XP vs. McAfee ???
 

I reformat my HP Pavillion with the factory discs. XP Home Edition.
Then I load Mcafee "Total Protection" 2007 (on sale at Costco). Everything runs just fine.

This morning my wife says "we can't get on the internet" so I go take a look. It's that "Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close...send error report?" message. Hmmm. (At this point I'm still trying to get ready so I won't be late for work, but quickly scanning the error details I see something about "appcompat" or something...???) Reboot. Same thing.

It was working last night, and then I shut it down. And...what else...what else?
The only other thing: when I shut it down, Windows automatically downloaded 64 new updates. Thoughts? Suggestions?

anybody?
 

Fresh XP install, fresh McAfee install. Working fine, getting online.

I shut it down, Windows downloads 64 new updates, and now IE crashes.

What? Windows automatic updates aren't compatible with IE working?

I havn't upgraded to the 2007 version ov McAfee, but I have the 2006 version. Does the 2007 version have McAfee's Privacy Service? I know that the way mine is configured, you need to sign on to the Privacy Service first before it allows you to access the internet. Otherwise, I know that there can be problems can arise when you are using multiple firewalls. I know XP has a firewall built into the operating system, and McAfee has their own. I would make sure that you've only got one of the firewalls turned on. Let me know what you find out.

Oh. Thanks, Windows.
 

Appcompat.txt is not the problem.

Apparently it's the file that Windows sends back to MS when it error reports.

"So what do you do when you get an error message that references appcompat.txt? In my opinion, a) allow windows to report the error to Microsoft, if it asks you to, and b) forget about appcompat.txt. Unless you're technical enough to understand what's inside of it, it will not help you. Focus instead on what you were doing when the problem happened. We all know that programs can crash for many, many different reasons. The problem could be due to a bug in an application, a problem with your machine, a bug in Windows, a security issue, or any number of other things. Just saying "it's appcompat.txt" tells you exactly nothing about the problem."

Thanks, Shocker. The deal is: I'm at work, this PC is at home. I was hoping this issue might sound familiar to someone. Thanks for the information, I will be checking McAfee & Windows security settings when I get home. I hope this isn't the first part of a "why did I switch from Norton" fiasco.

If I were a betting man though, I would almost certainly put money on it being one of those things. When XP gets installed, it defaults to having the firewall on, so unless you noticed something about that when you installed McAfee and turned it off then, it would try and run with both firewalls.

I've used McAfee in one version or another for almost 8 years now, and I've never really had any issues with it once you've got it configured how you want.

If the program is a problem though, rather than reinstalling McAfee from disk, uninstall McAfee and then go to http://us.mcafee.com and click on my account. (that is if the internet works after uninstalling - I doubt the problem is going to arise from XP in its raw, virgin form from the fresh install) From there, sign on to your McAfee account and the first page that comes up is going to show you your subscriptions. Go ahead and download each subscription separatly starting with virus scan and do the firewall last. This way you can see if any problems arise from any individual McAfee product.

Security setting et al would not create that message. However details of messages are located in the system (event) logs. Long before fixing anything, consult that log.

Are you using IE 6 or IE 7?

Start by getting rid of McAfee. Go from there. Will it let you uninstall it?

(Your alternative line of attack is to remove windows and just see if McAfee runs OK without XP in place, but that seems moderately counterproductive.)

The McAfee install did alert me to the fact that the HP discs had loaded some Norton stuff which was a potential conflict, so I uninstalled that stuff. Never alerted me of any other conflicts, and everything installed just fine and ran just fine. No problems, I was online.

Until Windows DLed those 64 updates.

It bothers me, too, that it isn't just not letting me online, it's actually crashing IE.

Again, the PC is at home, I'm at work. I figured I'd pick your brains, as I can't actually do anything about it until I get home tonight. If I can't configure it to be workable I will definitely be uninstalling it and going from there.

Ok, here is what I would do in this situation then.

1) Keeping in mind that you said it worked fine before you DLed the 64 updates, go to the system restore and restore it to a point before you installed the 64 updates.

2) Make sure that after the system is restored, that the internet is indeed working again. Assuming that all you did was install the updates between the internet working and not working, it should now work again.

3) The help forums on McAfee's website has a LOT of people writing about having troubles with internet connection with their 2007 products, so go ahead and uninstall all of your McAfee services. ***Note that after this, your computer will be unprotected!!!

4) Get onto Internet Explorer, but don't go to any site other than click tools then Window's Update. Download all of the Windows updates. The support site for McAfee recommends you're computer is completely updated before installing their 2007 products.

5) Restart

6) Now go ahead and install McAfee. If you've already paid for your subscription, I would recommend going to the website I gave you earlier to sign on and download them. This way you are getting a more up-to-date version than what is on the install disk you bought.

7) Make sure that your Norton products are uninstalled, go to windows security settings and make sure that windows firewall is off, and then make sure that your McAfee firewall is set at normal.

8) Restart

This should (hopefully) fix the problem, again assuming that the problem only existed after you DLed the updates.

Thanks dude. And, yes, that's how it happened (go figure...)

Worked like a charm, Shocker. Thanks for laying out my gameplan. It was bothering me that I was at work and I couldn't fiddle with it.

When I got to the McAfee DLs I bit the bullet and Dled the whole bundle. No problem. Incidentally, I took "Download all of the Windows updates" literally, meaning: I'm running IE7 now! Yay! I'm a beta tester! But that's another story... . . .

I've been using IE7 for a couple months. No major problems, but in the beginning, it took 15 seconds to find my homepage, which is blank. They seem to have made incremental updates that have increased the speed, and now it finds my homepage instantly.
The other thing was trying to run scripts, here in the Cellar, to insert links, required digging into the permissions.

I use McAfee online. It seems like they update, near constantly because I'm always getting messages they just finished one. At the last annual renewal, they installed SecurityCenter 7.1, VirusScan 11.1, Firewall 8.1 and Site Adviser 2.1.
I had to turn some crap off, though, because every time I'd click a link on a website, I'd get a pop-up warning of a registry change. You can imagine how annoying that is when you're on a site like Fark, that's all links. :rolleyes:

The warnings about dirty pictures must be a frequent nuisance as well. :angel:

Only because the places with the dirty pictures frequently want to give you lots of things you don't want, like Zango. PC STD's if you will. :lol: