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Is there a (text) shortcut to Protection history in Windows Security? The menu is located at

Windows Security (or paste %windir%\explorer.exe windowsdefender: into Start menu) >
Virus & threat protection >
Current threats >
Allowed threats >
Protection history

Another format would be like Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\System. It's for instructions.

2 Answers 2

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There is a way:

explorer windowsdefender://History

But this is plucked from uwp resources and is not a documented action, at least I could not find an explicit source from MS. The list of Windows Security pages is given below, found here:

explorer windowsdefender://Threat               # Virus & Threat Protection
explorer windowsdefender://ThreatSettings       # Virus & Threat Protection Settings
explorer windowsdefender://Account              # Account Protection
explorer windowsdefender://Network              # Firewall & network Protection
explorer windowsdefender://Hardware             # Device Security
explorer windowsdefender://DeviceSecurity       # Device Security
explorer windowsdefender://Family               # Family Option
explorer windowsdefender://AppBrowser           # App & Browser Control
explorer windowsdefender://Settings             # Manage Notifications
explorer windowsdefender://History              # Protection History
explorer windowsdefender://RansomwareProtection # Ransomware Protection
explorer windowsdefender://ProtectedFolders     # Ransomware Protection
explorer windowsdefender://SecurityProcessor    # Security Processor Details
explorer windowsdefender://SecurityProcessorTroubleshooting #  Security Processor Troubleshooting
explorer windowsdefender://SmartScreenPua       # Smart Screen (Reputation Based Protection)
explorer windowsdefender://AccountProtection    # Account Protection
explorer windowsdefender://ExploitProtection    # Exploit Protection
explorer windowsdefender://exclusions           # exclusions
explorer windowsdefender://fullscan             # Select fullscan
explorer windowsdefender://quickscan            # Start quickscan 
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Microsoft has made it much more difficult to view protection history. To open Defender, use a shortcut to ms-settings:windowsdefender ... but then as you state you must manually open Virus & threat protection, which then runs SecHealthUI.exe in "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.SecHealthUI_cw5n1h2txyewy". Trying to open that executable directly fails. sigh. And then, following the thread to finally open Protection History initially displays "No recent actions'" and one must wait for history to be shown.

However: You can quickly view current threats in quarantine in a CMD prompt, with Powershell or with third party tools, though.

To see quarantined items from CMD:

  • Press Windows, type cmd, and press ShiftCtrlEnter to get a CMD prompt as Administrator.

  • Enter(copy and paste) the following:

    "C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MpCmdRun.exe" -Restore -ListAll

  • Press Enter to see all files in quarantine.

To view quarantine in PowerShell, use the following commandlets:

Get-MpThreat 
Get-MpThreatDetection

Nirsoft's WinDefThreatsView is perhaps the quickest way to view quarntine.

Regrettably, this is not a complete answer to your question, as I know of no shortcut to display full Protection History.

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  • Tbh it's a bit over my head and seems more complicated than I'd put in the tutorial. But thank you for the effort! And nice formatting!
    – NiteCyper
    Aug 9, 2020 at 16:20

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