This will be rather lengthy. My internet service provider is ATT Uverse.
Tonight I noticed that every e-mail attachment (yahoo and msn services) would not open because of a virus. Similarly every download would not download and open because of a virus (e.g this happened when I tried to download Microsoft Security Essentials to reinstall it.
(1) I went to Windows Security Service Center. It was turned off. When I turned it on it says the Service Center cannot be started.
(2) I went to firewall which was not using the recommended settings. When I click to use recommended settings I get "Windows cannot change some of your settings. Error Code 0x80070424".
(3) I click on Microsoft Security Essentials and got " windows cannot access the specified device path or file. You may not have the appropriate permission to access an item".
In summary when I go to HP Support Assistant I get 1. network firewall off 2. virus protection off 3. protection against spyware and unwanted applications off 4. windows update off 5. internet security settings at risk and user account control off. When I try to turn 1,2,3 on I cannot.
As I said everything was fine until I could not open e-mail attachment or download and open software. I should note that I was able to open the e-mail attachments without problems on my two other computers so the attachments did not in fact have viruses.
Thank you for any help. This problem came out of nowhere and the support from HP and Microsoft has not been very helpful