Antivirus trashes windows

firewallblocked

firewallblocked

firewallblocked

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Tried to uninstall an out of subscription Norton Internet Security on a pc so I could install Kaspersky as pc had virus problems, after about 1 hour stuck on what looked like 99% uninstall I had to restart.

Once Vista restarted the real problems started. :(

Lots of links to files (I think it was) deleted or replaced on restart and after vista checked all the drive, eventually the normal desktop appeared with the users icons, background etc.

However now when I click on favourites NONE are there! When I check using My Computer there still where they should be. Also I can't add any new favourites. When I click on organise an error comes up, unfortunately I can't remember what it said and I may not get too look at the system again for a few days.

Does this sound like user profile is corrupted? The background, password, icons etc are the same as before the crash so I thought it must be ok.

I'm just worried now it could have corrupted Outlook Express address book and emails etc as I need to fix the system by next week.

I may have to reinstall windows once all docs are backed up. I only tried to uninstall norton so I could then backup files to external drive and leave mate to reinstall a new av program. If the outlook address book is knackered I haven't a backup of it, this was my next thing to do after uninstall of norton.

I wasn't even going to run spyware until after backup. Normally I use acronis to image drive but I wanted to backup files to external drive to allow for a smaller image.

Thanks for reading this, I dislike Vista even more now, I new get these kind of problems with xp. :)
 
It was the locked up uninstall of norton that caused the problems, as for Vista it is nothing but a pain in the butt. :(

Thank God windows 7 is here. :)

The number of problems that occur with Vista far exceed that with XP, no matter how infected or dammaged XP can normally be fixed. But with Vista it seems that almost nothing will cause it to crash and corrupt.

I have just to prove how less of a pain xp is tried to cause it to crash by turning off power at wall when running and it scanned the drive and no problems to fix after reboot.

As for windows update on Vista the number of machines I have seen that cannot update even after using Microsoft recommeded fixes for the problem.

XP is easy to repair whereas Vista is almost like an OS where the options to fix some problems are removed. When Vista runs fine it's not such a bad OS, but when it throws it's toys out of the pram it does it with passion. :)
 
I've never had a problem with Vista - I'm currently on Windows 7 and prefer it but Vista was stable and fine for me.

If you have a virus I'm going to assume that's what the problem is.

Vista was very easy to repair - boot of the CD and choose repair and away it would go - XP would reinstall the lot or use the recovery console so much harder (i.e. the MBR can be repaired easily on Vista using the above method where by you would have to use the recovery console on XP).

If you've had a virus on your PC the best advice is to wipe it and start again. Trying to repair, etc. means that you may not have got rid of the virus.



M.
 
Many thanks for your posts. :)

I realise the virus was the problem as I suspect it caused Norton to lockup although cpu usage was low at about 10% or so (not 100% as viruses often do) I didn't wish to reboot until after Norton had uninstalled but after an hour there wasn't much else to do.

I repair systems all the time with viruses, when it get this messy I go for a reinstall. It's not the need to reinstall that worried me it was the possiblity that a restart at this point would cause such dammage to Vista. I have fixed far worse XP pc's full of viruses, just to learn how they affect windows even if I then decide to reinstall.

I have Vista Home premium but I have found repair installs often won't fix all problems and often it can't repair install whereas with XP a repair install works 99% of the time.
ERD commander 2005 I often use as it is AWESOME! and can fix corrupted XP pc's even if a repair install fails. The ERD commander for Vista does not work as well. On XP this cd will allow me to go back to any restore point EVEN if the pc can't boot as far as the windows logo!

Vista is good when you give it to anyone who understands pc's to some degree however give it to novices (most of my friends at work and home) and they break it easily.

If you do fix XP pc's for family or friends you should try to get ERD commander 2005, it fixes the unfixable. :D
ERD commander 2008 is for Vista but doesn't work anywhere as good as XP version.
 
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