How To: Scan USB Flash Drive With Windows Defender (Automatically)

You never know where a flash drive has been.

Always best to scan a USB flash drive before using it.

Did you know Windows Defender could be configured to scan a USB stick automatically the moment it is plugged in? Below are the steps to configure Microsoft Windows to automatically scan a USB drive↓.

Windows Defender is not configured for automatic scanning when the operating system is installed. Not sure why, as malware spreading via USB flash memory is one of the more prolific tech issues of the day. Our only guess is Microsoft giving us free will to make our own decisions, after all, scanning takes time and why not let the user choose when this is done.

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.