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romiebehunin

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Difficulty installing MSSE (Microsoft Security Essentials)

Good evening experts,
I'm working on a computer for a friend who needs virus protection. The system is Win XP Media Center Edition Version 2002 SP 3. The system had a trial version of AGP V9 which has been completely uninstalled.

Once I downloaded MSSE for XP 32 bit from Microsoft, I ran the setup program. After successful windows validation I ran into a problem where I receiving an error indicating that the msse.msi located at C:\[random id] was not a valid installation package for Microsoft Security Essentials.

I did some research on the net about this issue and most suggestions pointed to doing an uninstall of the program (using various methods... running setup with /u, deleting certain keys etc). MSSE was not located in the Add/Remove Programs nor was there a folder for it under c:\Program Files. I checked in the registry and did in fact find several keys for MSSE... after backing up the registry I deleted all keys containing the words Microsoft Security Essentials or the acronym MSSE.

After a reboot, I tried the installation routine again. This time instead of getting the above mentioned error message for msse.msi, now it is referring to mp_ambits.msi which I suppose is Microsoft Antimalware (or possibly MS Forefront?) ... anyway ... that's where I'm at and I have no idea what to try next.

Oh one final thing I did do was I installed CCleaner on this system and cleaned the registry. Made no difference.

I also ran the Windows OneCare removal tool ... again no change in status.

Any suggestions ... or better yet a solution would be greatly appreciated. I've seen this issue discussed in parts on Microsoft's KB but I haven't found any suggestions that were applicable or actually worked.

Thanks!
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optoma
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romiebehunin

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That link is no longer valid (won't allow you to download the utility).

Additional research informed me that the utility has been discontinued by Microsoft.

Update: No Viruses or malware were detected on the system. I found some adware and tracking cookies (and removed them) but nothing serious. I used PC Tools Spyware Doctor to perform the scan.
Here is a link to the AVG uninstaller. Perhaps there are still remnants leftover from the previous install

http://download.avg.com/filedir/util/avg_arm_sup_____.dir/avgremover.exe

Good Luck and post your updated comments.
Good suggestion. Did not correct the problem though. I provided the log (attached) from the avg removal tool.
avgremover.log
Hmm, I see that with cleanup tool :(

Can you run these quick scanners.
Tdsskiller.exe http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?qid=208280684
Hitman Pro http://www.surfright.nl/en/hitmanpro
The utility recommended by this expert has been discontinued by Microsoft, however it is available for download at other locations on the internet. Specifically removing the Microsoft Antimalware application resolved the problem.
Good stuff !