Various ways to clear Windows Defender protection history

Have you noticed Windows Defender's protection history? Do you know how to clear protection history in Windows 10/11? This article by MiniTool will provide you with several reliable ways to achieve this.

What is Windows Defender Protection History?

Windows Defender is an antivirus software built into your computer to protect your computer from viruses, malware threats and attacks. Information about the actions you take, deleted potentially harmful applications, or closed critical services, etc. are stored on the Protection History page on behalf of your actions, deleted potentially harmful applications, or closed critical services.

Windows Defender retains its protection history by default for 30 days. You can use the following methods to clear them by that date to improve computer performance.

How to clear protection history in Windows 11/10?

Method 1: Use File Explorer (manually)

Windows Defender stores protection history logs as access to files on your computer. Therefore, you can manually clear the protection history through File Explorer.

Step 1. Press the Windows E key combination to open File Explorer. Then go to the View tab and select the check box next to " Hidden items ".

Step 2. Type C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Scans\History\Service in the address bar and press Enter . Or you can navigate to this location layer by layer.

Step 3. Select All Files, right-click and select Delete .

Method 2: Use event viewer (manually)

The Windows Event Viewer displays logs of application and system messages, including errors, message messages, and warnings. If you don't know how to clear the protection history, you can refer to the following steps to use it.

Step 1. Type Event Viewer in the Windows Search box and click it from the Best Match Results.

Step 2. Expand the Application and Services Log by clicking the inverted triangle button next to it. Then expand Microsoft > Windows . Then scroll down to expand Windows Defender .

Step 3. Click Action and select Clear Log from the right panel.

Step 4. In the pop-up window, click Clear or Save and Clear to clear the log.

Method 3: Use Windows PowerShell (automatic)

Windows PowerShell is a command line tool that is commonly used to automate system management. Here you can set it to automatically clear Windows Defender protection history.

Step 1. Type Windows PowerShell in the Windows Search box, right-click it and select Run as Administrator .

Step 2. In the pop-up window, select Yes to allow this application to change your computer.

Step 3. Type this command: Set-MpPreference -ScanPurgeItemsAfterDelay N and press Enter ( N refers to the number of days you want to automatically clear the protection history).

For example, if you want to automatically clear the protection history after 5 days, you need to type this command line: Set-MpPreference -ScanPurgeItemsAfterDelay 5 .

Method 4: Use the local group policy editor (automatic)

The Local Group Policy Editor is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. You can configure and modify Group Policy settings through this tool. It also helps you automatically clear protection history.

Step 1. Press the Windows R keyboard shortcut to open Run .

Step 2. Type gpedit.msc in the input box and press Enter .

Step 3. Expand the following folders: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Defender Antivirus .

Step 4. Under the Windows Defender Antivirus software section, select Scan .

Step 5. On the right panel, double-click to enable deleting items from the Scan History folder .

Step 6. Select Enabled in the new window. Then set the number of days the item should remain in the scan history folder before permanently deleting it, and click Apply .

Now that all operations are done, you do not need to manually clear the protection history. The system will automatically clear the Windows Defender protection history based on the number of days you set.

Summarize

In short, this article describes how to clear protection history in Windows 10/11. You can choose your favorite method to clear it for the best computer performance. For more information about Windows Defender, please visit the MiniTool News Center.

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