Microsoft Security Essentials finally fixed

Topic

New Reply

For several days we’ve been nursing a list of woes with MSE, primarily a completely bogus “preliminary scan results show that malicious or potentially
[See the full post at: Microsoft Security Essentials finally fixed]

Reply | Quote

Replies

I’ve not experienced any problems with MSE personally, it’s been updating definitions and scanning normally on my Windows 7 machines.

Reply | Quote

No issue either with MSE on windows 7..other than the occasional definitions update fails and  forced to download manually, which usually fixes it for subsequent updates.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

Reply | Quote

I, too, have not had any problems with MSE.  I looked at my build number on this and it is 139.930.0, which is a higher number than you report on  the updated MSE.  I do not know why?

Reply | Quote

I, too, have not had any problems with MSE. But I noticed that the build you cite as the replacement build is lower than mine. My MSE build number is 139.930.0. My downloads come to MSE and are installed, but I also get the same update in windows update. I have been hiding the windows update and letting the auto MSE update do it’s thing.

Reply | Quote

Did not notice anything myself on a Win 7 desktop. Did have a issue with Creator update and Defender not installing a older definition update?

Reply | Quote

I had no problems, I’m a group A user so that left me wondering, does this only happen to some random users or did the users who suffered from this installed the new 664 snop patch? It was the only one I didnt install and the people complaining at ms forums are group a users who installed every patch

Reply | Quote

MSE was updating properly. It was Windows update that was not reporting the results correctly. If in doubt check the MSE log file for confirmation.

Reply | Quote

I have not experienced problems with MSE on my Win7 Home computer.

Reply | Quote

Woody this issue that I have had for almost a week now has not been “fixed” for me with this new version (1.239.956.0) of MSE that I installed after following your link. I am still receiving the “malicious or unwanted software” message at the bottom of my MSE scan box as soon as the scan hits the svchost item.

Reply | Quote

I believe v.1.239.956.0 refers to the definition updates, not MSE itself. The current version of MSE is shown here, under “Details” (4.10.0209.0, 29/Nov/2016 today).

There should be a down arrow to the right of Help, select About Security Essentials (if the information I found is still current). That would be one point to eliminate, while you are figuring out this frustration.

1 user thanked author for this post.

KarenS

Reply | Quote

Thank you for your reply Kirsty. I followed your instructions and checked the current version of MSE (see attached screenshot), from what I can tell I have the version you posted.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Kirsty

Reply | Quote

Have you clicked on ‘update definitions’ from the MSE GUI rather than having windows update send you the updates? If that works and MSE informs you that it has updated, you can then run a scan. If the scan comes back with the same malware message, it is more than likely that your MSE database is corrupted. If that is the case your only alternative reinstall the database. That is easily done by going to the following site …

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/14210/security-essentials-download

click on the English version for either 32 or 64 (whatever your system is) and follow the instructions.

Reply | Quote

I have updated MSE both from the WU and from the MSE program itself and it makes no difference, I get the same message every time. I am not comfortable doing things on the computer because as I said I don’t know much about them and I am scared that I will do something wrong and really mess things up even worse. Would I not have to uninstall the program first and then reinstall it?

Reply | Quote

No, it should just install the entire definitions database over what you already have.

Reply | Quote

@KarenS

You should not have to do this, but as a last resort:
Uninstall MSE.
Reboot your computer
Download the program, reinstall it and update the definitions.

This should eliminate any problem related to the old program.

Reply | Quote

Well I uninstalled the MSE program, rebooted, reinstalled, ran a scan and rebooted. Ran two more scans and I still have the exact same issues that I did before I uninstalled the program! It changed NOTHING! 🙁

Reply | Quote

@karen

Do you by any chance have “System Restore” On?

System Protection = System Restore” width=”695″ height=”525″ />

My wild idea is that it is ON and somehow flagging that svchost PID, because a restore point was made with some maleware way back in the past.

If you feel brave:
Make a restore point now.
Delete all but the last one shown by todays date.
Reboot
Run Scan
Report back.

PS>. I had given up on System Restore way back in 2012. I do weekly full sysimages.

1 user thanked author for this post.

woody

Reply | Quote

I never had scanning problems, because, frankly speaking, I just don’t scan.

But in the beginning of the week, both my Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 stopped updating the MSE definitions, both through MSE and Windows Update. It downloaded the new definitions, started to install, and then failed, reporting a network problem (after it had successfully downloaded the updated definitions).

I’ve manually downloaded the new definitions from the Microsoft website (and strangely the .exe apparently did nothing – no window, no message, no nothing) but it updated the definitions. Not sure if this fixed it or it got fixed from the MS side, but both Win 7 and 8.1’s MSE are back to normal).

But my hatred for Microsoft has yet to be patched and fixed, but that’s another story…

Reply | Quote

Never had any problems myself either.

Reply | Quote