Defender scheduled scan not working

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

I am running Microsoft Defender with the latest engine installed. My
operating system is Windows XP SP 2. With the previous Microsoft Antispyware
program, the scheduled scan ran fine. The scheduled scan has not worked
since I "upgraded" to Defender. I have tried chnaging the scheduled time,
but it still dones not work. Can you help me?
 
I'm sorry...I'm not as knowledgeable as many in this community. Where would
I look to find the answer to your question?
 
In checking your posting to another question, I found the Task Scheduler and
this specific task. When I clicked it to "run", nothing happened.
 
Hi Randy,

Type "services.msc" (no quotes) from your Run > Dialog Box.

This will enable your Services Editor.

Look for Task Scheduler

Highlight the entry > double-click on the entry > on the "General" "Tab" the
"Start-up Type" should be "Automatic" > "Service Status > "Started" > if no
joy, Set the Start-up Type to Automatic from the pull-down menu and Apply. If
the Service Status is Stopped hit the Start Button and Apply your way out.
 
Thank you, Engel. I checked the settings as you described and they were
already set correctly. To be certain, I pressed the "restart" button. I
then rescheduled the scan, and it still does not work. Any other thoughts?
 
There was a bug in Windows Defender such that touching the time for a
scheduled job also incremented the date for the job--i.e. if the job was
scheduled for 9 am on the 16th, and you decided to set it to now plus 5
minutes, so you could see what happened, it would also reset the 16th to the
17th.

In the task scheduler window, go to Advanced in the menu at the top.
(control panel, performance and maintenance, scheduled tasks)

Choose View hidden tasks, to see the scheduled job.
This job will get rescheduled each time you make a change within Windows
Defenders UI to the schedule.

Choose View Log to see whether you can tell anything from that log about
whether the job is happening.

I take it that the bottom of Windows Defender's home page is not showing the
scans?

There's one other relevant log: Right-click My Computer, choose Manage.
Click on the PLUS in front of event viewer. Click on "system" to select the
System events log. Then click on View, Filter, and the Source drop-down
control--Select WinDefend as the source. This will show all System event
log messages related to Windows Defender. There should be records for start
and end of scans.

A Quickscan in Windows Defender may take only a few minutes, and no UI is
shown during the scan. If you open the Defender UI while a scan is
happening, it should show the progress.

--
 
Bill - Here is what the log shows for my most recent sceduled scan:

MP Scheduled Scan.job" (MpCmdRun.exe) 5/20/2006 4:00:00 PM ** ERROR **
The attempt to retrieve account information for the specified task failed;
therefore, the task did not run. Either an error occurred, or no account
information existed for the task.
The specific error is:
0x80090016: Keyset does not exist

The scan works fine when I do it manually.

Randy
 
If you look at the details of the job itself, by double clicking it--what's
in "run as" on the task tab?

Mine reads NT AUTHORITY/SYSTEM and I would ignore the password button.

One user found that resetting to a known user, and working password (an
account used for this purpose must have a password) and then resetting to NT
AUTHORITY/SYSTEM made it work on his system....

--
 
When I double click on the job, I get a notice reading "General Page
Initiation Failed" followed by an error code. When I click "OK", the task
window opens, but I am unable to modify anything on it. The Run line is:
Windows Defender\MpCmdRun.exe" Scan -RestrictPrivileges
 
What version of Windows--if XP, is this Home, or Pro?

What do you see in the "run as" box nearer the bottom of that page?

I don't recognize the symptoms you are seeing, will have to do some research
on that, but not tonight, I'm afraid!

--
 
Bill,
I appreciate your help with this. I am running Windows XP Professional, SP
2. The "run as" window is blank and dimmed, so as not to be used with the
current settings.
 
Are you running as an administrator on the machine?

Can you give the precise error message when opening the task--the one
following "General Page Initiation Failed"? I'm not finding that text
anyplace I've searched.

--
 
Bill,
Yes, I am an administrator on this machine. The message I am getting when I
double click on the task is:

General page initialization failed
The specific error is:
0x80090016: Keyset does not exist
An error has occurred attempting to retrieve task account information. You
may continue editing the task object, but will be unable to change task
account information.

Any thoughts?
 
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_21317289.html

Scroll down to the very end of the thread (ignore all the ads and stuff at
the beginning)--you'll find a set of steps headed SOLUTION.

I think that's what you need.

At the very end, it talks about reentering credentials for the jobs. I
think what you may need to do is just change the schedule within Windows
Defender which should generate a new hidden job. Once that job is
generated, I think the credentials will be right--otherwise, switching to
and administrator with a valid password, and then back to NT
AUTHORITY\SYSTEM should do the job, I think.


--
 
Thanks Bill. I'll try this as soon as I get the chance. I really appreciate
your time and effort.
 
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