Windows Defender v.s. Microsoft Security Essentials

I want to confess that I have thought about this for a while and have done som research on the web. I have found two articles that provide guidance on how to change the update frequency in MSE but it involves "serious editing of the registry".

How To Adjust Micorsoft Security Essentials Auto Update Interval From The Registry

and

How To Take Full Permissions Control To Edit Protected Registry Keys

I backup my system using Ghost or Image For Linux and am not hesitant at experimentation but I hoped that there would be a simpler way that I dare recommend to others.

There is an alternative method, creating a scheduled task, described in a third article:

How To Fix Microsoft Security Essentials Virus Definitions Updates

That may be less "scary" ... ... and will not be "reset" when a new version of MSE gets installed!

 

I forgot to mention that a google search gives a good selection of articles on the subject:

microsoft security essentials update interval

 

Well, most articles are quite old and predates Windows 10. This one does too (comparing Windows 8) but it confirms my finding that more than 24 hours must have passed for MSE to check for updates.

An example, the most recent update to MSE (on my system) was at 8:00 AM. I shut down the comuter and restart it the next morning at 07:30. MSE will not check for updates since 24 hours have not passed since the last check. The next time I shut down the computer and subsequently restart, MSE will check for updates but that will probably be the next morning, up to 48 hours from the previous check.

The article doesn't answer my question why this update interval is good enough for MSE but not for WD on Windows 10? (I never used Windows 8 on which updating WD seems to work in the same way as updating MSE on Windows 7.) I have a feeling that it isn't good enough and that Bill is correct in stating that Windows 7 is on "death row" (or words to that meaning) and not worth the effort to fix the problem in MSE.

 

I agree with an addition of a recheck every six hours or so. I have tried it but the task didn't run. It got "queued" or what the correct term is, without being run but that's a different topic.

 

I'll try that but it will be a day or two before I have the time to test.