How can I schedule only Windows Defender to update itself the moment updates come out?

Solution 1:

My advise is against it.

I reason this answer because I think this is a classic X-Y problem. You want your Virusscanner to be up to date as best as possible to have the best protection, but you don't know how Windows Defender works and thus don't realise that the default settings already accomplish this.

When Windows Defender scans a file for a signature, and your computer is online, if the signature is not in the local database, it will use an online database to get information which is basically the same as first having the latest definitions and then go offline.

The sole reason to download updates is to also work if the internet connectivity is down at the moment of having a threat.

It is true that every once in a while, the core of Windows Defender is updated too, yes, these really do need to happen through Windows Update, but its missing the point to make your computer update every nanosecond just because maybe that update happens once every 3 or 4 months. Besides, that would mean a full windows update anyway, not just updating the definitions.

A video that does a really good demonstration of this can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbYx8V2RTjc

Note: this video first shows online with a database that is not up-to-date, and then goes offline and repeats it. So watch till the end.