Good evening,
I've made 5 attempts today to view the list of PUP's in the Quarantined & Trusted Items section. EVERY single time, all that occcurs is this bar icon in the middle of the screen just keeps going around and around in a circular pattern and NOTHING is ever displayed, except a dialog box opens after about 20 minutes which states, "A script on this page is causing IE to run slowly. Allowing it to continue to run may cause your computer to become unresponsive."
THAT is exactly what McAfee is doing...freezin-up my computer! I have tried stopping the script from running; tried allowing the script to continue running; tried ending all activity via Task Manager; pressing the <CTRL>, <ALT>, <DEL> buttons...all to no avail. My computer is just totally unresponsive. The ONLY way I have been able to get back in is to disconnect the power cord from the wall, replug it back in, then reboot.
I read in a post elsewhere on this site (response posted by Jaydeep NR of McAfee)...in which he was telling a forum member to go in to the C:\Program Data\McAfee\VirusScan\Quarantine...and clear the folder by deleting ALL the files in it and try to open the "Quarantine and Trusted Items again. I have checked the VirusScan file mentioned above and there is NO folder or file within it entitled, "Quarantine." ALL the files with this folder appear to be directly related to the operational function of the McAfee software.
(I have already run CCleaner, deleted my browsing history & cookies under the Internet Options in the Control Panel; defragmented the hard drive, and done a manual check for McAfee updates. I have a Dell Dimension Mid Tower model, using WIN XP Professional, SP3, 32-bit, 3.00 Ghz CPU. The McAfee AV software is provided by Cox Communications (my ISP).
I would appreciate it if someone out there could provide me with some enlightenment as to HOW to:
1. Display the PUP's in the Quarantined/Trusted items sections-
2. Delete items out of there AND how to determine WHICH PUP's I should NOT delete-
Thanks very much in advance for any help!
Solved! Go to Solution.
It seems that lot of PUP and tracking cookies are quarantined and that’s whyMcAfee taking this much time and freezing up while trying to display the list of PUP.
You can clear all the PUP and tracking cookies manually by going to “c:\documents and settings\all users\application data\mcafee\virusscan\quarantine “ in Windows XP and delete all the files inside the Quarantine folder. Make sure to disable Access Protection (McAfee >> Navigation >> General settings and Alerts>> Access Protection ) before deleting the files and revert back to active after deleting the files.
It seems that lot of PUP and tracking cookies are quarantined and that’s whyMcAfee taking this much time and freezing up while trying to display the list of PUP.
You can clear all the PUP and tracking cookies manually by going to “c:\documents and settings\all users\application data\mcafee\virusscan\quarantine “ in Windows XP and delete all the files inside the Quarantine folder. Make sure to disable Access Protection (McAfee >> Navigation >> General settings and Alerts>> Access Protection ) before deleting the files and revert back to active after deleting the files.
Good morning Jayadeep!
Just wanted to express my sincerest thanks to you for providing the info that has now resolved the problem I posted about! There were over 24,000 items in that "Quarantine" folder, by the way. This situation had gotten to the point that at 6:15 a.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time) this morning, my computer opened a dialog box stating that the "virtual memory" was too low.
There are two remaining questions I have for you:
1. Do I now need to go into that "Quarantine" folder on a regular basis & delete the files in it?
2. There was ONE file I did NOT delete in the "Quarantine" folder - - it was named: mcqt.txt. Since all the other 24,000 files I did delete had the file extension of .bup - - I wasn't sure if it was safe to delete this one remaining file with a different extension. Is it safe to go ahead and delete that last file?
Again, thank you very much for providing the solution to the problem I WAS having!
(Oh yes...I made certain to go back in the General Settings section in Security Center to re-enable the "Access Protection" I had disabled prior to the file deletions).
Message was edited by: spc3rd on 5/20/11 8:15:00 AM ADT1. Do I now need to go into that "Quarantine" folder on a regular basis & delete the files in it?
Ans: No, you may please clear the tracking cookies and PUPs from Quarantines and Trusted items from McAfee once in a weak and there is no need to go to the same location anymore.
2. There was ONE file I did NOT delete in the "Quarantine" folder - - it was named: mcqt.txt. Since all the other 24,000 files I did delete had the file extension of .bup - - I wasn't sure if it was safe to delete this one remaining file with a different extension. Is it safe to go ahead and delete that last file?
Ans: You may please leave that file in the folder and check for Quarantines and Trusted items from McAfee and delete any files are remained there.
O.K....thanks very much again for all the help!
I have the same issue on windows 7. I deleted all the .bup files, (1600+), but there is also a file called Quarantine.db in this folder (c: > ProgramData > Mcafee > VirusScan > Quarantine.
It is about 8M in size.
Should this file be delete as well? I guess this database file relates in some way to the .bup file and I guess it should be deleted as well.
Will it get recreated at some point?
Advice appreciated
The agreed instructions are as follows. Appears delete all that is in the folder is what is suggested
When there are too many files in quarantine the deletion jams up. You can physically remove them from within the Windows environment.
First double-click the taskbar icon to open SecurityCenter
Click Navigation (top right)
Click General Settings & Alerts (left)
Click Access Protection to expand that section
Uncheck Access Protection and click Apply
Leave SecurityCenter open on your desktop because you should re-enable Access Protection after the following steps.
Go to C:\ProgramData\McAfee\VirusScan\Quarantine and click Edit/Select All
Click Shift and Delete simultaneously and the folder should empty.
Take care to delete only the contents of that folder, not the folder itself.
Re-enable Access Protection as mentioned above and click Apply and then exit SecurityCenter.
Those instructions are for Vista/Windows 7.
For XP the folder is found at: C:\Documents & Settings\All Users\Application Data\McAfee\Virusscan
*You can reduce their number in future considerably if you are prepared to accept Tracking Cookies. Those enable websites to remember your sign-in details etc.
With SecurityCenter open click Virus and Spyware Protection to expand that section.
Click Real-Time Scanning
Click Settings and scroll down to Tracking Cookies
Uncheck that and click Apply.
*Footnote: the latest versions no longer quarantine Tracking Cookies anyway as they are harmless.
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