Microsoft Security Essentials will not run at start up.

Discussion in 'Software' started by Kestrel13!, Nov 30, 2014.

  1. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    • Yes, it shows in my system tray as running, but lately I've had it show red and had to open up the program, and then it all goes green again signifying it's turned on and alright.
    • Yes I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling.
    • I've looked into task manager and the only thing that shows in processes is: msseces.exe and in services tab the Microsoft Anti Malware service shows as running.
    • Hijack this does not show it as running at start up and neither do the runkeys.log from MGTools.
    • Starting to see other people getting annoyed about the same thing elsewhere on the net...
    • Would appreciate any help. Thanks. :)

    More than a couple hours spent on this and I'm just going to slap Avira in or something...
     
  2. mdonah

    mdonah Major Geek Extraordinaire

    While I've not had the issues with MSSE that you've had, I've stopped using it because it's missed a lot of detections as reported by numerous test results.

    I'm offering a suggestion as a replacement — Qihu's 360 Internet Security. It's not hosted/mirrored here at MG's but their 360 Total Security is. I'm running 360 Internet Security on my XP Pro drive and my Vista Ultimate drive and will soon be adding it to my 8.1 Pro drive. It seems to run even better on the later versions of Windows and monitors downloads and key locations and notifies if it detects/suspects anything and if a file is unknown, you can upload it to their site for evaluation.
     
  3. AtlBo

    AtlBo Major Geek Extraordinaire

    I've gone with 360 Total Security. Did the research first, and it stacks up performance and features-wise. Features-4 definitions engines (including Bitdefender), anti-keylogging, anti-unsolicited webcam capture, USB protection, and Speedup, Cleanup, and Wifi Check scans. Performance is better than I have seen even from avast, which I thought was good. It's really light on resources.

    Not missing that orange orb constantly spinning at this point...
     
  4. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Thankyou. I only switched to MSSE because avast was flagging almost every single one of my files as being bad, when they were not!

    I was quite happy with MSSE until it looked like it was being lazy and only half working. (And all this on a new install of Win7 so go figure...)

    I installed what you guys recommended. Thanks again. :)
     
  5. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    I've always just stuck with MSE (Defender in 8.1) but this does sound worth trying, but what about the possible clash with the inbuilt Defender in 8.1?
     
  6. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    Defender will shut itself off.

    That said I am giving it a try for a computer I cleaned up for 8 hours yesterday. Not convinced yet, it feels gimmicky and produces its own popups which are almost as bad as the malware I removed.
     
  7. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    Gimmicky I can live without. Main reason I like MSE/Defender is you wouldn't even know it was there, quietly getting on with its job. Hope you post your verdict.
     
  8. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    I removed it because I have this computer locked down like Fort Knox and cannot afford to have programs offering popups to the user, especially for Facebook which I have locked down from the computer accessing.
     
  9. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Yea, I noticed that too Adry. rolleyes I did have just one pop up occur telling me there was a patch. What type pop up's did you have?
    I just can't bloody win. Avast wants to hose my OS... MSSE wants to nap when I'm surfiing.... this one wants access to my facebook... jeez, I'm just going to keep it and see how I go. I've had NO issues with it yet.
     
  10. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    I saw a couple pppups for in app purchases, and one mentioning something about liking them on Facebook.

    It is funny, with avast, it is the most common AV I find on infected computers, and it is providing its own share of nagging popups. It just goes to show you that no AV will stop a user hellbent on destroying their OS.

    I settled with Panda, as it offered just one single popup every once in a while to upgrade to Pro.
     
  11. oma

    oma MajorGeek

    Kes, did you use the uninstall tool from Avast when you removed it from your PC http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility and rebooted prior to installing MSSE?

    I did the above just a few days ago and MSSE is running fine here. *knock on wood*
     
  12. Anon-9aee479f8f

    Anon-9aee479f8f Anonymized

    I was using Avast with Win 8.1 until the update from windows that had a conflict with Avast. I started getting Certificate Errors in IE and Chrome on about half the web pages I visit. The Forum page here at MG displayed OK but the Home Page of MG did not. I tried all the usual fixes for certificate errors that I am aware of with no luck. At the time I did not know the problem was with the Windows update and Avast and there was no mention of it in the Forums here then. Now I see others had a problem also.
    I was going to do a system restore but mysteriously all my restore points were missing except the one for the latest windows update. I decided to try uninstalling Avast and used the Avast uninstall utility and then enabled Windows Defender and all the Certificate Error problems disappeared.
    So for now I am sticking with WD and I don't think I will try Avast again anytime soon.
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2014
  13. Anon-9aee479f8f

    Anon-9aee479f8f Anonymized

    :(Forgot to mention I had just updated to Avast 2015 right before the Windows Updates came. Then the trouble began!
     
