An update to the Anti Malware Service for Windows XP is causing systems to slow down and hang. The update released to all users of Microsoft's anti-malware software Microsoft Security Essentials (MSSE).
On the 8th of April Microsoft ended support for Windows XP and since then only provides updates to MSSE to bring some security to Windows XP users. As the company no longer fixes security issues and releases patches it will likely be a matter of time until malware developers find loopholes in the outdated OS. XP users can only resort to using anti-malware software like Security Essentials.
Yesterday Microsoft released a new version of their Antimalware Engine to all Microsoft Security Essentials, Forefront Client Security, Forefront Endpoint Protection, Windows Intune Endpoint Protection, and Windows System Center Endpoint Protection customers.
Unfortunately the update causes issues, and Microsoft recommends to disable Behavior Monitoring, a feature that monitors the system for patterns of suspicious activity in real time.
Obviously a better solution for all those Windows XP users would be upgrading to a newer OS but millions of users around the world still use it. Besides Security Essentials, there are still third party anti-virus vendors that support XP which can provide some additional protection to MSSE.
