Turn On or Off Microsoft Defender Periodic Scanning in Windows 10  

Scheduling scans separately would work as far as having WD scan goes, but the annoying messages from WD still appear.

But I think I have found the cause of the problem. I had been using an application (R-Wipe&Clean) to remove Windows Defender logs and scan results. Since I prevented R-Wipe&Clean from doing that, I have not seen the "Windows Defender needs to scan your computer" prompt.

My understanding is that CCleaner can cause a similar problem.

It stands to reason, then, that only the native Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) utility should normally be used to remove WD remnants. It's normally a minimal amount of data anyway, at least from what I'm seeing.

Thanks, Shawn.

Is there any way to activate the periodic scanning remotely or using Command Prompt/Powershell?

Brink said:

Hello Bwomack, and welcome to Ten Forums.

It looks like this setting is stored in the registry key below, but it is protected.

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Defender

REG_DWORD PassiveMode 
0 = Disabled
2 = Enabled

Thanks for the quick reply. I do not see a PassiveMode key in that folder. Is there by chance any other way to accomplish this?

Brink said:

Hello Bwomack, and welcome to Ten Forums.

It looks like this setting is stored in the registry key below, but it is protected.

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Defender

REG_DWORD PassiveMode 
0 = Disabled
2 = Enabled

Hello,

I've tested this and it does not work. I tried it on two different Windows 10 machines and rebooted both.

I also cannot find a GPO to enable this settings either .

Brink said:

Hello Simpuhl,

Just to verify, Microsoft Defender Periodic Scanning would only be available if you had a 3rd party Antivirus program installed and Windows Defender was disabled because of this.

Correct.

I can manually enable it by clicking the toggle, but modifying this single registry entry does not enable it.