How to schedule updates w/o Automatic Updates

[Guest]

You can schedule Windows Defender definition updates to be downloaded and
installed without using Windows Update. This will permit Automatic Updates
to be turned off and still get Windows Defender definition updates
automatically.

1. Create the following bat file:
C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\WDSignatureUpdate.bat

@echo off
"C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MpCmdRun.exe" SignatureUpdate

2. Create a shortcut to the above bat file. (optional)

3. Change the shortcut properties to run minimized. (optional)

4. Create the following scheduled task:
"C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\WDSignatureUpdate.bat.lnk"

Note: the .lnk on the end references the shortcut that was created to permit
the process to run minimized. If you omit the shortcut, then drop the .lnk
from the end of the command.

5. Schedule the task to run whenever you want.

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

This is a useful observation for those few who don't want Automatic updates
set to apply automatically, perhaps.

If the default setting to update before scheduled scans is set, this will
happen automatically before a scheduled scan--no need to schedule it
yourself separately.

The ability to perform this update does depend on the services which underly
Windows Update and AutoUpdate--so if any of those have been disabled, this
method won't work either.