Comments on: Automatically Install Definition Updates for Windows Defender

By: TerDale

TerDale — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:39:31 +0000

Patrick, thanks for the info. Anyway, dunno about Vista, but on Windows 7, if one looks at Task Scheduler one can see that the option to “run it as soon as possible if missed” is checked by default.
So, I do think that your changes were successful not because of the scheduled time change, but because you changed “Check for updated definitions before scanning” option, which is unchecked by default.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up, it allows me to understand this.
Thanks too to Mike, for the “update without scanning” tip.

By: windows 7

windows 7 — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:36:51 +0000

windows 7…

[...]Automatically Install Definition Updates for Windows Defender | Random Stuff About Software[...]…

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:15:26 +0000

Add a Scheduled Task to run %ProgramFiles%\Windows Defender\MpCmdRun.exe (might have to replace this with the static path) with -SignatureUpdate in the option. Have this run every day and it will update Windows Defender.

By: free filesonic premium

free filesonic premium — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:53:20 +0000

free filesonic premium…

[...]Automatically Install Definition Updates for Windows Defender | Random Stuff About Software[...]…

By: MK

MK — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 06:48:31 +0000

Thanks!
Same situation here…

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 03 May 2010 13:48:12 +0000

Me too, thx!

By: Dave Miller

Dave Miller — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:28:50 +0000

Thanks, I had exactly the same situation you described.

By: Myles

Myles — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:33:01 +0000

I also agree that that is just too much. Microsoft should set up defender to update on its own without Windows Update and requiring the users intervention, if they have Windows update set up that way. Because I don’t want every single update that windows throws at me. But of course I want all the Defender definitions.

By: Jesper

Jesper — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:16:11 +0000

I haven’t tried your “solution”, but I suppose it works. Thanks for the tip.

Still, it’s ridiculus that in order to receive the latest definition pattern automatically, you also have to scan your computer! If you know what you’re doing on the net, it’s a complete and utter waste of resources to scan daily. I also do not believe that you can’t tell when the scanning is running. It will affect your computers response times, memory usage a.s.o. But then, when running Vista, slow responses is probably something you get used to.

By: Svein Børge Nygård

Svein Børge Nygård — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:20:29 +0000

Thanx