McAfee Script Error

I have Windows XP Pro SP 2 running McAfee VirusScan 10.0.

Does this error look familiar?

An error has occurred in the script on this page.

Line: 752
Char: 5
Error: The task has been configured with an unsupported combination of account settings and run time options.
Code: 0
URL: mcp://C:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vsooui.dll:mgavprop.htm

Do you want to continue running scripts on this page?

You may see this error if you attempt to view the VirusScan options page one of two ways - 1) right click on the red McAfee "M" in the Windows notification area (near the clock), go to VirusScan then Options OR 2) Go to the McAfee Security Center by double clicking on the red "M" or go through the Start menu, then click on "Configure VirusScan Options". Either way gets you to the same place. But you may get the error which is the reason for this post.


This discussion on McAffe's support site claimed to have fixed the problem but all he did was remove the VirusScan task from Windows Scheduled Tasks program. What if you DO want this task scheduled? And who wouldn't? It's virus protection software which should run EVERY night as a scheduled scan scanning all your attached hard drives and partitions - and it should do all this while you sleep. Simply deleting the task is not a good answer.

Here's what I discovered the actual culprit was: In the properties of the task in the Windows Scheduled Tasks program, I deselected "Run only if logged on". Allow me to sidetrack here for the purposes of explanation and edification: Most people say your computer should be password protected for many reasons. Thus, I believe XP Pro (not Home Edition) is the way to go. So, following good advice, I have XP Pro and have my computer set to require a password upon returning from Hibernation. So when VirusScan runs in the middle of the night after the computer has been hibernating for several hours, it must run even if not logged on. Now back to the main issue. You can see for yourself. If you get the above error message, deleting the task and resetting it in McAfee will only fix the problem until you go in to the VirusScan task and uncheck the aforementioned "Run only if logged on" box (which you can only do in Windows Scheduled Tasks. You will instantly see the error when you attempt to view the VirusScan options page (using the method detailed above). Clearly this is an issue with McAfee. But finding the technical support less than helpful I was forced to create a workaround - which I am now quite happy with.

Again, XP Pro with VirusScan v10.0.
What you must do is create a batch file (good tutorial here) (or command file) which will run VirusScan for you. Open Notepad and paste the below text:

c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcmnhdlr.exe /runtask:0

Save this file as something obvious (I called it "Scheduled Run McAfee.bat"), but it MUST have the ".bat" extension. It could just as easily be called "run_scan.bat" if you like. Additionally, I saved it in an obvious location on the hard drive (C:\Program Files\McAfee.com) so I could find it easily later, which I suggest. Now if you were to double click on this newly created file, it would start running a full system scan. I have not completely figured out the command line switches (these are the groups of text after forward slashes ("/") at the end of the command line). Right now I have "/runtask:0" (that's a zero at the end). I would think there's a way of setting up different scanning configurations (scan only internal hard drives, scan only certain folders, etc), but I have not figured that out yet and would rather everything be scanned. It runs in the middle of the night anyway.

The final task is the actual scheduling of the newly created batch file. Go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Scheduled Tasks. Once open, click on "Add Scheduled Task". This brings up "Scheduled Task Wizard". Click "Next" on the first screen, then on the 2nd screen click "browse". Find your file, click on it then click "open". On the next screen name your task whatever you want and select how often to perform the task (I recommend "Daily") then click "Next". This can all be changed later if you want, by they way. Now set the time you wish to start this task (I recommend middle of the night) and you can change specifics of how often it's run (again, I recommend "Every Day", but if you selected "Weekly" or "Monthly" on the previous screen, this won't be an option) and click "Next". The next page may ask you to enter a password if you have XP Pro and have set up this feature which I recommend, then click "Next". The last page tells you that you were successful (if, in fact, you were that is) and gives you an option to check the "Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish" box. We want to see advanced properties so click the box and then click "Finish". Be sure "Run only if logged on" is NOT selected. If it is selected, click the box to uncheck it. Finally, click the "Settings" tab and check the box that says "Wake the computer to run this task". This allows the task to run even if the computer is in Stand by or Hibernate mode. Then just click "OK". There are a couple other advance properties that you can play around with or ask me about by posting a comment.

This will allow you to have scheduled task which runs when you are not logged on even in Hibernate mode and you won't get the above McAfee errors when trying to view options and other things.

One other note: Running a batch file is very powerful (see above link to tutorial). I have added one more line to my file so the file looks like the below:

c:\PROGRA~1\mcafee.com\vso\mcmnhdlr.exe /runtask:0
notepad C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\McAfee.com\VSO\ODSLog\*your_login*_ods.log

(Lines 2 and 3 should be on the 2nd line together but word wrap throws it off; *your_login* is whatever your XP login name is; but better to go to the correct folder and find the actual name of the VirusScan log file). This additional line opens the log file upon completion of the scan. This allows me to see that McAfee did, in fact, run during the night and what the results were. I noticed on the McAfee forum there were many problems with VirusScan not even running. I don't have a good solution for this, but bringing the log to attention shows that you're okay.


0x8007007a: The data area passed to a system call is too small
This batch file idea may even fix the below problem which Microsoft didn't (at the time of this writing) have a good answer for and a real fix for. Though I can't prove the batch file will work since I don't personally have this problem.

Black M after scheduled scan runs
Using a batch file may even fix this problem, but, again, I don't know.

Something else is that changing the default browser from Internet Explorer did NOT affect the functionality of McAfee. McAfee technical support told me I must have IE as the default. This is not true.

Good afternoon

Donald W. Hasson
http://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldhasson
http://donaldhasson.blogspot.com