Manual Definition File Updates

[Guest]

I am having a problem with Windows Updates (the 0x80072EE2 error), and I'm
already working with Microsoft to fix it. This has been going on for a
while, and we don't seem to be any closer to fixing it.

I have been able to manually update most other things, but I haven't found
any instructions for updating the Windows Defender definition files. Is
there any way to do this?

 

[Guest]

The Beta of the Defender never has worked for manual updating. No matter what
MS may say they have known of this from the beginning as well as a dozen
other problems and they are very very slow to issue fixes. For now my
solution has been to go to the windows update site, after the second Tuesday
of each month, and do the update scan using the "Custom" button. Then I chose
the defender definition update and allow it to run and all goes well.
Updating, manually, through the GUI for Defender never has worked for me.
Updates usually come out the second Tuesday of each month, so check then.
TTFN.

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Check the .signatures and .announcements groups for messages, generally from
Engel--which give URL's for direct file downloads of the definitions, as
they are released.

Good luck with the Windows Update issues. Going with your current support
call is probably the best bet, but there is also a third-party fix which has
had good results for a number of folks here:

http://wiki.djlizard.net/Dial-a-fix

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

As a broad generalization, this is nonsense, of course.

In your particular situation, I can quite understand that it may not be
working. Can you describe the network situation? Is this a corporate lan
which manages patches via a central server?

 

[Guest]

As I said, Windows Update is completely FUBAR, so that's not an option at
this point. If the manual installation for Windows Defender is broken, I
will be happy to assist with troubleshooting, but I won't accept that the
only solution is to use another piece of broken software.

 

[Guest]

Thanks. I found Engel's update link and successfully installed it.

I'll take a look at Dial-A-Fix. At this point I think we've eliminated all
of the knowledge base and recommendations from the MVP's, but this has been
going on long enough that I'm starting to get desparate.

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Dial-a-fix is essentially a scripted run through of the standard Microsoft
fixes, I believe. I think I've only seen one failure when we've referred
people to it. I'm not too enamoured of some of the authors opinions, but
this has been a useful tool.

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