Microsoft Defender Antivirus is a powerful tool that finds and removes malware from your PC. Here's how to use it in Windows 10 or 11 to scan your PC. Important: Before you use Microsoft Defender Offline, make sure to save any open files and close apps and programs. Open your Windows Security settings.

Use this tool to find and remove specific prevalent threats and reverse the changes that they made (see Covered malware families). For comprehensive malware detection and removal, consider using Windows Defender Offline or Microsoft Safety Scanner.

Learn how to protect yourself and how Microsoft Defender is helping to prevent fraud. See: National Public Data breach: What you need to know. You can start a scan for malware any time you like. Note: Microsoft Defender currently offers anti-malware on Windows, Android, and macOS. From the Microsoft Defender dashboard.

Malware is a term that is used for malicious software that is designed to do damage or unwanted actions to a computer system. Examples of malware include the following: Select a heading below for more information. What is a computer virus?

Follow these steps to automatically diagnose and repair Windows security problems by turning on UAC, DEP protection, Windows Firewall, and other Windows security options and features. Select the Download button on this page. In the File Download dialog box, click Run or Open, and then follow the steps in the Windows Security Troubleshooter.

Find out how to stop Windows Security from alerting you about or blocking a trusted file, file type, or process, by adding it to the exclusions list.

Virus & threat protection in Windows Security helps you scan for threats on your device. You can also run different types of scans, see the results of your previous virus and threat scans, and get the latest protection offered by Microsoft Defender Antivirus. Under Current threats you can: See any threats currently found on your device.

Solve problems with detecting and removing malware with Windows Security, including incomplete scans, detection errors, and persistent malware.

The Notifications page of Windows Security settings lets you configure what kind of notifications you want to receive. You can find it by going to Settings in the lower left corner of the Windows Security app and selecting Manage notifications. It's divided into three categories:

Protection history can also notify you if an important service, such as SmartScreen for Microsoft Edge, is turned off. Select the card for that alert, and under Actions you can turn that feature on. Best practices for protection from viruses. How malware can infect your device.