Windows 8 offers a number of built-in anti-virus features that can help protect your computer from infection. To scan a file or folder with Windows 8’s anti-virus, follow these steps:

  1. Open the File Explorer window and navigate to the location where you want to scan the file or folder.
  2. Click on the “Scan” button in the top left corner of the File Explorer window.
  3. The anti-virus software will start scanning your computer for infection. If it finds any infections, it will display a warning message and ask you to confirm that you want to continue scanning by clicking on the “Yes” button.
  4. After the anti-virus software has finished scanning your computer, it will display a list of infected files and folders in the bottom left corner of the File Explorer window. You can click on any of these files or folders to remove them from your computer’s memory and stop further infection from happening.

Manually Opening Windows Defender

The first way to scan your files is to use the Windows Defender GUI, to do so navigate to:

Then launch:

When the GUI opens, choose to do a custom scan, then click the Scan now button.

Now choose the folder you want to scan, and then click OK.

That’s all there it to it.

Scan Using the Context Menu

If you don’t fancy opening the GUI, you could always add an option to the context menu. To do so, press the Windows + R keyboard combination to open a run box and type:

Then press enter.

Now go ahead and download this batch file we wrote, then unzip its contents into the SendTo folder.

Now when you right click on a file or folder, you will be able to scan items using the “Send to” menu.

Unfortunately it does use the command line scanner, nevertheless it gets the job done.

That’s all there is to it.