Solved Defender - can it update automatically on it's own?

[dburne458]

Hey gang,

I am a new Windows 8.1 user, having installed it on a new system build I did a couple of weeks ago.
Prior to this, I was running Windows 7 and used Avast for my anti-virus, and Defender for the rest.

I understand with Windows 8, Defender is really what MS Security Essentials used to be, which I had heard was pretty good.
I am somewhat of an advanced user, not an IT Pro by any means but have been a Windows user for many years and have never minded digging in and tuning it to my preferences. I also practice " safe hexing" so feel fairly confident I really do not need major layers of protection a more average user might benefit more from.

So with this new build and Windows 8.1, I am thinking I will just stick with Defender for all my AV and Security needs. I am curious, is there a way to set Defender to download and install it's new Definitions updates on it's own? Without having that selected for all my windows updates? I prefer having Windows Update notify me when there are new udpates and letting me choose what and when to install them. That is one thing I liked about using Avast, it did that on it's own on pretty much a daily basis and I did not have to manually download and install them.

I took a look in Defender's settings and did not see one where I could set it to do those updates for it automatically. Of course my aging eyes could have easily missed it.

Thanks for any tips,

- Don

 

[xireeopliex]

Yes

Providing Windows Update is set to download AND install automatically

 

[dburne458]

Yes

Providing Windows Update is set to download AND install automatically

Thanks for the reply, but what I am after is can it ( Defender) be set to download and update automatically, while retaining my preference on other windows updates of notifying me and let me download them when I choose?

I do not see a way to do this but easily could be missing something...

 

[Edwin]

WD updates automatically no matter what your update settings are at.
View attachment 34251

 

[dburne458]

Thanks for the screenshot Edwin!

I took a look in there and see that, however I don't think mine are actually updating automatically? Probably because I have windows updates set to notify me first on updates? I get a notification each day about a windows update, and I check it and it is a Defender update. Of course I go ahead and download /install it.

I wish it would do it automatically , but it seems if I have windows update set to notify me instead of windows updates, Defender is included in that category with no way to set it by itself to update automatically - unless I am missing something...

As far as windows updates, I prefer not to have them download/install automatically as there may be some I do not want, like driver updates and some optional ones I may not want.
Of course though, I want my Defender Definitions as they are released.

Thanks,

 

[majulook]

You can setup Windows Defender to update via a Scheduled Task.

Windows Defender can be scheduled for daily signature updates using Task Scheduler. I put mine in the Microsoft/Windows/Windows Defender section of Task Scheduler.

Click on "Create Task", name it what you like (mine is set to update 5 minutes after log on and every 3 hours after that), set the trigger as the time you want it to run every day, or after a specific event....

For Action browse to Program Files\Windows Defender\MpCmdRun.exe and select it. In "Add arguments" add -SignatureUpdate -MMPC

The "MMPC" performs the update directly from Microsoft Malware Protection Center. And it runs very quickly.

 

[dburne458]

Many thanks for that majulook, I will set mine to do the same!