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Windows Defender

Microsoft has released beta 2 of Windows Defender, the successor to Microsoft AntiSpyware (beta 1). It installed well on my machine, although I removed MS AntiSpyware first. Happily, neither the removal nor installation required a reboot.

Now, I’ve got a problem. Windows Defender will not update itself. It fails with an error 0×8024402c. Buzzing around through Microsoft’s site, it seems that this error is related to Windows Update. My current theory is that because my PC is set to update through a WSUS server, Defender is looking in the wrong place for its updates.

Update: Feb 22:

For any folks using WSUS, you must add “definition updates” to the types of things that are synchronized, then set “definition updates” to “automatic install” to have them pushed out to clients. Now that we understand this, we’ve put Windows Defender on several computers on the LAN and it seems to be working well.

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{ 22 } Comments

  1. Martin Morrison | February 17, 2006 at 4:27 am | Permalink

    I have exactly the same problem after installing Windows Defender this morning. I had the AntiSpyWare Beta on there before installing Defender and did not un-intsall it (the Defender installation seems to have removed all trace of the AntiSpyware).

  2. Micky | February 19, 2006 at 10:05 am | Permalink

    Same issue - I am not pointing to WSUS server though -

  3. Hans | February 22, 2006 at 3:41 am | Permalink

    Same problem here. Not sure if we have WSUS, so I turned on VPN to work, and all the WD net traffic bypassed the VPN connection. Except now I get error code 80072efd with VPN active. I also did uninstall and reinstall. My original install was on top of Beta1 version.

  4. Don | March 3, 2006 at 7:09 am | Permalink

    I am receiving the error. I know for a fact my machine does not look for an internal WSUS or SUS point for updates. I did find that I was able to update from my home network, just not my work network. Looks to me like its a Proxy or Firewall issue.

  5. Don | March 3, 2006 at 7:14 am | Permalink

    Found a working solution. While I mostly use the ISA winsock client and not ISA proxy to get to the internet from work, updated from windowsupdates.microsoft.com always fails until I enable my proxy settings in IE. I enabled my proxy settings and I was able to get updates for Windows Defender.

  6. J Penrose | March 16, 2006 at 6:54 am | Permalink

    As reported above, BETA WD was looking to my WSUS for definitions updates. As soon as I enabled them in the WSUS console and approved the updates WD grabbed them straight away.

    Thanks to Steve for the info. I was having second thoughts about the reliability of this product.

    JPenrose MCSE MCSA

  7. Michele | March 16, 2006 at 8:33 am | Permalink

    Our organization runs a WSUS server, and we have added Windows Defender to the products for detection, as well as Definition Updates to the Update Classifications, but our WSUS server has not downloaded the Definition Updates. WSUS has synchronized successfully 3 times since adding the new product category. We have updates form March 14th, but nothing for Windows Defender. Any ideas?

  8. Steve | March 16, 2006 at 8:56 am | Permalink

    The last Windows Defender update on our WSUS system (as of March 16, 8:55 AM CST) was March 9.

  9. Michele | March 16, 2006 at 9:10 am | Permalink

    I have just found my mistake. On the Options page, Automatic Approval Options, I didn’t have Definition Updates added to th “Automatically approve updates for detection by using the following rule”. When I viewed the updates on the server with the “not approved” filter, the Definition Updates were there. I always view updates with the “Detect Only” filter on. Thanks.

  10. Steve Rossiter | March 23, 2006 at 7:54 pm | Permalink

    This article may help you guys, had the same issue and this has fixed it.
    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=915105

  11. aseem marwaha | March 24, 2006 at 12:15 pm | Permalink

    hey steve i too have the same prob. but i don’t to know what is wsus server and don’t know how to implement the solution given by u.could u plzzzzzzzz tell me in detil how to implement the solution.i’ll be very thankful to u

  12. Steve | March 24, 2006 at 1:31 pm | Permalink

    Unless you’re on a corporate network, you don’t need to think about WSUS servers. See the link in Steve Rossiter’s comment (above) for a fix from Micrsoft for this error in non-WSUS situations.

  13. Ivan | March 29, 2006 at 7:34 am | Permalink

    Maybe one more hint… U should install Windows Installer 3.1 first! Without that, U won’t be able to install updates- at least that is my experience.
    Good luck!

  14. Ricky | April 6, 2006 at 5:23 pm | Permalink

    That’s the ticket. Thanks for saving me the headache!

  15. Stephen Dolphin | April 18, 2006 at 5:02 am | Permalink

    Thanks for the heads up about WSUS, I was getting worried that it might not be compatible!

  16. Long | May 23, 2006 at 10:20 am | Permalink

    Hi,

    I have tried the following:

    1. Re-installation
    2. Microsoft KB Article
    3. Checking WSUS/ SUS
    4. Installing Windows Installer 3.1 V2

    And still nothing works ! I still get the 0X8024402c

    Its really frustrating and I no longer what to do here…Any other options?

  17. mr.freshmen | June 3, 2006 at 3:02 am | Permalink

    i dont know what do you mean to add definitions updates or any of that will you please help me ??????…………

  18. cjpitsch | June 16, 2006 at 2:21 pm | Permalink

    I’ve tried everything and still get this 0×8024002b. Any work arounds?

  19. Simon Eady | October 16, 2006 at 5:37 am | Permalink

    Very helpfull info.

    Wish it was added to the tech info on MS regarding the product.

    Thank god for Google

  20. Roy Williamson | November 16, 2006 at 2:58 pm | Permalink

    i had this same error, i tracked it down to my firewall, it had blocked 2 svchost services, when i removed these from my firewall block list i got the updates no prob

  21. ememcee | January 11, 2008 at 7:39 am | Permalink

    No problem updating until yesterday. Nothing new installed. Firewall Zone Alarm free version in use.
    Would appreciate some help

  22. Margaret Cook | January 11, 2008 at 8:51 am | Permalink

    Fixed! Checked ZA. Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool was not being allowed into the trusted zone.
    Checking firewalls seems to be the answer!

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