Microsoft Security Essentials

Thank you. I posted link to this to Finnish virustorjunta.net forum where at least one user is having the update issue

Also posted the mention it may work with System Scheduler as well, thx to JohnnyDollar and IceCube.

 

You could try using sysinternals process monitor to try find if there's some file it's scanning repeatedly.

 

I can't believe they still didn't fix this damn update issue.
I mean, this is not only trivial, it's ESSENTIAL in the truest sense of the word.
I don't think I can trust a security vendor behaving like this.

 

In case you are suffering from this update issue please see the last two pages of this thread. Somewhere there is a post regarding workaround involving .bat file.

In case you are not suffering from this, good then. No point in hashing it constantly In my Vista laptop it works flawlessly.

Like every software out there MSE has its share of issues involving subset of users.

 

Well, I'm suffering from it and I fixed it. But think about the legions of average users out there!

 

The automatic updating problem which some users are seeing should, I agree, have been picked up earlier particularly during the original beta testing of MSE.

And on the official MSE forums, a number of the mods are repeatedly stating that update problems are solely due to other security software installed with MSE

However, there are ways around this problem including manually updating from within the program, manually downloading the signature files, using a registry hack or amending Task Scheduler. Details of these procedures are in this thread or over on the MSE forum .

But most of these work rounds will still be beyond the many average users that Microsoft are hoping will use their AV. Therefore they must solve the automatic updating problem quickly; hopefully the new beta being tested will help to solve this problem for ALL users.

However, there are other problems;

1. The general infrequency of updates; at the present time it averages only 1-3 updates/day. Moreover, if the automatic updater is not working properly then the tray icon apparently only turns a warning red after 7 days. But the Forum Mods are suggesting that the AV still offers good protection during this long period of no updates!

2. Its incompatibilities with some other security software (e.g. DefenseWall and I have had lockups when running alongside Prevx) means that the chances of including MSE in a stable layered defense are slim. Again if you look over on the Forum most problems posted are given the advice to uninstall ALL other security software, including third-party firewalls

3.The fact that its Guard scans archives in real time can cause slowdowns in some folders on computers ( I have seen freezes in some folders on 2 machines). These archives do not need to be scanned by the Guard, so disable it in the next version!

IMHO, promising but not quite there yet as a mature, stable product.

 

WOW! This makes me sick. This is, well, arrogant? Ignorant? A joke?
I don't see a bright future for MSE if they go on this way.

 

Too much trouble. My way around the problem is to simply stop using it. Went back to Avast for now until they can get it straightened out.

 

no update probs here in adelaide

 

No need to run down MSE like you do in your recent few posts.

I have 3 computers converted to using MSE without any problems

You are totally free to use another AV as you wish.

 

So what other software could be interferring with MSE updating? Windows?

 

i have no clue but MSE forums have said that MSE has what they call a 'catch up' feature which should update MSE right away but i have yet to see it work .

i got rid of it the updating does suck. every 24hours i mean wow . should be every 4!

 

I don't! I strongly LIKE the concept of an easy to use, simple and sleek antimalware. But it's kind of worthless without updates...

 

Yeah,Windows itself.......

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't MSE also quite a bit cloud based ...with the skynet? If that's the case, losing sleep over the rate of definition checking shouldn't be warranted as much.

That being said, on the many many machines I've installed it on over time...haven't seen update issues yet. Only orange flags I've seen was early on when a new program update was available, end user didn't approve the update yet for that.

 

I've also not seen or had any issues with MSE not updating (at least 10 machines, XP, Vista, and 7). It could likely be some third party software causing the problem. Or maybe some infection that was already present stopping it from getting out to update...

 

I wouldn't be running MSE right now if it was called Skynet.....

But I too, have had 0 problems with updating. As far as I read, it is related to sleeping/hibernating.

 

It only uses the Dynamic Signature Service if it finds that a file is behaving suspiciously. A post I made earlier exposes a flaw in relying on DSS.

 

My bad..."Spynet"....spy, not sky.
//Terminator theme queues in



My laptop hasn't had a full reboot in weeks on end, I'll go for a month before fully powering down, I usually just open the lid, shut the lid..go to another client..open the lid, repeat process. She's hibernating and Suspending multiple times per day...I don't get these multiple days without an update at all.

 

hmm yeah i sleep my laptop so im not sure but might wouldnt updated either.

id go days without updates

 

By the way , Skynet is much more appropriate for this technology - isn't it in-the-cloud ? Sky , clouds - Skynet -Network in the sky (full of clouds)


<Sorry for the off-topic>

 

I have lately found one thing about MSE that I find annoying. Particularly since I changed the registry to update every 4 hrs to get around the sleep mode problem.

MpSigStub.exe keeps triggering my HIPS (Defence+). To get around it, I added
c:\*\MpSigStub.exe as an exclusion to D+. BUT it is now trying to execute from a usb drive which I have attached.

FYI MSE seems to create a temp directory
c:\<some random stuff>\MpSigStub.exe
and executes from there.
I can add another exclusion for the usb drive, but why is MS trying to execute off of a USB drive (or anything not c:\)?

Also, it seems to me putting in exclusions for anything with a wildcard in the path in this manner is a bit of a security risk, since a virus using that name anywhere on my c:\ drive would pass that test (since a virus of the same name shouldn't be digitally signed, it would likely be caught elsewhere, but frankly, I'm not sure of that).

 

Just a little newsflash from me, regarding the mysterious update bug.

I had to do a clean reinstall of Windows Vista (32Bit) due to some weird driver incompatibilitiy issues caused by my Canon Scanner.
Up till now I have to say the automatic updating of MSE is working flawlessly for two days now. Know the heck what was causing the trouble.

 

That's the thing I guess, you never know when some 3rd party software, or remnants of software could be weirdly interfering. Don't ask me how, stranger things happen. But shrugging it off as a Microsoft problem isn't exactly the correct approach. Sometimes a fresh image can work complete wonders.

 

Same here, mine would never update after coming out of sleep. I'll wait for a fix before trying again...