Windows 10: Microsoft safety scanner identifies 75 infected files, but then says completed successfully...

Microsoft safety scanner 1.291.3251.0 identifies 75 infected files, during scan, but then when completed, indicates that scan was successfully completed, and no viruses, spyware, and other potentially unwanted software were detected?I have run the program three times and same result. I have run other virus scans, and nothing coming up.Does this mean I need to search more, for infected files, or does this mean all is ok?Thanks

:)

 

Microsoft Safety Scanner > Files Infected count

There's a bit of a UX problem with the scanner. As it is running it may encounter files that are suspected of being infected but indicate a count as: "Files Infected: XX"

This suggests the files are infected and apparently no list of these potentially infected files are provided.

1. Change the label to "Possible Infected Files"
   
2. Write to the msert log the list of possibly infected files for further review/action.
   

I say this as I let the tool run for over 3 hours, racking up over 20 "Files Infected". My computer was disconnected from the Internet during the scan. So I was surprised that the files in question were somehow "cleared" despite a lack of Internet connection.

From the log:

Results Summary:

----------------

No infection found.

Failed to submit MAPS report: 0x80072EE7

Failed to submit clean hearbeat MAPS report: 0x80072EE7

Microsoft Safety Scanner Finished On Sun Apr 30 13:20:56 2023

If the suspected files couldn't be submitted, then how were they cleared? Which files were suspected?

I appreciate the tool just cannot trust the results.

 

Microsoft Safety Scanner

When running Microsoft Safety Scanner (version 1.361.163.0) the scanner indicates it is finding infected files during the scanning process but when it completes scanning the scan results are "The scanner completed successfully and no viruses, spyware, and other potentially unwanted software was detected."

Why does the Scan Results differ from what is being reported during the scanning process?

 

Microsoft safety scanner finds no virus?

Hello Anxious,

I am Jaspreet Singh.

Microsoft Scanner works in steps.

So at first stage it will detect what may be an infected file and it will add that to a list. This is the number you see when you see the scanner progressing. These are not actual infections, just suspicious files.

Once the scan is done the safety scanner will match the suspected files with the most recent database of threats and then tell you the actual infections on your system. If the last number is 0 it means no actual infection was found.