Forums Connection Issues Please Help: Problem with opening Mirc

Every time I try to open up Mirc, I get this message. "Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item." This only happens when I log into Windows via Normal Mode. I tried logging into Windows with SafeMode and I'm able to open up Mirc on there with no problems whatsoever. What could be causing this from happening? The only thing that I can think of is I updated my Firefox browser to version 3.6.6 and the plug-ins yesterday yesterday. Also, I'm able to open up all other programs such as Utorrent. For some reason, this is only affecting Mirc. I'm also using Windows Xp.

This is super frustrating as I use irc every single day. Has anyone ever experienced this before? I have exhaustively tried to solve this problem but to no avail. I have tried searching everywhere on google for a solution and haven't found anything. I posted on geekstogo.com last night, but nobody has yet to reply to me on there.

Thank you for the time you took to read this post. I really hope someone out there can help me out. Thank you..

This issue is almost always caused by anti-virus software. Some badly designed anti-virus software will automatically delete or block files that it thinks are trojans/viruses without telling you.

The mIRC install files available through the official mIRC website at http://www.mirc.com are checked for viruses/trojans before being made available to users for download so it is not possible to get a virus/trojan from them.

The mIRC install files are also double-checked by http://www.download.com which is the largest download site in the world.

If your anti-virus software is reporting an issue then your anti-virus software has made a mistake. This is called a false-positive and often happens after a company updates its virus definition files without checking them properly.

I would recommend that you update your anti-virus software, download mIRC again from the official mIRC website at http://www.mirc.com and if your anti-virus software still reports an issue with mIRC, then you would need to email the anti-virus company to report a problem with their software.

Khaled: Thank you so much for your quick response. It is greatly appreciated. I'm in Canada and I am using Shaw Secure (F-Secure) anti-virus software. I have used Mirc for years and have never has nor experienced a problem like this before. Also, I just checked my Shaw Secure anti-virus software and it should be allowing Mirc to open/run. This one person on GeeksToGo.com just assumed that it was Malware/Spyware, but everything else on my computer is running fine. I ran all of the scans that, that person told me to on GeeksToGo.com and no Malware or Spyware was found.

Khaled:

I did what you mentioned and now Mirc is working like a charm once again! I updated to the newest version 6.35. I was running version 6.21 before today. Do you think that may have had something to do with it? Once again thank you for reading my post and for your help. If should have just come to the Mirc forum and posted about this yesterday. It would have saved me a day of total annoyance and heartache.

It was probably an issue with the antivirus, or a security setting that got messed up, or just a corrupted file. Keep in mind that even if the antivirus/firewall is set to allow a program to run, it may still quarantine the file if it believes it's a virus, or in some cases (such as McAfee) a "potentially unwanted program" without telling you. That's usually why you get that error message when you try running it. By installing 6.35, it will place the mirc.exe back where it's supposed to be and it should work fine unless the antivirus quarantines or blocks it again.

If you keep having that problem, a good idea is to notify the antivirus company that the file isn't a virus so they can remove it from their signature files so it isn't affected any more.

Also, many antivirus programs allow you to whitelist programs, files, or folders. That will prevent the antivirus from scanning or checking what you add to the whitelist. You could add mIRC there if you want and it would solve the problem for you. Just be aware that if some virus got into a file/folder that you add to your whitelist, your antivirus would never know, so be careful with what you add to that list.

Riamus: Thank you for your post and all the useful information And once again thank you Khaled for your initial post as well :p So far since downloading the new Mirc 6.35, everything is working as it did before. I've got one last question that doesn't pertain to Mirc. I was just wondering you guys know of a good site that shows you what Microsoft services you should be running in MSConfig when Windows is starting up and what programs you most likely don't need starting you? If you guys know of a good site that shows you that, I would really like to know what should and shouldn't be running. I'm using Windows Xp.

Thanks again for your help :P

Google is your friend

CtrlAltDel: I know Google is my friend and I have found some sites regarding MsConfig settings. I was just throwing it out there to see if anyone had or could offer any suggestions.

Each individual computer will have different things starting up with Windows, depending on what the operator wants to use. Many programs have a "pre-start" that starts with Windows that makes them load faster. I, for one disable these as soon as the program is installed, because I'm not in that much of a hurry for it to load. Some people, on the other hand prefer these quick start files to be loaded in order to make their slower computers load things faster.
Basically, what I'm trying to say, is you should look up the things you have in msconfig with Google (or your favorite search engine) and decide for yourself what should and should not be enabled.