Defender Healed Itself!!

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Guest

Those who may have seen my previous posts know that I had been having a
curious set of inter-related issues with Defender, .NET 2.0, and OneCare.

I am happy to announce that while I was working on a spreadsheet (completely
unrelated to the problems), a window popped up informing me that OneCare was
performing an update, remining me not to reboot during the process. I kept
working on the spreadsheet. The window then closed. Some time later I
clicked on the OneCare icon in my tray, and low and behold, the user
interface opened as though nothing was wrong.

When I looked at Control Panel Add/Remove Programs, .NET 2.0 had been
installed (after a dozen prior failed attempts), and all appears to be
functioning correctly.

I suspect that the *REAL* culprit was .NET 2.0 or some other dependency that
had been malformed or otherwise corrupted. I shall continue to test, but
have put OneCare and Defender through their paces without any issues.

I did NOT run programs supplied by Microsoft OneCare support that were
intended to reset permissions. This was all accomplished quite transparently
with CIS Security Benchmark settings of just over 8 out of 10. (Ya can't
slam the door on every little thing without breaking a things, ya know!)

I will continue to test compatibility with major over-the-web threat
scanners. Up until now a-squared, AhnLabs, authentium, BitDefender, CA,
ewido, FaceTime, F-prot, F-secure, Kaspersky, McAfee, Panda, Symantec, Trend,
Webroot, and Windows Live all seem to play well together with
Defender/OneCare -- including performing multiple concurrent scans.
 
It may be good for you to hear, but it truly restored my faith in
Defender/OneCare, which had been failing fast. Harsh words from a confirmed
Microsoft supporter. ;-)

The winning combination that "repaired itself" was:
WD 1.1.1347.0
Engine 1.1.1372.0
Definitions 1.14.1410.10
..NET 2.0.50727_x86

I have no idea what triggered the update late in the workday afternoon. No
scans were scheduled to run for another 4-6 hours. As I mentioned
previously, OneCare & Defender *appeared* to be working properly, except for
Defender's UI being missing in action (C++ .dll error).

I checked my Event Viewer and found nothing of any consequence in the logs,
aside from an entry that service ASP.NET_2.0.50727 was identified as
"potentially unwanted software". That must have been when it was installed.

All evening a ran various combinations of on-line threat scans from
SecorConsulting.net. Panda was the only one that balked at anything, but all
were false positives which do happen every once in a while when running
simultaneous scans.

I noticed on ESTS Virus Rader-on-line that Netsky.Q and a few old variants
are on the rampage this evening. I suppose that we'll hear about it in
tomorrow's media.

Stay safe, and thanks.

Scott D
 
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