"Preparing Security Options" Errors

At least once a month over the past 8 months, the message "Preparing Security Options" appears on my screen. These three words of the message are displayed in large white letters on a Microsoft Blue background.

My question is whether anyone has experienced the same issue, particulalry on a recurring basis; and how did you overcome it without reimaging?

The symptoms I experience during each occurrence include all or some of the following:

• My system freezes momentarily and my mouse and keyboard are non-responsive.
• I find my AV client (Microsoft Security Essentials) and/ or my Windows Firewall disabled (both of which had previously been running). My AV found no viruses in real-time or during a full system scan.
• Different system services that had been running cannot be restarted (i.e. SQL Server).
• USB device drivers associated with my mobile devices cannot be installed/re-installed.
• My Windows OS may not restart
• Windows updates cannot be installed because essential Windows systems files become corrupted.

My system environment is:

• Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit (build 7600)
• Microsoft Security Essentials (AV)
• HP Pavilion, 2 Ghz, 2GB RAM

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Hi, Spector. Welcome to Seven Forums.

To determine whether the issue that you are experiencing is caused by one or more system files that are used by Windows, run the System File Checker tool. The System File Checker tool scans system files and replaces incorrect versions of the system files by using the correct versions.

To run the System File Checker tool, follow these steps:

• Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.
• Right-click cmd in the Programs list, and then click Run as administrator.
• If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue
• At the command prompt, type the following line, and then press ENTER:
  sfc /scannow (note the space before the backslash)
• If errors are found, run the tool again (up to 3 times) with a restart between each run.

Hi Corrine;

Thanks for your suggestion. I ran that System File Utility several times and I'm happy to report that it didn't find any incompatible or corrupted system files. Concerned about a possible virus, I also ran Kasperksy's "tdskiller", followed by a deep scan with my Microsoft Security Essentials client; however, neither AV tool detected any malware. As previously mentioned, dealing with corrupted system files and my system registry has been a recurring problem, despite clean system reimaging and re-installing software bits directly from the original product DVDs.

Please suggest any additional tools/utilities that you think might help me.

Best regards

Hi, Spector.

I'm going to consult with the folks that deal with Crashes and Debugging because in my research I've seen the "Preparing Security Options" related to hardware problems.

Thanks to everyone for your responses and recommendations. In addition to your suggestions, advice that I have also gotten outside this forum has drawn me to the following conclusion:

The recurring error, "Preparing Security Solutions" that has been surfacing on several of my systems is NOT a valid Windows 7 error. It is a message that is being generated by a virus that has been cleverly engineered to masquerade as a valid system program. And according to the intelligence that I've gotten, this is the reason that the virus was not detected with the latest anti-malware signatures of AV tools that I've been running (Security Essentials/Kaspersky) in real-time and deep scanning modes. Disabled boot sectors, systems files and system processes have been fatal symptoms of the virus.

This virus has been so cleverly devised that normally effective anti-malware tools like MalwareBytes have not been useful in detecting/removing the problem.

So, rather than further pursuing what appeared to be OS related issues, I am now laser focused on pinpointing this virus, so the appropriate AV signatures can be created.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Hi,

I get the problem once or twice a day, and it's realy ennoying.
I did the system sweeper and here is the log file.

I hope you guys can help me.

2shared - download Support.rar

Thank you,
Zanpaku