McAfee: 'Your computer is not fully protected'

[electricpete]

I have McAfee virusscan and firewall installed on my computer.

Periodically I get a message "Your computer is not fully protected". Investigation usually reveals "System Guards are disabled". I fix the problem and often it appears again within a few minutes. I get several of these messages in a row. Then go for a few days with no messages... then several more in a row. I have suspicion some program is trying to disable my protection.

Mcfee scan shows nothing. A-squared free scan shows nothing. Hijack This shows nothing that the automatic log analyser doesn't like.

Is this a security threat to my computer?
How to I track down and stop it?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you can offer.

 

[electricpete]

I guess I should say that I'm working on Windows XP SP3.

 

[2ffat]

I don't think it is a virus. I think that McAfee hasn't or can't update itself. Also look at thread83-1533662.


James P. Cottingham
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[electricpete]

The message that comes up is occasionally that my protection is out of date. But usually the message is that system guards are disabled (and there is no problem with my protection being up to date).

When this occurs (System Guards were disabled) I view my virus logs and see many entries like the following:

DescriptionSystem Guards have allowed a one-time change to your computer

Details:
Unauthorized registry changes to the Internet Explorer Web Browser can affect the appearance and behavior of your browser.

Rule Type: Registry

Process: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorere\iexplore.exe

Process description: Internet Explorere

Process publisher: Microsoft Corporation

Process version: 7.00.6000.16791 (vista_gdr.0...

I am pretty sure that the changes are made during the period when "system guards disabled" error message was displayed. Also this occurs even when I am away from my computer... not using internet explorer or anything else.