Windows Defender No Longer Performs AutoScan

Hi There, I use Windows Defender on Windows 10 and have never had an issue. However, late last week it stopped performing its daily auto scans. I have not made any recent changes to my PC and do not use any other real time AV programs. The good news is it still updates its definition files automatically and performs on demand scans without consequence. Thus, I consider this a minor issue but still wonder if others who use Defender have noted this behavior.

Thanks

TairikuOkami said:

Check, if this this task is enabled in Task Scheduler or run CMD as admin and copy/paste:

schtasks /Change /TN "Microsoft\Windows\Windows Defender\Windows Defender Scheduled Scan" /Enable

I have checked Task Scheduler but am not sure where to look to find the referenced task. Sorry as I am new to using this utility.

Please note that I can open Task Scheduler Library - Microsoft - Windows - Windows Defender - The only task not showing as successfully run is Windows Defender Scheduled Scan (It shows (0x2) while all other tasks show (0x0)).The program updates fine and runs on demand without issue. I believe the issue is with MpRunCmd.exe. I would love to know where this file should be located on my pc. It currently resides in C:\Windows\Program Files\Windows Defender. It does not reside in C:\Windows (x86)\Program Files\Windows Defender. This is a 64 bit machine.

TairikuOkami said:

Yes, that is it. Try to setup a random scheduled scan, if it runs or not.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...ndows-defender

I ran the command line text you gave me and then set up a scheduled scan within Task Manager. It ran perfectly!!!
Thanks so much for your assistance. I am not sure why the task had to be manually scheduled but nonetheless this workaround if effective. Thanks Again!!

HokieMan said:

I ran the command line text you gave me and then set up a scheduled scan within Task Manager. It ran perfectly!!!
Thanks so much for your assistance. I am not sure why the task had to be manually scheduled but nonetheless this workaround if effective. Thanks Again!!

Unfortunately, the auto scan only worked one time after doing this. I will just do one online demand scan each day as there seems to be no solution. Thanks for your help

HokieMan said:

Unfortunately, the auto scan only worked one time after doing this. I will just do one online demand scan each day as there seems to be no solution. Thanks for your help

:)Thanks for the heads up . I will have to add manual Win Defender scans in my routine of otherwise bad PC habits.

Among other OEM bloatware short of a clean recovery bloatware free option this PC or maybe win 10 has in general I had to uninstall OEM MaCafee trial bloatware they had turned on and run the cleaner for it on this new OEM HP CTO PC and start up Win defender and download mbam ,Chrome and Firefox ofc.

ofc MaCafee is not on this SSD I put in here for daily driving on 14905 (for now until the next build ) either

I didn't have any bloatware to remove since I had a clean install of Win 10 on this PC done at a local PC shop. I guess I am not the only one who doesn't seem to be able to get autoscan function with Win Defender to work

Today, I turned off real time protection in Windows Defender and then rebooted my PC. Upon reboot, Defender had turned real time protection back on automatically. I waited awhile and rechecked Defender and noticed that it had finally run an autoscan. Perhaps this is all it took. I hope the autoscan will continue to work properly and I will monitor over the next few days.

HokieMan said:

Today, I turned off real time protection in Windows Defender and then rebooted my PC. Upon reboot, Defender had turned real time protection back on automatically. I waited awhile and rechecked Defender and noticed that it had finally run an autoscan. Perhaps this is all it took. I hope the autoscan will continue to work properly and I will monitor over the next few days.

Any updates on this? Still working?