Windows Vista users may experience an issue with obtaining an IP address via DHCP when starting their computers. For Windows Vista users who are on a Active directory domain (Either SBS 2003 or any standard Active Directory domain) may experience the “Welcome” message on their screen for long periods of time and sometimes it may never get past that point.
We at Portbridge have noticed that there is one common fact about these computers that have this problem, they all have had McAfee Security Suite installed and once removed. This horrible software somehow causes problems with Winsock and other TCP/IP files on the Windows Vista machine.
We have listed the proper steps to properly remove McAfee as to avoid these issues:
1. Go to Control Panel and Select Programs
2. Uninstall ALL McAfee related programs
Now that you have uninstalled all these programs please download the following tool:
http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe
1. Download this to your Desktop or wherever you wish.
2. Rick click the downloaded file and select “Run as administrator”
The program will now start removing all the files associated with McAfee. This should PREVENT the issue from ever happening. HOWEVER, if you do run into this program where DHCP won’t start and you can’t get online do the following:
1. Go to: C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd
2. Rick click on CMD and select “Run as administrator”
3. Enter the following command: Sfc /scannow (This may take a few minutes, go have a snack and a drink)
4. Once this is done enter the following command: netsh winsock reset
