mo832

Does anyone else on this thread have a saved version of mpsigstub they can upload? @DrWho3000, how about you? You seem to have used 1.239.450.0 .

I will look forward to your updates when you get a chance. In the meantime, do you have any reason to believe that this file is a different version than the one currently posted at download.microsoft.com? It appears to be the same exact size, I want to say that on March 7 it was more like 139mb. Also, if it is coming straight from MS, they likely remove all previous versions.

Yes, I can open the PAGE, just like your screen shot. The problem is if I click on March 7, it does not display the page, and I get no file download. Can *you* start a download on your iphone and does the download appear to be a proper "old" version and the latest offering from MS ? The actual link needed is http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=121721&arch=x86 which will normally start the 140mb download. This link does not work on archive.org

@sdfox7 It says "page cannot be displayed due to robots.txt". I never knew you could use the wayback machine to actually download actual files or software. Am I doing something wrong? Is there another place that has an old copy of mpsigstub.exe or the entire mpam-fe.exe from before March 29?

I prefer to do the update manually, as I have been doing this since the last time the auto updates stopped working. 1. If I do the manual download of mpam-fe.exe every day and change the mpsigstub file, will the same old mpsigstub keep working with new defs files? 2. Where do I get the old mpsigstub file? (revision 1.239.450.0) ?? Or, where can I get an old mpam-fe.exe version? MS only links the latest one, other file sites have the same, they don't archive

Have they decided to allow auto updates again without POSReady? I was already getting adjusted to a periodic manual download and update of the defs, and was actually enjoying the fact that I am in control of when it performs the update instead of it randomly choosing to hang up my pc when I might be in the middle of something important. So today when my pc got stuck, I looked at the running processes and saw something starting with mpam... and then when I opened the mse window, it showed "up to date" and the latest file was already loaded without me doing anything. I had thought that was over with. They cannot make up their friggin minds at MS.

I haven't used malwarebytes for a few years, but I check my system and I have v1.65 installed. If I just update the defs, is this version still effective for XP ?? Also, will v1.75 work and be effective on windows 8.1 , or does it need the new updates in order to do the right job?

This may or may not help, but I noticed that when I was using 1.233.2244.0, the quick scan completed with something like 15900 items scanned. Then I read your post and updated (manually on the html page) the sig file to 2317.0 and ran another quick scan. This time it went over 31000 items and completed. The final number was past 31868, but I don't remember exactly how many it reported. So, you may want to try it again after updating to today's or tomorrow's sig file. It may be a glitch with the defs for that particular patch. I guess it's worth a try, no?

since I have never used the POSReady updates, I have a question: Is it possible to have the new updates presented to you (over 70 available according to user above), but just choose the ones you want and ignore the rest? Is there still the option to download updates but not install, or notify updates but let me choose which ones to download, or ignore all updates?

Also, I would like to know the concerns for deciding to enable the POS entry. I was reading some months ago that it may cause some unwanted behavior in a standard PC because it is not intended for a POS system and some things may not be relevant and cause strange behavior, perhaps disable some features against your wishes. Is there reason to be concerned or to avoid installing the POS ??

@Mathwiz Could you pllease give step-by-step instructions, with full text to type in order to complete this entry. I don't want to make a fatal error with the registry and I don't want to assume something I should not, or do it wrong.

I can confirm the same exact symptoms as DrWho3000. Stopped updating automatically 4 days ago. It used to update on its own once per day via MSE without any add-on programs or external hacks. Now even if you click on the manual update button, it searches for update, and then returns to the same screen without doing anything, and still says "you should update them now". Windows xp sp3 mse 4.4.304 defs 1.233.1759.0 Regarding POSReady, is there a way to simply add this entry to registry and then MSE auto update will work again?

According to the previous 2-3 posts, it has been confirmed. There is a good amount of evidence that the hunches were correct! And the original official announcement that MS would place this restriction has come true.

In several web searches, I found some other comments which make it appear that the arrival of September 1, 2016 has something to do with this. I posted on this forum weeks ago that originally MS plan was to disable the MSE service from even STARTING on XP. Maybe this is what is happening? In any case, out of frustration, I decided to uninstall MSE (version 4.5.216.0) and then reinstall a fresh copy of version 4.4.304.0. This worked, at least so far. The service starts, and it immediately went to load the latest updates for the malware. After it was in for a few hours I went to manually update via the button to see if it would have the same error, but it worked also. So far, the daily automatic update has not taken place, so this has not been tested. Now, some new questions, please anyone try to answer: 1. Is it OK to leave as-is with 4.4 without losing any protection? 2. Is there a way to do an incremental upgrade to 4.5 ? Where would I find the upgrade file? 3. Filehippo has what appears to be an old installer for 4.5.216.0 for "Vista". Does anyone know if this would work in XP and would it install a full version from scratch already set to 4.5 ? Of course this requires removal of the old version first, not as attractive.

