How to Schedule a Scan in Microsoft Defender Antivirus in Windows 10  

Agreed. It just needs to be added back via Windows Security now.

Having enough people request it via the Feedback Hub can help make this happen.

Brink said:

C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MpCmdRun.exe

That is always an old copy of MpCmdRun.exe. WD now adds & uses new versions of MpCmdRun.exe in new subfolders within C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform
[it also keeps copies in a few other locations but this is the location it uses as you can see by checking the properties of the antimalware service executable in Task manager]
- To run a scan, I use a batch file to identify the latest subfolder and then run a -scan command within that folder.
- I use a similar method to update malware definitions

Code:

set GetLatestVersionPath="dir "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform" /ad /od /b"
FOR /F "tokens=*" %%i IN (' %GetLatestVersionPath% ') Do Set LatestVersionPath=%%i
"C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform\%LatestVersionPath%\MpCmdRun.exe" -Scan -1

These are useful switches
-Scan -1 runs Quick scan
-Scan -2 runs Full scan
-SignatureUpdate updates the malware definitions


You can get info on MpCmdRun command line switches in its own help info -
First, go to the folder identified above then
either
[in a command window]
enter the command

Code:

MpCmdRun.exe /?

or
[in a PowerShell window]
enter the command

Code:

.\MpCmdRun.exe /?

I hope this is helpful,
Denis

Hello @Tonyb,

What do you have set for the task?

OldGrantonian said:

I worked my way through the options, but I couldn't see any option for file selection. Does that option exist?

The problem is that a complete scan takes about 3 hours. I'm not keen on that amount of continuous running because of the heat. So I use manual scanning.

I know from trial-and-error which contiguous folders I need to scan to produce a 30-minute job. So I manually scan 2 or 3 bunches daily, then start again.

Thanks.

Hello mate,

Yeah, this scheduled scan is only to scan the system and not a file.

For scan files, it's usually easier to do so on demand by selecting the files you want to scan and using the Scan with Windows Defender context menu.

@Brink
Hi Shawn, I had an (advanced) scheduled WD task running made by Acer without the Basic trigger tab (it had -trigger 55 as a command argument in the actions tab). I disabled that task and then enabled it again but somehow the command line got corrupted. The other 3 WD tasks still run OK and have this in the actions tab: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\platform\4.18.2006.9-0\MpCmdRun.exe with argument -IdleTask -TaskName WdCacheMaintenance
I am looking for the argument for Scheduled Job.
Also the other 3 WD tasks have the path with command without quotes but I have to put quotes otherwise the argument is not accepted (ran Task Scheduler as administrator) . I don't really want to restore my system for this and would appreciate if you can help me with the argument for an advanced scheduled job and let me know why I cannot enter the path without quotes like the other 3 jobs have. I will also check my old File History %systemroot%\System32\Tasks for the original settings.

Edit 5:45 pm
After a reboot the WD Schedule scan Task was automatically reset to its original state with a "1999 date", I ran it manually and I think its OK now, we will see after a while....
Thanks
Frank