McAfee Security Center

You can disable it, but if you are going to install another AV temporarily, make sure McAfee stays disabled. If this does not work, you may need to uninstall McAfee. (If you have the CD's, or use McAfee Support,  you can re-install it later.)

• Open McAfee Security Centre
• Under Common Tasks click on Home
• Click Computer Files
• Click Configure
• Make sure the following are disabled by ticking the "Off" button.

• Next, select never for "When to re-enable real time scanning"
• and click OK.

Further info on disabling and re-enabling McAfee: http://help.aol.com/help/microsites/microsite.do?cmd=displayKCPopup&docType=kc&externalID=222820

Jeff wrote:  "My month old Dell XPS 8100 went nuts yesterday. I am wondering if McAfee might be the culprit".

Jeff:   Can you elaborate on just how "nutsy" your computer went?   For example, were some programs "crashing", and generating warning/error messages?  [if so, which programs, and what were the exact messages?]   Were you suddenly getting popup "advertisements" or suggestions that you were infected, and needed to buy their product?   Were programs running, that you didn't start on your own?   Were things just sluggish?

More specifically, is there any basis on which you might be inclined to blame McAfee as being the culprit for your problems?

The more detailed, explicit information you offer, the better chance someone will be to offer you a more appropriate response.

-----------------------

And this thought just struck me:   Yesterday, McAfee  did  have a major problem... it offered a "bad" update, which crippled many XP SP3 systems, mostly in the corporate environment:    http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/virus-spyware/f/3522/t/19331365.aspx

Perhaps just a coincidence?   Or could that have been related to your problem?

Before you condemn McAfee, you need to put this in perspective:   EVERY anti-virus / anti-malware program [paid or free, "big name" or "relative unknown"] can occasionally be guilty of a "false positive" detection... erroneously declaring that a good/safe file is bad.    A worst-case scenario (as happened to McAfee yesterday) is that it erroneously flagged and removed a critical Windows system file... after which, those computers could no longer start up.

As I already said, this can happen to ANY protective (or scanner) program.   It in fact happened to avast a few months ago.   No program is 100% free of goof-ups.  for more details on what happened to avast then, see http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/virus-spyware/f/3522/p/19307775/19601742.aspx#19601742

Sorry about the lack of details. on 4/20 I was tring to burn a DVD movie and surf the web. At 90.3% on the burn it stopped with an "unknown error". As I was closing that program I got a BSOD wich then led to the system shutting its self down. On TWO subsequent restart attempt I got a black screen saying that Windows did not shut down properly- did I want to boot to safe mode.

I finally got it started normally. I got on with Dell Tech chat support. after three hours he said it was a network card driver error.He took remote control and updated the driver and turned off all the bells and whistles. (I guess in an attempt to isolate the problem.) He then signed off with a promise to call 4/21 to check on the situation. No call. And I still could not encode DVD with Roxio or Windows Live Moviemaker. I figured that both software pakages didn't go bad at the same time. So I put things back the way I had them as best I could, rebooted and EVERYTHING worked as it should. Then late last night I found the below listed message In the "Action Center" in the tray far right bottom of screen.

Well I can't seem to paste it here but it said That a Blue Screen Error had been caused by an Antivirus or Firewall program and That Windows had shut down to protect itself.I didn't see the msg. until about 2 this morning but I guess it answers my own question. McAfee is gone Avast! is running, DVDs have been encoded and my blood pressure is back near normal.

Jeff

"McAfee is gone , Avast! is running, DVDs have been encoded and my blood pressure is back near normal".

Sounds like you've fixed the problem yourself... great work!

Just one quick comment... assuming you have downloaded/installed the free avast, it does not include a firewall (as McAfee did)... so be sure that Windows Firefall (or another firewall, if you have so chosen) is running.

I just wanted to take a minute to thank you & Bugbatter and everyone on the forums that have helped me so much. I wish I could repay you all! At the moment things are, dare I say it, running smoothly. If you are ever in Mid-Missouri look me up. I owe you at least a couple slabs of my smoked ribs!

Thanks Again.

JeP.S. I am running Windows 7 Firewall, is that good enough?

I believe WIn7's firewall should be good enough.

There was a debate, which focused especially on XP's firewall.  The XP firewall offered only one-way (inbound) protection.  My understanding is that Vista's (and presumably, Win7's) firewall offers two-way (inbound and outbound) protection.  Most "third-party" (non-mIcrosoft) software firewalls offer  enhanced  two-way protection.

inbound protection means that nothing from the outside will be allowed to enter (or probe) your system, unless YOU initiated contact there first.   in other words, unsolicited  incoming traffic is blocked.

outbound protection means that no program on your computer can access the internet, unless you have authorized it to do so.   (Microsoft's firewalls are pre-set to know which are the common programs that use the internet; so, for example, it won't hassle you about things like Internet Explorer.)

Here's the debate:   a third-party outbound firewall can tell you which of the programs on your PC are trying to contact the internet.     Basically, the first time any program tries to contact the internet, your outbound firewall alerts you, asking for permission  --- do you want to allow that program to have internet access?   This offers you power... but with power comes responsibility.   YOU have to decide/KNOW which programs you want to allow access, and which ones you want to deny access.  In other words, you have to "train" a third-party firewall how you want it to behave.   And that can take a while to get used to.

the advantage:   if you can recognize something as being malware, you can deny it [further] outgoing access to the internet.   So in theory, this can be useful.

the problem/controversy:   many experts believe that by the time malware has gotten through your incoming firewall, and lodged itself on your system, it's already too late... you're infected... so it's of little concern that you can try to control further outgoing communications at that point.   Put another way, the argument here is that you should rely fully on your incoming firewall to block the infection from ever entering your system in the first place... and if you can do that, there's no (or little) need for an outgoing firewall.

and third party firewalls are sometimes overly complicated... offering an abundance of "bells and whistles" that most users don't need.

the bottom line... you should be okay with windows firewall.   especially since, if you're using a router, it typically includes a hardware/"NAT"-firewall of its own.  (it's okay to run a hardware firewall in addition to a software firewall)

I totally agree with ky's assessment.

FYI, you might want to read this discussion on the need for 3rd party firewalls:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/virus-spyware/f/3522/t/19295964.aspx