Windows Home Server and Microsoft Security Essentials Working Together

By Jim Clark on July 20, 2010 in Add-in News, Add-ins & Apps, News, Software, Windows Home Server, Windows Home Server Vail

Microsoft has released a new beta version of their Security Essentials suite, which offers enhanced compatibility with Windows Home Server v1 and Vail Preview. Does anyone know what the number 1 requested feature is for Windows Home Server?

In case you can’t read that, here is the verbiage:

Can we please have a Security Essentials version & Add-in for WHS?

Let’s take a look at how it works. Download the 64-bit version if you’re going to install on Windows Home Server Vail Preview, and the 32-bit version for Windows Home Server v1 (we’re installing it on Vail):

Copy it over to your home server:

Install the package using a Remote Desktop Conection. The result? Check it out!

Once restarted, you’ll find the Microsoft Security Essentials icon in the tray.

Open up the application and you can start a security scan:

As you can see below, you will notice the up-to-date definitions.

For those who look for the build number:

I have no idea if this is intentional or not, but it does seem to work. There may not be a Vail add-in at this time, but that is not a killer, at least at this time. Head on over (you will need a Live account) to apply for and download the MSE beta. The current beta is available only to customers in the United States, Israel (English only), People’s Republic of China (Simplified Chinese only) and Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese only).

Thanks to Drashna for catching this on the Connect site.

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About Jim Clark

Hello. I’m from the heartland of the U.S. Lots of corn and beans, although Iowa is a lot more than just farmland. It also has a few computer enthusiasts (no, not me!). I’ve been around PCs since I got my 1st PC XT aloooong time ago. WGS is one of the first sites I found centered around WHS. And the best. Every once in awhile, I do get away from the KB and enjoy time with and my wife and our 4 kids. And I do have a day job.

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anti-virus, microsoft, Microsoft Security Essentials, MSE, whs, Windows Home Server, Windows Home Server Vail

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GuustFlater
It installs well under WHSv1, but under the settings there are no exclusions of files/directories. I remember there were some directories under C: that should be excluded, but cannot find which ones. I think this should be done before firing a scan (I stopped the scan…)

GuustFlater
found it…….
I excluded manually:
C:fs
D:DE
d:folders{00008086-058D-4C89-AB57-A5F909A47AB4}
I assume this is sufficient, otherwise pls comment.

GuustFlater
aaaagh those smilies.
(with extra spaces) D : DE

Drashna
exclude these folders:
c: \fs, d: \de and d: \folders \{00008086-058d-4c89-ab57-a7f909a47ab4}

Holt
@Drashna, should I exclude c: fs, d: de and d: folders {00008086-058d-4c89-ab57-a7f909a47ab4} if I am using Symantec Antivirus? Could you give a little back ground as to why these need to be excluded to help others on the site like me who are still learning? I know de is drive extender and I suppose /fs is file system. Basically, would these break WHS if you don't exclude these? Thanks.

Al West
Download and Install worked for me and I am in the UK
http://DrShocker.com Jon
Humm How much would this slow down a EX475 with stock Processor / 2GB ram EX475 ? Since it runs all the time

urmaster
Not much more than any other AV, running avast 24/7 here.

GuustFlater
For me it runs on a Atom330 system without any noticeable performance degradation.
I'm in the Netherlands and it works well here as well.
Brad
Beta software on my home server…. hmmmm. You guys just might want to wait a few weeks before throwing this on your server.
brett
also works on sbe 2008

brett
sbs 2008 sorry

Holt
@Drashna, should I exclude c: fs, d: de and d: folders {00008086-058d-4c89-ab57-a7f909a47ab4} if I am using Symantec Antivirus? Could you give a little back ground as to why these need to be excluded to help others on the site like me who are still learning? I know de is drive extender and I suppose /fs is file system. Basically, would these break WHS if you don't exclude these? Thanks.

Drashna
Any AV on WHS should exclude those folders. Period.
The reason for the "c:\fs\" and "D:\de" folders is that these are the "behind the scenes" Drive extender folders, and messing with these files will cause issues on the shares. But deleting files from the shares will cause the files to be deleted elsewhere.
And the backup database often throws false positives, which is why you want to exclude it.

Nicnac
Since I too do not know the exact details of this, is it an antivirus?

