Possible mate the bloat on bought machines is pretty awful but personally I don't think for the time it takes to run those scans at least it is just another few possibilities eliminated and out of the way as it just may be something very simple.
But the choice is yours:)
Alright, I gave all this a shot. I'm seeing some progress. Honestly, I think it was the Adwcleaner that did the trick.
I think what I might've done wrong was, instead of deleting a key, I deleted part of a key when trying to get rid of McAfee...if that makes sense. I remember deleting entries that had the word McAfee in them, but not the entire key. I think Adwcleaner saw that and fixed the problem.
Well, I have one more computer to do this with, anyway. Another HP, this time, a TouchSmart.
Should I re-run combofix just for kicks?
Josh wait for Jacee to answer that one mate as I ma not real sure of that program and I know it has to be used with great caution.
I actually just got finished with a Combofix scan. Now, it's detecting MSE as Antivirus, as it should.
I just also remembered another problem I had, regarding System Restore. That just wasn't turned on. I just enabled it in the settings, so we'll see if that ends up working. At least now when I run it, I get a different message that says there are no restore points, yet.
Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, I think my problem is solved. Thank you everyone. I'm going to try this tomorrow on another computer and see if I can get rid of McAfee and install MSE. My end goal is to actually install Bitdefender. Saw a great deal on it for Black Friday. I read that it's one of the top Anti-virus programs, that and Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus is good, too.
Josh before you go shelling out money for a security suite mate take a look at this Best Free Antivirus Software I personally do not like MSE or AVG the others I have tested and find ok. The Bitdefender I found good and the only negative was it can be a bit "naggy".
For paid for I use Kaspersky on all my machines but the choice is yours.
Then there are these further links Probably the Best Free Security List in the World section 2 is the real time software the others are other useful tools.
I've had company here since Wednesday. Sorry for not getting back to you any sooner.
You have an old version of Combofix, please uninstall:
For Vista / Windows 7
• Click START Search
• Now type ComboFix /Uninstall in the runbox and click OK. Note the space between the X and the /, it needs to be there.
Next, I'd like you to scan your machine with ESET OnlineScan
- Hold down Control and click on the following link to open ESET OnlineScan in a new window.
ESET OnlineScan- Click the
button.
- For alternate browsers only: (Microsoft Internet Explorer users can skip these steps)
- Click on
to download the ESET Smart Installer. Save it to your desktop.
- Double click on the
icon on your desktop.
- Check
- Click the
button.
- Accept any security warnings from your browser.
- Check
- Push the Start button.
- ESET will then download updates for itself, install itself, and begin scanning your computer. Please be patient as this can take some time.
- When the scan completes, push
- Push
, and save the file to your desktop using a unique name, such as ESETScan. Include the contents of this report in your next reply.
- Push the
button.
- Push
There's a Black Friday special for BitDefender Total Security, $24 for a year, 3 PCs, until Dec. 9. Google it. I'm looking for something that will scan without you even doing any extra effort (Real-time scan). Microsoft, I believe admitted recently MSE is weak security, but it's free. It works, for now. As I said, I have another computer to do this to. The McAfee license on it expires on Friday, so I'll end up doing the same thing to it most likely. If I don't like Bitdefender, then I won't renew it next year. I had my eyes set on Webroot but then I found this deal.
No problem. Thank you for getting back to me. Hope your holidays were nice. I got to spend Thanksgiving day w/ my family.I've had company here since Wednesday. Sorry for not getting back to you any sooner.
You have an old version of Combofix, please uninstall:
For Vista / Windows 7
• Click START Search
• Now type ComboFix /Uninstall in the runbox and click OK. Note the space between the X and the /, it needs to be there.
Next, I'd like you to scan your machine with ESET OnlineScan
- Hold down Control and click on the following link to open ESET OnlineScan in a new window.
ESET OnlineScan- Click the
Anyway...I'm currently on my own computer. I tried to access that link and I keep getting some kind of pop up error on Chrome. I actually see the eset website on IE. Weird. What would I get out of running ESET Online Scanner? I've already fixed the problem.
Regarding Combofix, when I last ran it, it knew it was out of date, so it updated itself, and then continued to run.
As I said, I believe the problem has been fixed. I was able to successfully, not only install MSE, but actually launch it as well, without it crashing. The Security Center in Windows is now actually working. The problem was, getting rid of the remnants of McAfee, which I believe Adwcleaner took care of. Going through the registry myself might've done it as well, had I actually deleted keys instead of attributes of keys. Whoops! I still need to double check the registry, though because when I was trying to delete some keys, I did not have permission to do so. This was somewhere under a Root key.
Anyway, I gave the laptop back to my mother, and she said it's running much faster. No McAfee...go figure.
I'll run ESET later today and post back if I see anything. I doubt it, though.
OK I'm now running ESET Online scanner on the laptop. It's been stuck at 20% for the last hour, but it appears as if files are still being scanned...that is, I see the Files scanned number increasing and the names of the files in the Target area changing. So far, nothing. I'll post back when the scan finishes.
Edit: 1 1/2 hours later, now at 25%. Some progress in the scan. Guess it may be another couple hours.
Edit #2: Just about 2 hours into the scan, now 30% complete. Jacee thanks for posting this. Thought I could do without it but apparently, ESET has found a couple Threats. I'll post a reply when finished.
Last edited by JOSHSKORN; 01 Dec 2013 at 21:04.
Ok mate the Bitdefender is a good deal and I did post the other list but the choice is yours if I didn't have Kaspersky then I would go Bitdefender / Avast / Avira or even Comodo but again the choice is yours.
Bitdefender I found "naggy" and Comodo touch top heavy with utilities which if you happen to choose don't use they are not really worth playing with. Avast and Avira are fairly quiet to use,
I'll try Kaspersky next time around if I feel the need to do so, but for now, Bitdefender seems like a better deal.
As an update: 4 hours into the ESET scan, at 31%. I left the room and the screen went black (screen saver/power saver). Would that impact the scan? I moved the mouse around and had to log back in. The scan was still running. Can I leave this running all night? I might need to, and I believe the laptop is set to hibernate after a while of inactivity.
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