Windows Defender Definitions Have Not Been Updated

[Guest]

Today, I was sent an alert which said my Windows Defender definitions have
not been updated for 15 days. I clicked the Check for Updates button. There
are no updates available, but the error message stays. Will have have to
have the alert until the new definitions are available? This will mask any
real problems.

 

[Guest]

OK. Windows Update had updated definitions and cleared my alert. I guess
the Check for Updates button is for decoration only.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Try going to Windows Update and see if the signature updates are offered.

 

[Guest]

Same Issue Here, the button looks nice but does nothing for updateing the WD.
I don't think that its any thing with WD they have it pointing to the wrong
site.
I would have thought they would set it to clear the update flag after
checking for updates or atleast redirect you to the windows update site for
the update.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

For both of you:

Are you on a large, managed network? Perhaps one with a SUS or WSUS server?

Does Autoupdate work on your network?

Check for updates uses Autoupdate. For a home user, this goes straight to
Microsoft's servers. For a corporate managed lan user, it may go to SUS,
which doesn't have the signature updates, or WSUS--which is capable of
providing these updates, but needs the administrator to enable the new
class--available since January 16.

--

 

[Guest]

I will check on whether or not we have SUS or WSUS, but Autoupdate does work
for me on this network.

 

[Guest]

Yes, we do have SUS or WSUS - don't know which one. One of our
administrators is changing the authorization to allow Windows Defender
updates. Thank you.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

SUS has an end-of-life of December of this year, so I hope you are moving to
WSUS.

--

 

[Guest]

I have found out we are using WSUS.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

You're in great shape--got the right distribution method, and an
administrator willing to make the change.

 

[Cardinia Shire]

Same issue over here, when I go to update my copy through the gui it says no
updates found, but tells me WD's signature files are out of date. Im looking
for a manual solution but can't find any means to update WD manually.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

So--what happened when you went to Windows Update?

The other manual method is the security portal:
www.microsoft.com/security/portal

pick the 32-bit definitions for Windows Defender in the right-column, unless
you know you are running a 64 bit version of Windows.