I am a Microsoft Security Essentials user. I know from reading other topics that there are other members that use MSE also. My problem is that MSE won’t complete a full scan. It stops at different/random points when scanning the Windows folder on the system (C) drive. The castle icon in the “hidden icons tray” continues to show an active scan even after the main window has stopped advancing the scan. Canceling the scan doesn’t stop the icon from spinning. It does take the scan window back to the home window. The only way to stop MSE is to reboot.

I did a Bing search about this and found articles going as far back as 2010. None of these have offered a definitive solution. I have tried uninstalling MSE and then installing MSE again. That didn’t correct the problem. I have been running the premium version of SAS w/real-time protection on along with MSE for well over 3 years and never had an issue. Just to make sure I turned off the SAS real-time protection but MSE still didn’t complete the full scan. This problem just started happening in the last two weeks because MSE ran an automated full scan on schedule two weeks ago.

There have been some Windows updates which included a few for MSE. Could one or more of these updates be causing this? I believe I read one time that MSE updates are permanently installed. Is this still true? I was able to run and complete full scans using SAS premium, MBAM free version and Sophos Virus Removal Tool (free version). I hope I don’t have to look for another antivirus. Is anyone else experiencing this problem? Thanks for your comments and thoughts in advance

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Terry

It just goes to show you, it's always something. If it's not one thing it's another!
_Rosanne Rosannadanna

There's been a spate of reports on this problem. I've been fielding these on the Microsoft forums. The belief is that a recent engine/signature update has caused the issue. It is under investigation.

Here's my reply I'm using on Answers:
The antimalware team would like to capture some logs from users experiencing the lockups with full scans.

Please create the MSE Support logs as follows:
How to create the Support Logs file for MSE/Defender <http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/protect_start?tab=Wiki>

Send an email to me with the MpSupportFiles.cab attached:
sboots_at_mvps.org (replace _at_ with @)
In the subject line, please type MSE Freeze
In the message body please paste a link to this thread and your forum name.
Thanks!
-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Thank you for your fast reply Steve. I do remember seeing your responses in those forum comments. None requested the MSE log or a link explaining how to obtain it. I must not have read the right one. I will send that information to you later today when I log onto my machine. Thanks again Steve.

Regards,
Terry

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Terry

It just goes to show you, it's always something. If it's not one thing it's another!
_Rosanne Rosannadanna

Steve how long before a solution is forthcoming? How will MSE users with this issue be notified? In a couple days MSE will turn orange signifying that my machine hasn't been scanned in a couple weeks and is unprotected. I assume my machine will still be safe with SAS premium running real-time protection.

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Terry

It just goes to show you, it's always something. If it's not one thing it's another!
_Rosanne Rosannadanna

Doing a quick scan would probably get rid of the scan notification.

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Since they have no clue as to what caused it, but it is affecting a fair number of people, I can't say how quickly it will be resolved. I'll try to update this thread, but you can also check the Microsoft Community Virus& Malware topic area to see if there's no longer any activity on the MSE Freezes threads.
I would hope that they identify the cause quickly and update the engine or signatures (I suspect the latter, actually) post haste. So far, I've only see it reported for Full Scan on MSE, but that's a pretty large impact and people are not happy.
I've forwarded all the support logs I've received so far, but haven't heard back from the Program Manager that contacted me yesterday.

-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

No. If the scheduled scan is a full scan and it doesn't complete, a quick scan will not clear the warning that a scan has not been performed. You'd have to change the scheduled scan to a quick scan and run one to clear the warning.
-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

I stand corrected Steve.

Just curiosity but what OS is involved? Since it is MSE, not Defender, I assume Win 7. I just ask as I just did a full scan in Win 7 a day or two ago without issue. The difference is that I don't schedule scans, I do them manually when I feel like doing so. Could it be an issue with the scheduler? I doubt it as I would think that once the scan starts the scheduler would be out of the loop.

OK... we ALL know that I sort of fly by the seat of my pants when dealing with computers and that some of my suggestions are a bit off the wall on the surface...

I can give zero reason or argument as to why this might help but I'd LOVE to see what happens in both the following cases.

1) Doing a full scan by selecting manually instead of through the scheduler.

2) Allowing the scheduler to start the scan but only after doing a 'disk cleanup' removing temp files.

Probably no affect but these would be my first two troubleshooting attempts. 1) would remove any doubt about the scheduler being part of the problem. 2) would help to proof the possibility of one or more 'protected' temp files killing the scan. Actually to totally proof the temp file thought one would have to go in and manually remove as disk cleanup would probably just skip over a protected temp file without issue.

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I just reviewed some of the comments in the MSE Scan Freezing threads in the forum at this link...http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/prot ... ab=Threads.

As Steve stated there are enough comments from users and plenty more viewers of these topics for Microsoft to be concerned. People, including myself, have run disk cleanup. This offered no resolution to the scan freeze issue. All my attempted full scans in the past 48 hours have been manually started. My scheduled scan runs every Sunday morning.

One thing is for certain and it was good to read the consistency that everyone's scan was stopping in the same locations, either C:/Windows/winsxs/Backup folder or C:/Windows/Installer/$PatchCache$/Managed folder. I have duplicated both of those scenarios when running my full scan attempts.

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Terry

It just goes to show you, it's always something. If it's not one thing it's another!
_Rosanne Rosannadanna

Don't do this unless Steve gives a go ahead!!!

