Windows 7: Unable to make Adobe Flash Player work

Whem using administrator user, it works, with any other user get's the message I must install it!

I also discovered that the firewall was disabled. Only using administrator account was able to make it work!

And almost the same with the antivirus: only makes updates using the administrator account!

Anyone could help?

Hello Joao and welcome to Seven Forums.

I would uninstall Adobe Flash using the official Adobe uninstaller. Flash has been known to have security issues and when something disables the firewall my first thought is malware. You can always reinstall the latest version of Adobe Flash later on.

Uninstall Flash Player | Windows

Adobe - Install Adobe Flash Player

Now run a full scan with whatever antivirus suite you have installed. Make sure you have the latest updates. No anti-virus product is 100% effective 100% of the time. It's always a good idea to run some additional on-demand scanners. These are recommended and they are all free. If your machine does have malware, I'd suggest using Windows Defender Offline first. It can scan your machine before booting into the operating system so malware has less of a chance to hide. Make the bootable disk on a different computer - one that you know is not infected. Even if WDO comes back clean, I'd still run the other scans "just in case."

Windows Defender Offline

Malwarebytes

ESET Online Scanner

If all scans come back clean I would next check for damaged or corrupt system files. Run a system file checker scan from an elevated command prompt (option two.) If any problems are found, run the scan 3 times and reboot the computer after each scan.

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Please post back if anything helped or not.

Hi marsmimar,


Thanks for your help!


Had no pen or cd during the day, so tried some of the others. With AVG I got some rootkits caught! But it is unable to erase them automaticaly.


After arriving home started the windows defender offline analysis. The short one was clear, the other is being done. Some 9 or 10 hours, so I´ll tell the results only tomorrow.


Best Regards

I'll keep watching this thread. Take your time and run all the scans to see what else might be on your machine.

Hi!

Malwarebytes and ESET: No threats found

AVG: yes - made upload of the results.

Now I'm going to do the system file checker scan.

The result after 7 system file checker scan - still have problems. Made the upload of the CBS.Log of the last 3.

From what I can see in the cbs.log your computer has several important files that have been damaged or corrupted. After 7 runs it's unlikely that the system file checker scan will be able to repair them. And that means you're going to have a hard decision to make.

I suspect the damage was caused in part by malware. Once a computer becomes infected there's no way to be 100% sure that all traces of the malware have been removed. The malware can be so deeply embedded that all malware scans miss it. And it's capturing information like credit card numbers, passwords, etc. Reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows 7 (along with all of your other installed programs) is suggested. Here are two tutorials to explain more:

Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

Clean Install Windows 7

Another possibility is restoring your computer to factory specs. You might have a hidden recovery partition on the hard drive. Or you might have made a set of recovery disks when you first got the computer. A recovery would have the same effect as reformatting/reinstalling.

A third possibility, and the least destructive, would be a repair install. This would fix your currently installed Windows 7 and preserve your user accounts, data, programs, system drivers, etc. The problem here is you still wouldn't know for sure that all traces of malware have been removed.

Repair Install

For a clean install or a repair install you'll need an actual copy of the Windows 7 installation media (not a system repair disk or a set of recovery disks.) Since many computers no longer come with the install disk, you can download an official Microsoft ISO file from Digital River and then burn that ISO to a DVD. You will also need the 25-digit Product Key to reactivate your computer with Microsoft. The Product Key is on the COA sticker usually located on the bottom of the notebook or under the battery in the battery compartment.

Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life

So this is the hard decision ... how do you want to proceed?

Hi,

Thanks for your help.

I think I'm gonna reinstall. Probably in 2 or 3 days.

But I need some help. Is it possible to make a backup of the mail? I use windows live mail 2011. And my internet favourites?

Best Regards

Caution.
All backup could be infected also.

Run all the stuff plus stinger in the second computer - CLEAN.

Now running in the external disk where I got all the files I want to keep. After I'm gonna make a copy of the Windows 7 installation media in my son's computer (new and verifyed)