Microsoft Windows Vista and 7 come with Windows Defender installed. You can also install it in Windows XP. Windows Defender is free software from Microsoft that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. But in order to protect you from such threats, it needs to be updated regularly. If you have a computer that does not have Internet access or automatic update is not working for you, then you can manually update the Windows Defender spyware definitions. Here is how :
First of all you must know if you have 32-bit Windows or 64-bit Windows. If you do not know which edition of Windows you have, then press the keyboard combnation Windows logo key + Pause to open the System Properties window. You would be able to find if you have 64-bit Windows or 32-bit Windows written somewhere in this window.
Next step is to download the offline Windows Defender updates. For 32-bit Windows, click here to download the offline definitions updates for Windows Defender. For 64-bit Windows, click here to download the offline definitions updates for Windows Defender.
The download is in the form of a self extracting archive named mpas-fe.exe. If you want to update a computer which is not connected to the Internet, then you can copy this file to a USB pen drive and then copy it on the target computer. Double-click on this file to start the definitions update process. The update progress is shown and the update is done very quickly.
Note that if the Windows Defender is disabled or the Windows Defender service is not running, then the updates will not be applied. After updating the spyware definitions manually, you can check the definitions version by running the Windows Defender from its Start Menu shortcut.
Although the Windows Defender is not a replacement for a full blown antivirus software, yet it can detect and remove major spyware infections. Using the offline spyware definitions updater for Windows Defender, you add a little security to those computer too which are not connected to the Internet.