EmsiSoft Anti-Malware - Schedule Updates With Ease

EmsiSoft Anti-Malware - Schedule Updates With Ease
Page content

Emsisoft Anti-Malware for Windows (formerly known as A-squared) is offered in both free and paid editions. Both editions of the program provide malware detection and removal. However, the free version does not provide real-time protection against malware. Also, end-users of Emsisoft Anti-Malware should know that the automatic update scheduling feature in the free and paid editions is not the same. In the next section, we’ll cover the differences along with how to run an Emsisoft Anti-Malware scheduled update.

Scheduled and Automatic Updates

Update Option

By default, Emsisoft Anti-Malware is configured to check for updates every hour, on a daily basis. There are several options for customizing inside the update scheduler in the program:

  • The recommended daily check for updates can be set to a particular time or specified intervals, e.g. every 30 minutes, 1 hour and so on.
  • You may also do a weekly check on specified days of the week.
  • Monthly is also an option, with checks on a particular day of the month, e.g. every 5th of the month.

Note that the automatic update feature in Emsisoft software must be enabled before the scheduler will work. Turning off the automatic updater in the program will also disable checking for updates according to the schedule. This option is only available for licensed users of the program.

It’s recommended that you enable the automatic update for Emsisoft to enjoy the protection it can offer for Windows. An update scheduler is often provided in anti-virus or anti-malware programs to allow end-users to better personalize the program. End-users that are using a slow Internet connection may want to adjust the update intervals so they can fully use the Internet connection for other purposes. If, in any event, the updater has failed to check, download or install available updates, consult the Internet connection settings in Internet Options or the Internet connection setting in your Emsisoft software. If you are behind a proxy or an authentication is required, enter the information into Emsisoft program for future use. The default Internet connection setting of Emsisoft is the browser’s connection setting.

Also, ensure that the computer firewall is not blocking the communication from the program to its server. If there’s no problem with the Internet connection setting but automatic or scheduled updates won’t run, proceed to scanning the computer using another malware scanner, such as Malwarebytes or Ad-Aware free.

Updating Your Copy

The free edition of Emsisoft Anti-Malware does not include the option to schedule an update or automatically update the program and its detection signatures. The only option to update the free version of Emsisoft is to manually check for available updates. This can be done by clicking on “Update now” button in the user-interface or in the tray icon of Emsisoft Anti-Malware.

Tray Icon of Emsisoft

All available updates for licensed users are still offered for the free version, which means that your program won’t be left vulnerable. Below is an example of the available updates when I first installed and activated the program’s free edition:

Updates for Emsisoft

After installing the updates, I proceed to activate the license for the paid edition. I immediately tested the updater for the paid edition, but it did not find any new updates since the available updates were installed already when the program was in free edition mode:

Update information

Permissions, Update Logs and Update Configuration

Both editions of Emsisoft Anti-Malware provide an option to view the update logs:

Update Logs

Licensed users should see if the automatic updater in the program has done its task. If the end-user manually checks for an update, the action is also logged by the Emsisoft program.

There’s also an option to configure what updates to download and install when using Emsisoft:

  • Download and install updates for additional languages. You don’t have to enable this option if you are only using the English language version. Updates for the English language edition will continue to be served and installed whenever they are available.
  • Download and install beta program updates. It’s not recommended to choose this option unless the end-user is a product or beta-tester. It is recommended to always use the stable version in computers that you cannot afford to lose.

Another option that end-users should consider reviewing when using the Emsisoft Anti-Malware program is the permissions setting:

Permissions - General

The guest account in Windows should not have permission to manage the anti-malware program. This will prevent unwanted and unexpected changes in the program:

Permissions - Configuration

If the computer has several user accounts, simply choose the user account in the drop-down menu and then choose to allow or disallow the option to manage Emsisoft software.

References

  • Information based on author’s experience in free and paid edition of the program.

  • Product version: Emsisoft Anti-Malware v5.1.0.16

    Product information at http://www.emsisoft.de/en/software/antimalware/

  • Image credit: Screenshots generated by the author.