Windows 10: Windows Defender Offline Scan Not Starting

Offline scans suddenly stopped working.


I can initiate an offline scan in the usual way (Virus & Threat Detection > Options > Windows Defender Offline Scan), and I get the usual popup that tells me the computer is going to restart, and it does restart, but instead of seeing the offline scan startup I see a blue screen that asks me to choose a keyboard layout. When I choose a keyboard layout it takes me to another menu where I can either choose "Troubleshoot" or "Turn off your PC". It's like instead of booting into offline scan, it's booting into the recovery process.


Anybody know how to fix this?


I did recently restore from a system image when I moved over to a larger drive. Not sure if something broke in the process. And I can't remember now if I've had any successful offline scans since doing that.

:)

 

offline scan by win defender

Hi,

To further assist you with your concern with Windows Defender, follow the steps below:

• Open the Run window by pressing Window + R button.
• Then type services.msc and hit "Enter".
  
• Look for Windows defender service in the list and right click on it and select start.
• Once Windows defender is opened try to do the offline scan on that window.

Let us know how it goes.

 

Defender Periodic Scanning or Offline Scanning?

That link does suggest it's useful to use Defender offline scanning in addition to periodic scanning and a third party real time anti virus (e.g. Kaspersky).

 

Unable to start Windows Defender offline scan

When attempting to start an offline scan in Windows Defender, the following happens:

• I am prompted to save my work and warned this will restart my computer
• I click "Scan"
• The advanced scans window is shown, with "Time elapsed:__" and "__ files scanned" left blank. As well as an empty grey progress bar.

The computer does not restart, even if waiting the suggested 15 minutes. Nothing happens. How can I fix this?

(I've seen there are one or two other threads related to this topic, but I didn't see any actual resolution and the comments seem to have dried up)

Version: Windows 10 (1709)