Problems with downloading Adobe Acrobat XI (11.0.07)

[wixey]

Hi thecreator,

Many thanks for telling me this - if I'd about the "check for Updates" method, I might have been able to avoid all this extra annoyance in the first place.

I don't use Reader very often and had forgotten it had this feature... hopefully it will make future updates less stressful.

[wixey]

Hi Hayton,

I ended up installing SSP alongisde Rader as FileAssassin couldnt delete the file; I got a message stating "An error occured in Function Delete File. FindRemoteFileHandles returned NULL value. This may affect deletion of file. Please report this error to the FileASSASSIN support team".

I have no idea what that means but either way the file wouldn't allow itself to be deleted.

So now I've got SSP, but so far it's been so unintrusive you wouldn't know it's there. Even so, is it okay to uninstall it via the Control Panel?

EDIT: Forgot to mention that although the new Adobe file deleted itself after installation as usual, the undeletable "missing icon" version is still in the downloads folder.

Message was edited by: wixey on 5/16/14 11:43:05 AM CDT

[moldyjacket]

Hi Wixey, I’m not going to jump in. But this sounds serious, once an infection gets past the gates it’s risky to attempt fixing the obvious problems and continuing using the current system. You’re not going to like my advice, but I’d cut my losses now and restore from trusted media (such as CD) or even better rebuild on a new clean hard drive so you can retrieve must have documents and data later (scanning first, obviously). Keep an eye on your financial and ID/password usages too if stored insecurely on the drive.

[exbrit]

Wixey yes you should uninstall SSP via Control Panel and yes, it's normal for Adobe installers to disappear once the product is installed.

Message was edited by: Ex_Brit on 16/05/14 1:53:00 EDT PM

[wixey]

Hi Hayton,

Sorry to bring this up again. Having tried the Properties>Security procedure on this download I get a message saying "You don't have permission to view this object's security properties." It then says something about "taking ownership" of the object to view them - when I try this I get an Access Denied message.

Another odd thing about this download is its size - it's only 1.02MB, whereas the "complete" one was around 70MB.

[Hayton]

Hi wixey,

  We're getting deep into the field of Windows 7 security settings and permissions, a field where angels fear to tread and where humans can become completely disorientated.

You're not the only one to encounter this "you-don't-have-permission-you-must-take-ownership" scenario, but some of the suggestions for threading the maze are clearly not universally applicable.

The closest I found to a coherent explanation is in this article -

http://www.blogsdna.com/2159/how-to-take-ownership-grant-permissions-to-access-files-folder-in-windo...

It's just a pity that the author struggles at times with the English language. I almost lost the thread in a couple of places, but by following the steps on the Security properties of a file in Windows 7 it became (mostly) clear. See what you think, anyway.

As for the file you're trying to delete it's only the 1Mb installer for Reader, not Reader itself. There's no icon (favicon) associated with the file, which is strange; the filename is different by one character from the successfully-downloaded file, which may not really be significant.

And yes, you should be able to uninstall Security Scan Plus from within Programs and Features (from Control Panel).

[wixey]

Hi Hayton,

Thanks for going to all that trouble to find out about this. I (mostly) got what the article was saying, but still haven't had any luck at deleting the incomplete download. I hadn't noticed the difference in file name until you pointed that out... any ideas why it's different?

As long as it's not going to cause problems, I can live with it, especally as it hardly takes up any space.

Uninstalled SSP via the control panel without any problems.

[Hayton]

Well, as I see it then you have a choice between wiping the disk and rebuilding everything and spending a week downloading updates ... or just ignoring the undeleteable file and not worrying about it.

<shrug>

Life's too short. If it's not doing anything, leave it. Maybe you'll figure out a way to delete it later.

[wixey]

Hi Hayton,

I finally managed to delete the installer. After contacting Malwarebytes, they suggested running FileAssassin in Safe Mode, which worked.

[moldyjacket]

Since you didn’t mark this thread as answered, I assume you are still looking for input. The fact you had to be in Safe Mode should tell you something and I noticed before your system has been exposed to several other things in the past.