Newsletter Archives

• Is your machine running the latest Malware Protection Engine?

  Posted on April 4, 2018 at 06:21 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  If you’re running Windows Defender, Microsoft Security Essentials, or one of the Microsoft’s corporate malware protection products, there’s a new version of MMPE that should be headed your way shortly.

  Yesterday, Microsoft posted a warning about a “critical” but in the MMPE scanning engine called CVE-2018-0986: Microsoft Malware Protection Engine Remote Code Execution Vulnerability.

  It’s a nasty security hole. MrBrian posted a warning and some details about it last night. (I’ve rolled the comments from MrBrian’s post into the comments on this post.)

  Günter Born has a description on his Tech and Windows World blog. Catalin Cimpanu has more details in BleepingComputer.

  The important takeaway: The security hole can be triggered when Windows Defender just scans an infected file. You don’t have to do a thing.

  My big question this morning… how to tell if you have the fix or not?

  Windows 10 – click Start > Settings > Update & security. On the left, choose Windows Defender.

  Windows 8.1 – Press the Windows key to bring up the Start screen, type Windows Defender. Click the Windows Defender icon. Click Help > About.

  Windows 7 – in the search box type Windows Defender and click on Defender. Click Help > About.

  Look for the Engine version number. I bet yours is version 1.1.14600.4 — that’s the old, vulnerable version. What you’re looking for is version 1.1.14700.5.

  If you don’t have it yet, there’s nothing you can do. Windows Defender updates go through whether you’ve enabled Windows Update or not — they even go through if you’ve turned off the Windows Update service. In theory, you should be receiving the new version today or tomorrow.

  Windows Patches/Security CVE-2018-0986, MMPE, MSE, Windows Defender

• How frequently is Microsoft Security Essentials getting updates?

  Posted on March 1, 2018 at 17:04 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  While I wasn’t watching, it looks like the frequency of MSE updates has increased.

  GL just wrote to me:

  Microsoft security essentials use to have one up date a day. Recently I`ve been getting 2 a day. Now today it looks like I`ll be getting morning , afternoon and evening. Whats up with that?

  Have you seen any odd behavior?

  Windows Patches/Security Microsoft Security Essentials, MSE

• Another Adobe Flash Player Feb. 2014 Security Update / Improving MSE performance

  Posted on February 22, 2014 at 07:14 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  EP just sent this in:

  Adobe has released another Flash Player security update on Feb. 20, 2014 here:
  http://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb14-07.html

  and I saw this article on Tweaking.com 10 days ago on fixing the high CPU usage 
  and improving performance with Microsoft Security Essentials here:
  http://www.tweaking.com/articles/pages/fix_high_cpu_usage_of_microsoft_security_essentials,1.html
  I had been disabling real-time protection in MSE on some old XP/Vista computers
  because of the high processor usage but using the tips on that Tweaking.com article
  made MSE use less CPU resources and scans are much faster and now enabling
  real-time protection won’t slow down those old XP/Vista machines that much.

  Windows News Flash, MSE

• Microsoft pulls the plug on Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows XP

  Posted on January 8, 2014 at 20:16 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Sometime in December, somebody at MS decided that XP customers will no longer be able to download MSE.

  InfoWorld Tech Watch.

  Windows News Microsoft Security Essentials, MSE, Windows XP End of Life

• Antivirus in Windows 8.1

  Posted on October 22, 2013 at 09:35 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I steadfastly recommend and use Microsoft’s built-in Microsoft Security Essentials on all of my machines, including my main machine, which is running Windows 8.1.

  Many of your disagree, though, particularly in light of Microsoft saying that MSE isn’t expected to lead the pack in new protection.

  With that as prelude, EP just sent this to me:

  Hey Woody. Now that Windows 8.1 is officially out there’s one serious issue that has to be dealt with – Antivirus/antispyware programs and Windows 8.1 compatibility. 

  Spybot Search & Destroy version 2.2 is fully compatible with Windows 8.1 as announced here: http://www.safer-networking.org/2013/new-spybot-2-2-to-support-windows-8-1/

   Avira antivirus programs version 2014 (the newly released ones) are compatible with Windows 8.1 as noted here: http://www.avira.com/en/support-for-business-knowledgebase-detail/kbid/1495

  But the 2013 and earlier versions of Avira are not Win8.1 compatible. At least this time, Avira isn’t late to the party for Win8.1.

  Avast starting with version 9.0.2006 is fully compatible with Windows 8.1 as I saw somewhere in their forums site. The 2014 version of AVG is also Win8.1 compatible.

  Most major antivirus/antispyware products (like Symantec, Mcafee and ESET) have been recently updated to fully work on Windows 8.1 though some haven’t made official announcements on their web sites for Windows 8.1 compatiblity.

  Windows News Antivirus, MSE