Discusses how to remove viruses, spyware, rogue software, or malware using Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft Safety Scanner and Microsoft Defender Offline.

If you suspect that your device may have malware you should have Microsoft Defender run a scan. Here's how to do that on Windows, Mac, or Android.

The Microsoft Safety Scanner is a free security tool that provides on-demand scanning. This tool helps remove malicious and potentially unwanted software that may have disabled your existing antimalware software or that may prevent you from downloading or installing additional updates or software.

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.

If you think your computer is infected, we recommend that you run the Microsoft Safety Scanner. The scan is free and will detect and remove many of the issues that customers frequently contact us about.

During a scan, Microsoft Safety Scanner detects possible malicious software contained in a file archive, such as a .zip file. You should determine whether the file is malicious software and remove it from the archive manually.

Windows Security is your home to manage the tools that protect your device and your data: Virus & threat protection - Monitor threats to your device, run scans, and get updates to help detect the latest threats. (Some of these options are unavailable if you're running Windows 10 in S mode.)

See: National Public Data breach: What you need to know. Protect your Android, iPhone, Mac, and Windows devices from threats by installing Microsoft Defender. Download Microsoft Defender on your devices either by: Scanning the following QR code. Searching for Microsoft Defender in your app store.

If you're still running Windows 8 then the Microsoft Safety Scanner provides full and comprehensive on-demand antimalware scans. It offers robust offline scan and cleanup capabilities. However, it does not provide the real-time and cloud-based protection that is available with Windows Security.

For comprehensive malware detection and removal, consider using Windows Defender Offline or Microsoft Safety Scanner. This article contains information about how the tool differs from an antivirus or antimalware product, how you can download and run the tool, what occurs when the tool finds malware, and tool release information.