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Microsoft security essentials and Windows XP


ND22

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1 hour ago, dencorso said:

[...] Moreover you should set your MS updates to manual, or else it'll  update it to version 4.5 or latter via aotomatic updates.

@dencorso: From my experience it does not automatically update the MSE to 4.5 anymore. I have automatic updates still running on all XP machines in order to receive Office Updates.

I agree that deinstalling 4.5 > reboot > installing 4.4 works fine.

If anyone is interested, I still have the installer for 4.4 in german language.

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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?

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Although at the moment the updating of the virus defintion from MSE on Windows XP works, I make a new improved version (V1.1) from the Microsoft Security Essentials Updater available. When downloading the virus definition in this release is only the required download.

As for installing another language versions of MSE is there a trick if I, for example, an English version of the installation file have, but MSE would have installed in German. First, extract the files from the Setup file, then in the setup.ini under Market=EN-US Change in Market=DE-DE. In the next step the folder EN-US copy and rename in DE-DE. Now run epplauncher.exe, although the setup is performed in English, but MSE itself is now installed in German.

Now, to avoid any risk of an unwanted update (WU, MU or Automatic Updates) of MSE, change (or add) the following entry to the Registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Microsoft Security Client]
"DisplayVersion"="9.9.999.0"

:)

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Mo, from reading the recent comments it seems likely that your MSE trouble will vanish when you "upgrade" to MSE 4.4.304.  Automatic updates to my MSE client ceased at Version: 4.4.304.0.  Help>about shows it is still at 4.4.304.0.
If you bing MSEinstall.exe 4.4.304 you can find lots of trusted download sites for it such as filehippo, filehorse.  When I've had doubts about downloading from a site I'm not familiar with I've checked it before downloading from it with site advisors like:

McAfee Site Advisor http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/msfn.org - msfn.org used as example

https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/safebrowsing/diagnostic/index.html

Just type in the web address and the pages above will check the site for danger.  Downloads from sites that passed these checks never caused problems for me yet. You can also scan a file with MSE after you download it. There are lots of other versions of MSEInstall available, but 4.4.304 seems to be the latest version that Microsoft made completely compatible with XP.  Sometimes "upgrades" are really more like downgrades.

Edited by NeauCloux
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On 4/30/2016 at 9:10 PM, dencorso said:
On 2/1/2016 at 1:41 AM, sdfox7 said:

:angel

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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.

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After 7/14/2015 MSE went EoS on XP, which itself was already EoS. Yet, the continued availability of Virus Definitions since then allows one to suppose it'll remain usable, at least until Win 7 SP1 goes EoS. And, even after that, it may be possible to continue using it, since the Virus Definitions for Windows Defender can probably be adapted for MSE. But all this exercise in clarivoyance may be moot, because the future only becomes fixed when it becomes the past, so that we'll all have to wait and see...

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Those were general links, for those who know how to use the Wayback Machine... here is the spoonfeeding version (one gets the correct file on the 1st click), instead:

32-bit and 64-bit installers for MSE 4.4.304 from 2014...

They are available via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, just pick the date you want:

32-bit:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140114090032/http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/3/8/A38FFBF2-1122-48B4-AF60-E44F6DC28BD8/ENUS/x86/MSEInstall.exe

64-bit:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140105010501/http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/3/8/A38FFBF2-1122-48B4-AF60-E44F6DC28BD8/ENUS/amd64/MSEInstall.exe

:boring:

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5 hours ago, mo832 said:

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.

July 14, 2015 (7/14/2015) is the same date that Windows Server 2003 went end of life (EOL). Windows Server 2003 shared XP's code base.

It appears Microsoft made the EOL for Security Essentials coincide with Server 2003's EOL.

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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?

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1 hour ago, mo832 said:

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?

Are you aware that those questions are unanswerable? You see: those in the know (MS employees) won't talk about it, and all others have to use a crystal ball to answer those questions. I cannot, at the moment, because I'm recharging my crystal ball... your previous questions took all the juice it still had in. :yes:

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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?

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@mo832

1.) At least me, I haven't heard about that.

2.) Besides the Update to 4.5, which caused the task symbol to stay red and the warning for end of XP-support - No! I still had a functional MSE and it updated automatically, only the warnings and the red symbol were annoying. That's why...

3.) ... I downloaded the 4.4 setup file (and keep it safe on my flash drive, 'cause you never know). For each XP computer I supported since then I uninstalled the MSE 4.5 in the regular way, rebooted, installed the 4.4 instead and everything still works fine. * The warning never appeared again and the task symbol behaves as usual. (green, as long as everything is fine, orange each time you are supposed to do a scan and red in cases of virus warnings or if definitions are too old. (Happens, if machine is not online for some days.)

* What I am not sure about: I remember that after this procedure I used to check for updates and disallowed the "KB2949787" at this stage. Otherwise this made MSE 4.4 updating to 4.5 again. But I think that after some months this was not necessary anymore. Perhaps someone else can confirm this? If you really want to be sure, give it a try and find out if KB2949787 is offered in automatic updates. If yes -> disable.

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