Quote:A really simple fix for the Windows Defender alert that states items were skipped during a scan has been discovered and it involves just enabling network scanning.
 
Over the weekend, we reported that for the past few weeks Windows 10 users were receiving alerts stating that items were skipped when they performed scans using Windows Defender.
 
These alerts stated that "Windows Defender Antivirus scan skipped an item due to an exclusion or network scanning settings" but did not provide any further information as to what was causing it.
 

 

Günter Born who first reported about this issue has now discovered a fix that just entails enabling the scanning of network files.
 
Strangely, Microsoft states in their documentation that scanning network files is not recommended, but leaving scanning disabled will continue to display these alerts.
 
"Indicates whether to scan for network files. If you specify a value of $False or do not specify a value, Windows Defender scans network files. If you specify a value of $True, Windows Defender does not scan network files. We do not recommend that you scan network files," Microsoft documentation states.