Windows 10 Limited Periodic Scanning: how does it work?

Whether or not you are running Windows Defender as your primary security software, or any number of alternatives, Microsoft is planning on letting you use both, simultaneously.

As of last week, Windows Insiders of the fast ring, have a chance to test out a new feature added to the latest Windows Preview Build 14352, called Limited Periodic Scanning, which is designed to work in collaboration with any additional security measure running in Windows 10, to provide periodic scanning for security threats.

Using Automatic Maintenance, a Windows 10 component capable of handling similar jobs as the legacy Task Scheduler, Limited Periodic Scanning will automatically pick the best time to perform a system scan, to which actions will follow, depending on the encountered threat.

Limited Periodic Scanning can be enabled in Windows 10 (Preview Build 14352 only), by opening the Settings app, clicking on “Update & security”, and selecting Windows Defender from the menu on the left.

Once we are into the Windows Defender’s tab, we’ll simply turn on Windows Defender, and switch on Periodic Scanning.

There are other options as well, but these can be enabled at the user’s discretion, such as “Real-time protection”, which should be set if Windows Defender is the only security suite available on the system, and “Cloud-based Protection”, which enables a live feed between the host system and Microsoft, to provide up-to-date information on the latest threats.