How To Delete Quarantined Items in Windows Security (Windows Defender)

On Windows 10 and Windows 11, Windows Security (formerly known as Windows Defender) is the default antivirus. That means, like any other antivirus, it automatically detects threats and quarantines them to protect your PC. Once quarantined, the threats are isolated and cannot harm your computer. By default, Windows Security automatically cleans up the quarantine list periodically. However, when needed, you can also manually delete quarantine items in Windows Security with just a couple of clicks. In fact, you can also modify the group policy settings to delete the quarantine files sooner or later than the default 30 days.

In this quick and easy guide, let me show you the steps to delete quarantined files in Windows Security. Let’s get started.

Before You Start

• Administrator rights are required to delete quarantine items from Windows Security.
• The steps below have been tested to work on Windows 11 and Windows 10.

Steps to Delete Quarantined Files Using Windows Security App

1. Open the Start menu by pressing the “Windows” key.
2. Search for “Windows Security” and click “Open”.
3. Go to the “Protection history” tab on the sidebar.
4. Click the “Filters” dropdown menu.
5. Select the “Quarantined items” option.
6. Click the quarantined item you want to delete.
7. Click the “Actions” dropdown menu.
8. Select the “Remove” option.
9. Do the same for other quarantined items.
10. That’s it. With that, you’ve deleted quarantined files in Windows Security.

Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)

First, open the Windows Security app. To do that, open the Start menu by pressing the “Windows key”, search for “Windows Security“, and click “Open“. Alternatively, open the Settings app by pressing the “Windows key + I” shortcut, go to the “Privacy & Security” > “Windows Security” page, and click the “Open Windows Security” button.

After opening the Windows Security app, go to the “Protection history” tab on the sidebar. On the right panel, click the “Filters” dropdown menu and select the “Quarantined items” option. This will show all the threats quarantined by Windows Security.

Now, click the quarantined item you want to delete. Next, press the “Action” dropdown menu and then choose the “Remove” option. When prompted, click “Yes” in the UAC prompt.

Clicking the Remove option instantly deletes the selected quarantined item in Windows Security. If there are more items to remove, follow the same steps. Currently, there is no option to bulk delete quarantined items.

Once done, close the Windows Security app by clicking on the “X” icon on the title bar.

That is all. With that, you’ve deleted all the quarantined items from Windows Security.

Configure Windows Security to Automatically Delete Quarantined Items

By default, Windows Security automatically deletes all quarantined items that are older than 30 days. If you want, you can adjust the time to delete using the Group Policy Editor. Here’s how.

1. Open the Start menu by pressing the “Windows” key.
2. Search for “Edit Group Policy” and click “Open”.
3. Go to the “Computer Configuration” > “Administrative Templates” folder.
4. Open the “Windows Components” > “Microsoft Defender Antivirus” > “Quarantine” folder under it.
5. Double-click the “Configure removal of items from Quarantine folder” policy.
6. Select the “Enabled” option.
7. Type the number of days in the field under the “Options” section.
8. Click the “OK” button.
9. Close the Group Policy Editor and restart your computer.
10. With that, Windows Security will automatically delete the quarantine items older than the configured number of days.

Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)

Press the “Windows” icon on the taskbar to open the Start menu. Search for “Edit Group Policy” in the Start menu and click the top result. This opens the Group Policy Editor. Alternatively, you can also use the “gpedit.msc” run command (press Windows key + R to open the Run dialog).

Once the Group Policy Editor opens, open the “Computer Configuration” > “Administrative Templates” > “Windows Components” > “Microsoft Defender Antivirus” > “Quarantine” folder on the sidebar.

Next, double-click the “Configure removal of items from Quarantine folder” policy or right-click on it and choose “Edit”.

In the policy properties window, select the “Enabled” option to enable the policy.

After that, you have to set the number of days Windows Security has to wait before clearing the quarantine items. Type the number of days in the field under “Options“. For example, you can set it to 45 days to give more headroom.

To save the changes, click the “OK” button at the top.

Finally, close the Group Policy Editor, save your work, and restart the computer by clicking the “Power” icon > “Restart” option in the start menu.

Note: If you are unable to restart but want to apply the group policy changes, open Command Prompt as an admin and run the gpupdate \force command. This will force an update to the policy settings for all Windows components.

That is all. From now on, Windows Security waits for the configured number of days to delete the quarantined items.

More Windows Defender and security tutorials:

• How to limit Windows Defender CPU usage
• How to disable Windows Defender notifications
• How to run an offline scan using Windows Defender
• How to set a scan schedule using Windows Defender
• How to scan a specific file or folder using Windows Defender
• How to exclude a file or folder from Windows Defender scan

If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.