  14. oma

    oma MajorGeek

    Same here when I had a FP re Macrium Reflect in Avast v 2014 a few days ago. I panicked since it was the first FP I ever had. Combined with the need to do a custom install every time Avast has a program update, I uninstalled it (v 2014) a few days ago with their tool, rebooted and now using MSSE. Avast should focus more on their AV than on their bloat, bells and whistles, that's what a decent AV is supposed to do IMHO. I usually would visit their forums when a new version came out and would not update (custom install) until the forum would quiet down.
     
  15. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    It was a clean installation of Windows OMA, I had alot of other trouble so wiped and started again...
     
  16. oma

    oma MajorGeek

    Oh Kes, I wasn't aware of that! Hope you got your problem solved. Sorry that I couldn't help you out.
     
  17. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    No worries Oma, thanks. We originally suspected it to be a hardware issue somewhere along the line, but it turned out to be a glitch in my OS itself. So we wiped and started over... I don't have much luck with PC's generally. :-D
     
  18. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    With 360 Total security installed, I was installing drivers for a graphic card last night and if I hadn't have been sat there watching, it would have just started quarantining stuff on it's own, there was a timer countdown before it did so... tsk tsk... I cannot find an option within it's interface to prevent this. So who KNOWS what I will be using soon... probably nothing :-D I'm the best antivirus around... lol
     
  19. plastidust

    plastidust Command Sergeant Major

  20. AtlBo

    AtlBo Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Yes, I have noticed that 360 TS is much more active than avast, which I used before. Kind of a double edged sword, but I haven't been overwhelmed by the program yet. Most of the positives, so far, I understood. I keep some backups for scripts I have on a USB drive, and those I had to whitelist.

    I am a little surprised that 360 TS went after a graphics card driver but not shocked. I guess for me at this point, I will take the extra aggression. I was feeling like avast was slipping in that way. Also, 360 TS has features I like...
     
  21. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    I guess I'm gonna stick with it for now because I don't think it's good to keep swapping and changing rapidly with AV..
     
  22. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Can't believe this... it took over a week for Microsoft to "query" the antivirus on my machine. Asking if I trust it etc..... roflmao
     
  23. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    You mean UAC prompt? That seems odd. At this stage of the game, I would think that points to it making a registry change which doesn't sound good at all.
     
  24. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Hi Adry. It was in the Action center. I got a red cross through the little flag, and Microsoft wanted to know if I trusted the antivirus or not... rolleyes
     
  25. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    Interesting.
     
  26. AtlBo

    AtlBo Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Kestrel13!...could that be the result of a Defender scan? Maybe there is a component of Defender that is set up to alert you through the action center when you have an a-v it hasn't ever heard of before. Qihu and 360 Total Security are fairly new...
     
  27. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Nice. Since I reinstalled Windows I forgot to disable WD. :-D
     
  28. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Yuk, I've just surfed about for an hour without AV being switched on. Got little flag in action center come up again telling me my antivirus is switched off, and do I trust my antivirus to run it... bleh. Ripping it RIGHT out and putting avast back in today. Not happy at all with all this changing about.... also a nagging voice in the back of my mind is saying "I bet avast keeps switching itself off too now when that goes in..." and there is definately no malware on this machine.
     
  29. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Started to get a bit pissed. Installed avast and I get this after a while...
     

    Attached Files:

  30. AtlBo

    AtlBo Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Kestrel13!...

    Just saw somewhere that Avast 2015 has a repair tool you can run from Control Panel->Programs. Click on Avast in the list and select repair. Maybe that will correct the problem...
     
  31. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    I had to click on "change" first and then the avast GIU pops up with a repair option... I clicked it, it repaired, and the action center flag is telling me I've no AV protecting me. Avast icon is still twirling like a mini ballerina though... rolleyes I'm not just having a bad day, I'm having a bad couple months and little problems like this are all adding up to give me huge amounts of stress.
     
  32. _nullptr

    _nullptr Major Geeky Geek Geek

    Is Avast showing that all the shields are working?
    If it is, right click the tray icon and select shields control ->Disable for 10 minutes and confirm.
    Avast should now show a red X in the tray icon.
    Go back into the shields control and enable all shields.
    Hopefully the action center should now recognize Avast as the AV.
     
  33. Kestrel13!

    Kestrel13! Super Malware Fighter - Major Dilemma Staff Member

    Huh, I did a reboot and all is well. I'll take note of that if it happens again, thanks. :)
     

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