Microsoft Security Essentials and it's autoupdating pattern...

while I suppose it's nice of microsoft to push new definitions as fast as they get them, rather than waiting to put together a large clump every day. . .

I really don't need new definitions quickly enough to have it monopolizing one of my cores and more than half a gig of RAM multiple times a day updating. my comp's on 24/7, barring reboots or unforseeable things like power outages, after all, plus the rest of my battery of anti-malware things and general cautious browsing.
plus, I'm working with an outdated CPU, an old athlon x2 4400. so if I'm already doing anything CPU intensive when MSE decides to pull new definitions (and I often am), it gets more than a bit irritating as whatever I'm doing is dragged to a crawl when the CPU usage maxes out between it and the svchost instance associated with MSE's updating.

so the question is, is there any underhanded way I can force MSE to update only at a specific time, say, when I'm asleep and thus not going to be interrupted by it? even if I could only just enforce one update a day or something, it'd be an improvement. MS was so very kind as to not provide any GUI-side settings to control the updating behaviour, after all. rolleyes

 

I use MSE on a couple of systems and have done so for years. They both update once a day.

I would suspect a conflict between MSE and something in your battery of anti-malware things as you put it. What other AV/AM do you have running in real time?

 

Same here. Or when I turn on that computer on as I don't use both of my computers everyday.

 

Mine updates once a day or less.
This computer has been on several hours today. It was updated 23 1/2 hours ago.
It never updates several times a day.

 

I HAVE had MSE update two or even three times a day much like Windows Defender does in Win 8.1. I don't like the fact that I have to get the definition updates for Windows Defender through Windows Update. I wish it was automatic like MSE.

 

Defender updates ARE automatic if you keep WU on automatic. That's just your choice.

 

there's nothing else that does realtime stuff. MVP hosts file, spywareblaster, MBAM (not paid, so it can't be realtime, before you say it), and generally using caution instead of just assuming things will be safe.


MSE does not always update repeatedly. on the other hand, some days it will update itself repeatedly. depends on what definitions MS gets for it. but that does not change the capacity of this to be a nuisance on an older machine while already doing CPU-intensive tasks.


also, leaving WU on automatic is... well, MS has been known to push faulty windows updates, so I certainly wouldn't recommend it.



musksnipe>
I used to use avast, honestly... but it's tendancy to bug out after program updates eventually wore out my patience. it did it's job well, and I could configure it for minimal wasted resources, but...

 

I don't give a monkey's if MS give me a problem update. I image the system twice a month - before and after WU - and it's just 15 minutes to revert should it be necessary. It's stupid not to do so.