Updates & Scan

[Guest]

I ran a complete scan and after the total objects scanned reached 360,000, it
froze. I uninstalled and downloaded again. This time when I reached around
320,000, the scan stopped and a window popped up saying I hadn't updated for
21 days. Nothing happened when I clicked Check for Updates. I went to
Help/About Defender and clicked Check for Updates--still nothing. Of course,
when the Update window popped up, my scan page disappeared, and if there were
any results from the scan, I can't find them. So far, Defender doesn't look
like an improvement to me.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

The objects count includes each file in an archive--for example, a zip, cab,
or ISO file.

 

[Guest]

I found that the scan always stopped when it reached the
file,"C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\Line3D.ocx", so under General Settings/Advanced
Options, I removed this file from scanning, and now my scans work. Also, I
am now receiving updates automatically thru Microsoft Update. I still don't
get any response when I manually try to update.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

That's interesting. The information that I had about the scan issue
indicated that the fact that it stopped on a particular file was basically
incidental--not related to the underlying issue. So--either your issue
is/was different, or something else fixed it--not at all sure

There are two somewhat different update mechanisms. The mechanisms in
Windows Defender--both the automatic update before a scan and the help,
about, check for updates--use AutoUpdate. In a corporate network, this,
rather than going direct to Microsoft, may go to a SUS or WSUS server. SUS
servers don't have the files available--SUS has a December 2006 end of life.
WSUS may have the files available if the administrator has approved:

- Products: Windows Defender
- Classifications: Definition Updates.

It is possible to spot what's going on by attempting an update within
Windows Defender and taking a good look at the tail end of the
windowsupdate.log file in \windows.

--

 

[Guest]

Since I tried both a short scan and a full scan and the scans both froze when
they came to the same file, I don't feel it was incidental-----especially
because the scans worked when I removed that file. Anyhow, everything seems
to work now!