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I can't download Firefox to my computer using IE8, it says the download has a virus

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  • Last reply by John99

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I have tried to download various programs to my pc including Firefox using IE 8, but dutring the download a warning appears saying the download has a virus and has been deleted.

I have scanned my computer for viruses using AVG free and this says non are present.

I have also tried temporarily disabling my firewall and anti virus program, but this does not help either

I have tried to download various programs to my pc including Firefox using IE 8, but dutring the download a warning appears saying the download has a virus and has been deleted. I have scanned my computer for viruses using AVG free and this says non are present. I have also tried temporarily disabling my firewall and anti virus program, but this does not help either

Chosen solution

What is generating the warning ?
if you are saying it is not the firewall or AV system. Possibly you have malware/scareware generating warnings.

Otherwise are you sure you are using an official Firefox download site ? (such as http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/products/download.html)

As you mention problems with problems with various downloads it seems the problem is not specific to Firefox, the question is it a false positive, even a malicious false positive, or are you being redirected to other sites and downloading malware that is then being correctly identified.

Try using various tools / sites to run checks.

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Chosen Solution

What is generating the warning ?
if you are saying it is not the firewall or AV system. Possibly you have malware/scareware generating warnings.

Otherwise are you sure you are using an official Firefox download site ? (such as http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/products/download.html)

As you mention problems with problems with various downloads it seems the problem is not specific to Firefox, the question is it a false positive, even a malicious false positive, or are you being redirected to other sites and downloading malware that is then being correctly identified.

Try using various tools / sites to run checks.

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The latest version of AVG scans for malware, so I'm assuming that this isn't the cause of the problem. It seams to have started when I started using IE8 after having problems with my original instalation of Firefox. I uninstalled Firefox with the intention of re-installing it, but now I can't install anything downloaded from the internet, although I have no problem installing programs directly from DVD's . When I do try to install them a pop message appears at the bottom of the screen saying they are infected with a virus

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You will need to test with different sites/tools because they are not all capable of detecting the same things.Two objectives:

  • decide: do you really have malware ?
    - use latest versions of software /tools - preferably downloaded imported recently
    remember malware may be attempting to block such downloads
  • discover: what is generating this warning message
    task manager and maybe system logs may help with that
    attach a screenshot of the message someone may recognise it, (either as genuine, or an attempt to spoof a genuine message)


If you are experimenting with an install from a DVD are you able to get someone else to check and scan that DVD then if you use that DVD offline to attempt an install you have a low risk of problems, (UNLESS you already have malware that AVG is suppressing - so check any reports AVG is generating first) you could then consider disabling or uninstalling your AVG (whilst offline) to see if that is part of the problem