Mark--
Specificity helps a lot when someone wants to fix. It's a little like going
into the doctor and saying "I took a hit." What hit--specifically what's
the problem? You leave those that want to help you guessing. Do any of the
MSKBs listed here apply to the problem that "take a hit" is being used to
describe as a symptom? Since you can turn off the Windows Defender service
and since it doesn't load into Safe Mode--are your "take a hit" symptoms
present when you do that? I'm assuming you mean Defender is there but not
working rather than completely gone.
There are some differences now with Defender on X86 and X64 based versions
of Windows. You don't say if you're running X86 or 64 bit Vista. Almost no
one does in this group, and it sometimes matters.
When you perform a custom installation of Windows Defender beta 2 on
x64-based versions of Windows, Windows Defender does not work correctly
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/915103/en-us
I'm not sure what you mean by "took a hit." Did it "get whacked" Soprano
style or just "banged up" so it will start using the right sanitation vendor
as happens right now at the Fulton Fish Market or South Street Seaport?.
Not updating is a very wide spread problem in Vista and XP. In XP you can
simply reinstall Vista Beta 2 and that takes care of the problem. Not so in
Vista. Obviously you would normally expect to be able to reinstall Windows
Defender (as for example you can do with WMP 10 or 11 to fix a number of
problems--certainly not all)---I always recommend particularly with WMP
trying to ID the number and key words of the error .
There may be a way to reinstall Defender into Vista, but I don't know what
it is. This has come up a lot with the won't update issue where Defender
says to update with a bang and it's recommended to try to use Windows Update
and there is a specific MSKB for this issue--both of them failing with
equally high percentages.
If you try to reinstall Defender onto Vista it's going to get bounced. I
know you can't just download and install Defender onto Vista because Vista
paradoxically any build won't let it install even though it's part of Vista.
You may get some help from some of these MSKBs:
Description of Microsoft Windows Defender (Beta 2) configuration registry
subkeys
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914459/en-us
Error message after you reinstall Windows Defender Beta 2: "Windows Defender
definitions haven't been updated"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/915105/en-us
Make sure that Windows Defender service is automatic and started at
services.msc in run box--Services.
The Defender files in Vista are located at C:\ (or whichever drive Vista is
parked on)\Program Files\Windows Defender
You could try stopping the service, manually deleting the files and manually
deleting the registry keys listed in the MSKB for Defender and reinstalling
it but I'm not optimistic it would work in Vista just because Vista seems to
balk at installing it period even though Vista comes with it native.
Defender loads two executables ( MSASCui.exe and MSMPeng.exe) and they'll
show in Vista Task Manager processes.
I don't find the Defender groups particularly helpful and I've monitored all
of them since they started and was on the Beta for MSFT AS and Defender,
and they have been crazily excluded from NNTP newsreader status via Win Mail
and relegated to the slowas molasses html Community format even though MSFT
still makes a browser called IE. You would think after years someone from
MSFT communities could pick up their cute little cell phone and call Dean
Hachamovitch who runs IE and say "Yo Dean our interface really sucks and for
people pre-Vista where using the groups is a one click using the wizard is
daunting so can you fix or clunky clutzy format" but that has been resisted
for years in the MSFT communities.
Defender and One Care (Total Lack of PSS by MSFT and the Horrible PSS that
MSFT puts in the face of subenterprise customers
One Care is being offered by MSFT now as an RTM in stores. It mandates
using Defender to stay green. It's an excellent product I believe because
it takes less space and much less CPU than comparable AV/Fire wall products.
It will mature to having the Vista firewall soon. One criticism of it is
that it talkes a while to run a "checkup" or scan but that is as in any AV
program totally dependent on the number of files you require it to scan. It
has a decent backup and it has a defrag in it (but XP and Vista have a very
basic watered down defragger they ship with--not comparable to Perfect Disc
or Diskeeper for example).
I suggest you contact these individuals and ask them to support their
produc--they are Program Mangers on the Windows Defender team.
*Program Managers for Windows Defender Team*
Sterling Reasor
Tareq Saade
Jason Joyce
Jeff Williams Windows Defender Team Member Try (e-mail address removed)
or addresses with the first letter and last name and ask them to start
putting relevant information out.
These individuals have known MSFT has an NNTP interface for years. They
have known this is an issue for months. They have known for years that
Convergys PSS either doesn't answer or is incomepetent when they do.
I also would note that if you have Win One Care Live that since WOC mandates
Defender be installed to stay green, they "support this." But there is a
huge problem. WOC live used to be supported by competent support personnel.
Now it has been tranferred to the MSFT garbage dumptster--their Convergys of
Ohio PSS support and when the router gets your call you will not be
connected to anyone. Not being connected to the Convergys personnel in
India may be a favor to you. This statement is not about Indian
competence,, it's about the competence of the minimum waged butss in seats
that Convergys chooses to hire. MSFT has a very =low opinion of their sub
enterprise customers and chooses to saddle them with support that is
incompetent or doesn't even connect on the phone. This paradigm is common
for Convergys--they do the same thing with respect to Delta Airlines, and
Symantec.
Microsoft has known this for years, but figures they have suckers who
provide their high quality support on newsgroups like these. Quality
control of their PSS has never been viable, and the newsgroup help who are
paid nothing and thanked never, are the only ones who actually care that
their customers enjoy their computers .
It's no accident that the VP for OEM at MSFT is an accountant who displays
no knowledge whatsoever or insight that OEM preinstalled buyers will have no
access to a repair install in XP or Win RE in Vista simply because 99% of
the time so-called OEM recovery partitions and so-called recovery discs
don't work, and don't access an XP repair install setup or a Vista panopoly
of Win RE features which MSFT has not lifted a finger to explain on the web
5 weeks after public release of Beta 2 and after release of the next build
toward RC1 from Beta 2, 5456.5.
Rather than call PSS for Support of Defender, One Care or anything else,
you'd do better to call the City of Vista California:
http://www.ci.vista.ca.us/
CH
