Windows Defender Unwanted SCANs

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael Knight
  • Start date Start date
M

Michael Knight

Hi,

I'm having a problem with Windows Defender because even if it is set to do
FULL scan ONLY at 12:00 on Thursday, it is doing the scan every day,
random time (I do notice it by the HDD activity and by CPU time being
consumed by this app).

Can someone tell me why, if I have set WD to do the scan on specified
time, it is not doing what it is being told ??? Furthermore - can someone
tell me how to tell WD that it really should follow exactly and only the
SCAN schedule ? I would then not need to end the WD task, this would save
me CPU time, PC's speed, memory and my health :D LOL

Many thnx

"Michael Knight"
 
Without looking at your system, I'm venturing a guess, but if you stop the
scan process it will attempt to re-scan shortly after the next time you log
back on... apparently a vicious cycle for you if you're stopping the scan
each non-Thursday.

Try this instead and see if it satisfies your requirements. Turn off the
internal WD scheduled scan, and do your own scheduling through Control
Panel > Scheduled Tasks. Add a Weekly WD Scan using these parameters
(keeping the quotes):

Run: "C:\Program Files\Windows
Defender\MpCmdRun.exe" -Scan -RestrictPrivileges -Scantype 2

Start in: "C:\Program Files\Windows Defender"

Check Run only if logged on
Check Enabled

Adjust the schedule/time for your needs. Make sure the internally
scheduled scan "MP Scheduled Scan" is disabled. At the very least Defender
should now start your full scan precisely on time, but you might get
warnings about not having scanned for three days or more. What I do is run
a quick scan daily (-Scantype 1) which is very limited on resources and a
monthly full (-Scantype 2)... both are scheduled externally to WD.
 
Hello Michael,

In addition to what Dave M mentioned:

This is an overview from Mike Treit [Msft]

The quick scan is very useful. It looks at all of the actively running
processes on the machine, as well as files that are pointed to by the various
registry entries and other locations used by spyware to start automatically
or otherwise interfere with your system.

If you have a particular piece of spyware or other unwanted software that is
detected by Windows Defender, the vast majority of the time it should be
detected by the quick scan.


The full scan, in addition to performing all of the checks in a quick scan,
also examines every single file on your system. This is a quite
time-consuming operation if you have a lot of files.

I would always start with a quick scan - if it gives you a clean bill of
health, you can be pretty confident in the results. If the quick scan finds
anything, you probably should follow it up with a full scan to find any
additional junk that the malicious software dropped on your machine that may
have been missed by the quick scan. It's also a good idea to schedule the
full scan to happen periodically (every night, for instance) at a time when
you are not typically using your computer and the added time to scan all of
the files won't be noticed.

-Mike

Now, You can repair Windows Defender.

First exit WD, click the down arrow to the right of the white question mark
in blue circle and then click Exit Windows Defender; using Add or Remove
Programs in Control Panel. Click WD and click Change. Click Next, and then
click Updªte.

Reboot


If you still have the same message, try this:
First exit WD, click the down arrow to the right of the white question mark
in blue circle and then click Exit Windows Defender; using Add or Remove
Programs in Control Panel. Click WD and click Support Information and click
Repair.

Reboot.

Let us know how it works ºut
 
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