McAfee Virus Scan won't run.
 

EDIT: I should of put this in the technology forum. If a moderator would be kind enough to move this thread, I'd appreciate it.

Every time I try to run my McAffe Virus scan I get the following message:


An Error Has Accurred

Scanning has encountered a problem from which it cannot recover.
Here are the Problem details:
- Error Starting On Demand Scanner

When finished, you will return to the Home window.


Any ideas as to why this is happening? I've re-installed McAfee Security Suite several times and ran McAfee Virtual Technician, but nothing has helped. BTW I'm using McAfee because it's free through my IP.

Did you buy it? If you haven't then kill the bastard. Unplug your ethernet cord and uninstall everything to do with McAfee otherwise you will have to format your drive sooner or later. The thing with McAfee is that it's riddled with bugs and fucks your registry like no other. Also it doesn't pick up shit! I got smitfraud right under McAfee's nose!!

You want a working antivirus get AVG. It's cheap and has a fully functional free version.

Of the freeware antiviruses, I haven't used AVG for a long time. The last I used it was back in 2007 and I was tired of it becoming bloatware. Every update it would use more resources.

I personally recommend Avira Antivir Antivirus. I have been using it for just under 2 years and haven't had a single infection.
Free antivirus - Avira AntiVir
Download AntiVir Personal 9.0.0.407 - FileHippo.com

My colleagues and I all agree that the best pay-for security suite is Kaspersky.
Anti-Virus Software with Anti-Spyware Protection - Kaspersky Lab

Uninstall McAfee, it sucks. Install Avira like Hain said. Done!!!!!

You could have Vundo or a similar virus/trojan that disables your anvirus. Download and run MalwareBytes.

Thanks, evetyone. I'm installing Avira, & will post back how it does.

according to a recent test of antivirus systems, the two best ones are free: avira, as mentioned, and one that I am liking a lot, which is microsoft security essentials.

I ran with McAfee in past years and eventually always got some kind of infection/virus crap. Norton too, I hate Norton.

Last time my old laptop got infected I found an online guide on how to remove every bit of McAfee from the registry, the guide might have been by Kaspersky. I had to delete hundreds of entries but it seemed to totally clear it out.

Since then I've been using NOD32 Antivirus from ESET, LLC and like it a lot and have not had any problem since installing this on a desktop and a couple of laptops.

auntphil paid for mcafee...

installed it on my laptop...

felt like i was back in 28K days...

uninstalled...

back to normal...

Avira seems to have taken care of my viruses. The initial scan ran fine just after the download & installation, but then I couldn't get it to run at all. The scan is now working fine after an update.

Before the Avira clean-up, some of my bookmarks & searches were not working properly, & they're still not. I get directed to info.com when I select certain bookmarks, and sometimes when I attempt searches I get re-directed to totally unrelated sites. For illustrative purposes only...I use Google and select abcnews.com, but I wind up at DicksPawnShop.com. Is this a registery issue?

Ohhh boy, my aunt had a problem like this a while back. It's some sort of pornado, you could be looking at a harmless site like TFP then all of a sudden have your browser redirect you to some sleazy website. This issue was temporarily fixed by switching to Opera or Mozilla.

In short, I never found out what the problem was, I updated the anti-virus, cleared all history, cookies and cache's ... NOTHING. Only thing I did not try was ran the malware scanners but then that was because my aunt gave me attitude.

Get spybot Search and destroy and run it.

I recommend Malbytes Anti-Malware or as Xman suggested, Spybot. I've found that anti-virus programs are great for virus protection, but their spyware protection is not that great. Best to run an AV scan then followed by a spyware scan.

Sounds more like a trojan than a virus. Glad you got rid of McAfee. That and Norton suck.
Get two anti-spyware/trojan programs as one never ever catches them all.
I use Spybot and Spyware Doctor as well as two registry cleaners.
Virtumonde is perhaps one of the worst trojans-it will shut down your protection if it it not passworded then wreak havoc with IE, switching you to places, making multiple windows, you name it. I had to reformat due to that damned thing and now my Spy Doctor is passworded along with everything else so it can't shut down anything without me noticing (when I get a window asking for my PW to make changes to anything, I know it hit again)

Hell yes! And if MalwareBytes doesn't find it, try AdAware. I keep two or three tools like that around becase some work, and some are a few days behind. You never can tell which will work.