Windows 10: Panda AV Free mysteriously uninstalled; can't reinstall

Yesterday I found that Panda AV Free was no longer installed on one of my computers, even though I hadn't uninstalled it. When I tried to reinstall it, I got told that another installation was pending and that I should reboot. After rebooting it tried to continue with the installation and failed. I tried again and the same thing happened. I ran Malwarebytes, but it found nothing suspicious.

Is this just a malfunction, or is there something malicious happening? How can I get my anti-virus reinstalled and working properly?

Here is the log of the last failed install.PsNanoLog_899D.zip

:)

 

Windows 10 'parameter is incorrect' and 'Windows cannot access the specified device etc'

OK - after trying everything I could think of, I've discovered the problem was caused by an update that Panda AV applied to my tablet on 6 May. After that, it was blocking all executable files, including self-decrypting WinOptimizer files - but Panda was
just doing this in the background without alerting me. So mystery solved I think. Thanks again for your help.

 

Can't assign volume names in File Explorer

That solved it! I removed Panda Free AV and installed AVG Free AV. Now the volume labels show up without a problem, and there are no autorun.inf files.

 

You may wish to run the Panda uninstall tool & then reinstall again after it has cleared out all the remnants of the old installation. Then go from there & see if you have any more problems. If so, please post back .

How to uninstall Panda from the computer - Technical Support - Panda Security

Once you've removed it you may wish to d/l & run Malwarebytes (free version) & Adwcleaner to see if they find anything.

Then go from there & see if you have any more problems with re-installation of Panda.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried running the Panda uninstaller and it hung.

One additional piece of information I had forgotten about is that Windows Update is broken on this computer too, and mmc.exe will only run if I launch it from an admin console because of broken permissions. I don't know whether any of this is connected to the problem with Panda. I'm wondering whether it's time to give up trying to get it all to work and to do a clean install of Windows instead.

 

Have you tried running an SFC to see if the problem can be fixed through that? Option 3 is the recommended one.

Run SFC Command in Windows 10 Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials



Note If SFC could not fix something, then run the command again to see if it may be able to the next time. Sometimes it may take running the sfc /scannow command up to 3 times with restarting the computer after each time to completely fix everything that it's able to.

If not, then run the Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth command to repair any component store corruption, restart the PC afterwards, and try the sfc /scannow command again.

Depending on how broken the OS is, it might be a good idea to reinstall. You can also try a refresh, reset or try a repair install first to see if this will fix the problem. There are some good tutorials here explaining the options.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Refresh Windows 10 Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Reset Windows 10 Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Clean Install Windows 10 Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

 

Depending on how broken the OS is, it might be a good idea to reinstall. You can also try a refresh, reset or try a repair install first to see if this will fix the problem. There are some good tutorials here explaining the options.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Refresh Windows 10 Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Reset Windows 10 Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Clean Install Windows 10 Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials Thanks for the suggestions. I'd tried fixing the msc problem before with a refresh, so I decided to do a reinstall and everything seems to be working now.

 

Glad you got it sorted. *Smile Sometimes starting over is just the best option.

This may help you down the road, you can make a system image so that if something like this happens again you can restore to the time that you made it.

Keep the system image on a external HDD and don't have it hooked up all the time, preferably only when you make system images. Keep 4 or 5 older versions & rotate them out, so that if you inadvertently make one with a virus/malware, you have another one to fall back on.

Create System Image in Windows 10 Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials