Security Essentials Offline Update Windows Embedded Standard

Question

I am having issues with the manual update of MSE as per these instructions:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/971606/how-to-manually-download-the-latest-definition-updates-for-microsoft-s

This is on a machine HMI that is connected to a network (no internet access) that allows remote dial in for machine support by the manufacturer and our own engineers.

We had no issue with this update process between Jan 2019 and October 2019, but have been unable to update since then.

I spoke to some one at Microsoft yesterday who suggested I uninstall and re install MSE. I did this, but the issue persists. We are actually in a worse position now as before the uninstall/reinstall process we had definitions date Oct 2019, but now we don't have any definitions.

I don't get any errors or feedback from the attempted manual update process.