Laptops
 

So here is the the problem:

Acer laptop on MS 8.1 operating system, it did have McAffee on it. The problems are:

(a) MS office has dissapeared.
(b) The printer drivers have dissapeared (Canon & Samsung)
(c) I can not reload Canon driver
(d) I can not download AVG virus

Does anyone have any ideas?

you should have listed McAffee in the problem section.

Try installing and running Malwarebytes or similar.

Or may be you have had your log on account switched to user level instead of admin

Get shot of the crappy Microsoft OS and load Linux instead. ;)

Roll back to an earlier known good time with "Recover" ?

This is quite a complex set of mishaps. We really need more info....

Did these problems all appear at the same time? If so - What might have been the triggering factor? Windows update? Other software update? Or were they there at switch on without any previous identifiable symptoms?

Did you remove McAfee? Why? How? Did the other issues surface before or after? Is it possible that your have a virus or other trojan infection(s).

It seems to me as though the most satisfactory solution is a reformat of the HDD and a fresh installation of what you need (I know that this is a absolutely dreadful was to spend an afternoon). Probably best first to decide whether it is worth it. How old is the machine? What is it's general condition? Windows 8.x seemed to get a lot of negative comments. Better to start again with W10 perhaps? Can you get the drivers for the laptop if you were to do that?

I'm sorry - mostly questions without answers. I'm simply doing what I myself would if confronted with this unusual set of challenges.

Good luck whatever course you plot ....

FOR

No. these things did not all happen at the same time. The McAffee came loaded and only valid for a year. I had wondered whether it is Windows updates are causing this. I say that as on my other laptop using Window 10, a Dell, the driver for a WiFi Samsung stopped working after a Windows update.

One final thing on the Acer laptop, when I tried to load AVG software, the exe program appears on the bottom bar, on the left, but behind the windows, files, exploer, chrome, etc icons, making it impossible to run the programe as I can not click on it.