Disabling/enabling security essentials

Question

I want to install Adobe Flash Player on my PC and the instructions are to temporarily disable my Anti-Virus software. How can I do this?

Answer 1

Make sure you're obtaining the Adobe Flash Player from an official source to rule out possible tampering by some sneaky SpyWare vendor or virus author. Since Adobe produces it, "adobe.com" is your best bet; here's the official download link:

• http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

When installing it, you should not be prompted to disable existing security software. I consider it to be a "big red flag" when software installers request that, for example, Anti-Virus software be shut down before-hand (and you should too).

ANECDOTE:
A client called me up a few years ago because a number of computers at their small office were infected by pornography pop-ups, and they noticed that their anti-virus software wasn't installed. It turned out that one of the employees brought their teenager to work the previous night, and this kid installed some music sharing software (thinking he could have multiple downloads running simultaneously to speed up the transfers). The music sharing software download page had instructions on it that included uninstallation of the anti-virus software before-hand to eliminate a false positive virus detection (can you see the big red flag waving now?), followed by re-installation of the anti-virus software afterwards (which didn't work because the spyware interfered with the anti-virus installer).

Answer 2

I would personally ignore this instruction. It may make setup slightly faster, but you will open yourself up to possible attacks.

That being said, as you asked, open up Security Essentials and go to the Settings tab, then under Real Time Protection, disable the check box saying Turn on real-time protection (recommended).

You can also go to the (Elevated) Command prompt and type:

Net stop MsMpSvc

to stop and

Net start MsMpSvc

to start.