Windows Defender or the Microsoft anti-malware platform protects home computers, servers and online services such as Office 365. With the wealth of threat intelligence and telemetry data, Defender’s cloud backend is an astounding malware protection service.Read more
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How to Enable Scanning for PUA/PUP/Adware in Windows Defender
Windows Defender can detect and remove malware and viruses, but it doesn’t catch Potentially Unwanted Programs or crapware by default. However, there is an opt-in feature that you can enable to make Microsoft Defender antivirus scan and eliminate adware, PUAs, or PUPs in real-time.Read more
Why Is Windows Defender Running Alongside my Antivirus Program?
After upgrading to Windows 10 version 1607 (known as “Anniversary Update” or “Redstone 1”) released in August 2016, some users are wondering if Windows Defender is running alongside their main antivirus program, as the icons for both programs are visible in the Notification area.
Isn’t Windows Defender supposed to turn itself off when it detects a 3rd party antivirus program in the system?Read more
Add Windows Defender Options as Cascading Right-Click Menu in Desktop
Last we saw how the Windows Defender GUI (msascui.exe) can be automated using hidden command-line switches, similar to it’s command-line version – mpcmdrun.exe. Here is a registry tweak that adds some Windows Defender options to the Desktop Context menu as cascading menu to quickly run a scan, update or open Windows Defender.Read more
How to Remove Windows Defender Icon from Notification area in Windows 10?
With the Windows 10 Redstone build, Windows Defender icon is added to the notification area and can’t be removed via Settings. However, you may remove the icon by disabling an optional startup entry added by Windows Defender.Read more
“Windows Defender Offline” in Windows 10 Eliminates Complex Malware
Windows Defender Offline scanning is one of the new settings added by the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Although Defender Offline has already been a built-in feature in Windows 10 since the early builds, the GUI option is added in the Windows Defender Settings page only after you install the Anniversary Update (v1607).Read more
Command-line Switches to Automate Windows Defender GUI (MSASCui.exe)
Most users know that Windows Defender scans can be automated by using the console tool MpCmdRun.exe with Task Scheduler. But, did you know you can run a scheduled scan interactively (in GUI mode), that is without using Windows Defender’s console utility? This post lists some command-line switches to do that. Update: MSASCui.exe has been removed … Read more
Restore Windows Defender Scheduled Scan Task After Deleting it Accidentally
Windows Defender’s built-in scheduled task named “Windows Defender Scheduled Scan” is run by Automatic Maintenance when the system is idle. If you’ve deleted this task by mistake, this post tells you how to get it back in Windows 10. Use any one of the following methods.Read more
How to Schedule Windows Defender Scan in Windows 10
Windows Defender’s command-line utility MpCmdrun.exe is used for scheduling scans or updating definition files or signature using command-line. This post tells you how to setup Windows Defender to scan the computer daily at a specified time using Task Scheduler and MpCmdrun.exe in Windows 10.Read more
How to Update Microsoft Defender and Run a Quick Scan in One Go
The Windows Defender command-line utility MpCmdRun.exe is prominently used for scheduling scans and updating the signature or definition files. The MpCmdRun.exe command usage info can be obtained by running MpCmdRun.exe with “/?” or without any parameter.
However, it doesn’t mention a useful switch that updates Windows Defender signatures and runs a Quick Scan at once. And this switch is not documented anywhere so far.Read more
