my computer is infected with viruses but mcafee can't detect it. i can not install any software?

Question

hello, i bought this laptop with windows vista premium. it came with mcafee anti virus and running everyday. it tells me that my computer is fine and protected. the trouble is that i am unabled to install any adobe sofware because something prevents me from doing it. i took it to best buy and they said that my computer has viruses. i bought this computer just a month ag and do not want to spend another $200 for repair. why can't mcafee find virus in my computer and what i can do to clean it? i really appreciate your answer.

Answer 1

I have mcafee to and i think it's a terrible program. I am having the same problem as you with adobe downloads but in my case i don't think it's anything to do with mcafee. I downloaded a version of photoshop from an ( lets just say ) undesirable site which didn't work so i uninstalled ever since then i have been unable to download from Adobe. Perhaps it left something on my computer , i really don't know and it's annoying. You did not say if your laptop was new or second hand , but if it's second hand you might have the same problem as me.

Answer 2

Hi, You should be fine doing that, but you probably should disable the auto protect mode of McAfee before installing AVG. If you don't do this, then you may find the two will conflict during bootup or at some random time when computer is running, because although the definitions may not be updatable for McAfee, it can still scan for virus using the definitions it currently has. If McAfee ends up scanning at same time as AVG this could cause conflicts. Regards, TgTips

Answer 3

Have you disabled the user account control. If not Vista will not allow you to install some software. The shop that told you you have viruses does not know anything about Vista. In addition if you have not been running you McAfee scans then how do you know that there are no viruses. To check you user account status type UAC into the help and support file that comes with windows. Follow the instructions to turn off the UAC

Answer 4

Its possible that your user profile is not set up to allow the installation of programs. If you have more than 1 user setup for the computer, the other users may be restricted in what can and can not be done. Viruses generally do not prohibit the installation of programs. (some do prevent the install of anti-virus programs, but they generally dont prevent the install of adobe)



Are you the only user of the computer??? When it boots, does it go straight to windows, or are you greeted with a screen with several users to select from.????

Answer 5

Every computer needs its own diagnosis and solution. Basically wot im saying is although all the answers written above are more or less correct, none of them knows exactly what the problem is coz they dont have access to your system.



What I suggest is visiting a support forum like Major Geeks (http://forums.majorgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35) and creating a thread explaining to them what you just explained here. You might also want to mention that ur pretty sht when it comes to computers so they can work with you on a basic level.



Hope that helped.

Answer 6

What i find from what you have put forward that rather than a virus issue there is a issue with your Mcafee and the way access rights are being handled by McCafee..



I find that playing with the McCafee will resolve your resolve, although i wont be able to figure out the exact issue with your setting but try approaching http://www.iyogi.co.uk/install-antivirus.html they are support McCafee

Answer 7

because mcafee and norton products are useless uninstall and get avast free home , my uncle is a it engineer and done test on his test computer and it showed avast has a 9% better virus detection rate than norton and 11% better than mcafee , also mcafee hogs ur system , so i suggest avast and get some spyware/malware too superantispyware and malware bytes all r free

Answer 8

No anti malware application is perfect. The majority will miss the odd infection but if you download, install and run these free applications you stand a very good chance of cleaning your system. Try them in the order given for the best results. The full scans will take many hours to complete but it will be worth it.



MalwareBytes from:

http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/

Do a quick scan first followed by a full scan



A Squared Free from:

http://www.filehippo.com/download_asquared/

Do a quick scan first followed by a deep scan.



Spybot Search and Destroy from:

http://www.filehippo.com/download_spybot_search_destroy/



Spyware Doctor Starter Edition from:

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/downloads/2213005/spyware-doctor-starter-edition



Spyware Terminator from:

http://www.filehippo.com/download_spyware_terminator/



Good luck

wdw

Answer 9

I suggest you run a scan with malwarebytes .



you can get malwarebytes here,

this is a direct download link

so you should have no trouble getting it.

click on this link ↓ and then select run.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/affiliates/2-spyware/mbam-setup.exe

INSTALL IT TO YOUR DESKTOP, update it,

then run a full scan and remove everything it finds.



some viruses will try to disable it

so if malwarebytes will not start up

then go into the folder it is in and rename the mbam file to XXX

then double click on the file you just renamed to start it up.



after you have used malwarebytes then do this online scan.

to make sure you have nothing else hiding away.

http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html

preferably in safe mode with networking.









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Answer 10

if all else fails system reinstall it from the partioned hard drive hope you have created a restore point - that should get rid of most virus issues