Hi Experts of Tom's Hardware. Hoping you can help me...
I have a few problems with my laptop which seemed to have occurred more or less simultaneously. If I didn't know better I'd think it was a virus. I have run a scan using AVG Free and found nothing.
Firstly I cannot access any downloaded files. When using Google Chrome, the data seems to download and transfer to my computer but then says "Failed - Blocked", and in the Chrome Downloads tab "security settings on your computer blocked this file." With Internet Explorer it doesn't even seem to download in the first place; click the link, a little loading, then nothing.
The obvious solution seemed to be to check my download security settings, but they are all as normal. I followed another solution on the Microsoft website to check all setting. I then tried toI reset to the "medium-high" default settings in Internet Options but the problem persists whatever I do.
In fact if I go into my Downloads folder in Explorer, it says it is empty. It should not be empty...
Which brings me on to the next very weird problem. Explorer seems to have "forgotten" the following:
-Favourites within Start menu; it is just blank
-Items pinned to Taskbar; no longer there
-It will not even let me pin items back to the Taskbar; the options are NOT greyed out, but clicking them nonetheless does nothing
-My Documents, also empty
-Recent items within MS Office. It has lost all my Recent Items and I had to manually re-find them
-Most of my desktop shortcuts (less of a problem but odd)
-Certain programs. For instance, Notepad has disappeared from the Start menu (normally under Accessories), but I can still open existing Notepad files (the only way to make a new Notepad file is to open an existing one then click File>New)
-All options under Dialog Box > New > "(Empty)"
-AVG itself; disappeared from system tray and appeared to no longer be running. I had to manually reopen it, but it is running now seemingly without problems
I hope this is enough information but please ask if you need more. I hope you can help.
Thanks,
Max
I have a few problems with my laptop which seemed to have occurred more or less simultaneously. If I didn't know better I'd think it was a virus. I have run a scan using AVG Free and found nothing.
Firstly I cannot access any downloaded files. When using Google Chrome, the data seems to download and transfer to my computer but then says "Failed - Blocked", and in the Chrome Downloads tab "security settings on your computer blocked this file." With Internet Explorer it doesn't even seem to download in the first place; click the link, a little loading, then nothing.
The obvious solution seemed to be to check my download security settings, but they are all as normal. I followed another solution on the Microsoft website to check all setting. I then tried toI reset to the "medium-high" default settings in Internet Options but the problem persists whatever I do.
In fact if I go into my Downloads folder in Explorer, it says it is empty. It should not be empty...
Which brings me on to the next very weird problem. Explorer seems to have "forgotten" the following:
-Favourites within Start menu; it is just blank
-Items pinned to Taskbar; no longer there
-It will not even let me pin items back to the Taskbar; the options are NOT greyed out, but clicking them nonetheless does nothing
-My Documents, also empty
-Recent items within MS Office. It has lost all my Recent Items and I had to manually re-find them
-Most of my desktop shortcuts (less of a problem but odd)
-Certain programs. For instance, Notepad has disappeared from the Start menu (normally under Accessories), but I can still open existing Notepad files (the only way to make a new Notepad file is to open an existing one then click File>New)
-All options under Dialog Box > New > "(Empty)"
-AVG itself; disappeared from system tray and appeared to no longer be running. I had to manually reopen it, but it is running now seemingly without problems
I hope this is enough information but please ask if you need more. I hope you can help.
Thanks,
Max