I may be wrong but I think that both folders will re-build if the contents are deleted. I would, of course, do an image backup first and then do just that; empty the contents of both folders. Probably not a solution to the issue but is what I would do. If I AM right that both folders will re-build... get rid of the problem areas and let Windows re-do. Sort of like when you have a device issue and then remove from Device Manager and let Windows re-install.

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The issue doesn't appear to affect everyone, but so far all cases have been MSE on Windows 7. A few posts last night suggested that Defender may be affected on Windows 8 to a lesser extent, but that may be an incorrect conclusion as the W8 reports didn't have Defender freezing in the same places.
I wouldn't delete the contents of the folders, by the way.
You could exclude both of those locations from being scanned, if you want or need to run a full scan now, suffer from the freeze issue, and remove the exclusion after we learn that the problem is resolved.
-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Thanks for the update Steve. I didn't mean "everyone". I meant everyone that was experiencing the MSE scan freeze had their scans stop at either of the same two locations. I understand that this problem isn't an across the board issue. If it was MS would have made an announcement by now (I think so anyway).

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Terry

It just goes to show you, it's always something. If it's not one thing it's another!
_Rosanne Rosannadanna

Windows Updates successfully installed 3 different definitions of the same update over the last 3 days, none of which fixed the scan issue. I attempted to run a full scan this morning but it failed in the same way.

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Terry

It just goes to show you, it's always something. If it's not one thing it's another!
_Rosanne Rosannadanna

Last response I received from my Microsoft contact was that they were still digging into it. That was on Friday. Hopefully it will be fixed sooner rather than later. I did get an interesting piece of information from one user -- a full scan completes successfully in Safe Mode.

-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Probably not much help in this post but that would make me want to shut down all possible startup programs, services and processes then turn on one at a time to hopefully find the culprit. Of course that would be very time consuming as one would have to attempt a full scan each time. I wonder if the issue could be duplicated by just doing a custom scan of the problem points... if so that would save a LOT of time.

And I assume that an uninstall and reinstall of MSE has been proven ineffective...

Another thought would be to remove the updates involved with the upgrade to Windows 10. Doubt that it would help but there does seem to be the fact that both MSE and the 10 upgrade fail.

One last thought would be to use the media creation tool to make a Win 10 install disk. If the install works then MSE is out of the picture. I would uninstall MSE before trying the 10 install from the created media.

The above are all just thoughts. Steve is obviously MUCH more up to date on this issue than I. Do not do anything related to this post without Steve's go ahead.

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The culprit, Jay, is MSE itself.
-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

That is why one of my suggestions was to remove MSE and attempt the upgrade to 10 with created media. It at least appears that 10 is wanted.

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Actually, that's quite good advice, Jay, since there's another problem affecting a few people with MSE -- the Windows 10 upgrade is supposed to recognize and remove MSE during the upgrade. When it doesn't, MSE remains active, but crippled in Windows 10 and Defender can't be started. I've not experienced it myself, but it is annoying enough...

-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Thanks. It just seemed to me that it was odd that MSE was crashing and the upgrade was also failing. It just seemed logical to get rid of MSE as we know there is an issue and go ahead and try the upgrade. If this is to be done I would create Win 10 install media, not upgrade through Updates.

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Thanks Jay and thanks Steve. I have removed MSE from my machine that is waiting to install the Win 10 upgrade (this upgrade has failed for a week now). My second machine which upgraded to Win 10 flawlessly had MSE installed on the Win 7 OS. I am trying a third party antivirus, Emsisoft Anti-Malware as a fully operational free trial on my machine that is scheduled to upgrade this morning, actually in 51 minutes.

Anyway check out this topic in the Windows 8/8.1/10 Category.
Upgrade to Windows 10 failed six times so far

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Terry

It just goes to show you, it's always something. If it's not one thing it's another!
_Rosanne Rosannadanna

I hope the upgrade works. Personally I would have created a disk.

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I've heard that mentioned somewhere here in CH but not sure how that is done. Can I still make the disk after Win 10 installs for future reference?

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Terry

It just goes to show you, it's always something. If it's not one thing it's another!
_Rosanne Rosannadanna

Absolutely and I think that you should do so. I always prefer to have install media.

Of course now you need to do a full scan with Defender as a follow-up to make sure that the MSE issue didn't follow along.

I'm glad that your upgrade went well.

Here is a link to get you started on creating media.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... ol-install
I believe that 10 is like 8.1 as to not having native DVD capabilities so you would want to decline when asked if you want to burn the ISO, just save it and use a third party app to burn. If you don't have one Microburner 4 still works fine.
http://jaylach.com/downloads/microburne ... urner4.exe

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Hi, Terry.
Please visit Windows Update and check for Updates. Install KB3092627 if offered.
If it is not offered, check Update history to see if this update was installed already.
Article link (with standalone installer link - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3092627 )
After it installs, please try a full scan and let us know if the problem is resolved or not.
 
Thanks.
 
-steve

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Steve I went to the link you posted and it mentioned update KB3076895. I went through my one remaining Windows 7 machine and found the above mentioned update. Could I just uninstall that update and if it comes back "hide" it before it installs again. I chose this option to run the full scan and it has moved past the "C" (system) drive hang up and is almost completed.

Are you looking to get a reply that update KB3092627 fixes the problem from update KB3076895? I can reinstall KB3076895, install KB3092627 and run a full scan to see if it works.

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Terry

It just goes to show you, it's always something. If it's not one thing it's another!
_Rosanne Rosannadanna