McAfee ActiveShield problem

First off let me say I really appreciate all of the help I have been given previously on this forum.I've learned a lot in the 5 years I've had my computer and learn something new everyday. Now this brings me to the 3rd problem/question I am posting on this forum today :lol:. My son got a new computer last March. It came from Dell with McAfee virus protection pre installed. I have noticed a problem that is related to the ActiveShield portion of the program. The funny thing is we only get the error message on my son's account (non-administrator account). The message says something like "There are components of ActiveShield that are not properly installed or not working" I did a little research on Google and found out that this is somewhat of a common problem with McAfee. Either a file is corrupted, or something else has occured to give that part of the program some trouble. The reccomended fix(es) are to download a registry fixer, or un-install then reinstall the program. I really don't want to try the first option if i don't have to. It seems that a lot of these programs advertised on the net are just a way to get money from you without fixing the problem. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just don't like their advertising, ( get a free scan, the scan finds 830 "problems", then you have to tell them your name and email to be sent a "key" to unlock the program. When you do get the email, it's an advertisement telling you, you have to buy their program to take care of all of the "problems" their program has found.) Kind of seems like a "bait and switch" tactic. I don't know if I can uninstall then reinstall the program as it came free, pre installed on the computer. There were no backup discs when I received the computer, and I don't even know if I have to renew it's subscription, or if it even expires.( When I bought my computer back in 2002 it came with Norton, and i was constantly reminded through pop up windows and emails that I would have to renew and buy updates for it. To date I haven't received anything from McAfee stating so. That's why I'm thinking I won't be able to reinstall it without paying for a new copy since it was a "freebie" as part of the computer package. Has anyone encountered such a problem with ActiveShield, and if so, how did you rectify the problem? Thanks

Give CCleaner a try. It is a registry cleaner that is free that you don't have to give any information. However, my suggestion would be to just ditch McAfee and get Avast if you really need a virus scanner.

Thanks for the reply. I have CCleaner installed on both computers in the house and update and use it religously, but it hasn't corrected any problems related to the ActiveShield on my son's computer. Maybe I'll uninstall it and try Avast. I also have AVG on both computers, is that similar to Avast? One other thing: Is that a common problem where a problem such as I'm having would only appear on one user's account on a computer, and not the other's? I would think if a problem occured, it would be reflected on all user accounts. Would deleting my son's account and creating a new user account for him possibly solve that problem??

The first thing to try is to create a new non-admin user and see if it has the same problem. For some strange reason, McAfee might need admin privileges to function, if so we'll troubleshoot from there.

So you have AVG and McAfee on that computer or just McAfee?

I hate McAfee. Just took it off of my parents computer. I registered it and everything and still it wouldn't let me update anything.

So you have AVG and McAfee on that computer or just McAfee?
I have both. The problem with McAfee started long before i installed AVG on it. My son got the computer last March, and the problem started soon after. There was a problem with the modem, so we never connected it to the internet until late October when we had FiOS installed. That's when I downloaded the AVG.
A funny thing about the McAfee. After hooking up the FiOS, we still couldn't connect to the internet for some reason. It took about 2 weeks of working first with Verizon, the installer, to see what the problem was, (I believe part of the problem was something was not recognizing the IP address.) The next step was to work with Dell support who couldn't figure out what was going on, then finally back to Verizon's support, who by accident we discovered what was preventing the computer to connect. It was McAfee. I guess it couldn't recognize the FiOS, and was blocking any attempts to connect. Now the problem has been solved in that respect.

Oz-I'll try your advice about creating a new account later today and see what happens, then report back. Thanks.

The first thing to try is to create a new non-admin user and see if it has the same problem. For some strange reason, McAfee might need admin privileges to function, if so we'll troubleshoot from there.
UPDATE: Well I did what Oz mentioned and created a new account. So far there have been no issues like that present in my son's account. If this stays that way I'll just rename the account for my son and delete his old one. I also found out something by mistake. My kids have been having trouble playine some interactive games on such sites as disneychannel.com and nick.com. They couldn't use the mouse, or keyboard to move items necessary to play the games. I had been trying to solve the problem for awhile and made sure they had the latest update to Shockwave and one other program (can't think of the name at the moment, but I think Acrobat puts it out.) Well, I tried one more time and found a link in an error message pertaining to system requirements and clicked it to get more info. I found out that they can only play the games on an Internet Explorer browser, they had been trying on Mozilla Firefox. Tried it on IE and everything works great. I don't think that's right that the games only work on one browser and not others.

:) Glad you got it sorted mate. Try this program to backup your son's data, then restore it after you creare him a new account.
http://fabs.dyndns.org/autobackup/download.php?lang=en

If you rename the existing one, when you view Task Manager, it will show the original name instead of the renamed one (known Windows flaw).

Tried it on IE and everything works great. I don't think that's right that the games only work on one browser and not others.

It has to do with the way Flash etc. is installed. Both browsers handle it differently. Just download the "IE View" add-on inside Firefox, tell it to use IE for that page, and it will always open that game in IE regardless of what browser you are using.

Thanks Oz and eclipse, great advice. I'll try them out on his computer.

I also found out something by mistake. My kids have been having trouble playine some interactive games on such sites as disneychannel.com and nick.com. They couldn't use the mouse, or keyboard to move items necessary to play the games. I had been trying to solve the problem for awhile and made sure they had the latest update to Shockwave and one other program (can't think of the name at the moment, but I think Acrobat puts it out.) Well, I tried one more time and found a link in an error message pertaining to system requirements and clicked it to get more info. I found out that they can only play the games on an Internet Explorer browser, they had been trying on Mozilla Firefox. Tried it on IE and everything works great. I don't think that's right that the games only work on one browser and not others.
Damn thing happened again to me today. That's twice in two days :banghead: Tried to reorder checks online through walmart.com as I've done in the past. Only this time I kept getting an error message about"Input string was not in correct format".This had been going on since Tuesday,( yes I'm a patient person :lol: good thing I didn't need the checks soon. I called the phone number given on the site and told the customer rep the problem that I was having, that I was getting that error message whenever I tried to submit my order. The first thing she asked me was ,"What browser are you using , IE??" BINGO, did it to me again. I guess their site only works with the IE browser, and not Firefox.
Moral of the story: If you are having problems with a website , check to see what browser you are using and try the "other" one to see if that clears the problem up. I wait for the day when all websites will work universally with any browser of your choice.