MS Security Essentials PowerShell Updater

I have MS Security Essentials (MSSE) installed on my netbook and was looking on bing/google on any scripts/apps that will update it more often and not through Microsoft Update (MU). I stumbled upon: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/mseupdate/thread/ef8051c7-b133-4cd5-ab32-ca10d61fe223 and got me thinking on how can I do the same thing a bit better and in powershell-style than command/batch scripting.

Prerequisite:
1) WGET for Windows: http://users.ugent.be/~bpuype/wget/
2) Setting your PowerShell Execution Policy to Unrestricted by:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

or put this into a cmd/batch file:

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -file Update-MSSE.ps1

The Actual powershell script, Update-MSSE.ps1:

$arch = (gwmi win32_operatingsystem).osarchitecture
$pth ="D:\" #set to the path where wget.exe is stored
$dwnld = "false"
$lnkID = "0"

if ($arch -eq "32-bit"){
$lnkID = "87342"
$dwnld = "True"
} elseif ($arch -eq "64-bit") {
$lnkID = "87341"
$dwnld = "True"
} else {
echo "Error! OS Architecture not found!"
pause
break
}

if ($dwnld -eq "true"){
Start-Process -wait cmd.exe -ArgumentList ("/c " + $pth + "wget.exe -q -N http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID="+$lnkID)
if ((Test-Path .\mpam-fe.exe) -eq "True") {
Start-Process -wait .\mpam-fe.exe -ArgumentList "-q"
} elseif ((Test-Path .\mpam-fex64.exe) -eq "True") {
Start-Process -wait .\mpam-fex64.exe -ArgumentList "-q"
}
}

and you can automate this by creating a task in task manager to run this script as often as you want.

Day 1 of 90 of Windows Phones 6.5

Background:
I am a former windows mobile user, former palm os user and now happy iphone user. Recently, one of my developer friends, Kevin Wolf (you can visit his blog: http://new.efficientcoder.net/), tried to talked me into believing Windows Mobile (WM/WinMo) 6.5 is better than iphone. Being a happy iphone user I am, I still was not convinced based on my prior experiences with Windows Mobile 2003 SE and 6.0. I told him that I wouldn't mind trying WM 6.5 for 90 days but I need a device to test and he generously agreed to loan me one: Samsung Epix from AT&T (upgraded from 6.1 -> 6.5). I will be blogging my experiences of WinMo from a current iphone user point of view over the next 90 days.

You maybe asking why 90 days? Answer is simple, for me it is shortest time needed to get a long-term feel of WM 6.5 by going thru paces of my life.

Initial Impressions:
The Home screen looked very Zune-like, menus completely changed to be more finger-friendly. After using iphone so long, you forgot the ability of multitasking, ability to install anything w/o going thru app store, ability to customize the OS and having a physical keyboard. One neat thing of what Samsung has done to Epix is a mini-touchpad to control a on-screen mouse cursor, which makes the use of the stylus essentially pointless, but it took me a while to get the hang of using the mini-touchpad and mouse cursor.

Later Impressions:
After using it for a short time, the initial impression wore off and felt more of the same (WM 6.0). It was sluggish, inconsistent, and subtle annoyances such as opening a settings and constant need of doing start->settings->{system, personal, connections, actual options} to reopen the settings panel. My impressions changed a bit after getting readjusted to its quarks, inconsistency and etc. MS has made some changes in 6.5 to make it more finger friendly but every now and then, still reminds you of 6.0.

Now I don't want to sound too negative here, Windows Mobile has made some progress from 6.0 -> 6.5 (such as IE is updated from 4.x to 6.0), adding a centralized app store, MyPhones and better ecosystem (such as Opera Mobile 10 Beta 1, Skyfire browser, Facebook app compared to a year ago, there were Opera 9.0/9.5 Betas, Facebook had to be accessed from Facebook mobile site and I am not sure on status of Skyfire then).

Conclusion:
Still got 89 days to go and more exploring, configuration and research to do. I will blog again on Day 7 with more of my experiences.

Day 1 overall impressions on WM 6.5: (1=Worst, 5=Best) 2.0/5.o

Mentions:
Paul Thurott also wrote a review of his experiences of WM 6.5 from iphone and covers what's new in WM 6.5: http://www.winsupersite.com/mobile/wm65.asp