Microsoft Security Essentials notifies you whenever it’s running a scheduled scan. Depending on the scan type, a scan may take some time and may affect your computer’s performance. To learn more about scan types, see Scanning for viruses, spyware, and other potentially unwanted software.
To view the progress of a scheduled scan
- If you're running Security Essentials on the
Windows XP (with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or a later service pack)
operating system or on the Windows Vista® operating system, you'll
see the Security Essentials icon
in the
notification area. Whenever a scan is in progress, the Security
Essentials icon in the notification area will also display an
animation 
to let
you know that it's scanning your computer. Click the icon to see
which type of Security Essentials scan is in progress, how long
it’s been running, and how many items have been scanned.
- If a scan is in progress, Security Essentials
displays the scan’s progress until the scan is complete. When it
completes the scan, Security Essentials then displays the scan
results and the date and time when the scan was completed.
- If you're running Security Essentials on a
Windows 7 operating system, you won’t see the Security Essentials
icon in the notification area (unless you manually added the icon
to the notification area). However, when you click the arrow in the
notification area, you can see additional icons, including the
Security Essentials icon. Double-clicking the icon will display the
scan's progress.