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woody79_00
Former Member
Message 1 of 2

McAfee broke my Windows Sidebar (Vista x64)

I have been running McAfee software for quite awhile. Comcast (My ISP) has offered McAfee for quite sometime. When they switched from McAfee to Norton, I opted to purchase McAfee software instead of going with Norton because I prefer McAfee over it. I have ran even the 2010 version of McAfee with no isses since it has been released on this vista x64 machine until today.

I never turn this computer off except to reboot it for windows updates, its sitting behind a dedicated firewall box and has run without issue for almost two years.

I come home from work today greeted with a message saying im not protcted, real-time protection was turned off, and McAfee was pretty much borked. I also noticed my Windows Sidebar was closed for some reason. I figured The computer just needed a reboot(sometimes things happen as I am an experienced IP Pro and network administrator)

Upon reboot of the PC McAfee was still borked, but it also completely DECIMATED my windows sidebar. My clock was all messed up, the 4 default gadjets I use that ship with windows vista were all blank boxes, and my clock was just a black blob with a hour hand on it. I have never seen a sidebar so borked and messed up.

The computer also just sat and chewed CPU to no end.

I have lected to remove McAfee which I did through the Add/Remove Programs, and then followed it up with running the MCPR tool to ensure it was completely removed, however My Windows sidebar was still messed up.

To fix the issues I had to run a Elevated command prompt and perform the following steps:

1. close windows sidebar.

2. Click Start type cmd in the search box, right-click on cmd and select run as administrator

3. in the elevated command line type the following commands one at a time:

regsvr32 msxml3.dll

regsvr32 scrrun.dll

regsvr32 jscript.dll

4: open windows sidebar.

This fixed the issue with Windows Sidebar, however I am a bitupset. I ran total Security with the default McAfee reccommended settings, and it tried its best to bork my computer all by itself. This is unacceptable. I posted the fix in this thread because it may come in handly in the future if this happens to anyone else. I need this computer to complete important work and all I ask is McAfee's software to do its job, nothing more. The older versions ran great, I never seen anything like this with other versions.

I understand you guys have had a headache with the False Positive Issue( which my notebook was effected, but I fixed it myself and want no compensation from McAfee, I understand it happens sometimes and you guys deserve the benefit of the doubt, its not like that is a regular occurance with you guys. In my opinion folks made too much of a fuss over it and I don't think it was as bad as many people overstated it greatly. It was trival to fix)

However. McAfee mcsheild.exe crashed on my notebook sunday morning upon boot up and corrupted my user profile in Windows XP SP3 fully patched (thank goodness for a clean backup image) This is not to mention that after the last two product updates, my antispamjust disappears from my mail client, and I am forced to run regsvr32 on the dll in the McAfee folder to get it back (actually resorted to setting up a .vbscript file to do this for me) I even have worked around the McSvhost.exe shutdown error on my notebook.

I have put up with a lot from McAfee during this hard time you guys have been having with the 2010 version of your software,I have been patient. I even bought a copy when Comcast quit offering it because I liked it so much and have used it so long I have gotten used to it and like it, but this 2010 release has been a diaster.

What exactly is going on here? i mean you guys are McAfee, you guys been around forever, you guys are supposed to be one of the top security companies in the world. why has this 2010 release been such a total diaster?  I can't possibly run this software on my computer at this point, how can i trust its not going to bork my computer again? this machine is critical for me.

I have thus turned off my auto renewal settings, and i am not going to decide to renew until I see if you guys are going to sort out this mess. I am going to set back and see if you guys update this software and fix these issues. I am currently running a few free AV offerings at the moment until I see exactly what is going on here with this software. I am not going to whine and say I want my money back and all that, All I want is an explanation.

what is going on with the 2010 releases? why is everyone having so many problems and just what exactly is going on?

I may be swayed to change my mind if someone would step forward and shows us that you guys are going to fix the issues with this 2010 software. Why can't we roll back to an older version if 2010 is having so many problems?

Thank you for your time.

1 Reply
woody79_00
Former Member
Message 2 of 2

Re: McAfee broke my Windows Sidebar (Vista x64)

Also to note:

My computer is not infected with any malware.

I ran full-scans with MalwareBytes Anti-Malware in safe mode with updated definitions

I also ran Trend Micro Online Scan

Super AntiSpyware full scan

Microsoft Malicious software Removal Tool (May 2010)

Aviria found no viruses on this machine either.

This is just an FYI

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