How To Install Microsoft Security Essentials On Windows Server 2012

How To Install Microsoft Security Essentials In Windows Server 2012 R2

Posted by on March 16, 2016

Windows Defender has been built into Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 by default to provide protection against malware, however there is no such default program installed in the Windows server operating system.

To provide a basic level of security in a small server environment, we can install Microsoft Security Essentials with some simple modifications which contains near of the functionality of Windows Defender for free.

By default if you try to install Microsoft Security Essentials in Windows Server yous will receive various errors which nosotros will comprehend how to fix here.

While it is not possible to directly download Windows Defender to install, we tin instead brand use of Microsoft Security Essentials which is bachelor as a slightly cut down version for older versions of Windows, such as Windows vii, in order to help protect confronting viruses, spyware and other malicious software. Microsoft Security Essentials provides most of the protection methods that Windows Defender does with the exception of rootkit and bootkit protections.

It is important to note that Microsoft Security Essentials is designed to provide a bones level of complimentary protection for home or pocket-size business PCs rather than important server infrastructure. Despite this, users with a very small corporeality of Windows server installations have been looking for ways to install Windows Defender in order to provide at least a basic level of security.

While this is not officially supported, it does provide an increased level of security that is better than nothing, however information technology'due south recommended that you wait into using a proper product that is fit for purpose such equally Microsoft's System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP) which is an enterprise antimalware solution. SCEP does require paid licensing to work, so for a very pocket-size environment Microsoft Security Essentials can at to the lowest degree provide a basic level of security protection.

Although installing Microsoft Security Essentials in a server operating system is not officially supported, it does work and correctly detects threats, as we'll see here in our case.

Microsoft Security Essentials Installation Guide For Windows Server

Download and Install

1. Firstly you'll want to download Microsoft Security Essentials onto your Windows server. Select the language of your choice and either 32-bit or 64-bit depending on the compages your server operating arrangement is using.

   

2. Salve the mseinstall.exe file somewhere locally on the server, do not simply run it every bit by default the installation will fail with the following error:

   Microsoft Security Essentials cannot be installed on your operating system.  Your version of the Windows operating system is not supported by this program.  Fault code:0x8004FF04              

   

3. To go effectually this error bulletin, correct click the mseinstall.exe file and select properties.

   

4. From the properties window, select the compatibility tab. Within the compatibility tab tick "Run this plan in compatibility mode for:" nether Compatibility Fashion and select Windows 7 from the drop downward box, every bit shown.

   

   Click OK to go along.

5. If y'all were to run the mseinstall.exe file at this point, you would receive a different mistake equally shown below:

   Microsoft Security Essentials cannot be installed on your operating arrangement.   Windows Program Compatibility mode is not supported by this programme.  Error lawmaking:0x8004FF71              

   

   In order to resolve this, run control prompt as ambassador and enter the folder where the mseinstall.exe file is located. Run the mseinstall.exe file with the /disableoslimit flag on the end as shown beneath.

   

6. The installation magician should at present correctly open and Microsoft Security Essentials can at present exist installed and will go along without the previous mistake messages, click Next to go along and piece of work through the installation magician.

   

7. Once the installation has completed y'all can optionally update and perform a scan, this is recommended as the definitions database needs to be kept up to date to notice newer threats. An Cyberspace connection will be required to download whatsoever bachelor definition updates through the application, all the same these can also come through from Windows updates so if you have a WSUS server you can update from here as well. Subsequently updating a quick scan volition accept place.

   

   You lot can select the Settings tab to modify when the weekly automatic scheduled scan takes identify, by default a quick browse is set to run every Sunday at 2am and volition not utilize more than 50% of the available CPU resources.

   

Testing

8. Now that Microsoft Security Essentials has been successfully installed, we will test the actual functionality of the program to ensure that it volition correctly identify a threat. To do this nosotros volition create a exam EICARs file and see if the existent-time protection automatically detects and quarantines information technology.

   Essentially we are only going to open Notepad and create a .txt file containing the test cord divers on that page and and then save it to the desktop.

   

9. Shortly afterward saving the file we take been visually alerted that malware has been detected and that Microsoft Security Customer is taking action to clean the detected malware.

   

   If nosotros check the History tab of Microsoft Security Essentials we can then see the test file listed as a quarantined particular, confirming that it is working correctly equally intended in Windows Server 2012 R2.

   

Summary

Although not officially supported, we have successfully installed Microsoft Security Essentials (a cut down Windows Defender) in Windows Server 2012 R2 and confirmed that it is working correctly and detecting security threats.

This is better than the default level of security, which is none as Windows Defender is but built into Windows 8, viii.1 and x client operating systems, yet it is recommended that server operating systems make use of enterprise solutions such as System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP) or another choice available from some security vendor.

Source: https://www.rootusers.com/how-to-install-microsoft-security-essentials-in-windows-server-2012-r2/

Posted by: murchisonthertnote.blogspot.com

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