Windows 10: Defender Quick Scan runs all the time.

Split from this thread.​

Im having the same problem quick scan just runs and runs, I update windows pretty much everytime I start up. it appears to be up to date

:)

 

Windows Defender - Quick Scan

Windows defender no longer offers a quick scan option.

My options are:

• Scan
• Advanced Scan

• Full Scan
• Custom Scan
• Windows Defender Offline scan

Whichever option I check, the scan will need to run for hours to complete.

Is a quick scan available?

How do I restore this feature?

 

Can You Run Defender Quick Scans Automatically?

Ever since the Windows 10 Anniversary Update a few years ago, Defender's ability to run its automatic quick scan has been broken for most users, resulting in an 0x2 error. It's been well documented that Microsoft's been aware of the problem but has never issued a fix. MS has had two responses -- either run a manual scan or create a custom task. The following TenForums link shows how to create a task for scanning at a time and frequency you want. Hope this helps.

Schedule Scan in Windows Defender Antivirus in Windows 10

 

Does Windows Defender Quick scan interrupt Advanced scan?

Before I create a System Image, I run an Advanced scan using Windows Defender, and it typically takes about an hour and the Scan history lists about 4,000,000 files scanned. However, often I see only about 40,000 files scanned, what I get from a Quick scan.

I can think of two explanations that might account for this:

1. The Advanced scan completes, but a Quick scan starts afterwards and wipes out evidence that that the Advanced scan occurred (unless presumably some problem was found).

2. The Advanced scan is interrupted and a Quick scan runs.

Are there other possibilities?

The 2 possibilities listed above are both unsatisfactory because I can tell if an Advanced scan was completed. If an Advanced scan was just completed, there is no reason that a Quick scan should be run automatically.