Windows Security Essentials gets stuck while on full scan

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I have WSE on two laptops. On both, WSE gets stuck/hung-up while doing a full scan. I cannot cancel the scan, must use task manager to end the program. Quick scan works OK. I attach two screen shots, one for each laptop, showing where WSE got stuck.
Any ideas? This has happened many times, I cannot get a full scan to run.42143-Screen-shot-WSE-KHM-laptop42144-Screen-shot-WSE-kmm-laptop

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Have you tried running it in Safe Mode? Also, have you tried any other scanners, such as Trend Micro’s House Callor Windows Defender Offline?

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Have you tried running it in Safe Mode? Also, have you tried any other scanners, such as Trend Micro’s House Callor Windows Defender Offline?

No, I have not tried in safe mode or other scanners. I did try running it again, it got stuck again, at the same folder though on a different file:

C:WindowsInstaller$PatchCache$Managed9040A10900063D11C8EF10054038389C11.0.5614

Does this tell you anything? I took another screen shot where it stopped, but it is basically the same except for the file name.

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How large are are files it is getting stuck on? I have seen MSE appear to be stuck on very large files and then continue once finished scanning the file. Quick scan probably bypasses the files you are speaking of. I do not have the first file you speak of and sorry, I will not open a doc file online so I could not see the other file. How long was the PC apparently frozen for?

I believe you could tell MSE to bypass these files in the settings tab.

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I ran Trend Micro House Call last night…. it got stuck on some file, and the computer froze. I tried to take a screen shot but had nowhere to save it to as it all was frozen.

The files MSE was frozen at were:
C:WindowsInstaller$PatchCache$Managed9040A109 00063D11C8EF10054038389C11.0.5614SAEXT.DLL_0001
and the other time
C:WindowsInstaller$PatchCache$Managed9040A109 00063D11C8EF10054038389C11.0.5614GAPI32.DLL_0001_1033

These files are very small: 79KB and 207KB.
TrendMicroHouseCall was stuck at a file ending in: C:…11AF3B8562375D723FCF2D98DC522
No idea if this is complete file name or where it is. That is all the TrendMicro window showed.

MSE has been set to run a full scan at 10pm daily, but it has not done so for about a month. The icon showed red when I restarted this morning, I opened it, it turned green, now it is yellow, though I have not changed anything.
Running quick Scan is fine.

I will try to run MSE later in safe mode.

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On my other laptop, MSE got stuck at:

C:WindowswinsxsBackupwow64_microsoft-windows-gdi_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7601.18946_none_122f49d9a59d3e46_atmlib.dll_fe5ca5c9

size is 34KB

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I would download the latest version and reinstall it on top of the current installation.

You may have your reasons for doing so, but in my opinion, doing a complete full scan every night is over kill. As long as the program is active I would just let it do it’s regular quick scans on schedule and do a full scan 1/month.

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Just as a test you could just scan the individual file. :cheers:

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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I’ll give it a try with the individual files. A fried suggested trying AVG, so I did, tried the whole computer scan, it got stuck at C:userskennyAppDataLocalTemp…7za.exe
Then I tried to scan only c:users and c:windows that went well, found one trojan virus. Tonight I will try the whole computer again to see what happens.

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7za.exe is, I believe the name of the 7zip executable. I am not sure why it is in that directory, seems suspicious to me. I do not have it there. Maybe some one could suggest a good boot cd to do the scan.

https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/labs_global/rescue-cd

http://www.avira.com/en/download/product/avira-rescue-system

are two.

:cheers:

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Make sure you have only 1 AV program active on your PC at a time. You can have more than 1 installed on your PC, but if they are both active, they can cause conflicts. You can have more than 1 installed, but be sure to turn off the real time protection of the other. Any other AV or malware programs on your PC that might be active.

You might want to try the free version of Malwarebytes and scan for issues with it. Be sure to uncheck the free trial of the pro version.
https://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/

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If you want to scan individual files then you can do so with MSRT – just go Start – type mrt.exe – press enter and use that option or run a normal scan.

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I use Malwarebytes PRO on both laptops. Now I have AVG on both, as well as the useless MSE on both, though I have turned off “real-time protection” and stopped any scheduled scans.
Do Malwarebytes and AVG conflict? (They each have scheduled scans plus real time protection.)
Should I uninstall MSE? (I had uninstalled and reinstalled and updated it, but continued to fail.)

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Yes, I would dump MSE.

Some run Avast Free alongside MSE but having two AV programs installed can cause problems, but as far as I know, MBAM Pro should run okay without any conflict.

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