Microsoft Defender Antivirus is a built-in program that protects you against all kinds of viruses, ransomware, spyware and other malicious software. You can scan local files, but also files in your network. Previously, this function was activated by default, but this is no longer the case when you have the latest version installed.
While it is not recommended to activate the network file scanning feature in many situations, it can still be good to know how to do it when it is needed. If you have Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise, you can arrange this via the Local Group Policy Editor. You open start, search for gpedit and click on Group Policy Editor at the top. Now follow the next steps: Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Microsoft Defender Antivirus / Scan.
In the Scan list, locate and double-click on it. Now choose the option on the left Enabled. Then click on the at the bottom right Apply button to save the changes. Now press OK. From this moment on, network files are also included during automatic and manual scans. If you also want to reverse the actions, you can. You follow the same steps, but when you should choose Enabled, you now choose Not configured.
Set up Defender through Windows PowerShell
You can also adjust the settings via the Windows PowerShell. You open Windows PowerShell by opening Start and typing powershell. Do not open the program immediately, but click it with your right mouse button. Now choose the option Run as administrator. You are now supposed to repeat the following line. Unfortunately, you can’t copy it, so make sure you don’t make any typos.
Set-MpPreference -DisableScanningNetworkFiles 0
If you also want to reverse this adjustment, then that is quite possible. You follow the steps mentioned above until you have to enter another line of text in the dark blue field. This time you have to adopt a different line. They look alike, with the only difference that this time you replace the 0 with the number 1. Then you get the following line of text.
Set-MpPreference -DisableScanningNetworkFiles 1
Windows PowerShell is a handy program that allows you to simplify complex operations on the computer with commands.
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