The antivirus that Windows 10 has already installed by default, Windows Defender , can analyze pen drives and other types of external storage media (hard drives, microSD cards, etc.), but for this you have to activate that possibility since it is not enabled of fabric.
Each antivirus for Windows has its form, in Windows Defender it is not very difficult to activate this possibility, so you will have your computer protected against any USB memory or other devices that you connect via USB to your PC since it will analyze its content and repair the threats found .
We must differentiate between two possibilities, if we want it to be done automatically or if we simply want to perform an analysis on a specific day on a specific pendrive, this second way is easier because it is not necessary to activate anything.
Pendrive analysis on a specific day
In case you want Windows Defender to analyze a specific pendrive on any given day, you will not need to activate anything because you can easily analyze it just by following these steps:
- Open “this computer” and locate the pendrive.
- Now right click and click on “ Browse with Microsoft Defender” . The antivirus window will open and you will begin an analysis that will last from a few seconds to several minutes, depending on the amount of information that the pendrive has and its size.
You can do the same by opening Windows Defender (Windows + Q keys and typing Defender), option “exam options” and choosing the option “custom exam” so that clicking on “examine now” will open the window to choose the USB and analyze it.
Scan pendrive automatically
With this we do not mean that Windows Defender analyzes the pendrive once it is connected , but that it can be included in the “complete” analysis that this antivirus performs, which is a very different thing.
Therefore, if you want Windows Defender to analyze the content of a USB or external disk connected to your PC through the complete analysis that this antivirus does, you must already enable an option because this type of analysis discards the media external.
The steps to follow are different if you have Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro, you must first check this parameter, something that you can see by opening the system in Windows 10 and looking at the “Windows edition” section that you will see when you open that window.
Activate pendrive analysis in Windows 10 Home
In case you have Windows 10 Home , we must edit the Windows registry to create a key that allows the full scan of Windows Defender to also scan USB and external drives. This is what you should do:
- Press the Windows + Q keys, type “regedit” and enter the option.
- Go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Policies / Microsoft / Windows Defender folder. Right click on that folder and click on new / key, name it “Scan” without the quotes, it will be in the form of a folder just below the Policy Manager folder.
- Now click on the Scan folder, go to the right side and right click on the white part, click on “new 32-bit DWORD value” and name it DisableRemovableDriveScanning , plus a value of 0 when double-clicking. Exit the registry and restart the PC, we have already activated the analysis of pendrives and other media.
Activate pendrive analysis in Windows 10 Pro
If your computer has Windows 10 Pro , we must edit the group policies and enable the option. Follow these steps:
- Press Windows + Q keys, type gpedit.msc.
- In the new window navigate to Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Microsoft Defender Antivirus / Detection. When you get there, look for the “browse removable drives” setting and double-click it, then select “enabled” and click “ok.”
- Finally, restart your PC for Group Policy to take effect.
Both in the case of Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro, now all you have to do is run a full scan in Windows Defender, in that scan it will already scan the pendrives and removable drives that were connected to the PC:
- Open Windows Defender and go to the section and click on “exam options”, click on “full exam” and then on “examine now” that you will see a little further down. Now we just have to wait for it to perform the analysis, it will take a long time, but with the difference now that it will look for threats on your USB and other drives.
