Acer and Norton and Msgnr, Oh My!

My Acer laptop is about a year old now. It runs XP which came on it. Finding the version of XP, or Windows for that matter, is a process I have never mastered. A couple days ago at startup a window came up titled "Acer.Empowering.Framework.Launcher.exe - Common Lannguage Debugging Services". The message in the window says "Application has generated an exception that could not be handled. Process id=0x2e0 (736), Thread id=02b4 (692). Click on OK to terminate the operation. Click on Cancel to debug the application". After that window comes up, a few more seconds and another small window comes up titled Windows Messenger and the message inside says "Click here to sign in". Windows Messenger is a program I have never used and have no plans to ever use. During this past year, this is the first time I have seen this window. When I click the red X in the Windows Messenger window, it minimizes to the icon in the System Tray and a balloon comes up saying "Windows Messenger is still running!" When I click Cancel in the Acer window to debug, a small window comes up that says "Acer.Empowering.Framework.Launcher.exe - No debugger found." I click the black X in the upper right hand corner of that window and my Acer is ready to run - except there is no Norton icon in the Systrem Tray. I click Start-Programs-Norton Internet Security and after a few seconds a small window comes up titled !Norton. In the window it says "Unable to open this Norton product. Please restart your computer." It also says "Please click here to go to Symantec Technical Support Knowlwdge Base... 8500,108". Instead of "clicking here". I do a restart and the whole process repeats right back to this same point. This time I click to go to the Knowledge Base. A Symantec window comes up and in that window is "Error: "Unable to open this Norton product. Please restart your computer." (8500,108)". It goes on to say I need an update and that I am to click the download according to the product I have. I cant find it now but earlier I stumbled across a link that explained how to determine what product I have. Those instructions said to click Start-All Programs-Norton-Internet Security-About and read the product information. Well, when I do that I get "Unable to open this product". Since I cannot find which product I have, but the shortcut says Norton Internet Security, I click the download button for that update. Its about a 30 min download. It goes all the way thru Extracting Files. When the green bar finishes in the Extracting Files window, the window disappears and then nothing. The process never progresses beyond that point. Maybe I dont have Norton Internet Security afterall, so I downloaded Norton Antivirus, another 30 min download. Same process, nothing after Extracting Files. Any ideas about what may be going on, but most importantly, is what ever I have done to cause this mess fixable? Thanks, K.

 

Well sounds like you need a free program called "start up inspector" No idea if MG has it or not. If they dont here is the link.

http://www.windowsstartup.com/startupinspector.php

Download and when you open it

At the top you will see the word "consult". Click that button. It will tell you whats safe and possible whats not. Or Just ask and someone can help. Its safe. Its free. All it does is manage what programs start when windows starts.

By better controlling your start ups Your boot time will decrease, sometimes by quite abit.

Also with your anti-virus, Nortons is not the best right now. I do hear super things about the new release but there are many that work just as well as free versons, I myself like avast. Along with spybot search and destroy, CCleaner It just can not be beat.

One last program that I simply will never go with out on my computer and its free and I know MG has it. Advanced SystemCare 3 Beta Its free and will make a big impact on your computer speeds.

 

Thank You chaslang for correcting my error. Perhaps I need to rename the MG entry in Favorites to more accurately reflect which forum it reps. And Thanks to all for considering and responding to my post. I'll move over to Software now. Kay