MS Security Essentials Update Searching

[Doc Watson]

I just changed my system security basis from Avast to MS Security Essentials after reading Fred Langa's review after 6 months of testing in "real world" (read his world) testing. I'm pleased with the lower resource useage and from what the review said I'm as safe as I was with Avast or any other AV product.

My one issue is that the program started "Searching" for updates a couple days ago and after a full day of searching was still searching. The only way I found to stop the process was to use Task Manager and kill the program. I left it shut down for a couple days and just now restarted the program. All was well until I clicked the Update button. Now it's been "Searching" for almost an hour. I wouldn't care, except that it is affecting my internet connection speed.

Ideas ???

[JoeP]

If your firewall has outbound connections restricted make sure MSE is allowed out.

Have you tried uninstalling & reinstalling? The first update is a big update as you get a full download of definitions.

Joe

[Doc Watson]

If your firewall has outbound connections restricted make sure MSE is allowed out.

Have you tried uninstalling & reinstalling? The first update is a big update as you get a full download of definitions.

Joe

Thanks for the reply Joe. Not a firewall issue and not the initial DL of definitions. This started happening a few days after I installed it. It started an automatic update and just hung with the arrow moving down in the little green "tent" in the System Tray. I manually killed the program in Task Manager and then restarted it, but it was still acting the same. So I disabled it in cCleaner's Tools to prevent it starting on a reboot and rebooted. Then I manually started the program from the Start menu and it was behaving normally. So, I reenabled it in CCleaner and after I shut down last night and then rebooted this AM all appears to be well.

Another mystery, wrapped in an enigma..... etc.

[ChrisJakarta]

Have you tried uninstalling & reinstalling? The first update is a big update as you get a full download of definitions.

Joe

If I have to install or reinstall MSE, I first download the latest definitions from Get the latest definitions. I can then install the program and the latest definitions off-line. This not only saves time, but also avoids a longish period when the computer may be unprotected.

Chris

[Doc Watson]

Have you tried uninstalling & reinstalling? The first update is a big update as you get a full download of definitions.

Joe

If I have to install or reinstall MSE, I first download the latest definitions from Get the latest definitions. I can then install the program and the latest definitions off-line. This not only saves time, but also avoids a longish period when the computer may be unprotected.

Chris

Good tip Chris !!