JorgeA

Yup. --JorgeA

Just to make sure everything is OK, I'll install MBAM as you suggest and run it to see what it says. I can also run several different AV scanners from live CDs. I'm running version 7 of Avast Free on that XP machine. It's the last version before Avast started doing all sorts of strange things with their program. --JorgeA ADDITION: MBAM ran on the XP machine and didn't find anything.

Terrorist group Al-Qaeda threatens to murder Microsoft founder Bill Gates Needless to say, this is an extremely serious topic. Still, I could not resist laughing out loud at the following in the comments section: --JorgeA

heinoganda, I tried your second idea first, as it was simpler than uninstalling and then reinstalling Defender. If deleting the backup folder contents didn't work, I was going to try PROBLEMCHYLD's new suggestion, and then if that didn't work either, I was going to uninstall Defender and reinstall it. And if that failed too, I was going to try some of the more complex solutions that have also been proposed in the thread. But... it worked!!! I deleted the contents of that backup folder, and now Windows Defender has the current definitions. By next week, we will see if Defender can update itself, or if manual intervention is still needed. --JorgeA

Ah, I see. In XP, Defender (as opposed to MSE) doesn't seem to offer me a way to cancel the search for updates. (I did see a Cancel button in Defender for Windows 7.) The "Check for updates now" button turns gray, and I get a balloon coming off the system tray saying that Windows Defender is checking for updates. That's it. In case it matters, that's Windows Defender version 1.1.1593. --JorgeA

No, Defender has been installed (and never uninstalled) since soon after I put that PC into operation about five years ago. I'll do that if necessary. Should I? --JorgeA

Thank you @PROBLEMCHYLD, @heinoganda, and @dencorso for the methods. Unfortunately, this PC is being exceptionally stubborn: For PROBLEMCHYLD's approach, in the Windows Update UI when I clicked to start the download, the dialog box disappeared into the system tray right away and if I hit Cancel before then the process would simply "fail to install." Maybe I'm not getting right the timing of the click. For heinoganda's approach, after downloading and unpacking the RAR file as soon as I clicked on the EXE file the computer gave a BSOD. A trip to Event Viewer showed the following two events: I'll try @dencorso's approach next chance I get. --JorgeA

Thanks for the ideas and questions. Here's what I did. I ran CHKDSK and let it do its thing, then when XP rebooted I ran the REPAIR.BAT file. After a few seconds, the result was as follows: Never mind the typo on the first try... Launching Windows Defender, it still says it has old definitions, and the exclamation point still shows up next to the Defender icon in the notification area. You asked which AV this machine is running. It's Avast Free. I scanned the computer with Avast, with MRT, and with Defender with the old definitions: no malware was found. I could scan the drive from a different PC. Attempts today to update the Defender definitions through the program itself, as well as via Windows Update, have failed again. Maybe I'll try the POSReady hack. If nothing else, the machine will get all sorts of other updates. --JorgeA

Thanks, Noel. That's a nice setup you've devised there. I don't care for these abstractions, either -- ever since Windows 98 and the "My Documents" thing you could have heard me occasionally screaming, "Just show me where the d*mn files actually sit!!!" The best approach we were able to find for my neighbor was that idea of manually typing the full path in the navigation box (? - I forget what it's called). In all the other combinations of applications and formats that I listed above, you could click your way to the desired folder, but not with Adobe on IE11. With that combination, you have to type the path. One mitigating factor is that afterward it does seem to remember that path, so I imagine that over time all the different places where he stores PDFs will become click-accessible, but in the meantime it's tedious extra work. And it's strange. --JorgeA

Given the little circles along the bottom edge of the window, which usually indicate a self-changing display, I would speculate that the little arrow is for manually changing to what's in the next circle. Then again, you would think that the function of a red X at the upper right corner of a window is to close the window without approving the action that the window proposes to take. But, at NuMicrosoft, consistency and established UI practices are passé. We are henceforth to be subject to the whims of the UI gods -- and we shall embrace it. --JorgeA

My understanding of it is that MSFN is subject to the whims of the Forum Software Gods, whom @xper is obliged to obey. The alternative seems to be to seek out new forum software, which would risk losing everything's that's been built up here over the years. Bottom line: xper and the rest of us are getting dragged along by the tide. --JorgeA

