vista64: "blah blah" program has stopped working

[ASDCR]

could use some help here, guys

i don't know vista as well as i know xp - and i got pretty much thrown for a loop on this one



client called me in yesterday - thought he had a virus

got over there - MBAM only found a handful



he stated he had removed antivir, and sure enough, it wasn't in the system tray - yet when i pulled up the security center in vista, it was there - vista thought it was still onboard


so, tried to uninstall - but it wouldn't go

i got some error message saying "antivir stopped working.. searching online to find a solution" - which finally fails and the only option is to click "cancel"



went round and round with that error message - basically, a LOT of software is causing this - mainly a/v


we didnt' know if it was a "64-bit thing" which was causing this, or an error in vista itself - so we tried xp compatibility mode, we selected "run as administrator," turned off Data Error Prevention (from the command line)... everything we could think of

can't get rid of this error


we even went to download.com at one point just to download something at random and.. that did appear to work



and yes.. i tried searching google - nothing on there helped




finally ran "sfc /scannow" - it said it found problems, but couldn't fix them

hmpfh!




basically, i've tried everything i can find in google at this point - my final conclusion... a virus had gotten in there and corrupted system files
: (

i left with the client transferring data to another computer in the office preparatory to doing a complete system recovery (from the recovery partition)


ugh

real sick feeling in my stomach





its 64-bit vista business

MBAM installed - other a/v won't - turned off DEP - ran SFC... at a loss


any help? what would you advise??

 

[NickCat11]

Sounds like you have a tough one there. I had the same problem last week and turning off DEP resolved it. Personally I think you're looking at a complete system restore here. I don't think there is much left to try....

 

[NYJimbo]

If you are getting that many errors and are not comfortable around Vista then a system restore/repair is probably the best bet.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/2b3724d1-f4ad-5b26-16dc-3e9e66f4be5e1033.mspx

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/95b4c03a-ac42-49a4-a90d-8f3736a995271033.mspx

 

[Cue]

Did you try re-instaling antivir?

What happens in save mode?

 

[JRDtechnet]

I'm confused, your client said he removed it, but it was still listed in the 'Programs and Features' for you to attempt to run the installer? Sounds like the guy just deleted the avira folder in program files. I would just use autoruns delete all entries for avira, then search the registry and delete avira entries. Might want to run ccleaner's registry cleaner after you delete the autorun entries before you comb the registry manually. Set a restore point before you do this just in case.

EDIT: Here ya go http://dlpro.antivir.com/down/windows/registrycleaner_en.zip that will scan and remove all avira registry entries.

 

[ASDCR]

i was confused too

he *said* he removed it - it didn't appear in the system tray - but it *did* appear in the security center as the active anti-virus - ??



thx for the avira removal tool - will keep that in my handy-dandy bag o' trix!


still.. that only takes care of avira - he's still got the "[fill in the blank] program has stopped working" error appearing all the time - and he doesn't have an (known good) active a/v program running


btw, he wrote me today - he purchased an ext HD and he's going to limp along till Win7 comes out and upgrade then

just because he doesn't have a/v, doesn't mean the end of the world..