Windows 8.1 – anti-virus won’t install

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I’m doing group B updates for Windows 8.1. It’s been fine but a couple of months ago my update for BitDefender caused the system to hang when rebooting. The only way to fix this was to roll back (using Macrium Reflect). BitDefender support said to uninstall/reinstall. I did this but same issue- had to roll back again. Ultimately they stopped responding.

So I got Norton. However this won’t even try to install- the installer “stub” just hangs.

I’m guessing this has something to do with a dependency on a non-security update which means if I want something other than Windows Defender (I’m running that now) then I have to go to group A.

BOTTOM LINE QUESTION: does anyone have any other ideas on how to make 3rd party AV work without joining group A?

Thanks in advance.

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I don’t think Group B patching is the problem and I don’t think Group A is the solution. And Defender is not an anti-virus solution on Win8.1, only on Win10.

I am running Group B patching and BitDefender on one of my Win7 machines without a problem. (Yes, I know, I said Win7 and you have Win8.1) I think you have some other problem that is preventing the anti-virus programs from installing. Have you considered the possibility of an infection? Infections often cause problems for AV installations.

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I concur with PKCano’s comment, regarding malware hindering installations. Other security apps can hinder as well. Getting a malware checkup is a prudent approach if you are having an installation issue. There are several sites, where you can get this done. My preference is MajorGeeks. https://forums.majorgeeks.com/ Register there and make a post in the Malware Help – MG (A Specialist Will Reply) forum, but read and do the sticky post at the top of the forum Read & Run Me First Malware Removal Guide (incl. Spyware, Virus, Trojan, Hijacker). There are 5 tool logs you will need to attach to your post. Don’t delete anything, when you run the tools … the specialist will tell you what needs to go, else you could damage your system by deleting something, you shouldn’t.

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Defender is, as far as I know, the same in Windows 8.1 and 10.  Only Windows 7 and prior need MSE to get the same functionality.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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geekdom

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A simple uninstall of Bitdefender doesn’t work! Some security apps have built-in mechanisms to protect from being uninstalled by malware. Bitdefender, Comodo, and McAfee have this protection and maybe some other apps do too. You need to run a Bitdefender Uninstall Tool in safe mode to effect the removal. You can get the tool here: https://www.bitdefender.com/uninstall/ Choose the type paid or trial, the generation year, then the product. If your product isn’t listed, select any product download for your year. It turns out there aren’t separate tools for each product in a given year, but just one. Each product-tool download link will give you the same thing for that year. I recommend running the uninstall tool twice in safe mode to make sure all remnants are gone.
Then do a reinstall of Bitdefender to see if you still have the reboot hang problem.

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columbia2011

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