Difficulty uninstalling McAfee

I am trying to uninstall McAfee to 'make room' on my system. I now have PC-Cillin and am very happy. Everytime I go thru the uninstalll process, my computer locks up and says "unable to uninstall...can't find the 'installation log file' ". Any ideas?

Thanx! Luckyfish

 

Good Ol' McAfee.

This may be a case where McAfee did not install correctly in the first place. And if it did not it will not un-install correctly.

The 4 items below are best done when in the safe mode. That way McAfee willl not be loaded at all.

Check the Startup folder and make sure there is nothing there related to McAfee.

Also Check the C:\Windows\Temp folder for references to McAfee. If it did not install correctly there may be some there.

Then you may have to do a Start/run and type REGEDIT and do a find for McAfee and delete all references to it.

Then delete the folder that contains the McAfee program from the HD.

I had to do the above on two different machines in order to get rid of McAfee.

BillyBob

 

Thanx, BillyBob (am I really writing to a director/movie-star....lol)---bet you catch a lot of grief for that in NY!! I appreciate your reply....

First, I DO have stuff in Start-up (Start Menu) related to McAfee. Do I delete that? Also, how do I kick into safe mode--I've been there before--but only after 'shutting down improperly'.

I have deleted all my temp files in order to 'make room'....so nothing there.

Waiting to do the 'Regedit" and deleting the folder till I hear back.
Thanx again! LuckyFish

 

First, I DO have stuff in Start-up (Start Menu) related to McAfee. Do I delete that?

Yes. But I was refering to, Click Start, Select Programs, then the Startup Folder.

Also, how do I kick into safe mode--I've been there before--but only after 'shutting down improperly'.

I myself hold down the Control Key while the machine is booting.

Or if you are fast enough you can hit F8 when you see Starting Win98 ( if same comes up ).

BillyBob

 

My Start-Up folder is empty. Guess I'm ready to do the safe mode stuff, eh?

Luckyfish

 

Luckyfish - I agree with BillyBob, I to had to delete McAfee. The only thing is I don't think that just deleteing anything that makes reference to McAfee will completely delete it. By removing anything with the McAfee name is all you want to do O.K. however if you want to do a complete removal like I did, go to the McAfee help page you will find the instructions to do a complete manual uninstall (about 1 and 1/2 pages). I found that there are several numbers about <----------------------------------------------> this long that need to be deleted, other wise you may find other errors showing up. These numbers are in several place in the registry, they all need to be removed.

mopar

 

Hi Mopar,

Thanx for advice! I went to this site to see about uninstall (couldn't find McAfee's help page--could you provide please). Here's where I went:

http://www.ucalgary.ca/it/virus/uninstall.html#early

Removing manually looks very complicated! I printed it, but haven't done it yet. I'm very nervous about messing with all these files--do you think it's pretty safe to do?

Luckyfish

 

Hi Luckyfish

I think the address you are looking for is -
http://www.mcafee.com/support/onlineservices/faqs.asp?faq=102

Pay no attention to the pay as you go thing, at the top of this page in the Search Window type - uninstall - this will give a page of most of the uninstalls for McAfee. Just pick your product and print it and away you go.
Pay particular attention to the section about backing up your registry, THATS A MUST, if you run into problems you can restore the regisrty.
I had installed McAfee Virus Scan\Firewall had nothing but problems so I set out to remove McAfee by searching for the McAfee name and folders and deleted them all, that just made matters worse. I did a manuall uninstall as stated in the above address and bingo no more problems.
It is a little work, but to me it is worth it.

Let me know how you make out.

mopar

 

Hi Mopar:

Gosh, I wish I had heard back from you sooner!

I did the manual uninstall from the site I posted (from Calgary...lol). It said nothing about backing up the registry....Oops!

Everything is still working okay, but when Windows loads, I get an error message. It says I deleted vshinit.vxd from Windows\system\directory. I was supposed to delete vshinit.dll, and thought I did (it's no longer there).

I still have a lot of folders left when I do a find for McAfee. I should take all those out too, huh?

Do you have any ideas how I can pull that file back? Or at least stop the error key?

Thanx! Luckyfish

 

Ahhhhhh. The ongoing saga of the deletion of McAfee. It does my heart good to see this again.

Been there...done that!

Here is a link on how to get rid of that stupid error message you get on startup. I couldn't remember how to do it, but this link will walk you through it and it does work! Just remember....BACK UP THE REGISTRY FIRST. It tells you how.

Here's the link: UNINSTALL MCAFEE IN REGISTRY .

OOOOPS! I just checked out the link and realized it gave you the same site that someone else gave you! Go there anyway, and at the top type in VSHINIT.VXD . Then click on either one of the links for uninstalling McAfee from the registry. It will be listed a little ways down the page. Soooo sorry for the booboo! This should do it for you, though.

Let us know if it worked.

 

Thanx Panda and Mopar!! No more error messages on StartUp!! However, I think I may still have a problem...

I never got to the step of run:
Edit C:\autoexec.bat
There is nothing there!! The file is empty. If I run 'find', it shows up at Dosboot and HP Backup--but still can't get there!

I'm afraid I've deleted it along the way, somehow. Everything seems to be running fine....but don't want problems to come up in the future. Where in the heck is this stuff? Can I recover (it's not in my backup registry file)? Should I just forget about it?

Also--when I do a 'find' for Mcafee, I get all sorts of files. Is it safe to delete these? I've already done 2 Manual Uninstalls!!

Many Thanx! Luckyfish

 

Not finding an Autoexec.bat is no big deal.

I have no idea as to which version of Windows you are running but the possibility exists that your system does not need one.

What may have been referred to is the line that McAfee & Norton add to the autoexece that checks the Boot Sector and other system files in DOS before Windows even starts to load.

BillyBob

 

Okay, Billybob:

Thanx; I'll stop freaking out! I'm running Windows 98. Guess it's okay to delete my backup Registry file, right?

Also, when I run 'find' on McAfee--I get loads of files...still (after 2 manual uninstalls). Can I delete all these files?

Thanx! Luckyfish

 

I am not sure what reg backup files you are referring to but I would be sure that you have the latest rb00x/cab file in the C:\windows\sysbackup folder.

If you start/run, type scanregw it will make a new rb00x.cab file.

And I would then delete the older rb00x.cab files as you sure as heck don't want to undo all you have done by using an old one to do a scanreg /restore if you have to.

Where are You still finding the McAfee files ?

If they happen to be in the registry you may need to delete the key that contains them from the left pane of regedit. I had to delete many of them that way.

Just make sure you have a recent backup of the registry ( rb00x.cab file ) before you do that. And be sure you know how to do a scanreg /restore from the command prompt at bootup.

BillyBob

 

Mr. Thorton (exuse me), Billybob:

All the files are in StartMenu\Programs\Mcafee...... and
HPBackup\StartMenu.....and
HPSupport\sc.....

Do you think it is safe to delete this stuff? I've already backed up my registry file (about to delete that too).

Thanx again....Luckyfish

 

To the best of my knowledge they should be OK to delete.

It reads as if they are in backup files anyway so I would most deffinetly get rid of them.

But you are the one that has to make the finally desicion.

This is something that many of us do. ( me included ) we cleanup the system and then forget to make new backups.

BillyBob

 

Thanx BillyBob, Mopar and Panda---looks like I'm good to go!!

I sure appreciate all of your help!!

Luckyfish

 

You are welcome.

BillyBob