How in the Tech

Update Microsoft Security Essentials signatures without Windows Update

By Adam Myers ⋅ November 27, 2009 ⋅ Tags: Security

Microsoft’s has recently entered the free anti-virus software market with their Security Essentials download, available for all genuine Windows users right from Microsoft. The software is solid while still remaining light weight and non-impactful on system resources – something that most other anti-virus packages aren’t known for.

Like Microsoft Defender previously, update signatures for Security Essentials are pushed out through Windows Update, which is executed daily automatically by Windows. Once installed, Security Essentials sits in the background and quietly protects the user, all while maintaining relevancy by the daily update mechanism. But what if you are a computer user who has Windows Update set to check manually, or worse, not at all? Microsoft doesn’t provide any other intuitive way to keep the signatures current but with a little magic via Task Scheduler you can continue with your non-traditional Windows Update setting yet still be protected, at least with respect to virii.

Launch Task Scheduler from the Start->Search box.

Click Start Basic Task from the right-hand menu.

Name the task something appropriate, setting it to run Daily.

You’ll want the task to Start a program where you’ll want to type in the following command, assuming your Security Essentials is installed in the default folder: %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Security Essentials/MpCmdRun.exe SignatureUpdate

Confirm the details and click Finish.

MSE will now execute it’s update daily without any further intervention on your part.