Windows 11 Windows Defender scheduled scan returns 0x2 error

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I really appreciate it. I just got tired of dealing with it and moved on to a more reliable product (Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office Advanced or ACPHOA). Seems like if MS really wanted their AV software to have widespread use they would fix this problem.

Have a good week!

It's been like that since at least Win 8.1. There's no need to worry over it because Defender runs all the time as the real-time scanner. Also, it does a quick scan of files independently of the Task Scheduler as frequently as it needs. Every so often, you will get a message in Action Center that it has run.

In the days I did worry (way back then), I did discover the built-in scheduled scan will only run to completion after a reboot if it starts (& finishes) before the computer goes to sleep. After sleep, it will start, but you'll always get that (0x2)...

And, IIRC, it must be a reboot, which does a full shutdown. It can't just be a boot, which was preceded by a hybrid shutdown. But don't worry, all is well.

I ran into this one, so I tried the command from the actions tab in Task Scheduler in a terminal window and it fails. I can't find any documentation on the arguments/options that are in this command. I set up my own scan tasks using "-Scan Scantype 2" as the arguments and it runs just fine, so I suspect the arguments are the issue. I have no idea what Microsoft is trying to do with this task as I can find no documentation for the arguments "Scan -ScheduleJob -ScanTrigger 55 -IdleScheduledJob" that is in the Microsoft job. As long as you are an admin, you can create your own tasks to periodically run scans by using the simple arguments shown above.

As others have stated, if you reboot it will run a scan once and thereafter you get the "0x2" error and no more scans. I'm pretty sure this was working before a recent windows update, so I think something is broken.

Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to help me. I really appreciate. Just one question, what is IIRC?

Hi Rick_766,

Thanks for your post in the Microsoft Community.

I understand that you are encountering a failure to create a regular scan of Windows defender using Task Scheduler.

This problem did exist before, I checked some forum threads and some users can fix this problem by updating Windows. If you are using the latest version of Windows 11, this workaround is temporarily unavailable.

I tried creating a scan task on my computer based on this article, and my Windows performed the task as expected. So I think this may be a possible bug in the system, since this problem exists in all three of your computers and has a long history.

If Windows doesn't fix the problem with an update, I think I can try an overwrite install of Windows to see if that fixes the problem.

You can click here to download the Windows installation tool and download the ISO file for mirror installation.

This process will not affect your data and programs. This is not a reinstall and reset of the system, but a repair process. It won't waste a lot of your time.

If the problem persists after overwriting the installation, then I suggest you press Win+F to report the problem. Let the developers see if it's a possible problem with the system itself.

Thank you for your understanding and stay safe!

Kirk | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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