I'm confused because after running a full scan on my PC using Windows Defender twice, I noticed that it filled up 1 GB of my storage each time. I'm not sure why this is happening. Can anyone clarify what's going on?
1 Answer
It’s a common misconception that antivirus scans fill up storage space. Just because you ran two scans and noticed your storage dropped doesn't mean the scans caused it. Typically, Windows Defender doesn’t use much space beyond possibly needing temporary files to scan certain formats, but those should get cleared afterwards. Also, why are you watching your storage so closely? Does precise storage monitoring matter?
Actually, it does matter! For SSDs, keeping about 15% of the storage free is important for maintaining performance. So while the antivirus isn't responsible, it’s good to keep an eye on your available space. For HDDs, it’s less of an issue because of fragmentation.