Why don't scheduled scans run when not logged in?

[Ryan Spooner [Ryster]]

I thought the whole idea of MS AntiSpyware being re-written as a service and
becoming Windows Defender was so that it could run in the background while
you were not logged on. This it seems is not the case.

I have Defender installed on my Server 2003 box here at home and have it set
to run a quick scan every day at 2am. However if I don't log onto my Server
for several days, it complains about a scan not having been run for x amount
of days as soon as I log on. Why aren't the scans run automatically in the
background? Why do I have to be logged on for the scans to run?

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Is the scheduler service running?

Have you looked at the system events log, filtered on event source
"windefend" to see whether the scheduled jobs are, in fact, happening? One
possibility is that they are, and that the GUI is wrong.

 

[Ryan Spooner [Ryster]]

Hi Bill

Sorry for the late reply. I have checked the event viewer as suggested, and
there is no mention of scheduled scans. The only things there are definition
updates and manual scans.