Microsoft Security Essentials by Microsoft

What is Microsoft Security Essentials?

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Overview

How do I clean Microsoft Security Essentials?

Microsoft Security Essentials may store excess, temporary data on your computer that can take up valuable space. It may also store private data such as passwords or browsing history in the registry or on the file system. The easiest way to erase this data is by downloading AppCleaner, it is 100% free and about 1MB in size. A portable version is also available.

Clean Microsoft Security Essentials
with AppCleaner

If you want to clean Microsoft Security Essentials manually, you can follow the steps outlined below. There are ten locations in the file system where Microsoft Security Essentials stores data that can be cleaned.

Files

To clean your file system from files stored by Microsoft Security Essentials and to gain free disk space, examine the following file system locations. First of all, open a command prompt window:

• Hit the Windows key , usually located in the lower left of your keyboard between the Ctrl and Alt keys.
• Windows XP/Vista/7: Click Run...
• Type cmd
• Hit Enter

Now list all the files stored by Microsoft Security Essentials that can be cleaned:

1. Type dir /s %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Microsoft Antimalware\LocalCopy\*
   • Windows XP: Type dir /s %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft Antimalware\LocalCopy\*
2. Type dir /s %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Microsoft Antimalware\Scans\History\Service\*.log
   • Windows XP: Type dir /s %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft Antimalware\Scans\History\Service\*.log
3. Type dir %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Microsoft Security Client\Support\MSSecurityClient*.log
   • Windows XP: Type dir %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft Security Client\Support\MSSecurityClient*.log
4. Type dir /s %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore\ProgramData\Microsoft\Microsoft Antimalware\LocalCopy\*
   • Windows XP: Type dir /s %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\VirtualStore\ProgramData\Microsoft\Microsoft Antimalware\LocalCopy\*
5. Type dir /s %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore\ProgramData\Microsoft\Microsoft Antimalware\Scans\History\Service\*.log
   • Windows XP: Type dir /s %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\VirtualStore\ProgramData\Microsoft\Microsoft Antimalware\Scans\History\Service\*.log
6. Type dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore\ProgramData\Microsoft\Microsoft Security Client\Support\MSSecurityClient*.log
   • Windows XP: Type dir %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\VirtualStore\ProgramData\Microsoft\Microsoft Security Client\Support\MSSecurityClient*.log
7. Type dir %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Microsoft Antimalware\Network Inspection System\Support\NisLog.txt.bak
   • Windows XP: Type dir %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft Antimalware\Network Inspection System\Support\NisLog.txt.bak
8. Type dir %WinDir%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Temp\MpCmdRun.log
9. Type dir %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\Temp\MpCmdRun.log
10. Type dir %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\NetworkService.NT*
11. For all the folders that were listed in the previous step:
    Type dir {folder}\Temp\MpCmdRun.log where {folder} is one of the folders listed in the previous step.

Once you have identified the files stored by Microsoft Security Essentials that you want to clean, delete them using the del command or Windows Explorer.

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