Here's one small improvement to Windows 10: New Windows 10 build kills controversial password-sharing Wi-Fi Sense Great, it turns out that it IS possible to overestimate the ignorance, indifference, or stupidity of the Windows user base: enough of them were going into their settings to turn off this "feature," that MSFT decided to scrap it. Wi-Fi Sense was a nightmare waiting to happen. Maybe the lawyers got involved and actually did some good before disaster struck. --JorgeA

Microsoft makes final, aggressive Windows 10 upgrade push [emphasis added] Just incredible. What is it called when a pop-up ad on a website goes ahead and installs that PC cleaner anyway if you click on the red X in the corner? --JorgeA

Thanks for the information, heinoganda. Based on what you said, I went into the log file and found many entries similar to the following example: I have highlighted the lines that I think may be most relevant in this entry. What do you think? BTW, I just tried, once again, to update Defender the regular way, and once again it failed. --JorgeA

^^ It would be interesting to learn how much malware today could affect, say, a Windows 98 system. --JorgeA

Maybe that's the step that I missed -- copying MPSigStub.exe over to System32 ? I'll try copying the EXE file over first, and report back on what happens then. Thanks! --JorgeA

Like seeing Promoted Apps in the Start Menu? You'll love the Windows 10 Anniversary Update Another good reason to drag the Start Menu's right border all the way to the left edge of the screen and make the tiles disappear. [source: https://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/2016/05/6_capture.jpg] Note the bit at the bottom about users being "in control." So, are you going to let us replace these Start Menu tile panels with a link panel as in XP, Vista, and 7? If you did, then we might have something that's actually useful there. What a joke. As @xpclient says, maybe we're expected now to be mere consumers instead of producers. --JorgeA

The manual method for updating Windows Defender (not MSE), involving the download of the mpas-fe.exe file, unzipping its components, and then running MPSigStub.exe -- seems to have stopped working for me. Am I forgetting a step somewhere? It might be necessary to start using one of the automated methods. Another possibility: I have one XP system where the POS hack was applied. Defender on that one is staying up to date by itself. Maybe applying the hack to the other XP machines will fix Defender updates for them, too? --JorgeA

Thanks very much, now I understand. Microsoft has become so obnoxious aggressive about keeping everybody current that I'll be pleasantly surprised if it turns out that users can keep those cumulative updates at bay indefinitely, but only time will tell for sure. I would expect the next build to be the Anniversary Update coming out around the end of July. But even lesser updates (sub-versions of a build) can cause havoc, as we've seen lately with @bigmuscle's Aero Glass. And that sums up, in one sentence, the sorry state that we've reached. --JorgeA

Noel, could you elaborate on that a little? I'm not sure what you mean when you write about "being insulated from the 'update continuously' policy." --JorgeA

A point that hasn't received much attention in the discussion is that as the public abandons PCs and switches to simple devices like tablets and phones, the foundation for tomorrow's new tech crumbles and disappears. The most prominent characteristic of these simple devices is that there is no self-evident way for the user to tinker with them: therefore, over time the number of (young) people exploring computers and developing an interest in learning how they work and making them do things will dwindle. The result will be less tech understanding and less innovation in computing. There will even be fewer people with a deep enough understanding to create the Candy Crush-type apps that the public loves and that we here love to hate. We are eating the seed corn. As an aside, if people do avoid buying PCs altogether, it will mean the end of Microsoft, as they have failed to make a dent in the mobile device market. Cloud services? A dime a dozen. Xbox? Maybe a few million diehards will stick around to keep the Microsoft brand barely alive in the ICU. Bing? Without a healthy market for PCs on which they can pre-install that search engine, the future is grim: there's no compelling reason for anybody to use it and they're not going to spontaneously start switching to it. --JorgeA

Dedoimedo gives a progress report on XP two years into EOS. --JorgeA

A great post, indeed. My only quibble is that Microsoft is failing (has failed) even from the design angle. IMO the flat, opaque themes of Windows 8 and 10 just can't hold an esthetic candle to the 3D translucency of Aero Glass. And of course Vista and Win7 allowed you to easily switch to an opaque theme if you liked, whereas that's not possible in 8 or 10 without going into significant contortions (and even those don't necessarily stay working in Win10 as new builds come out). I truly don't understand what Microsoft thinks they're up to with all the visual and functional changes they've made to Windows in the last five years. None of it has yet become an unqualified success, and a lot of it has proven an unmitigated failure. --JorgeA

Wow, that's quite a find, Noel -- one worthy of "The Finder". What do you suppose that entry means? --JorgeA

I suspect that, more than anything else, it has to do with the newfangled, modern, cool new forum software that the developers have inflicted on MSFN. --JorgeA