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Conflict with McAfee WebAdvisor

Problem

I have McAfee WebAdvisor, think-cell, and another security software product installed.

In this setting, McAfee WebAdvisor breaks fundamental Microsoft Office functionality. This is also reproducible without think-cell, e.g., the datasheet of existing Microsoft Office Charts cannot be opened. When trying to edit an embedded document, e.g., an Excel Worksheet, an error message is displayed and the document does not open.

This problem affects think-cell as well. When using think-cell you may experience one of the following issues:

think-cell 9 and 10

  • When inserting a new think-cell chart, the internal datasheet does not open.
  • When opening a file with existing think-cell charts, the think-cell functionality is lost.

In both cases, you receive the following think-cell Message warning about this incompatibility:

McAfee conflict message.

think-cell 8

  • When inserting a new think-cell chart, the chart is empty, the internal datasheet does not open, and an error message is displayed: McAfee conflict error message.
  • When opening a file with existing think-cell charts, the think-cell functionality is lost.

Do not save PowerPoint files after the error occurred. WebAdvisor damages embedded documents in the PowerPoint presentation. Therefore, existing think-cell charts lose their think-cell functionality, when opened with McAfee WebAdvisor enabled. Once the functionality is lost, it cannot be restored.

Solution

According to McAfee WebAdvisor Support, a fix for this issue is included in WebAdvisor version 4.0.7.148. Please update McAfee WebAdvisor and restart your PC.

If the problem still occurs with the latest version of McAfee WebAdvisor, please contact our support team. In any case, you can resolve the issue by uninstalling McAfee WebAdvisor. Note that this is not the full McAfee Antivirus product, but just the part that attempts to inform about website security.

We have filed a case with McAfee. If you want to contact McAfee to ask for a fix, you may refer to Support Request #2268703322.

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