MSE Update question....

Golden said:

Hi,

Does anyone know how frequently MSE updates its virus definitions?

I've set it to check for virus and spyware definitons prior to scheduled scans, but it isn't clear to me whether it checks and updates definitions at any other time.

I've had a look through the MSE help, but can't find any information on this.

Can anyone shed light on this?

Regards,
Golden

MS sends out 3-4 updates per day. MSE will check for updates once per 24hrs. You can force a second update check by scheduling a quick scan every day. I've read that MSE checks for updates on boot, but for me it never did.

When I ran it, I scheduled my quick scan for 2pm. I would boot up around 7am and run a manual update, because after much trial and error, it would never update automatically after boot like is reported. Then I would manually update again around 8pm so I wouldn't be without the latest definitions for too long. I however got tired of having to "babysit" my antivirus, and I looked elsewhere for my security...............Good luck!

G1LLY said:

DBone said:

I've read that MSE checks for updates on boot, but for me it never did.

Logged into my computer about half an hour ago & MSE was running on definitions released on 08.03.11 so I don't think it checks on boot everytime like I thought it did, just has to manually update to definitions released today.

lol! I read your date as August 03, 2011

I usually check for updates manually, although I know it's pointless lol. Here's a log of the last three days (I kept track of this for you.) The times in brackets () are when I clicked update and it updated.

DAY #1
1. 3AM ~ (11AM) GMT +0
2. 1PM ~ (2.20PM) GMT +0
3. 9PM ~ (10PM) GMT +0
DAY #2
1. 2.30AM ~ (7.30AM) GMT +0
2. 11AM ~ (2.20PM) GMT +0
3. 2.20PM ~ (9.48PM) GMT +0
DAY #4
1. 2.30AM ~ (MIDDAY) GMT +0
2. 11AM ~ (1.55PM) GMT +0
3. TBC

Golden said:

Thanks for the replies Dennis and DBone. Consensus seems to be at least once, but possibly a few times a day. I like your thinking there DBone : schedule a quick scan after reboot to force an update if there is one pending.

Regards,
Golden

I spent some time on Microsoft Answers discussing this. What I figured out is if you manually update it messes up the auto check. It will take a day or two for it to get back in synch. So you either need to always do manual updates or just leave it to update itself. It will usually update within 10 minutes after a reboot/coming out of sleep assuming a new definition has been created since the last time it checked. That last part is the key. For quite a while I thought it wasn't working right but after letting it work on it's own for a week or so I figured out the patterns.

To simplify things I scheduled a quick scan for everyday. That works for me.

What I don't understand (maybe someone can help) is that the developer of the software thinks so highly of definition updates, that it creates 3 updates a day, but yet it programs the software to only look for updates once per day? These two philosophies seem backwards to me. I would rather have the AV look for more updates then are produced.....No?