NEW PROBLEM- PLEASE HELP / COMMENT So, everything has been going along fine since this problem was first addressed several months ago. My icon is green and usually once per day, the automatic defs update takes place at a random time, and I don't have to do much to keep everything running. Today that changed. Since the update procedure uses up so many resources, and ties up the entire pc until it is finished, and I never know what time it will update, today I tried a manual update so I could control the time. During the update, the window turned red and said "you are not protected". At the end of the update it said "could not update" gave an error message and said the service had stopped. Now, every time I try to restart the service, it turns green for a moment and then turns red again. Start service, then stop. I rebooted and it still will not start. Bottom line--- now the service is stopped and I cannot get it to start and hold. Where do I begin to fix this? Does it have anything to do with fact the I tried the manual update? That always worked in the past and the daily auto updates have been working.

@PROBLEMCHYLD Since the definition files are identical, is there any advantage to using 4.7 over 4.5?

Well, just for the sake of accuracy, that would rightly be attributed to @ND22 He was the first one to report what turned out to be a very widespread issue. Thanks again!

@dencorso I am so grateful to everyone on this thread, especially on the first page, for helping me with the broken definitions updates (while the problem lasted)... Now I am pleased that I was able to offer help to others with red flag /nagware problem on mse 4.5. Too bad I did not discover this last year!

OK so here is what I found to work for me, and it should work for anyone else who has 4.5 and would rather not uninstall it. http://superuser.com/questions/738131/disable-the-security-essentials-end-of-life-warning-on-windows-xp Do the steps 1-7 near the middle of the page, under the Heading "Workaround", Updated May 30, 2014. After I applied these steps myself, The red icon went to green (for the first time EVER), the popup window(out of support mse) on every boot did not appear, there is no longer any language in my mse window that tells me I am not protected, the status now says "protected" instead of "at risk". Lastly, if I click on help/about in MSE, it shows anti-malware client version 4.5.216.0, even though everything is still green, since it is running one piece of 4.4 and everything else is left alone as 4.5. Works like a charm and I am a happy XP-er !! According to the discussion at the site, this method should also prevent any future update from targeting your MSE and messing it up without your permission.

Anyone has any insight on what may have happened with the supposed Stage 3 above? I ask because there was a lot of talk at one point about MS extending XP support again and again, even after previous deadlines passed. Now we know that they were finally serious at a certain point, and cut off everything except for XP POS systems (embedded). It seems there may have been a plan and then they went easy on it due to security and/or PR reasons. I am just curious about how deep this MSE issue was supposed to be. I don't want to be surprised one day if MSE suddenly goes crazy one day ;).

I got the info from 1. from various websites. Below is an excerpt: See Stage 3 in particular. End-of-life status [MSE] also provides a registry [value] to show the current end-of-life status of the current OS if it’s near end-of-life. [It's called] EndOfLifeState [and is stored in] HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Antimalware. Stage 1: OS is approaching end-of-life. At this stage, the OS is near the end of its support lifecycle. [MSE] will still work as normal. Stage 2: Grace period. OS has reached end-of-life, but anti-malware platform service is still running and definition updates can be received. For example, for Windows XP, the Grace Period stage starts on April 8, 2014. Stage 3: Anti-malware service stopped. You can no longer start the anti-malware service, and your computer will not receive anti-malware definition updates. Thus [MSE] will no longer help to protect your computer. For example, for Windows XP, this stage starts on July 14th, 2015. Source: FEP and SCEP anti-malware protection support after OSes reach end-of-life

Aaaah, sorry about the hypothetical questions, it wasn't really my intention. So let me ask it a slightly different way. 1. Am I correct that at one time the official policy was that antimalware service was not going to start anymore (by design) after a certain date? 2. Did in fact the restriction in #1 above not get implemented? So there is no crippled feature right now? 3. Is MSE the way it works right now every bit as correct, up to date, and functional as it was a full year ago? IE, if you liked it before, it should still do exactly the same job today, until further notice?

Well, they claimed they were going to end definition updates on 7/14/15. Clearly, they did not. Also, they said that the antimalware SERVICE would cease to work on that date as well. Why do you suppose they left that alone, and is it likely that will remain functional as long as the defs continue to be updated?

I found a solution which I have already tested and verified that it works. I will share all of my findings here in a later post, but in order not to confuse things, I would like to first discuss what I wrote in my previous post. Namely: What is the deal with expected termination of definition updates in XP after 7/14/2015? Did they change their mind? See my post above for more description of my questions. Thanks.

I will try the remove/reinstall at my next opportunity. In reading around the web about this issue, I found something which may be moot at this point, but it concerns me. Evidently, it was stated by MSFT or it was their plan to cancel (stop) ALL updates of MSE on winXP after July 14, 2015. They said it would not receive further def updates, and you couldn't even start the malware service after that date. Was this rule changed? Because it appears that the updates are still happening and the service still operates, no? Is this an obsolete concern that MSFT had a change of heart, or is this still something that must be dealt with- independent of the red flag/green flag issues? Or, perhaps what happened 2 weeks ago was MSFT's attempt at implementing the end of virus updates, and again they lifted it?