virus? trying to access my address book

[Huck Rorick]

I am frequently getting a message that says:

"A program is trying to access your Address Book

A program is trying to access your Address Book or contacts. Viruses can
spread by sending copies of e-mail messages to people listed in your Address
Book. You must allow or deny access to your Address Book before this program
can continue."

Sometimes it is also accompanied by the message:

"Server Busy

This action cannot be completed because the "Contacts-Microsoft Outlook"
program is not responding. Choose "Switch To" and correct the problem.

Switch To Retry Cancel"



The message comes up all the time and is annoying. But I don't know any way
to figure out where it is coming from and if it is a virus how to get rid of
it.

Can anyone offer some help?

thanks,

Huck

 

[Brian Tillman]

I am frequently getting a message that says:

"A program is trying to access your Address Book

A program is trying to access your Address Book or contacts. Viruses
can spread by sending copies of e-mail messages to people listed in
your Address Book. You must allow or deny access to your Address Book
before this program can continue."

You have an add-in that doesn't conform to the Microsoft security model. If
you're using Word as your mail editor, it's often Adobe's Acrobat causing
the problem.

 

[Huck Rorick]

Brian,
How would I go about finding out what non-conforming add-in is causing the
problem? I went to Tools>Options and clicked on "Mail Format" tab. The
"Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages" box was not checked (i.e. not
useing Word). Does that mean word is not the culprit? How does that tie in
with Adobe Acrobat? If it is Acrobat, what can I do?
Thanks for any further help,

Huck

 

[Brian Tillman]

How would I go about finding out what non-conforming add-in is
causing the problem?

Tools>Options>Other>Advanced Options. The Add-in buttons (Add-in Manager
and COM Add-ins) are there. Select each in turn and uncheck each add-in in
turn and test. That should find which one is causing the issue.

As a last resort, you can download "Express ClickYes" from
http://www.contextmagic.com/express-clickyes/

 

[Huck Rorick]

Brian,
Thanks for the reply.

I checked "COM Add-Ins". Nothing listed there.
Under "Add-In Manager" I found:
McAfee Virus Scan Hawk
McAfee Virus Scan for Outlook
Exchange Extensions property pages
Windows CE Support
Fax Server Extension

It would seem unwise to uncheck the 2 McAfee programs.
Would unchecking "windows CE support" screw up connection with my PDA? Is
it likely to cause the problem I'm having?
I unchecked "Fax Server Extension"

Can you comment?
Thanks,

Huck

 

[Huck Rorick]

Unchecking "Fax Server Extension" did not stop the problem.
Unchecked "Exchange Extensions property pages"
Huck

Brian,
Thanks for the reply.

I checked "COM Add-Ins". Nothing listed there.
Under "Add-In Manager" I found:
McAfee Virus Scan Hawk
McAfee Virus Scan for Outlook
Exchange Extensions property pages
Windows CE Support
Fax Server Extension

It would seem unwise to uncheck the 2 McAfee programs.
Would unchecking "windows CE support" screw up connection with my PDA? Is
it likely to cause the problem I'm having?
I unchecked "Fax Server Extension"

Can you comment?
Thanks,

Huck

 

[Huck Rorick]

Unchecking "Fax Server Extension" did not stop the problem.
Unchecking "Exchange Extensions property pages" did not stop the problem.
It seems unwise to uncheck the McAfee Virus Scan.
The message regarding accessing my address book occurs about 5 times in a
row. then stops for a while. then comes back again for about 5 times.

Any other ideas?

Huck
Huck

Unchecking "Fax Server Extension" did not stop the problem.
Unchecked "Exchange Extensions property pages"
Huck

 

[Brian Tillman]

Unchecking "Fax Server Extension" did not stop the problem.
Unchecking "Exchange Extensions property pages" did not stop the
problem. It seems unwise to uncheck the McAfee Virus Scan.

I would disagree, since if you use the on-access scanner that VirusScan
usually runs, you are no less protected. Moreover, integration of antivirus
programs with Outlook often causes the issue.

The message regarding accessing my address book occurs about 5 times
in a row. then stops for a while. then comes back again for about 5
times.

Just the ClickYes one.

 

[Huck Rorick]

Brian,
I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. It seems that some program
is trying to access my phone book. I am not aware of having told any
program to do that. (Incidentally, I have the same programs running on my
laptop, but it does not have this problem. Nor did the desktop machine a
month ago.)
If "McAfee Virus Scan for Outlook" is catching this activity and I disable
it, then of course the "problem" will stop. Actually, the problem won't
stop, I'll just stop getting messages about it. I suppose I could try a
different anti-virus program. Are you recommending that I uncheck the
"McAffe Virus Scan for Outlook"? If so, can you explain a little better why
this makes sense.

thanks,

Huck

 

[Brian Tillman]

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. It seems that some
program is trying to access my phone book. I am not aware of having
told any program to do that. (Incidentally, I have the same programs
running on my laptop, but it does not have this problem. Nor did the
desktop machine a month ago.)

Did you recently apply Office SP3?

Are you recommending that I uncheck the "McAffe Virus Scan for Outlook"?
Yes.

If so, can you explain a little better why this makes sense.

First, running an Outlook-integrated mail scanner adds a level of
complication to your mail process. Timing in that process can sometimes be
important and the extra time taken to scan inbound or outbound messages can
interfere with the ability of the mail client and the mail server to
communicate with each other in a timely fashion, leading to multiply sent or
received messages, among other things. Also, if you run the on-access
scanner McAfee supplies, outbound messages CAN'T contain viruses anyway,
since the on-access scanner would have detected the virus while it was on
your hard drive prior to its being added to the message, so outbound
scanning is a waste of time. Moreover, on inbound messages, even if you
don't scan, the on-access scanner would still detect any viruses as soon as
you tried to open any attachment, since the attachment needs to be placed on
disk in order to open it, so scanning inbound messages is also a waste of
time.

Fewer problems occur overall if mail scanning is disabled.