Use Windows Defender To Scan USB Sticks
You never know where a flash drive has been.
It’s always best to scan a USB flash drive.
Did you know Windows Defender can be setup to scan a USB stick automatically, when it’s plugged in? Below are the steps to make that configuration setup.
By default, Windows 10 does not have this setting configured. We are not sure why, as USB sticks and downloads from internet sites are probably the two most vunerable ways to get a computer infected. Our only guess, is the scan process of a USB stick can take some time, and for a user to have that step done with each connection, could reduce the user experience.
This tutorial will take about three minutes to setup. I would suggest read the rest of this article and when done, go back and perform the few steps required to make the Windows Defender scan for USB flash drives.
We are going to make a Group Policy to scan USB flash drives using Windows Defender.
Let us run the Group Policy editor.
Press the Windows Key + R
Type gpedit.msc and press Enter or OK.
Look for the Administrative Templates under the top Computer Configuration directory, expand this directory (folder)
Scroll down to Windows Components, expand it
In that directory scroll down more and look for Windows Defender Antivirus, expand it
Finally, look for the Scan folder and click that folder.
On the right side of the dialogue box you will see additional settings, search for the Scan removable drives and double click that setting
This setting is disabled by default. Please click the radial enable button to enable this setting for your Windows computer.
Click Apply in the bottom right and then click OK.
That is it. Your Windows computer will now automatically scan USB flash drives using Windows Defender.
Alternatively, you can insert a USB stick and right click the drive letter and select Scan with Windows Defender but the problem here, is the USB could have already done it’s virus work before you had a chance to scan for malicious code.
Tags: flash drive, scan, usb, virus, windows defender