Jim_Clark
Yes, this is Microsoft's free antivirus program they released to the world last year.

urmaster
Hmm, if does become an add-in it could be amazing.
JAM3Ohio
Jim just to verify—would this provide similar functionality to the McAfee add-in for HP on WHS V1? My McAfee subscription is about up, and if this does the same thing on V1 for free, you just saved me $40 or so. Which would make me happy! –Jim
darren
can't seem to get this to work as it say not valid on this machine type
http://www.mediasmartserver.net Nigel Wilks
The steps above are good for Vail, not WHS V1 which is 32 Bit so you need to download the 32-bit version for WHS V1 and the 64 bit version for Vail.
Jeff
Works great and thanks for pointing it out. Using it on my HP 475 with no issues.
billryan_nz
If you live outside the nominated countries, try anyway. I've just successfully downloaded from NZ – both versions.
http://www.pauljroberts.com Paul Roberts
Jim,
Where did you see/read that this beta is compatible with WHS v1? I can't seem to find this reference.
rxntx
64bit on Vail and 32 on 475 v1 and working great!!!! YeAH.
http://usingwindowshomeserver.com Andrew Edney
Jim
I would be careful with the statement that "MS would have allowed it to be installed" – its a completly different product team and highly unlikely given my experiences of working for MS that they would have heavily tested or even consulted the WHS team on it. There are lots of things that could break WHS!
People just need to remember that MSE is a beta and that if they really not want to risk their data they shouldnt install beta software on the box.
That being said, Im running it on their and havent experienced any problems so far
http://www.pauljroberts.com Paul Roberts
Jim,
Ok, I see what you mean now. I'll give it a few weeks to see how it runs on my network PC's first before putting on my WHS v1. If the beta is anything like their current release, it should be just fine. I luv public release of MS SE on all my network PC's! No complaints there at all.
Thanks for the update!
Drashna
It's not officially compatible. However, it does install. Which the officially versions throw a "invalid OS" error.
john
This is beta software. MSE is not supported on any version of WHS. Use it on your test system (the one were you can lose data) and provide feedback. If you use it on your "production" system and it corrupts your precious data don't come back crying.

Jim_Clark
Words of wisdom, and the reason I do not have on my production WHS machine. However, unless you have direct info from MS regarding "not supported", I would not be definitive one way or the other. Obviously, it would appear that MS have decided to extend support to their SBS OS's, or MSE not even allow one to install it on a SBS OS.
The main question is how compatible it is with a WHS file system. Time will tell…

Jason
There is a big difference between being able to install something and it being a supported and tested scenario. Unless it states that it is supported on a specefic OS you should always assume that it is not.

http://usingwindowshomeserver.com Andrew Edney
Sorry Jim but I have to agree with Jason on this one – hence me earlier warning post a few days ago.
The fact that you have to manually add exclusion paths in proves that the software isnt designed to work perfectly with WHS otherwise it would detect WHS and do it all for you.
It may work, but its not supported. But bear it mind it is a beta and so you will never really get support for a beta anyway!
Andrew

http://twitter.com/NeilJonesOnline @NeilJonesOnline
Does my WHS need to be logged on for MSSE to be active and for scheduled scans to run? I normally log off before I finish my RDP sessions.

Jim_Clark
MSE loads as a service, but I honestly have no idea if scans are performed on a machine that is no one is logged onto. I would ask the question in the MS Answer forums if I were you: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/…

http://twitter.com/NeilJonesOnline @NeilJonesOnline
This could have been a major failing if it didn't, especially with automatic server reboots after crashes and updates. However, I set it to perform a scheduled scan, logged off, and when I next logged on an checked the MSE logs the scan had been completed, so it looks like you don't need to be logged on. Next thing I'm going to try is to copy Eicar onto the server whilst I'm not logged on and see what happens.
However, one thing that is missing as far as I can see is remote notification such as sending an email when a virus is found etc. I probably only log into my server once every month or so, I would be a bit worried to connect and discover MSE asking me for confirmation of an action on an infection from several weeks ago

http://twitter.com/NeilJonesOnline @NeilJonesOnline
Well, I just tried copying EICAR onto my WHS whilst logged out of it. The file copied across alright, and when I logged in over RDP the MSE icon was already red and the warning dialogue box was on the desktop, so I'm happy that the active scanning is live even when no-one is logged on. The problem is that the dialogue box was just warning me that an infected file had been detected, giving me the option of deleting, quarantining or ignoring it. In other words, the infected file remains there unprotected until there's manual intervention as far as I can tell. And with no remote logging or notification built into MSE, if your server gets infected it will remain infected and you'll know nothing about it until you actually log into WHS as far as I can see.
However, I should caveat all of this by saying that I'm doing this from a Mac and I don't have WHS Connector running – maybe if you're running a Windows host with Connector you'll get some sort of warning such as the task tray icon turning red?

http://twitter.com/NeilJonesOnline @NeilJonesOnline
Unfortunately just tried this again from a Windows machine running WHS connector and it looks like even thought MSE on the WHS detects the virus, it doesn't trigger a critical health warning and therefore there's no warning red icon on host machines. Kind of surprising that the AV software triggers a remote alert if the AV updates are out of date or a scan hasn't been carried out on a host machine for a long time, but it doesn't trigger if a virus is actually detected on the server!
http://usingwindowshomeserver.com Andrew Edney
My guess is because this isnt supported yet on WHS, it just happens to run on it now with this beta.
Maybe at a later date when it is fully supported it will be integrated into the Console – which would be nice!

