Defender Not updating Signatures

[Bill Sanderson]

Nobody's asked the corporate/home user question, have they?

Can you, and the other Bill on this thread state whether these are home
machines, not joined to domains, or are these corporate machines joined to a
domain, whether or not actually on the corporate network?

If your install fits this category:
1) installed on a non-English version of Windows, and
2) installed from a download predating February 22nd.

I would recommend uninstalling, re-downloading, and reinstalling.

Otherwise, if the machines seeing this symptom: No updates via auto update,
and nothing offered via Windows Update--are simple home machines, I'd
recommend update or repair reinstalls of Windows Defender:

Start, Control Panel, add or remove programs, Windows Defender:

Update--Change, update

Repair -- "click here for support information", repair

(I don't have a clear picture of what the difference is between these
choices--somebody tell me what works!)

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[Guest]

To all:
The Microsoft Update site allowed the update today for the first time..
Shall we sacrifice a large mammal in thanks to the Mircorsoft gods so this
continues to work smoothly or consider ourselves immune from future
frustation?
Should it not be possible though, for one to update within the defender
program itself?



g schmidt-krohn

 

[Bill]

Corporate, English version of Windows. Not in a domain. Tried the
"repair" option, still no updates.

Bill

 

[Bill Sanderson]

This sounds as though updates are blocked or unavailable on your network.

Can you attempt an update via Windows Update and then cut and paste the last
section of \windows\windowsupdate.log that relates to that update attempt to
a message here?


--

 

[Bill]

I actually tried a Microsoft Update earlier today and got hit with the
"Genuine Windows Advantage" update, which it wants to reboot after
installing. I have NOT rebooted yet. I will do it later at home. But I
do not have problems getting to the Microsoft Update site.

BTW when I went to that diagnostic website pointed to elsewhere in the
thread, it did fail at the point where it tried to access the server
(but I saw where it failed for you as well on an otherwise working system).

Bill

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I would not recommend the large mammal route.

OK--now that you've successfully updated via Microsoft Update--what happens
if you go to help, about, check for Updates?

If you are on a corporate network where autoupdate is restricted, you may
still get an error--a home user should not get any error--just a baloon
eventually stating no new update was available, I think.


--

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Thanks for the reminder:

I retried that WGA diagnostic--and was eventually successful in passing both
server connection checks, but only after making the change to IE security
settings that they describe in the following page.

After succeeding, I reset the Internet zone to the default, which should
reset that change.

--

 

[Bill]

After rebooting from installing the WGA update, WD was still not able to
get the updates. However, MU was, so I guess I am happy, although the
underlying problem is probably not fixed. And the problem happened with
the machine at home, so it is not related to being on a corporate network.

Bill

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I've seen a few reports where, for the very first update, the users were
unable to update via the program (which uses autoupdate) but were able to
update via WindowsUpdate or MicrosoftUpdate.

Thereafter--that is--after that first update, the autoupdate function within
the program did work.

So--I wouldn't give up on the updates within the program yet--you can
trigger them manually at help, about, check for updates.

--

 

[Bill]

That does not seem to be the case for me. For today's update, WD still
did not find it. And even better, I no longer seem to be getting text
when a message pops up from the tray entry (I hear the sound but no
bubble or text). Anyway, MU did find and install it.

Bill

 

[Bill Sanderson]

OK - so we established earlier that you are on a coporate LAN, correct?

What do you know about the network infrastructure? How are patches
distributed?

Are they running SUS, WSUS, or some third party product?

--

 

[Bill]

Yes I am on a corporate LAN but the problem followed the machine when I
connected at home, so it does not appear to be network specific.

Bill

 

[Bill Sanderson]

The network, in the form of group policies restricting how auto-update
connects, may well follow the machine--i.e. they are imposed on the machine
as a domain member, and continue even when you are not connected to the
corporate network.

--

 

[Bill]

I am not connected to a domain at work and everything else seems to work
fine. While I appreciate your assistance, I think you are grasping at
straws here. Let's just say it is a bug and hopefully MS will fix it
eventually.

Bill