Windows 10: Windows Defender Offline Scan takes 5+ minutes to start

Hi,

Windows Defender offline scan used to start immediately but now it take 5-6 minutes before the computer reboots. I thought it was maybe because of BitDefender which I installed recently but I tried uninstalling it it and it seemed to do the same. I recently installed the feature update to windows 10, version 20H2 update. I'm not sure if the issue was there before or not.

I ran a full scan using windows defender and bit defender, both came out fine. I also installed malware bytes and ran that and that was fine too. I uninstalled it since.

I ran a DISM and sfc can, and everything was fine.

Any ideas?

ETA, I will do a separate post but the BitDefender recue environment doesn't seem to work. I thought I,d include a quick note in case it might be related.

:)

 

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)

 

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).