Michel
Up and running right now as I have a full backup of all my Data on my Server, I did install it and it does perform very well and no problems at all.
So on my "Production" Server this product that is call beta is working very well and BTW just make sure you have a full backup of the Data and you are ready to go:)
http://twitter.com/NeilJonesOnline @NeilJonesOnline
This could have been a major failing if it didn't, especially with automatic server reboots after crashes and updates. However, I set it to perform a scheduled scan, logged off, and when I next logged on an checked the MSE logs the scan had been completed, so it looks like you don't need to be logged on. Next thing I'm going to try is to copy Eicar onto the server whilst I'm not logged on and see what happens.
However, one thing that is missing as far as I can see is remote notification such as sending an email when a virus is found etc. I probably only log into my server once every month or so, I would be a bit worried to connect and discover MSE asking me for confirmation of an action on an infection from several weeks ago
Michel
Got in a test and as it is not optimized for a server I used the common sens, alias, quarantine it caught the ecar and quarantined right away so I am satisfy for a free product eveyone has there thinking but compare to before hey I am good to go as AVAST was now way too expensive, I prefer this
Chris Cowles
Any suggestions as to scheduling scans daily vs weekly and quick vs full?
Giles
Any pointers on where to download this? I can only find the automated site that has the XP/Vista/7 versions on it only….
Dave
Giles there is no "version" for whs, just download the xp/vista/win7 and install it on whs.
Giles
Thanks Dave – I get the "You are running a version of windows that isnt supported by Security Essentails" message :S

http://twitter.com/NeilJonesOnline @NeilJonesOnline
It sounds like you're trying to install the current version, not the Beta one. Click on the link in the above article (the word 'connect' in the last line)

Bjorn Levidow
Installing Windows Security Essentials (WSE) Beta on Windows Home Server is not supported at this time. As WSE is in Beta, the Windows Home Server team is in the process of ensuring the use of WSE with Windows Home Server will meet customer expectations. We will release a statement of support once the validation is complete, when we are confident that this combination will meet customer expectations.
Thanks.
Björn Levidow
Group Program Manager, Windows Home and Small Business Team
Microsoft Corp.
Bjorn Levidow
Installing Windows Security Essentials (WSE) Beta on Windows Home Server is not supported at this time. As WSE is in Beta, the Windows Home Server team is in the process of ensuring the use of WSE with Windows Home Server will meet customer expectations. We will release a statement of support once the validation is complete, when we are confident that this combination will meet customer expectations.
Thanks.
Björn Levidow
Group Program Manager, Windows Home and Small Business Team
Microsoft Corp.

Jim_Clark
Thanks, Bjorn, for the clarification. It is most appreciated.

Jump
Guess we are all waiting for the WHS to function correctly with the Security Essentials but I accidently installed the BETA version before reading I should have not – it appears to be working just find on my HP 490 Home Server.

Chris Cowles
It "appears to be" and may well be, but you can't predict with certainty that it will never cause data corruption.

Mario
Seems that this has now been pulled. There is only a survey link there now (unless I don't know what I'm doing, which is always possible
Frank
Wouldn't install for me.
I used:
TitleMicrosoft Security Essentials Beta for 32-bit
Release Date11/9/2010
Version2.0.0522.0
from: https://connect.microsoft.com/securityessentials/…
I'm really starting to regret WHS. Between them stupidly dropping DE two days after I got my Acer, and now finding out I'd have to pay McAfee for av purposes, and now MSE isn't even installing? Ugh. I guess I should have done more research first. It really seems that MS can't do alot of things right lately.
Adam
Version 2.0.0522.0 refuses to install
Jump
Yes it was the beta build .0375 (showing on the top pic on first page) that will install on the WHS. Mine still works and updates definations. However, the client updates will not install.
I also had to sign up for the beta version testing to get a copy.
Wonder why Microsoft discontinued ability to load on machine?
http://www.wegotserved.com Terry Walsh
Good call, will update the post!
Jim_Clark
It is not currently an add-in like McAfee. If that is a requirement, then the answer is no. I use NOD32 ($'s) on my WHS v1 machine, which is not an add-in version either. I use MSE on my other machines, tho. Works just fine for me.
Jim_Clark
There is no official word that MSE is officially compatible with WHS. It does install on both variants, which is a good sign, as earlier variants will not install. Whether this is beta is truly compatible may be debatable, but I doubt MS would have allowed it to be installed on a WHS machine if MSE would damage the OS and/or data.
I have made inquiries. When I find out more, I will update as needed.

Windows Home Server and Microsoft Security Essentials Working Together

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