So, there I was removing Norton Anti-Virus (the subscription to which had lapsed) on an XP machine. Installed AVG Free 7.5. Good. It went to the internet to download the latest updates. During the updating process, several threats were detected in a batch of \windows\system32 files. I went to 'heal' in each scenario. The machine suddenly restarted and is now unable to get past a certain point in the boot-up process without restarting itself. I stated that I was a fanny for fecking up his machine.

Anybody had similar problems and, more to the point, know of a solution without a fresh install?

Use avast instead

Sounds like pirated software to me. Avast ye, me hearties. Arrrr!

Buy him a new PC!

Can you get into safe mode?

I fully believe that AVG has taken this action because Norton had somehow fucked up the files in the first place.

I cannot say this often enough, do not buy or install Norton Anti-Virus. It's as good as a trojan itself.


The only advice I would give just now is to see if you can get in using Safe Mode, although lacking some Sys32 files will make that unlikely. Failing that, if you have the Windows install disk, you can put it in and try the Recover option. It will write all the core files back onto the drive, but it's likely his settings will be lost (or at least not used). The drive with his files should be fine though.

Nope - restarts at the point where it tries to load muv.dll (I think that's the name: mu-something. I'm back home with my tail between my legs at the moment). The 'healing' of the system32 files has caused something bad to happen - I'm just wondering whether I could get away with copying the system32 directory from a working install onto his machine. I'm also wondering *why* AVG would recognise a threat from these files when Norton seemed to OK with them.

Norton is without question the worst piece of software my PC has ever been associated with. I recently changed to AVG and it was absolutely fine. Sometimes downloading the updates take a couple of attempts, but otherwise its great. Norton on the other hand is an absolute c**t.

Yep, I would agree that Norton is a pathetic excuse for an AV program.

Have you tried to boot from his Windows XP CD and do a repair of windows? (This only overwrites system files to do with XP. It doesnt delete my Docs, personal files etc.)

You could also try and run system restore from the command line. Just boot from the Windows CD and select the recovery console when it appears. Heres how.

For future reference, there is a removal tool for Norton which you can download from the net. Just google it. Also, the latest version of AVG free is version 8.

Good Luck.

Grisoft messed up an update a couple of weeks ago and ended up flaging up some windows files as trojans http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/11/avg_false_positive/

There's fixes on there website http://free.avg.com/faq.num-1576 numbers 1576 and 1577

^ What he said.

Also AVG 7.5 is well and truely out of date - AFAIK, Grisoft are no longer supplying definitions for it. Install AVG free 8.0 in the future.

And to touch on the bit on bold, I completely agree and will raise you McAfee AV. Both are exactly the same product dressed up differently - but ultimately manufactured by the same folk.

That looks like the one. Many thanks to all

Yes, I once uninstalled McAfee only to discover it placed an .exe in my temp folder, set it to run at boot up, which kept trying to connect to the McAfee website.