MS update breaks Chrome!

OK, this is another Daveski tale from cyberspace. So, today, I decided to switch my laptop on in the afternoon & check my email & maybe surf a little. Within a few minutes I got a McAfee Dat (BT NetProtect Plus). Usually I can deal with this even when the computer is still a bit 'cold’ & although I only have a Gig of RAM the DAT isn’t normally a problem. The computer felt a bit sluggish however & I had a feeling I was soon to get a Microsoft update. I tried to open Chrome nonetheless, but it seemed to be taking its time. Eventually when it opened I promptly closed it again & decided to investigate the update which, to me, seemed a bit laboured. I checked the MS updater & could only see a Defender update but when I installed it, it prompted me to restart.

After restarting, I open Chrome only to find that it breaks every page that I open, including those that I have bookmarked, &/or isn’t rendering them correctly, Gmail is just blank. SRWare Iron & Firefox are fine. I tried another restart but it was still the same so I uninstalled Chrome from the uninstaller in the Start Menu (keeping browser information) & reinstalled it, then systematically reinstalled all of my extensions. That worked & it seems fine now, even solving a slight adblocking problem I had previously experienced in Hotmail!

So the upside of this strange ‘fandango’ (as my late father had a propensity to call such odd & frustrating irritations) is that I’m OK now in Hotmail. “Oh goody” he says in mock irony. Anyway, I checked the updater for 03/08/2010 (today) & noticed that along with a Defender update was ‘Security Update for Windows Vista’ (KB915597).

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

 

I'd be willing to bet it was the McAfee update not the MS Update. Using Chrome here fine.

 

I know McAfee's universally loathed but I haven't had any problems with it so far. It is a tad heavy though & I'm thinking of replacing it with the Panda Cloud or something. Chrome worked fine after the DAT, I'm sure it was MS that fragged it somewhat. It's OK now though.

 

Its McAffee and not MS.

 

Yep, no problems here.....

 

I still think it is MS & not McAfee. For what it's worth I've uninstalled McAfee (I get it free with my ISP) & I am testing the Panda Cloud (freeware). The difference in performance on my laptop is quite scary (in a good scary way ). McAfee always scared me a bit anyway (the wrong way).

 

Updated without any problems here, with Vista Ultimate and Chrome. Nobody can say for sure whether it it McAfee creating the problem, but certainly not MS.
I don't know about Panda, but you could also try Avast and Avira free, they are both top notch and very light.

 

I think it was when I tried to open Chrome when the MS update was downloading that did it. The trouble with McAfee is that it is like some huge leviathan in your hard drive gobbling up power. If I got a DAT & MS updates at the same time it could result in a freeze. I've heard Avast & Avira are good. Panda looks like being a keeper though. I knew McAfee was slowing me down somewhat, I just didn't realise how much. I never had any trouble with McAfee, it is just way too power intensive on a laptop. I think it would have pulled the Starship Enterprise out of warp!

 

McAfee is notorious for creating a huge drag on your PC, I've seen it over and over in both corporate machines and home setups. I'd avoid it like the plague. Avira and Avast are both very light now. Panda Cloud Free is pretty good too. If I were you, I'd dump McAfee and never look back....

 

Yeah, I'm trying Microsoft Security Essentials at the moment. It doesn't seem particularly heavy. Panda was very light but seemed to be convinced my computer was a seething mass of viruses. SAS, MSE & BitDefender online disagree!

 

Yep, MSE is pretty light too. Lots of choices.....

 

I think MSE will be a keeper!