7 replies to this topic

[brilovett]

Based on my research, there are many people complaining about McAfee Security Center not opening. I think I've figured out that it has something to do with CCleaner. (see my Feb 13, 2010 post on the McAfee forum here: http://community.mca...m/thread/14767). It appears that, when you boot, McAfee SecurityCenter can open properly (and do all of its other functions properly). However, as soon as you run CCleaner, SecurityCenter will no longer open. I've unchecked many of the options in CCleaner (e.g., IIS Logs, Windows Log Files, Temporary Files, SpyBot, Windows Defender) and tried checking only delete files in Windows Temp older than 24 hours. None of these seem to prevent the problem.

There is something that CCleaner is removing that McAfee needs to operate. Any ideas?

- B.

[Andavari]

Perhaps clicking Analyze would reveal some McAfee files that CCleaner may want to remove, in particular files located in the user Temp folder. If you find any such files you can use CCleaner's 'Options->Exclude'. Wouldn't hurt to use CCleaner's registry cleaner to see if there's any McAfee keys it wants to constantly remove that may also need an Exclude.


Over the years I've used a number of anti-virus and security products which store temporary files that the application needs to function in the Temp folder and removal of those files could cause them to fail where they wouldn't function properly until the system was restarted.

[brilovett]

Andavari, on Feb 14 2010, 08:50 AM, said:

Perhaps clicking Analyze would reveal some McAfee files that CCleaner may want to remove, in particular files located in the user Temp folder. If you find any such files you can use CCleaner's 'Options->Exclude'. Wouldn't hurt to use CCleaner's registry cleaner to see if there's any McAfee keys it wants to constantly remove that may also need an Exclude.


Over the years I've used a number of anti-virus and security products which store temporary files that the application needs to function in the Temp folder and removal of those files could cause them to fail where they wouldn't function properly until the system was restarted.

That's the problem - I have run Analyze and none of the files that are deleted appear to be McAfee files. I've even run CCleaner without having it remove the files in the Temp folder. McAfee still gets corrupted. (Actually, after CCleaner runs, McAfee will not properly bring up blocking/user-attention required messages at all.) But I've done numerous tests and I am absolutely certain now that CCleaner is deleting something that McAfee specifically needs.

- B.

[marmite]

brilovett, on Feb 16 2010, 05:06 PM, said:

That's the problem - I have run Analyze and none of the files that are deleted appear to be McAfee files. I've even run CCleaner without having it remove the files in the Temp folder. McAfee still gets corrupted. (Actually, after CCleaner runs, McAfee will not properly bring up blocking/user-attention required messages at all.) But I've done numerous tests and I am absolutely certain now that CCleaner is deleting something that McAfee specifically needs.

If you really want to get to the bottom of it, clear all of the CCleaner settings. Add them back in one at a time and run CCleaner after each one, then see if there's an effect on McAfee. At least then you should be able to identify which setting is causing you a problem.

[brilovett]

Alright, I have found the problem. I had a custom clean of the C:\Users\[username]\Videos directory (i.e., I added the folder to be removed, and then did a Manual Edit to remove the \*.* in order to erase the entire directory). I wanted to delete it because Windows keeps recreating these empty directories when I don't use them. It appears that, as soon as you delete that directory, it screws up McAfee and prevents SecurityCenter from opening. I have no idea why. (McAfee initially claimed the problem was occurring because I also installed SpyBot - NOT!)

Hope that helps for others who have the problem.

[Andavari]

Interesting outcome. But does McAfee become corrupt if you manually remove those folders on your own without CCleaner?

[brilovett]

Andavari, on Feb 17 2010, 06:48 PM, said:

Interesting outcome. But does McAfee become corrupt if you manually remove those folders on your own without CCleaner?

Ah, good thought. Actually, I just manually deleted the folder and it did not corrupt McAfee. Additionally, I then ran CCleaner (to clear the recycle bin), and it still did not corrupt McAfee. So obviously now the question is - what is CCleaner doing differently when it deletes that folder? This would actually suggest it might be a bug in CCleaner.

[Andavari]

brilovett, on Feb 17 2010, 06:53 PM, said:

This would actually suggest it might be a bug in CCleaner.

That's why I asked if deleting it manually corrupted McAfee. So from what you've reported I'd suspect a bug in CCleaner, but how it's doing that when being told exactly where to look is something for the bug fixers/dev team.