There is a problem with MSE updates and most people are 'stuck' on 19th Jan.
You can go here and get the latest updates, download them and run following the instructions.
http://www.microsoft...s/howtomse.aspx
Info on the problem, which is affecting everyone, can be read here
http://answers.micro...71-511e24a479a4
This thread is to alert people who use MSE of the problem which at the time of posting this is still ongoing.
Mine it's working properly today. It says definitions were created Jan, 22th 2013. Granted, I run into this problem yesterday on a different PC.
EDIT. I was wrong. Although the definitions were created on 22th, they weren't latest ones... DOH!
Thanks for the heads-up Hazel
Looks like things are back to normal now.
Yes, it seems so. Thanks Hazel.
Thanks Hazelnut. I will add that MS internet page to my favourite links. One can always use it as a backup.
I noticed that all weekend, it started on Saturday. For me it was fixed yesterday, after I nuked the SoftwareDistribution folder on WinXP since that can also be the culprit of MSE update issues.
It also helps to bookmark this official Microsoft troubleshooting page when having update issues with MSE.
seems MSE is used more than I thought it was.
have you all been happy with the protection?
when it first came out, i read a lot of bad raps about it, but that tends to happen with anything that MS brings out regardless of how it really is.
so i've tended to put it below other free AV's.
i shall have to rethink that one.
Used as part of a layered defence, MSE fits seamlessly into most OS's.
When we had the forum hack and I happened to come on forum when the hack was still 'live', MSE caught it. (although I was sandboxed anyway)
It can be set to update daily at a time to suit you, and to scan after it has updated.
Interface is very user friendly.
(Everyone has their favourite av (I have quite a few!!) so lets keep this thread about MSE and not an A verses B thread)
I like MSE specially under Win7 systems. For XP I think Avast is less demanding specially on those not-so-powerful PCs.
I installed MSE on Win 7 in oktober 2012 and since then it intercepted and quarantained "malware" about 8 times. The only thing I don't like too much is that since installation that it takes my laptop more time to finish the start up procedure (=heavy disk usage). And then - at least - one task that is supposed to run upon start up simply doesn't run.
Willy have you considered just excluding the item from MSE?
What is the item?
A number of tasks are executed by Task Scheduler (TS) and TS is acting weird. According to one forum TS in Win 7 still has one or more bugs. I hope MS will come up with a bug fix for TS, ASAP. So, I'll have update a number of programs manually. Perhaps I shouldn't MSE allow to use so much CPU time. Perhaps I can finetune MSE and TS. Don't know what to make of it.
BTW: MSE updates seem to be fully "back on track".
MSE claims in its quarantine area to have stopped some infected IE index.dat file last week on my system which it told me absolutely nothing about as it did everything hidden in the background. Although what I found comical was the only site I had visited using IE was Microsoft's own Microsoft Update.
I like MSE specially under Win7 systems. For XP I think Avast is less demanding specially on those not-so-powerful PCs.
In my opinion MSE is only halfway there good on XP if the system has 2GB or more of RAM, under 2GB RAM I'd rather use Avast instead (although Avast doesn't like running alongside HASP License Manager which allot of commercial software use and may make starting Windows impossible with Avast installed). Although I did use MSE for months on my system when I only had 1GB RAM (I now have 3GB) it certainly wasn't optimal, especially when also running a modern memory hungry browser like Comodo Dragon, etc.
I've found out that although it isn't perfectly ideal for XP systems since it can make them significantly slower at times it's however the least problematic antivirus I've used especially bug-wise. My only gripes against it on XP are RAM and resource usage, along with annoyingly slow Full Scan times, but then again many other antivirus' which used to be somewhat speedy compared to MSE are getting slower too - in reality it's probably an old slow hardware/processor issue.
it's good to hear some real-world usage feedback about MSE.
sounds like what has plagued it in the past, as with most of the AV's, is the PC's lack of adequate resources.
I don't think the AV's are written at great deal more efficiently, it's the PC's specs that have gone through the roof, relatively.
This is weird. I ditched MSE (using the official un-installer) but Windows Update still reminds me every now and then of new definitions being available. Do I need to remove one or more programs/services ? Clean the registry ?
Perhaps I'll ditch Avast and go back to MSE. MSE has one advantage over Avast: It allows the user to switch off "Real time" protection and that allows me to run "Windows Repair". (Yes, then the user must "switch off" the intenet connection as well.)
Do I need to remove one or more programs/services ? Clean the registry ?
It doesn't uninstall cleanly or completely! It leaves some files behind on the hard disk, and some registry keys. It also leaves behind locked registry keys that you'd need to manually change the permissions to Administrator on to be able to remove them. Perhaps search their site for manually removing the leftovers.
That's one reason to use an install tracker to know what software is putting on the system.
When you buy a new PC, what is the quickest way to set yourself up as Administrator right from the start during your first install or initial set-up? I think I've done it purely by accident this past decade, but I'd like to know the real way to do it so I don't have to struggle with it later on.
Vista/7/8 i don;t think you can be an Administrator, not a REAL one anyway.
Your account may have admin level but it's still no true administrator.
Under XP, under certain conditions i've never been able to pinpoint, you can install XP and it'll somehow create you under the actual Administrator profile.
but not that it really matters as under XP an accoutn with Admin level is really admin.
Under XP, under certain conditions i've never been able to pinpoint, you can install XP and it'll somehow create you under the actual Administrator profile.
All the times I've installed WinXP for over years what I remember it doing was automatically making a PC with only one user account the Admin (Edit: But I have a Dell OEM install CD, so I don't know how that would differ from a retail store bought version). Have to manually make a non-Admin account on it for instance to more safely surf the web, etc.