I just started using Windows Defender on my new Windows 10 PC. I uninstalled the Mcafee trial software through the control panel then used the Mcafee uninstall program as well. Initially, Defender wanted to run a quick scan which I did. My question is this: By default, in addition to real time scanning, does Defender run a scheduled scan of some sort on it's own? If so, when? And where can I view this? Thanks.
yes, it runs a daily scan, when it detects that the computer has been idle for a while.
The problem is with laptops -- they don't always run idle for long enough, because people close the cover, or it goes to sleep to save battery. In such a case, the scan will run even though the computer is in active use. This can temporarily impact performance.
It runs a daily scan when there's no activity on your computer (i.e. at night).
Any more detail? What time does it run, does it leave a log, can I verify or change the time of scan, etc. ???
By design, Defender keeps out of your way as much as possible - at least, when it has nothing bad to report. The daily scan will wait for the PC to be idle before starting, so the time it starts can vary a lot. In fact, if you are particularly active it may never get a chance to start. After a number of missed day's you'll get a notification that 'Defender needs to scan your PC'.
If you want to see if it has run recently, just open Defender. At the bottom of the Home page it tells you the last time a scan was run.
If you want to be told it has scanned, go to 'Settings > Update & security > Windows Defender' and turn on 'Enhanced notification'. After a while of being reassured that 'Defender has scanned your PC and found nothing' you'll probably get tired of seeing the notification and turn it off again :)
So it doesn't do a scan at a certain time? I thought I had seen somewhere that it did a scan like at 3:00 in the morning or such.
Maybe another way to ask this is: I can find all kinds of articles on "how" to set up scheduled scans. So the question is "why" would I have to do this if it's being done automatically already? I am really confused.
Last edited by reelme; 07 Feb 2017 at 14:32.
The way I do mine is
Once it has started up and logged on and all programs up and running
I get a notification that Defender needs to scan
I just click open and within 2-3 minutes it has finished the scan and found nothing
It is so much lighter and better than McAfee and I find that the way it does it is so much better
When I had McAfee it was only doing it once a week and used to take all day and slow the system down.
That is why when I brought all the new laptops I removed McAfee from all of them and let Defender be my only Anti-virus
Thanks for the info, but I still don't understand what the default is. Like I mentioned, I see posts on how to schedule a scan, but I would like to know if it is already doing so by default. thanks.
The default is that it is scheduled to scan daily when the system is idle but, as the task is configured to stop on any activity, it may not complete. If it doesn't complete it will try again until it succeeds or (as far as I can make out from Task Scheduler) it times out after three days of trying. Rinse and repeat...
The many posts on here and elsewhere about using Task Scheduler are in order to schedule a scan that won't abort at any sign of user activity. This is the only way to guarantee a daily scan.
Me, I'm happy to let it scan as and when it can, asking me to scan if it has been too long since the last one.
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