Microsoft Security Essentials -- Died

[Brian Stirling]

I ran a full scan of my laptop last night when I went to bed and when I checked it this morning I found the scan was hung at about 32 minutes. So, I tried to exit and when I relaunched it was immediately at the same point. I then went to Task Manager to kill MSE and that closed it but when I relaunched it was once again at the 32 minute mark.

OK, so I go into "Uninstall a program" to remove MSE and sure enough that hung and after more than 30 minutes I rebooted then did a system restore going back a few updates. I then uninstalled MSE and then downloaded it from MS, but when I go to install it the program never runs. I mean I launch the downloaded installer but nothing ever pops up.

I've downloaded another anti virus program in the mean time and have installed it, but I'm puzzled as to what is preventing me from installing MSE.

In case I'm unable to install MSE what other AV programs are good and safe?


Brian

 

[Brian Stirling]

Well I was able to reinstall MSE and after it completed the quick scan I started a custom scan to scan the C drive. After 18:22 it has once again hung and the item being scanned is "_ctypes.pyd" located in the "_MEI39242" folder.

Help!


Brian

 

[Ketchup]

Go to:
C:Users\$YOUR_PROFILE$\AppData\Local\Temp

Delete everything in that folder. Some things it won't let you deleted because they are in use, and that's ok. I do want it to delete the _MEI39242 folder from here. If it doesn't, try the delete from safe mode. If it still doesn't work, create a new account (make sure it is an admin), and delete the entry in your account from the other account.

Reboot and see if MSE still gets stuck.

 

[Zahid Iqbal]

Yes it is died. Now only Avast is best in freeware and Kaspersky is best in premium

 

[Brian Stirling]

Go to:
C:Users\$YOUR_PROFILE$\AppData\Local\Temp

Delete everything in that folder. Some things it won't let you deleted because they are in use, and that's ok. I do want it to delete the _MEI39242 folder from here. If it doesn't, try the delete from safe mode. If it still doesn't work, create a new account (make sure it is an admin), and delete the entry in your account from the other account.

Reboot and see if MSE still gets stuck.

Not seeing "AppData" under my user profile -- perhaps hidden?

Brian

 

[lxskllr]

Not seeing "AppData" under my user profile -- perhaps hidden?

Brian

To the best of my memory, yes. Show hidden files.

 

[Ketchup]

Not seeing "AppData" under my user profile -- perhaps hidden?

Brian

Yes. "Show hidden files, folder, and drivers" in Folder Options needs to be selected.