Desperately need help! My firewall will not turn on.

[jholland1964]

Norton may very well have been installed when the computer was originally set up as a trial option. Open the Norton folder and see what's in there. We know it isn't installed because it doesn't show any place. So likely it can just be deleted but look in there and see.
Yes, our posts crossed, you were getting the log in and I was posting, no worries.

[the.avon.lady1]

I clicked on the Norton folder and there was another folder with a long number in it. When I clicked on it there was an icon that looked like a pice of paper with a LC by it.

[jholland1964]

Just delete that Norton folder.
See if you can turn on the Windows Firewall.

[jholland1964]

It's after midnight here. Will have to continue this tomorrow. I will be back as early as I can be and we can finish things up. We are making progress, I assure you and you are doing a super job. Pleasure working with you too!

[the.avon.lady1]

Good Morning, thank you for your kind and encouraging words. I was getting ready to call it a night when I received your note so we were on the same page. I did not get on this so early so you would have some time with other things before having to deal with me. You have been great with me as I know I must be taxing your patience at times. I will never be able to repay you enough for your help! I looked you up because you were so helpful last year right after I purchased this computer. Someone at Dell was trying to sell me an expensive plan by telling me I was infected with serious spyware and it only turned out to be a tool bar that got downloaded with Swagbucks. Like I said then I could not afford the extra for the Dell service plan. I could barely afford the new computer. Since my husband has a head injury from his motorcycle accident my computer is my lifeline. I do a little work from home on it because I am need at home. I remember you getting a kick out of me saying I was not very tec savvy as I was 56 years old and therefore past the tec age and you responded that you were in your mid 60's. You may or may not remember me as I know you have helped many in the last year. However, I do have some unique situations. If you are ever in south GA look us up and we will treat you to a home cooked meal or at least I could send you a cake. I do really good cakes, you do tec and I do baking! Anyway, all of that being said back to business. I will start off with the frustrating news. I tried the firewall and it is still being blocked. I did delete and reinstalled the DDS scanner as you requested before we got hung up on playing hide and seek with McAfee. I was wondering if this is a new strategy by McAfee to keep you from getting rid of it. I do know from a past experience to stay away from Netzero that once you have it they leave a mess when you try to uninstall it. I have not run the DDS scan yet as I had promised to not get ahead of you and to follow your directions exactly. So just waiting to see where we pick up from here. Thanks!!

[the.avon.lady1]

Oh, I do have a couple of questions. Since I am trying to get rid of McAfee, which has turned out to be a problem. And Avast has been deleted and as far as I know I have no working firewall. Am I going to be open to further infections while we are trying to fix this and are there any precautions that I need to take to protect myself while we are going through this process?

[jholland1964]

Have a family "issue" I am dealing with at the moment, will explain that later. But did you try turning on the Windows firewall? I can wait for your answer.

[the.avon.lady1]

I did try the Windows firewall and still getting a message that I can not access it. Hope I did not hold you up. I have been reading some interesting things here.

[jholland1964]

No, you didn't hold me up. You need to do these steps directly from Microsoft to see if we can get things working. Follow Method 1 and see if it works, if it doesn't then go to Method 2. I am leaving for a short while and will come back here as soon as possible. Won't be too long though, maybe 30-60 minutes.
It actually might be a good idea to go ahead and do method 2 even if method 1 works. The infection could very well have altered some key system files, this will likely tell you and possibly fix them if that is the case.

In order to troubleshoot this issue you need to follow these below provided methods.

Method 1: Please run "services.msc", stop "Windows Event Controller" service first, then make sure "Base Filtering Engine" service is started.
In the Start Menu type devmgmt.msc, and open Device Manager. On the View tab, choose "Devices by connection" and put a check next to "Show hidden devices". Look for Windows Firewall Authorization Driver (it will have a gold gear icon).Double-click that, and on the Driver tab, make sure the Startup type is set to "Demand".
Then start "Windows Firewall" service, and check if the issue gets resolved.

Method 2: The Firewall Authorization Driver (mdsdrv.sys) is a protected windows system file. You can run the System File Checker tool and if the file is found to be corrupted, it will be replaced.
Follow these steps carefully.
Go to Start / All Programs / Accessories.
Right click the 'Command Prompt' item and select the 'Run As Administrator' option.
Click 'Continue' on the UAC prompt.
In the command window type the following command.
SFC /SCANNOW
Press ENTER.

This will take a few minutes to complete. Try not to use the computer while SFC is running.
After the tool is finished, reboot the computer and check the Firewall options again.
Let me know the results.

[the.avon.lady1]

This is exactly what is happening:
When I tell the firewall to come on I get a message "Window's Action cannot turn the firewall on" then I go to the turn it on manually link and get the message "Window's Firewall can't change some of your settings. Error code 0x80070424"