Microsoft Security Essentials

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Question

Updating automatically without Automatic Updates?

Applies To:
Avoiding a lecture about having AU disabled and how you've been using AU since the 1950's without a single problem, but when is Morro going to support automatic, prompt-free updates without AU?  There should be a way for users -- in Windows Update -- to make permanent exceptions for certain updates, such as this one, spam filter updates, (previously) Defender updates, and other innocuous things such as this. Not just one-time exceptions, obviously, since these types of things are updated frequently.

Everything else I want to install in my own time manually.
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rseiler

rseiler

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Answer
Avoiding the lecture :)

Unfortunately there's no way to "automatically" update Microsoft Security Essentials without having Autmatic Updates enabled in Windows.

You can manually download the updates through the product itself, or you can download the signatures manually using this article.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971606

I hope this helps.
Kevin
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Kevin Hau

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Kevin Hau Microsoft
I'm a PC!

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I hope MS does consider it though. Maybe it's something they can accommodate in the next update to WU.

Anyway, thanks for pointing out the manual update method. That could be automated given there's a switch available for it to perform a silent install. The downloading certainly could be automated with a tool like WGET and Task Scheduler.
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rseiler

rseiler

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To the best of my knowledge, as long as you have not disabled the AU service, any setting selected for AU in Windows has no effect on the fact that MSE will automatically download and install updates.
-steve
Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare, Live Mesh, & MS Security Essentials Forums Moderator
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Stephen Boots

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Stephen Boots MVP
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Microsoft MVP Windows Live

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Perhaps this is a problem local to me, but here in Win7, I don't even see an Automatic Updates service at all. I do see BITS and Windows Update services, and they're both on despite my having WU set to "Never check for updates."  In this scenario, I know Defender updates have always sat waiting for me to download them manually in WU, so I expected MSE would do the same.
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rseiler

rseiler

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Perhaps this is a problem local to me, but here in Win7, I don't even see an Automatic Updates service at all. I do see BITS and Windows Update services, and they're both on despite my having WU set to "Never check for updates."  In this scenario, I know Defender updates have always sat waiting for me to download them manually in WU, so I expected MSE would do the same.

No, my terminology sucks, especially when I am posting too quickly. :-)
With those services started, MSE *should* update. That would be different from what Defender does today. (again, to the best of my knowledge...)
-steve
Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare, Live Mesh, & MS Security Essentials Forums Moderator
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Stephen Boots

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Stephen Boots MVP
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Microsoft MVP Windows Live

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What about thru WSUS?  Can this be updated automatically via that process?
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dphantom

dphantom

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No, my terminology sucks, especially when I am posting too quickly. :-)
With those services started, MSE *should* update. That would be different from what Defender does today. (again, to the best of my knowledge...)
-steve
Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare, Live Mesh, & MS Security Essentials Forums Moderator

That would be great and would make loads of sense, since even the most cautious among us would always want definitions to come down no matter what. I'll report back when there's an update, or perhaps someone else can confirm.
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rseiler

rseiler

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Hi, I found the way how to update it without WindowsUpdate. In Microsoft Security Essentials directory is MpCmdRun.exe file which can be used from command
line with signatureupdate switch.

You can just create a new task in Task Scheduler to execute MpCmdRun.exe -signatureupdate in selected intervals.

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mk_mk

mk_mk

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Hey cool workaround.  Let us know if it works even with the Windows Update (Automatic Update) service disabled and stopped.

Could be really helpful as a troubleshooting step for customers with Windows Update issues caused by viruses / spyware.

Look forward to hearing back!
If you find that my answer was what you were looking for, please remember to click the "mark as answered" box below! Thanks, Kevin
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Kevin Hau

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Kevin Hau Microsoft
I'm a PC!

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With those services started, MSE *should* update. That would be different from what Defender does today. (again, to the best of my knowledge...)
-steve
You were right, and there's no need for the scheduled workarounds mentioned above. MSE updated overnight for me despite my having Win7's WU on "Never check for updates."  I'm sure there are a few people out there who've stopped the WU/BITS services as well, and I'm not sure how MSE would react to that, but I'm guessing not well. There can't be many of those people, however.
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rseiler

rseiler
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