Just recently spent a few hours trying to clear out a bad internet connection on an Windows XP computer. It usually don't take that long to fix this type of problem but on this system it turned into a very perplexing issue. I tried everything from resetting, repairing, replacing, sfc /scannow, system restore (twice). Nothing would work.
The owners wanted to replace the anti-virus Microsoft Security Essentials with a paid for version of McAfee and I couldn't uninstall Microsoft Security Essentials. I assumed the program was corrupted and interfering with everything. As I pointed out the Internet wouldn't work and McAfee kept complaining that I had to uninstall Microsoft Security Essentials first. There where no uninstall options available anywhere so I tried a few things online to try to remove it manually.
When I tried to uninstall Microsoft Security Essentials it kept asking for a file called epp.msi. Searching on the hard drive I found a copy but apparently it wasn't the proper one. Nothing else worked, that's when I tried System restore.
I went back almost a month using system restore but no luck. So I went back to the earliest restore point about two months ago. I was then able to uninstall Microsoft Security Essentials but still couldn't install McAfee because still no internet access. It wanted to search for updates right away, even when I chose the option to ignore updates for now it would not.
It's rare but occasionally you come across these weird cases where there doesn't seem to be any solutions but after trying and exhausting all of my resources reinstalling Windows seemed to be the only option. But first they wanted me to back up the pictures.
They gave me a SD memory card (the kind used in cameras) to copy the pictures to so I did with no problems and then proceeded to reinstall Windows. Everything went perfectly from there except when I tried to copy the pictures back from the memory card to the computer all of the files except for a few where all garbled up.
The files seemed corrupted. Instead of pictures there where just white icons displaying with names that where just symbols. I copied all of the good pictures to the computer first just in case fixing this problem made things worst. Then I right clicked on the drive in My Computer and then went to Properties and to the Tools tab and in the Error-checking section I clicked on Check now and checked Automatically fix file system errors.
When it had finished there was a folder called Found.000 and in that folder where a bunch of files like File00001.chk, File00002.chk, File00003.chk, etc.. I tried renaming one of the extensions to .jpg and opened it to see if it was a picture and if it was viewable. It was a picture and there didn't seem to be any problems with it. So then I had to rename the rest. There where hundreds so renaming them one by one was out of the question.
I just right clicked on the folder on the drive while holding down the shift key at the same time and chose the option Open command window here - otherwise open a command prompt and navigate to the drive and folder. Then type in the following to rename all of the extensions of .chk to .jpg and hit enter -
ren *.chk *.jpg
All pictures where recovered. Computer is up and running again with full Internet and McAfee installed.
The owners originally just wanted to install McAfee on a Win 7 Netbook, which means No CD/DVD. They have a 3 PC license. It was just a matter of copying the contents of the install DVD to a flash drive and running it from there. It installed without an hitch. No problems either installing it on their third Vista laptop.
I'm reminded of another instance where McAfee was interfering with internet connections. In this case Facebook was loading up a blank page. Thinking it might be a flash issue the owners tried to download and install flash. Except there where no download links. They where going to download and install Chrome (they where using IE) but again no download links.
I assumed it was McAfee interfering but they couldn't uninstall it. I found an uninstaller online to remove it and reinstalled another anti virus - all problems solved. To remove Mcafee - www.techspot.com/downloads/5392-mcafee-software-uninstaller.html
Another problem recently developed on my computer, folders with pictures in them don't always display the picture files as large thumbnails the way I prefer them to be. I set them from the details view to thumbnails but sometimes they will not remain set. I have two options (I'm not talking about the built in sfc and Microsoft's other built in fixers - usually just a bunch of time wasting crap) either right click on each folder and go to Properties, then the Customize tab and set the options manually or just create a desktop.ini file in the folder in question to force it to view it as a picture folder which is all the first option does.
The following is the simple contents of a desktop.ini for a folder in Windows 7 to force the thumbnail view of contents. You can create this file manually into a folder with pictures for it to work. It's a simple text file with the txt extension changed to ini.
[ViewState]
Mode=
Vid=
FolderType=Pictures
I might of already wrote about his but the only other issue I had was was a program called WindowsLiveUpdate.exe. My Winpratrol kept warning me that this program was trying to startup. My anti virus Avira said it was a Tr/Agent.117760.6 , Malwaebytes said it was a Trojan.Agent.Js I found the file in the folder User\Terry\AppData\Roaming\mcommon\WindowsLiveUpdate.exe.
It only tried to start up when I used Internet Explorer. I was convinced it was coming from one the extension I had installed to download videos. Once I disable it and got rid of WindowsLiveUpdate.exe problem solved.