Microsoft Defender Offline Scan

I can't get the Windows Defender Offline (Excuse me, it is now known as Microsoft Defender Offline) scan to start. I tried it from PowerShell, I've tried it from CMD Prompt both with administrative rights and I've even tried from the GUI of the program itself.

I had read from a quick search, that this problem has been going on from at least two years ago; but just recently gave me a problem after the November 11th Cumulative update.

Geez, it seems as though if Microsoft didn't render your system useless a couple of years ago for security, they are sure making up for it recently.

Does anyone have a new syntax code to use for the 20H2 versions because this doesn't work any longer:

Start-MpWDOScan

That use to work in PowerShell, but is now rendered useless for the 20H2 Builds it seems.

I checked the protection status page:



Then I checked the regular update GUI:



The times don't even match up for the latest threat files signatures. According to reports online, supposedly those have to be synchronized for Microsoft Defender Offline scan to even work. Obviously this is a problem or I just have an itch that can't be scratched yet.

You know, Microsoft I got to tell you, our computers are not an experimental project to test your failed code experiments. You idiots are messing with my livelihood and many businesses rely on your platform only to realize you are costing them productivity issues and wonder why they have to write it off in the "loss" column of their ledgers.

I really feel sorry for businesses running Windows 10 and they wake up one day and just recently go to print something only to find none of their printers are recognized by the OS anymore. That is just one example of how productivity is lost because the manager has to figure out how to get 50 computers to reinstall printers or shared printers.

Hours and hours have been lost by businesses just trying to figure out what you are going to screw up next Microsoft.

Keep up the good work and hopefully you collapse your own platform enough that it actually causes losses on your side of the ledger pricks.

I'll give this thread a little bump and explain what I have tried so far to no avail. After hours of extensive reading about how WDO and now Microsoft Defender Offline scans are not working for some since as far back as 2017 for Windows Defender Offline, I had removed all remnants of Malwarebytes from my registry in an attempt to see if any of those entries were conflicting with the Microsoft Defender Offline Scan.

No dice!

The second thing I tried was a Restore Health function with the DISM command and it reported a successful operation and still the Offline scan won't initiate. Yes, I rebooted after the DISM Restore Health Command.

No Dice gain!

Some articles suggested a repair install; but honestly at this point, if sfc /scannow isn't flagging anything and my OS is completely operational with no Event Viewer Errors and no Reliability History issues of any kind (especially Critical Events) I really can't justify using a repair install that probably will not fix it either.

I mean I literally have no indication that any corruption exists anywhere throughout the OS; yet something that worked before the Cumulative Update is now broken and not a peep of it has been mentioned in any documentation that I came across lately that it is a known issue with the November 11th Cumulative Update for systems on 20H2.

Sure I could restore a full backup image I have to prove that Microsoft Defender Offline Scan worked prior to the update; but who would really be interested in that proof?

I don't understand why this feature was broke on some systems since 2017 and mine remained immune until just now.

So I would really like to hear suggestions if anyone knows how to get this feature working again on this latest Version and Build listed under my Avatar.

Thanks to any and all who have knowledge about how to fix this or if they heard a rumor that this is another feature that is being done away with and I just haven't heard yet.

OldNavyGuy said:

One reason is the Recovery Partition that Windows creates during installation has been deleted by the user.

Wow! --- How did you know or find that out?

This is interesting, as I have not read that anywhere yet. You must be right, because I did delete the Windows and Factory Recovery Partitions but was never warned that it would stop Microsoft Defender Offline Scan from working.

Matter of fact, I had two Recovery Partitions and one was a Factory Recovery Installed Partition and one was a Windows Recovery Partition of which both seemed useless until now.

My bet is on the Windows Recovery Partition that was deleted as the culprit. I might just reinstall that backup image after all and just have to go through some updates again.

Hmmmm..........Decisions--Decisions!

I'll let you know how it goes and I'll also be damn sure to thank you for that bit of information if it works.

zbook said:

The Windows recovery partition can often be recreated by a successful in place upgrade repair:


See the latest posts in this link for in place upgrade for 20H2
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

.
KB4586853 CU Windows 10 v2004 build 19041.661 and v20H2 19042.661
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

Very glad you posted this.

Since I keep all my personal files off the seated hard drive of my computer I was wondering if the in-place upgrade repair is actually any different than just restoring my Macrium Backup Full Image.

Since the in-place upgrade repair states specifically that the only thing that will be lost is the most recent Windows Updates:



That is actually all I'm going to lose when restoring my Macrium Backup also.

I don't see the difference between restoring my backup from before I deleted the Windows Recovery Partition as compared to the in-place upgrade repair, other than the in-place upgrade would take longer.

Since I pointed out that personal files are not a concern because they are not on the local drive, I can't see an advantage to the in-place upgrade.

Am I missing something zbook?

zbook said:

Didn't the image have more than one recovery partitions?

Yes.