MSE On WinXP VM Not Updating

[Mantrid-Drone]

I have Windows XP Mode (32bit) running on a virtual machine. The host is a Win7 64bit PC.

I have used MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) on that XP Mode system since it was installed - perfect, unobtrusive, small footprint and does its job. This is about the only situation now I would even dream of using MSE.

In April 2016 (?) automatic AV definition updates to MSE stopped and also could not be enabled manually via the update button but, as recommended, if you went to the MS web site you could download the appropriate MSE 32bit AV definitions update (mpam.fe) and install them manually.

There has been very little trouble with this, usually I use the host machine to download it and transfer that to a shared volume with the XP Mode VM. Occasionally I download it direct to the VM. However recently, in the last five weeks, during the weekly updating I do it has refused to install the definition updates 4 times out 5.

It looks as if they are installing, when I click to launch it I still get the familiar WinXP egg timer which shows the updater is running, a short delay and then that comes back again. This I've always taken to mean that it is being installed. But since this problem arose MSE is still showing the definitions have not been updated, now for 14 days.

Obviously I've tried redownloading the definitions and reinstalling many times but MSE's definitions still will not report as updated. I thought about trying a reinstall of MSE but when I checked the current specs required for the latest MSE version I saw that WinXP was not mentioned so I reversed out. I didn't want to end up not being able to install it or installing it and not being able to install any AV definitions.

Just doing that triggered MSE to start reporting my system as 'possibly unprotected' and I had to use a restore point to get it back to its previous state just reporting the AV definitions as out of date.

This is, as I say, new behaviour and why it has worked once (14 days ago) but not for the two weeks before or the two weeks since suggest this is some MS problem and they've changed something knowingly or unknowingly.

I suspect this is quite a niche issue but if anyone else here has had this problem and or can suggest a sensible course of action I'd like to know.

 

[VirtualLarry]

MS is killing off XP, face it. GL.

 

[Mantrid-Drone]

But why suddenly mess around with being able to install MSE definitions updates for XP running on a VM? That is a perfectly legitimate legacy use of an older Windows OS running on more modern OS. For many people it is very important and why we have and use VMs, allowing both some old hardware and software to work as intended.

MSE is pretty much the perfect AV protection fit for that purpose for the reasons described. There is not much point to it for any other use as later Windows OS can run the better Defender AV tool which we're now being told actually performs reasonably well.

With MSE it is just the AV definitions updates having the problem, not the program itself. I can not think of any reason to want to block those updates. The fact it did work two weeks ago but not the two weeks before or after also suggests a repeated accidental configuration issue not a deliberate policy putting users PCs at risk.

 

[VirtualLarry]

With MSE it is just the AV definitions updates having the problem, not the program itself. I can not think of any reason to want to block those updates. The fact it did work two weeks ago but not the two weeks before or after also suggests a repeated accidental configuration issue not a deliberate policy putting users PCs at risk.

The only thing that I can suggest, for a reason, off-hand, is that MS has added/changed the definitions files, which are shared between MSE and Defender on modern OSes, and they didn't account for the older codebase of the XP version of MSE, which is (no longer maintained?).

 

[Mantrid-Drone]

It is an explanation and sounds plausible. The question is how to get MS to fix it.

XP Mode 32bit is a Win7 OS feature and Win7 is supposed to be supported at least until next year so I wonder if I could use that as leverage to get them to sort this out. I can not imagine there's much extra work, if any, making the mpam.exe definitions installer work with XP as well when it has been doing so for a decade. Unless it is just an accidental oversight they've just decide to do this for their own reasons not because they had too.

 

[XPUser_2019]

Hello,
There is a way to further update MSE. Also with XP.
https://msfn.org/board/topic/175514-microsoft-security-essentials-and-windows-xp/page/31/#comments

 

[Mantrid-Drone]

Thanks for finding that dedicated thread; very useful to know there are others with similar issues.

There is an awful lot of info to go through and I'm not sure if anything I've read they're discussing is actually relevant to solving this new problem. But a solution is more likely to be suggested there than anywhere else I guess.

 

[Ketchup]

Avast still works on XP. I would switch to that I stop wasting time with all the manual updates (could you still do them. https://www.avast.com/windows-xp-antivirus

On a side note:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...p/1328d67a-5720-4481-8662-e52a49a11a22?page=3

Microsoft Security Essentials will continue to protect your PC from malware and will continue to receive updates to the definitions through 14 July, 2015. However, Windows XP will no longer receive any updates for newly discovered vulnerabilities which will make your computer more susceptible to attack that cannot be prevented by an antivirus program alone.

Sounds like you were quite fortunate and got an extra year out of auto updating in the first place

 

[Mantrid-Drone]

I definitely know the updates, or at least the manual enabled updates direct via MSE, were working after 2015 because I actually had not built the PC concerned until 2016!

The XP installation was not done until several months after that, it appears to have been some time in July. It was later that year it stopped working - likewise with no warning from MS.

The XP installation as I said is actually XPMode basically a free for certain Win7 versions cut down copy of XP. I wanted and still do to keep it as lightweight as possible as I'm using a fairly small SSD and the VM + XPMode now uses over 25+GB. That is almost two thirds of the size of the main Win 7 Windows installation.

Installing something as intrusive and huge as AVAST (now typically 1+GB) when MSE can do the job at 21MB excluding definitions - no contest.

Anyway the main reason for posting again is to thank XPUser_2019 for putting me onto that thread on the other forum. It is actually very relevant to my problem. The fix is by somebody who has put together a XP customised MSE updater which, allows the latest MSE definitions updates to install. It works.

 

[XPUser_2019]