Check for the latest virus and spyware security intelligence before running a scheduled scan
- Policy ID
- CheckForSignaturesBeforeRunningScan
- Scope
- Computer Configuration
- Supported on
- At least Windows Vista
- Source
- Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 11 2026 Update (26H2) (version 1.0)
- Category
- Windows Components › Microsoft Defender Antivirus › Scan
Description
This policy setting allows you to manage whether a check for new virus and spyware security intelligence will occur before running a scan.
This setting applies to scheduled scans, but it has no effect on scans initiated manually from the user interface or to the ones started from the command line using "mpcmdrun -Scan".
If you enable this setting, a check for new security intelligence will occur before running a scan.
If you disable this setting or do not configure this setting, the scan will start using the existing security intelligence.
Registry
ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- CheckForSignaturesBeforeRunningScanREG_DWORD