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Retiky
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McAfee won't let me remove it.

Fri Aug 11, 2006 4:39 pm

Background:

I'm working on a friends dad's computer. I'm trying to get rid of McrapAfee. When trying to uninstall it, it tells me its running and I should stop the application before uninstallation. I have stopped every McAfee application running in the taskmanager, and I can't find any of it running anywhere. I even tried safemode to uninstall it.

Question:

Does anyone here know of a good program removal utility I could use to get rid of it.
 
Rooster
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Fri Aug 11, 2006 4:50 pm

First you need to stop and disable ALL the McAfee services (start run services.msc). Then you need to make sure to end all of the running processes (start run taskmgr). There will probably be several. Once that's complete, you should be able to uninstall it.

I think it's pretty unethical of them to make it HARD to remove their software...
 
Retiky
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Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:04 pm

Yah, I've done all of that. It still tells me that its unable to uninstall.

This is probably reason 18937368950 regaurding my hatred of McAfee.

I am really just looking for a utility to force it to uninstall. I know their are force deletion programs for that anoying "File is being used by an application, stop application before deleting" messages. I need one for uninstalls.
 
Retiky
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Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:09 pm

Heres the message when trying to uninstall its "Firewall Plus"

"McAfee Personal Firewall Plus is currently running. You must stop the application before you can uninstall it."

The worst part is that when I accessed McAfee manager, I was told that Firewall Plus wasn't even installed to begin with.

So I go to uninstall McAfee completely, and i'm told.

"In order to uninstall McAfee security center, you need to uninstall all McAfee services first."

Its retarded.
 
Squpi
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Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:18 pm

I've used a program called Move on Boot. It will delete the file before your file has a chance to put up it's guard after a startup. It's worked great for me. I had two files that I couldn't delete (I think they were spyware things) and this program got rid of them no problem. I'm trying to find a link for you. . .

EDIT: link1
link2
I can't remember where I downloaded it from, but these to sites seem to have it.
 
Capsaicin
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Mon Aug 14, 2006 1:19 pm

You can use Process Explorer to see what's using a particular file and nuke the process.
 
Retiky
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Mon Aug 14, 2006 1:53 pm

Thanks. I'll have to try them and see how it works out.
 
readysetgo
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Solution

Sat Aug 19, 2006 3:41 am

Howdy, as soon as I saw your topic, I jumped for joy thinking and hoping that there might be a final solution to my half-way solution for uninstalling McAfee. Alas, it is NOT to be,but I can help you get as far as I have.

So, as I'm running short on time, without preamble, I copy and paste and email from McAfee tech support for you (enjoy!):

> Dear Customer,
>
>
> Click on the links listed below one by one and save the file on to your computer desktop.
> Double click on the file downloaded.
> Restart the computer, when prompted to do so.
>
> http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/VSCleanupTool.exe
> http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MPFCleanupTool.exe
> http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MSKCleanupTool.exe
> http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MPSCleanupTool.exe
>
> Uninstall McAfee SecurityCenter from Add/Remove programs.
>
> If you are unable to uninstall SecurityCenter from Add/Remove:
> Click on start and click on run.
> Type c:\Program Files\McAfee.com\Agent\App in the run prompt and click on the ok button.
> Delete all the files with adf extention from the new window.
> Uninstall SecurityCenter.
> Restart your computer.
>
>
> Note: Do not reply to this e-mail message.
>
> Thank you,
>
> McAfee Technical Support
>


The above allowed me to uninstall the individual elements of McAfee installed on my Dells, but I still can't uninstall the Control Center. I'll copy and paste the error message I get when I try to do that in a later post.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.


Olu
"Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." Author unknown

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