How Long Does Windows Defender Take To Update

(If yous are using Windows 10 before build 1703, please consult the following folio )

This document is divided into the following sections:

How to open the Windows Defender Security Center ?
How to perform a transmission scan with Windows Defender ?
How to perform an Offline scan with Windows Defender ?
How to keep Virus Definitions up to appointment ?

Windows 10 Creators Update build 1703 and Higher (published in Apr 2017) introduces the new Windows Defender Security Center interface.

The Windows Defender desktop program is notwithstanding there, named Windows Defender Antivirus, but all settings are at present inside this modernistic awarding interface.

Comparison of settings and functions of the old Windows Defender and the new Windows Defender interface.

All of the previous functions and settings from the Windows Defender (Windows 10 before version 1703) are now found in the new Windows Defender Security Heart interface. You tin easily found these Settings using the following images.

The following images compare the location of settings and functions betwixt the sometime and new windows Defender Interface.

Windows Defender old interface

Windows Defender new interface

Item	before Windows 10 build version 1703	After Windows 10 build version 1703, 1709	Description
1	Update tab	Protection updates	Update the protection ("definition updates")
two	History tab	Scan history	Review threats that were quarantined, removed, or allowed
3	Settings (links to Windows Settings)	Virus & threat protection settings	Enable various features, including Real-fourth dimension protection, Cloud-delivered protection, Avant-garde notifications, and Automatic ample submission
4	Scan options	Advanced scan	Run a full browse, custom browse, or a Windows Defender Offline scan
5	Run a scan (based on the option called under Browse options	Quick scan	In Windows 10, version 1703 you can run custom and full scans under the Advanced scan option

How to open the Windows Defender Security Center ?

Two easiest methods:

Right-click the icon in the Notification area on the taskbar and click Open

Open Starting time/Search, blazon "defender" and select "Windows Defender Security Eye".

How to perform a manual scan with Windows Defender ?

Perform a browse in contextual fashion (a right-click browse)

The easiest style to run a browse is the good old right-click menu.

To scan a specific file, group of files, folder or drive with Windows Defender, user tin use the Right-Click Context Menu option. This option is enabled by default.

Right-click a file or binder (or group of files), and choose the Scan with Windows Defender command. In one case the browse is done, typically very quickly, the results volition appear as they exercise in normal scans.

Perform a FULL anti-virus scan

Our recommendation :

Users should run a full browse in one case every month to ensure that at that place are no viruses and malware hiding in the computer.
Users should run a full virus browse when the status of Windows Defender Security Center icon keeps its red error circumvolve (Actions needed) or the yellow warning triangle (Actions recommended) in Taskbar and Activeness Center subsequently a quick scan.
There is no need to run a Quick Scan because Windows Defender performs this task daily, and it notifies the userif the scan has not been run for a prolonged time.

In Windows Defender Security Center, open the Virus & threat protection tab from the left. So click the Advanced scan link.

Choose the Total scan option and click Browse at present. Full scan might take several hours to complete.

If no threats are establish and Windows Defender Security Center condition remains green, user can safely close the window afterwards the scan is complete.
If something suspicious has been found, Windows Defender Security Center volition show the "At that place may be threats on your device" message. User must wait until the scan is completed to run into details on the detected malwares.

After the scan finishes, click the Clean threats push to quarantine/deleted the detected items.

The cleanup process might take a few minutes to complete on slower devices. Also, a notification will appear above Taskbar Notification Area (Organization Tray), stating that Windows Defender Antivirus constitute threats.

Alternatively, click or tap the See threat details link to review what has been institute

In some cases, a restart is required to remove all traces of malicious software. It is strongly recommended to reboot the device.

If the aforementioned malware however reappears, please contact the CERN service-desk with email: service-desk@cern.ch (or call 77777) or contact your It Local support.

How to perform an Offline scan with Windows Defender ?

The feature Windows Defender Offline scanning helps removing nasty rootkits and stealth malware that hide themselves before or after Windows starts.

To run an offline scan, nosotros recommend to close all open documents and running programs.

Then, in the Windows Defender Security Center, open up the Virus & threat protection tab from the left. And so click the Advanced scan link.

Choose the Windows Defender Offline browse option and clickScan now.

After the user clicked the Scan at present button, Windows Defender will warn that the offline scan volition take some time and restart the device. Brand sure zip important is open and click the Scan button.

After a short while, Windows will warn that it will shut down in less than a minute. Click Close and expect until Windows restarts the device.

Later on the restart of the device, Windows will load a few files required for scanning and prepare for the scan. Stand by, this should take only a minute or so.

Then, Windows Defender will run the offline scan and quarantine infected items automatically. The browse should not accept more than fifteen-twenty minutes to complete.

The device will restart automatically afterwards the detection and removal process completes.

How to continue Virus Defintions up to appointment ?

Open the Windows Defender Security Center by clicking the shield icon in the task bar or searching the start menu for Defender.
Click the Virus & threat protection tile (or the shield icon on the left carte bar).
Click Protection updates. The currently installed version is displayed along with some information virtually when it was downloaded. You can check this against the latest version available for manual download, or review the alter log for that version.
Click Check for updates to download new protection updates (if there are any).