent the repeating error indication, by deleting the
items that are described in Windows Defender Protection History. You can delete them by accessing their files,
that are located in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Scans\History\Service.
In the "Service" folder, find and delete "Detection History".
Note: ProgramData is a hidden file. In order to access it, the "Hidden Items" option in "File Explorer" must be
checked. Find the "Hidden Items" check box under the "View Tab".
And, the first time that you access "Scans", you must select "continue", to obtain the permission.
Restart and try another scan. Notifications for the current malware should stop.
However, this program miscue will probably reoccur, when the next PUP / Malware is encountered.
Glen
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.
Hi Labeeb,
MalwareBytes Free is a very good antivirus, to use as a virus scanner. Defender is also
good, and it offers all of the protection that you need. Defender is part of the Windows
system, and as such, the overhead from it on the system is minimal. And it is free!
While Defender and MalwareBytes premium are considered to be compatible, updates
to one or the other can sometimes cause conflict.
Glen
Thank you, Sir.
Malware Bytes quarantined my threats present on my pc and it's good!!
Is it good to upgrade to premium version of this Antivirus Program??
Hi Labeeb,
Congratulations! Very glad to hear that you solved your problem!
Regarding any remnants of any malware. For peace of mind, you should perform a
full scan with Defender. And download a free copy of MalwareBytes, and perform a
full scan with that. Set it to "Scan for Rootkits", and allow it to cleanup anything it finds.
Best of luck to you, Labeeb.
It has been my pleasure.
Glen
Sir, I did what all you said- Opened Command prompt and did all which you said and it really worked it said that it found some threats and repaired them(I haven't given a try to open "Scans" till this time) but I also thought at that time that; actually I had a game in my pc with the extension .exe so I was just giving a deep thought about my pc issues and suddenly then it clicked my mind that I don't think so that .exe file is good for pc and I Googled it, hopefully found it so I at the very moment deleted that game and then came back and tried to open "Scans" and I was able to to the same and a popup showed to "Continue" or "Cancel". Honestly Sir, I was totally stunned at that very moment, I was so happy.
That moment was unexplainable. Furthermore, I did what all You said and finally deleted the "Detection History" folder then restarted my pc and tbh I was very hopeful and scared at that moment. The error was no longer there and I was so happy.
Actually all this time I was so panicked just because this is my first personal pc and it's expensive and it's been just, I think 4-5 months since I bought it so I don't want a threat so early in my pc.
Thank you very much, Mr. Glen!!
I am really very grateful to you.
It's all because of you!
All this time you helped me so much!!
It wouldn't be enough if I even thanked you a thousand times coz' I irritated you so much and maybe at some times I even frustrated you as of my circumstances.
Once again, Thank you very much, Sir!
And just a last question Sir (not sure if it is actually), is .exe a virus??
And if it is then I want to ask that Sir, I deleted the .exe game I had in my pc so will it cause a threat now after deleting it or am I safe now??
And the same last repeating request- "Please help??"
Thank you, Sir!!
Have a great day and a great year, actually a great life.
Labeeb Khan.
Hi Labeeb,
Your inability to access "Scans", even in administrative mode, is disconcerting.
That may indicate the presence of corruption in your OS.
You can test for that condition by using DISM and SFC. If you like, enter Command Prompt
by clicking "Start" and type "cmd". Select "Run as Administrator". On the Command Prompt
Admin screen, type the following commands.
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth and hit <enter>.
Allow it time to finish. It takes a little while.
Then type SFC /scannow and hit <enter> Allow it time to finish. If it finds any errors,
run it again, until it runs clean.
Type Exit to leave Command Prompt.
Restart your PC, and see if you can access "Scans" now.
If you can't, it may be necessary to perform a Repair Upgrade. The procedure replaces
your OS, but keeps your Apps & Files. If you have been able to overcome the repeating
alert from Defender, using the methods previously described, you may not want to go
this far. However,
The Repair Upgrade is a very solid procedure, if your PC configuration is HDD only or
SSD only. The two combined, has been problematic a few times in the past. If that is
your PC configuration, you should create a system backup, before proceeding.
Should you elect to do the Repair, you download the Creation Tool from here.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Right click the downloaded file and choose "Run as Administrator".
Choose "Upgrade this PC now" and the procedure will begin. Answer any questions
logically, and when asked "what to keep", ensure that both the OS and Apps & Files
are selected.
The procedure takes about an hour to complete. Your PC will restart several times. And
sometimes it appears to be doing nothing. Be patient, when it is finished your "sign in"
screen will appear. Your PC will be just as it was before the Repair, but without corruption.
You should be able to access "Scans", if you ever need to again. And anything else that
the corruption was going to affect, should not occur.
Good luck, Glen
