Microsoft Security Essentials installer changes your Automatic Update settings

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Sad but true… When you install MSE, the installer changes your Automatic Update setting – if you have Windows set up to “Notify but don’t download,”
[See the full post at: Microsoft Security Essentials installer changes your Automatic Update settings]

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Wow That’s a Head Scratcher i Aspect M.S.E. is Still All good even thou it has this little problem.

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Of course, you can install MSE, then go back and reset Windows MS Updates to Notify But Do Not Install. It isn’t that the Installer changes this setting which irks me — it’s that they do not tell or ask permission before doing it. I hate when people start changing things inside my computer without asking my permission first!

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It didn’t on mine!

Downloaded MSE on my Vista machine recently, pretty much the first thing I did was check the update settings and they were still set to notify.

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Martyn –

Weird! It’s supposed to flip to Automatic Update….

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Ron –

I still recommend MSE and use it on all of my machines. Great product. Stupid installation decision.

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Just installed MSE on mine (XP) and it did not flip it either.

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As with Martyn, no change on my Vista when I installed MSE a couple of weeks ago.

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It didn’t change anything on mine either. 2 laptops, 1 Vista and 1 W7. Both were set up to inform but do nothing, MSE installed on both machines 3 weeks ago, and nothing’s changed. What has changed though is the speed of everything since Kaspersky was banished. Wish it had a less dumbed-down interface though. Its XP-alike design makes it seem less effective or weak somehow. And has anyone noticed how the MSE system tray icon is very similar to the Remove Hardware Safely icon, so much so you’ve got to think for a second which is which before clicking? Thinking for a second is too much like hard work! Cheers Woody.

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Woody i have my update settings Set like yours as matter of Fact after i got one of the books you published I read the book an set it up that way. Great Books and they do help. And I Guess this Little Problem With M.S.E We Live With It.

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What bothers me the most is that EVERY SO OFTEN after installing MSE, it asks me to reactivate my windows. I have a paid version of XP PRO. It activates OK. After a few times of this, I went back to AVAST.

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I installed MSE about 2 hours ago. Just checked and it reset my setting to Automatic. I have WinXP SP3 Media Center Edition OS.
I now have it set to Notify…

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When MSE first came out I thought (at least on XP3) that it required you to use the fully automatic update. Besides Woody’s good advice to wait on most updates, this was critical to me since I had to keep IE6 installed (only used to check layout/operation for websites I help with ), and I thought fully automatic updates would replace IE6 and force-install IE8.

But what I am hearing on this post is that I can download MSE, manually set my update prefs to Never, and continue to manually use Custom Update and not replace IE6. Is that correct?

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@Randall –

That’s absolutely correct. MSE will continue to update itself regardless of your Automatic Update settings. Which is the way it should be…

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Woody is The Servers That update M.S.E. Down Ive tried manually update M.S.E it Won’t Do it. If this is the problem will they be up soon. Thanks.

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@Ron –

I haven’t heard of any MSE update problems….

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MSE has stopped updating itself on my machine. Everything was ok for the past 2 months. Now the icon is orange. When I try to update manually, I get error code 0x80248014, and it says connection failed. There’s nothing wrong with my connection. The Vista security center recommended I turn Defender back on, which I did, and that updated fine. I’ve reinstalled MSE “over” the old version – same deal. No one seems to know what this is. Even Microsoft! Any ideas Woody?

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@maghullyback –

Does this help? http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/msestart/thread/4ac3c200-0c4b-42ee-b4fb-8626b5e8c91e

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Thanks Woody. From there I opened a case and Microsoft got back to me quick and with a clear and detailed response. Rather impressive. Anyway, it was a simple solution: uninstall, restart, reinstall, bingo. I’ve put up their full reply in The Lounge. Now it’s fingers crossed the next round of MSE definitions go in okay . . . Cheers Woody.

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