Hi Mr. Sniffer Dog

A bit of a guess here, but probably an update had not finished properly? I run McAfee home 7.0 on a Win98se box and have not had problems with it, and I do clear out temp files regularly...........it is an old ex-corporate box with a small hard drive.....

My view is that you should be able to clear out temp files provided that they are finished with.

I did come across a box where the AV needed to be turned off, then on again to complete an update, so an "unfinished" file must have been on it.............I had to do a lot of updates anyway, and at the end the problem just went away............never did work out what caused it

I would check your AV after an update and see if it is using the latest pattern/signature files, then re-boot and see if there is a difference?

Just a thought