Windows 10: Microsoft Safety Scanner says it is finding infected files while running but when finished...

I ran the Microsoft Safety Scanner yesterday and ran a full scan. It took all day to run. While still running and before I went to bed it showed over 3800 infected files. It said that a report would be available when finished as to what if found. However, when I checked this morning after it had completed its scan it says: The scan completed successfully, and no viruses, spyware, and other potentially unwanted software were detected.If that is the case, why was it showing over 3800 infected files while running?

:)

 

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 1.393.1870.0 Not removing infected files

when I run the Microsoft Safety Scanner it finds 10 infected files. When it is finished it show No viruses, spyware, or other ... was detected. after a reboot and rerunning the app it still finds 10 infected files. also windows defender offline tool does not work.

 

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.