Solved Does W8 Defender definitions lag behind those for W7?

Just trying to figure out an issue where my WD isn't updating definitions, even though following the security portal here:

Get the latest definitions - Microsoft Malware Protection Center

There are often times where I notice half a dozen updates being posted throughout the day, yet neither WD or Windows Update can pick up the newer definitions forcing me to have to download from the website and install.

WD in 8 is not the same as that in 7 as it includes an antivirus so updates from different servers. It's similar to Microsoft Security Essentials that is an option for 7 systems or below (but NOT for 8).

Open it and see if it gives a warning that it's out of date, if not then don't worry as updates for it are silent.

Also if you are using a 3rd party antivirus with or without a firewall package, you should have disabled WD anyway.

Ex_Brit said:

WD in 8 is not the same as that in 7 as it includes an antivirus so updates from different servers. It's similar to Microsoft Security Essentials that is an option for 7 systems or below (but NOT for 8).

Open it and see if it gives a warning that it's out of date, if not then don't worry as updates for it are silent.

Also if you are using a 3rd party antivirus with or without a firewall package, you should have disabled WD anyway.

Click to expand...

I'm aware that WD in 8 is pretty much MSE, but I would think that definition updates would be synced and pushed out for all versions of Windows accordingly and not have me be behind almost half a dozen definition updates.

Also updates for it are not silent since I don't have automatic updates, I tell WU to notify me before download/install (which doesn't auto update AV like it does for MSE in prior).

I'm basically trying to figure out if I accidentally broke something to the point where it won't let me update definitions via WD or WU.

Let's hope it's OK. I'm not on my W8 system right now but I'll get on it in a few minutes to see if I can figure out what's going on.

Of course I forgot I'm using McAfee protection so couldn't bring up WD to check it anyway but I checked Windows Help and Support.

Key in "Defender not updating" and the 1st choice that comes up is Windows automatic updating: Frequently asked questions
Click that and then the very last choice and you can then open the Windows Update Troubleshooter, which will eventually offer a choice and one of those is Online Support.

Microsoft gives free support for update issues and would be your best choice in this case.

Thanks, it's not too big of a deal anyway, since I can still manually apply updates by downloading the definition updater from MMPC.

Pretty much was just wondering if anyone else was noticing this, since I didn't seem to have problems doing it with MSE on Windows 7.

Mine did update through WU before I installed McAfee. It wasn't very frequent if I recall.

Hi there
Why bother with Mcafee on Windows 8 --totally redundant and not needed as is any other 3rd party AV software.

WD in W8 is NOT the same as WD / MSE in W7 even though the GUI looks the same. The implementation is in the Windows kernel itself and totally different.

Cheers
jimbo

Not so, but of course it depends on the consumer, it's your choice. 3rd party suites provide many other security functions, including 2-way firewall (WF is 1 way only unless heavily tweaked and often needs a 3rd party tool to help with that otherwise it's complicated), anti-spam, vulnerability scanner, improved browser protection using SiteAdvisor Live, better parental controls than the native Windows one (if one wants), network tools and various utilities etc. etc.
I happen to be an Administrator over at McAfee forums hence I use the software so that I can help others with it and have been since the XP Gold days.