Skip to main content

New Windows 10 security update proactively hunts down viruses when your PC is idle

Windows 10 is building in an additional line of defense against malware with some new features for Windows Defender, Microsoft’s pre-installed antivirus.

The update is called Limited Periodic Scanning, and was revealed as part of Microsoft’s Insider Preview Build 14352 this week. It allows users to run Windows Defender simultaneously to their own antivirus software. Defender will run its own periodic scan of your computer to further bolster the protections in place with other programs.

Recommended Videos

If the feature catches any malware you’ll be notified through a standard Windows 10 notification but in most cases, Windows Defender will act automatically on mitigating the malware in the background.

Limited Periodic Scanning, in theory, will only kickstart when your computer is idle or not in the middle of some important task. It uses the Automatic Maintenance feature to select the most opportune time to scan, according to the announcement.

There have been a number of complaints against Microsoft over Windows 10 updates commencing in the middle of important work so the company will want to avoid such a fate again.

Limited Periodic Scanning is only for use by consumers so far, said Deepak Manohar from Microsoft Malware Protection Center, but the company is exploring possible enterprise applications for the feature.

The feature is currently only available for Windows Insiders and is turned off by default if you’re not already using Windows Defender. To turn on Limited Periodic Scanning, go to Settings, Update & Security and Windows Defender, and then Turn Limited Periodic Scanning on.

Microsoft has placed a big emphasis on security for Windows 10, claiming it is the most secure operating system available on the market right now. The CIO of the Pentagon, Terry Halvorsen has even publicly gushed over the security of the OS and urged his employees to use it on their personal devices. However, Windows 10 has still faced many concerns and criticisms over its attitude to user privacy by collecting and monitoring a huge amount of data.

Jonathan Keane
Jonathan is a freelance technology journalist living in Dublin, Ireland. He's previously written for publications and sites…
Microsoft is cracking down on unsupported Windows 11 installs
A Dell laptop with Windows 10 sitting on a desk.

A support document showing users how to install Windows 11 on unsupported PCs was deleted sometime in the past two months. Its disappearance, noticed by Neowin, echoes Microsoft's recent "year of the Windows 11 PC refresh" rhetoric, encouraging (or forcing) users to buy new PCs that meet Windows 11 hardware requirements.

When Windows 11 launched in 2021, Microsoft announced that it was adding TPM 2.0 as a hardware requirement -- a move that was met with plenty of resistance. To soften the blow, Microsoft also published a support document detailing how users could edit their registry key values to bypass the TPM 2.0 check.

Read more
Microsoft is axing support for its own apps on Windows 10
The Surface Laptop 7 on a table in front of a window.

Microsoft has announced that support for Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10 will end this year on October 14, as reported by The Verge. This is also the end-of-support date for Windows 10 as a whole, but the move is still a little surprising considering that Microsoft is now offering the Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) Program.

Anyone who joins this program for $30 can continue to safely use Windows 10 for a whole extra year -- so you might think that Microsoft would let them continue to use the Office apps too. That said, it's not like the apps will disappear, they just won't receive any more updates. According to Microsoft, this could cause "performance and reliability issues over time" but whether these issues will pop up within the ESU program's duration or not is anyone's guess.

Read more
Here’s why some PC gamers shouldn’t install the latest Windows 11 update
Overwatch 2 running on the LG OLED 27 gaming monitor.

The latest Windows 11 update, codenamed 24H2, has been a troubled rollout for Microsoft, but one thing's been clear from the beginning: PC gamers should wait to install it. Let's add another issue to the list, shall we?

As spotted by Windows Latest, Microsoft has confirmed in an update to its Windows 11 24H2 problems page, that Windows 11 24H2 is causing issues with its Auto HDR feature. The result of the bug is that incorrect colors are being displayed or, even worse, are breaking games entirely and causing them to not be responsive.

Read more