*emerges from PC hell*

[janne_d]

2 days ago:
- Windows security pops up, announces increasingly frightening things about trojans on my PC and then runs away beacuse I'm not registered
- McAfee finds 30 trojan things on quick scan and nothing more on full scan

1 day ago:
- McAfee pops up to say I need to update
- McAfee security centre goes 'choose what program you want to use to open this file with' instead of opening
- so do Windows Explorer, all other antimalware programs and a bunch of other stuff
- various other things (like the system info and power options via control panel) start claiming they don't exist
- I have minor heart failure and panic

Today:
- I go searching for the phrases on google and discover this happens to people all the bloody time when antivirus software gets rid of trojans
- I find several very complicated fixes that involve fiddling with the system registry
- I find 'install this file' to fix for XP on MalwareBytes forum
- it fixes it, hoorah!
- I wonder why the hell the antivirus programs don't mention this can happen and provide fixits as a matter of course...

OMG, OMG, that sucked.

I am now rushing off to buy a large backup device and copy lots of things I don't want to lose to it. (Paranoia is our friend.)

Comments

[pyrae.livejournal.com]

LOL MCAFEE. Uninstall and replace with Microsoft Security Essentials. It's like the only decent program they've made, and they've never put out an update that deleted svchost.exe resulting in a cascading false-positive system shutdown. (No seriously. lol McAfee)

[torakowalski.livejournal.com]

Ack! That sounds really scary :/

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Yes, thank you for mocking my pain :-P

Interesting recommendation though - clearly from what I googled, McAfee is by no means the only security program that causes this problem. Unfortunately I've paid for McAfee for another wee while (can't quite remember when I renew it). How expensive is Microsoft Security Essentials?

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

So, so scary *shivers*

[pyrae.livejournal.com]

I laugh at McAfee because I suffered through it a while; it's my school's official recommended security program. So when they sent out that update that deleted svchost.exe, half the school computers went kaboom. I got sick of it stealing all my cycles a little while before that, and MSE was recommended by tech-savvy friends as clean and non-shitty, not to mention free. I haven't been home to use my desktop in a few weeks, but while I was there it was non-intrusive and quiet.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

So when they sent out that update that deleted svchost.exe, half the school computers went kaboom

Oh, ouch. That must have been fun.

MSE was recommended by tech-savvy friends as clean and non-shitty, not to mention free

Free, hm? That is attractive - and so is non-intrusive. I may have to check that out.