If you are observing the Update errors as posted by several others in this forum, here is a check and workaround that may work for you. This particular error only happened on 1 out of 8 machines I installed today. My findings indicate that the update download was corrupt, but Defender failed to initiate a CRC check, or something . . . and now the corrupt signature files are causing more errors and crashes. Uninstalling Defender and Re-installing does not appear to fix the problem, since the Uninstall fails to delete the corrupted update files, engine and signature, which are store in a separate subfolder on the system.

** The check:

Verify that your latest signatures and engine updates are present:
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Definition Updates\{46445988-E360-424D-832B-EAE8AFA33C36}:
02/10/2006 04:09 PM 2,547,984 mpengine.dll (Version 1.1.1185.0)
02/12/2006 07:16 PM 1,545,472 mpasbase.vdm
02/12/2006 07:16 PM 130,304 mpasdlta.vdm


** To force a re-update:

Open Defender, select the down arrow to the right of the "?" help button, and "Exit Windows Defender."

CMD Prompt: "net stop MsMpEng.exe"

Check the directory:
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Definition Updates

You will find a "Backup" directory, copy it's entire contents into the specially named subdirectory next to it, mine looks like:

..\{46445988-E360-424D-832B-EAE8AFA33C36}

Restart Defender, and update.

Your mileage may vary . . . this solved it for me nicely.

Rob Sitze
networkdefend dot com

Correction:

CMD Prompt: "net stop MsMpEng.exe" is incorrect.

It should be:

CMD Prompt: "net stop windefend"

Wrong cut and paste when writing the original . . . ;(

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"Rob Sitze" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
If you are observing the Update errors as posted by several others in this forum, here is a check and workaround that may work for you. This particular error only happened on 1 out of 8 machines I installed today. My findings indicate that the update download was corrupt, but Defender failed to initiate a CRC check, or something . . . and now the corrupt signature files are causing more errors and crashes. Uninstalling Defender and Re-installing does not appear to fix the problem, since the Uninstall fails to delete the corrupted update files, engine and signature, which are store in a separate subfolder on the system.

** The check:

Verify that your latest signatures and engine updates are present:
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Definition Updates\{46445988-E360-424D-832B-EAE8AFA33C36}:
02/10/2006 04:09 PM 2,547,984 mpengine.dll (Version 1.1.1185.0)
02/12/2006 07:16 PM 1,545,472 mpasbase.vdm
02/12/2006 07:16 PM 130,304 mpasdlta.vdm


** To force a re-update:

Open Defender, select the down arrow to the right of the "?" help button, and "Exit Windows Defender."

CMD Prompt: "net stop MsMpEng.exe"

Check the directory:
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Definition Updates

You will find a "Backup" directory, copy it's entire contents into the specially named subdirectory next to it, mine looks like:

..\{46445988-E360-424D-832B-EAE8AFA33C36}

Restart Defender, and update.

Your mileage may vary . . . this solved it for me nicely.

Rob Sitze
networkdefend dot com

I followed your instructions, however, that unique install directory in the
\Definition Update\ folder doesn't exist on my install.. My folders look a
bit different too. I upgraded from Beta 1:

*\Definition Update\
\Default\
\Updates\

My \Default\ folder contains:
mpasbase.vdm 329KB
mpasdlta.vdm 9KB
MpEngine.dll 2489KB v1.1.1185.0

If you have any ideas to try out lemme know... In the mean time, I will
revert to beta 1.

IT Grunt

On all the machines here undergoing testing I did a clean uninstall of the original Giant based AntiSpyWare Beta 1. That might explain why the folders look so different, but I suspect there is more. Your sig files are definitely the ones that came with the install, the updated files are much larger.

Perhaps one of the MSFT's here can provide more info on why you are missing the special CSLID named folder?

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"IT Grunt" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:4CCDBBF1-B280-4AA0-B14F-(E-Mail Removed)...
I followed your instructions, however, that unique install directory in the
\Definition Update\ folder doesn't exist on my install.. My folders look a
bit different too. I upgraded from Beta 1:

*\Definition Update\
\Default\
\Updates\

My \Default\ folder contains:
mpasbase.vdm 329KB
mpasdlta.vdm 9KB
MpEngine.dll 2489KB v1.1.1185.0

If you have any ideas to try out lemme know... In the mean time, I will
revert to beta 1.

IT Grunt

I was able to update the definitions through update.microsoft.com. However,
when I go to Help->About Windows Defender-->Check for Updates, I am still
getting the error message. This is fine if you know to go to the update
site, but it's a pain to have to open a browser to do this EVERY time. I wish
MS didn't integrate this into the automatic updates service... This is the
first beta I've ever used (I like GPL sw) that is so broken.

P.S. And I liked the old GUI too.

IT Grunt