Im at work (Hotel, night shift), and action center just told me that MSE was disabled and should turn it back on. So I clicked on it and it wouldn't let me, it was greyed out. Decided to run it from the exe and I couldn't find it. Checked CCleaner and it wasn't in my startup list! It was completely uninstalled from my system. I downloaded it again and installed it fine. Should I be concerned?
Yes you should be concerned. Seem like a malware disabled and uninstalled it. Try running a secondary scanner like malwarebytes and hitman pro to see if it catches something.
Downloaded Malwarebytes and ran a full scan. It didn't find anything. So now I have to worry about my anti-virus disappearing?
It sounds like someone may have inadvertently deleted it. Not that you shouldn't keep a careful eye on the PC from this point. The fact that you could re-install MSE is good since it won't install if there are certain viruses present in the system.
Does anyone else have access to the computer aside from you?
If you want to run Malwarebytes in safe mode, that wouldn't hurt. Also, you can try Norton Power Eraser:
Norton Rescue Tools
Make sure you Google anything that pops up with this scanner that you're not sure about as it is an aggressive tool.Because Norton Power Eraser uses aggressive methods to detect threats, there is a risk that it can select some legitimate programs for removal. You should use this tool very carefully.
Post back if you see it disappear again.
No, I'm the only one that uses it, and I saw the little icon disappear when action center said it was disabled so I know it was installed. I'm going to re-install windows, I've been meaning to anyways. I've uninstalled so many things and its a netbook so it gets really slow. Thanks for the help.
Re-installing will give you a clean start.
And don't forget to install/run Malwarebytes on a regular basis.
I think computer users must be concerned about security all the time no exceptions, but not get paranoid.
in this case there is possibility that a virus disabled antivirus installed a rootkit to hide it self and then allowed to reinstall antivirus software but remained hidden behind a rootkit.
good thing to do is to load antivirus from safe mode or even better from boot media, so that rootkit is not active in system.
* Please list ALL the Security software you are currently using including any preloaded Anti Virus that may have been installed on your computer when new.
* FYI - If you ever think your Registry needs to be cleaned, repaired, boosted, tuned-up, cured, tweaked, fixed, or optimized it shouldn't.
In other words, injudicious use ofCCleaner / or any other "Registry cleaner" may have caused your problem.
No registry cleaner is completely safe and the potential is ever present to cause more problems than they claim to fix.
THEREFORE
If you do not have knowledge of the registry, then you would probably be better off leaving it alone, and definitely not placing blind trust in a program to do the job for you.
* BTW - Re the Norton Power Eraser mentioned above - Be cautious - think / read carefully about it before using.
Last edited by JMH; 30 Jul 2011 at 21:20.
Hi,
I'm in agreement with Borg : it is highly unlikely a piece of malware would unistall MSE so completely, that you could reinstall it again without any problems. It was probably intentionally uninstalled by another user. It hasn't been asked yet, but are you using a password to login into the computer, and if so, are you sure no-one else knows what it is? Are there other user accounts on this computer?
Regards,
Golden
Orli,
Be sure to use a password to log on.
Use WIN + L to lock the keyboard anytime you step away for as little as a second from your netbook.
WIN is the key with the wavy microsoft flag on top.
Use the least instrusive, least problematic, and free anti-virus software there is, namely, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). Link in my sig.
MSE is the only av i use, i install, i recommend.
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