Windows Defender Offline scan won't work

Anonymous
2021-03-08T22:48:02+00:00

Hi, I've been having a lot of trouble trying to get Windows Defender to run an offline scan. It restarts the computer and I see the blue screen that says Windows Defender but it never runs the scan and the computer starts up after that. When I checked the Event Viewer it said nothing about Defender finishing the scan and just a lot of events that say that Windows Defender configuration was changed and if this was unexpected that it might be malware. Because of this I reset the laptop and that didn't fix the issue. I ran sfc /scannow plus dism and that didn't fix the issue. I then started running every scan I could using programs like Malwarebytes, rkill, Microsoft malicious software remover tool(I think that's what it's called) and a usb bootable scanner from Kaspersky. None of them found anything that was bad. I read online that if I did a Windows 10 repair upgrade then this fixes the problem most of the time, so that's what I did. After all of this I still can't get Windows Defender offline scan to work. Does anyone know what the issue is?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Security and privacy

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-03-11T03:32:15+00:00

    Have you downloaded Windows from the official website recently?
    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

    As I said that you are installing Windows and soon corrupted files appear, make a clean installation of the system, see if it corrects:
    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

    Yes, I used the windows media creation tool (I think it's called) and used that to download windows 10 and install Windows 10. I figured that would fix the issue but it hasn't so far. Then a day or so later I scanned using sfc /scannow and the files are corrupted again but how can that be when I just downloaded Windows 10 and did a fresh install?

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-03-10T11:28:41+00:00

    Have you downloaded Windows from the official website recently?

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

    As I said that you are installing Windows and soon corrupted files appear, make a clean installation of the system, see if it corrects:

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-03-10T03:06:07+00:00

    (1) The offline scan is not run in Windows, so the clock isn't adjusted for DST/whatever else.

    (2) Well, 0x0 normally means there was no error. But that log isn't enormous, Next time, post the whole thing for the date of the run. Mine seems to have 3 distinct sections of that date. I'm unsure the latter 2 relate to the offline run -- but post all you've got. OK, maybe omit that repetitive section about the "exclusion list".

    (3) A new OS Build came in today...

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/march-9-2021-kb5000802-os-builds-19041-867-and-19042-867-63552d64-fe44-4132-8813-ef56d3626e14

    March 9, 2021—KB5000802 (OS Builds 19041.867 and 19042.867)

    Click for it at "START, Settings, Update & Security". It should include the goodies of the optional one (...844) you never took. Maybe it will knock some sense into your Defender Offline Scan, even if by accident. Afterward, try the scan, & post the log, if necessary.

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-03-09T22:47:43+00:00

    Yes, there are several reports that can be pointed out by the event log, as you can check here:
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/securi...

    Try offline checking to be more comfortable with commands, open the task manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc)> file> run new task> check Create this task with administrator privileges> type: powershell> open and place the following command:
    Start-MpWDOScan
    run the command and restart the PC.
    I await your reply.

    Thanks for the reply! I did what you said and ran the scan through powershell but it did the same thing it always does. I tried to find logs that have Defender SENSE but could not find SENSE anywhere in the logs? Just Windows Defender. Also I ran sfc /scannow again and it found corrupt files. I've done this in the past and it's fixed them but that never fixed the issue. How can my files be corrupted when I just did a upgrade repair install? It seems like my files keep getting corrupted somehow even with new os installs?

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-03-09T10:01:41+00:00

    What is your version & OS Build at "START, Settings, System, About"...

    Image

    Well, mine does get past that small "Windows Defender Offline" screen & to a larger DOS screen where the offline scan does complete (apparently with no virus detected) in about 6 minutes. Pictures of the screens are shown in Option 3 here...

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/42305-how-run-microsoft-defender-offline-scan-windows-10-a.html

    How to Run a Microsoft Defender Offline Scan in Windows 10

    Afterward, I get this in Event Viewer...

    Image

    Event ID 2030 announced the offline scan was configured to run. It did run, but nothing above that 2030 mentions it again. There is no report such as was seen in that DOS screen. But there are four 5007's -- so that appears to be normal.

    And there was a log where Brink said: C:\Windows\Microsoft Antimalware\Support. If you've got one, scroll to the date of your run, & see whether there is an error. I did have one error, but apparently not bad enough to stop it.

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