Strange McAfee program icon on taskbar

[lnerenbu]

I am in the process of a W7 pro install due to XP going out of support. Yesterday, I installed CDEX and afterwards was directed to SourceForge suggesting a payment.  I made a payment thru paypal and it returned me to a download-install.com page.  I wasn't paying close attention and there was a big green download bar.  Thinking I was back at source forge, and this was for an updated CDEX version, I clicked and a dialog box opened telling me to run a program when prompted. The prompt never came. I closed the box and noticed on my taskbar a program icon that showed an open cardboard box with the McAfee shield in it.  I never saw that icon before with McAfee. 

I right clicked on it and it gave me the choices 'McAfee Site Advisor' and 'close'.  Clicking on either seemed to do nothing and I realized that this could have been some kind of malware and something bad just might have happened. I shut down my machine and restored a Norton Ghost copy from earlier yesterday (when I install an OP SYS I take lots of Ghost copies along the way so that if there is a problem I can easily revert to an earlier state).  That should have taken care of any malware (unless it was a MBR virus).  I also, using a different machine, changed my paypal password (and increased their security verification for me).

I saw this program icon on the taskbar again yesterday when I was downloading MVT.  It was replaced by the usual MVT icon.  This made me wonder if this was part of McAfee.  Unfortunately I did not think to take a picture of it.

I called McAfee support and they were no help as far as confirming or denying that the taskbar program icon was or was not part of McAfee.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

I just downloaded MVT, on another computer,  and that McAfee shield in an open cardboard box appeared.  It stayed until I clicked AGREE to the terms of MVT and disappeared once MVT started running.  It was replaced by the MVT icon.  Had the other computer not been networked with the PC that I saw this originally on I'd be fairly certain this was part of McAfee.  I did take a picture in case no one has seen this before.  I suspect that, if a McAfee tech reads this, they will confirm that the McAfee-shield-in-a-cardboard-box icon is part of McAfee.

Message was edited by: lnerenbu on 3/31/14 10:28:29 PM GMT-05:00

[lnerenbu]

With all the McAfee guru's out there I am surprised that, out of 51 people who viewed this post, no one can answer whether the program icon showing the McAfee shield in a cardboard box is McAfee or some kind of spoof (or malware).  I never recall seeing it in the past when I downloaded/installed MVT.

I am attaching a picture of what shows on the taskbar.

[Hayton]

The icon is one normally associated with one specific type of McAfee executable file - a download manager or installer

although anyone can spoof an icon.

MVT would show this icon in the first stages of downloading and installing, then the icon would change once the MVT executable was ready to run.

Given the sequence of events outlined in your first post it's impossible to say whether what you saw in the system tray (or taskbar) was the icon for a genuine McAfee program. If you did a restore you should be okay, I would have thought. If it were me though ('cos I'm naturally suspicious of things like that) I'd run a couple of scans, including one from someone other than McAfee, just to make sure everything was normal.

Message was edited by: Hayton on 03/04/14 04:55:49 IST