Normally Windows does not cause problems when downloading any file from the Internet or installing programs. Unless the browser’s own measures or the operating system consider it a threat and, therefore, it is blocked for security. However, there may be several reasons why when trying to download certain types of programs, such as an antivirus, Windows does not leave us. And most of the time, the cause of this problem is usually the fault of a virus .
There are many viruses that, to avoid being detected and deleted from the system, choose to disable the antivirus that we have installed and, in addition, apply certain restrictions to prevent us from downloading and installing others.
These viruses usually block all download and security pages so that we cannot access them. And also restrictions usually apply when trying to install certain programs. Something as easy as checking the developer’s digital signature and preventing its execution if it is a security signature.
When this happens we have several options. The most effective, drastic and impractical would be to format the computer. However, many times it is not necessary to resort to those extremes.
Try to download the antivirus on another PC and run it from a USB
If we cannot download the antivirus from our computer, then we will try to download it from another side. If we have another computer at hand , we can try to download it from it, copy it to a USB memory and try to install it on the computer through this USB memory. Even if we don’t have another computer at hand, we can download the installer on our mobile, connect it to the PC and search the security software installer inside the storage.
Most likely, when trying to run the antivirus installer we see a window that will ask us for administrator permissions. We grant them.
Now we simply follow the wizard to install the antivirus on the computer. As soon as it is installed, we will launch a complete analysis to the whole system to catch and eliminate the threat that it was making of yours on our PC.
We can also choose to use a portable antivirus to run it on the PC without having to install anything. Very useful for not attracting the attention of the virus and being able to detect and eliminate it.
Safe Mode often helps us avoid virus blockages
Malware may be the most advanced and, in addition to not letting us download an antivirus, it also prevents us from installing it on our PC.
In this case, the best we can do is restart the computer in Safe Mode. When we do this, Windows loads only with the minimum drivers and services, the only ones that are signed by Microsoft and the basic ones so that it can work. If our virus starts at the start of the PC, in Safe Mode it will not.
Thus, from Safe Mode (it is advisable to do it without Internet access) we can install the antivirus on our computer are problems. If the installation is successful, we only have to restart the computer and return to Windows. When the operating system starts up, the antivirus will also do it, and therefore, it will detect the virus before it can do anything.
If we have the opportunity, it is advisable to run an out-of-system analysis (of those that run before Windows loads) to be more likely to detect the virus and remove it safely.
The cause may not be a virus, but a badly installed antivirus
Problems when installing security software do not always have to do with a virus. For security reasons, antivirus programs do not allow other antivirus devices to be installed while they are installed on the computer.
If we already have an antivirus installed on the PC it is more than likely that we cannot install a second. The cause may even be that the security software we had before has been badly uninstalled from the computer. And in that case we only have two options:
- Restore the system to a previous state (before uninstalling the antivirus) to try again to erase it.
- Use an official uninstaller that forcibly erases all the trace left by the antivirus on the PC.
Once the antivirus has been deleted from our computer, we can reinstall the new security software that we want without problems. We can even give Windows Defender, Microsoft’s antivirus, a chance, if we are Windows 10 users.
