From what I could gather. My sister did some windows updates. The computer restarted and after rebooting her Microsoft office suite and Norton were completely erased from the machine and McAfee was reinstalled. However were files and documents remain.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is there something that can be done?
Furthermore my sister is currently (for the last 5-6 hours) running another Windows update and displayed this message:
In the second image in the bottom right-hand corner it says "Uw PC wordt over 2 dagen opnieuw opgestart om de installatie van belangrijke updates te voltooien" in English that means Your computerwill restart in 2 days to complete the installation of vital updates
please help if you or send this to someone who can help. Is this a virus or is there other malicious software involved?
I hope you can help me help my sister her laptop (Acer Aspire V5) is her most expensive investement ever and worked hard to get it and needs it for her education.
I've never seen any windows update ever take 2 days. How fast is your internet connection?
You're better off without Norton. It does the job but has some side effects that, in my opinion and from my experience, is just as bad as or worse than a virus.
By the sounds of it, she must have accidentally selected to install McAfee which would be why it uninstalled Norton. But unless we could see every step she took and everything she clicked on, it's difficult to say what's going on with the machine at this point. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can help you out...
I experienced this and I just turn the computer off by holding down the power button. NOT saying you should do this. I only did this as a last resort and luckily nothing happened. I'm just putting this out there as an option but there's not a huge deal you can actually do with the computer when it's doing that.
You could always contact Microsoft support and see what they say.
I would say if your internetconnection is super slow, or you haven't done updates since a long time, or both, then you should scan your pc. I use Malwarebytes with cameleon (if you are in safe mode you don't need cameleon, you can get in safe mode usally with hitting f8 over and over again when the pc starts/boots up/the motherboard manufacturer logo or what ever pops up). And then use combofix. (put it on a usb-stick so you can use it when the pc is running)
But maybe it's just completely normal what is happening.
Edit: write on google: chameleon download. To find chameleon for malewarebytes. (don't use cameleon if you are not in safe mode)
Edit: if your don't go into safe mode chameleon will also automatically install malewarebytes. So no need to install it.
Edit: extract chameleon entirely and press on the file that is labeled as mbam-chameleon and is an application. (not ms-dos!)
Edit: i meant "is super slow" not "is not super slow". Sorry. (damn me...)
The problem has nothing to do with intrnet connection. I use the same connection and it is just fine. Even for gaming! And the fact that my sisiter id some updates yesterday would suggest that there were not many updates to do. Thanks for the chameleon tip!
Always back up before making any changes. ISO files when you have your set up perfect and always back up your data. That way when this happens you can restore.
At this point I'd say a clean install is in order.
That's really weird. I've done fresh installs of windows 7 before that were probably 2 year old iso files so it had to install a couple hundred updates and it still only took an hour or two. If I'm stumped like this I usually just do a fresh install. It fixes everything and most of the time it's easier than trying to figure out exactly what screwed up.
To those who are intrested, I managed to get into safe mode and back up her data and did a fresh install. And re-installed her programs! Thank you all for the tips and your time! I am really liking this community a lot!