Damn you, McAfee!!

[Alkatran]

I just downloaded the latest update to site advisor, only to realize it's just a rebranding! Now I have "McAfee" written in bold on my status bar. Thanks for annoying me everytime I look down McAfee!

On another note, uninstalling McAfee AV is ridiculous. I shouldn't have to do an internet search, only to find out I have to kill a process to finish the uninstall succesfully. There is everything wrong about uninstalling McAfee and seeing it COME BACK!!!!

[Hellbound]

I just downloaded the latest update to site advisor, only to realize it's just a rebranding! Now I have "McAfee" written in bold on my status bar. Thanks for annoying me everytime I look down McAfee!

On another note, uninstalling McAfee AV is ridiculous. I shouldn't have to do an internet search, only to find out I have to kill a process to finish the uninstall succesfully. There is everything wrong about uninstalling McAfee and seeing it COME BACK!!!!

McAfee is a major PITA to uninstall.

It typically leaves bits and pieces in the registry.

On the good side, if you search their knowledge base, you can get instructions on manually uninstalling McAfee. Tells you exactly what services to stop and which registry keys to delete.

We ran into this on a 2000+ workstation network when we had to upgrade the AV. It would install the new version, but leave bits of the old version. So the AV was running, but the definitions could not be updated.

[Alkatran]

McAfee is a major PITA to uninstall.

It typically leaves bits and pieces in the registry.

On the good side, if you search their knowledge base, you can get instructions on manually uninstalling McAfee. Tells you exactly what services to stop and which registry keys to delete.

We ran into this on a 2000+ workstation network when we had to upgrade the AV. It would install the new version, but leave bits of the old version. So the AV was running, but the definitions could not be updated.

I have a similar problem with MINITAB right now. I uninstalled the old, expired, version, but the new version still detects it and refuses to install!

[Hellbound]

I have a similar problem with MINITAB right now. I uninstalled the old, expired, version, but the new version still detects it and refuses to install!

You can try a couple things.

If you still have the older install files, try re-installing it then deleting it.

Also, try rebooting after an uninstall (and after install, for that matter). This makes sure there's no system-type files that are still running that it may not tell you about.

As a final method, you can try editing the registry. I would strongly suggest making a set of rescue disks before you do this, so you can restore your registry if you mess it up. Best thing to do is search the company site and see if they have any instructions for this type of thing. Alternatively, you can try to do it on your own. TO do this, find the files the program uses. Look for the path (i.e.-C:\Program Files\BobSoftware\) and the executable/dll names (i.e.-Bob.exe, bobnet.dll). Do a registry search for the file names, and delete any registry entries that contain them. You can look for the path as well, to get any extras you might have missed, as well as the software vendor name (if you don't have other software by that vendor). Sometimes you can identify the hex number code for the file from one of the entries, and search for and delete that as well.

[Dark Jaguar]

Just to advertise, I prefer AVG. Very small memory footprint, unintrusive (to the minimum extent a virus protection program can be unintrusive), and there's a free version that is pretty close to fully featured (the biggest downside is the lack of spyware type detection which the full version has, but that doesn't seem to work all that well anyway). Second biggest is probably the exclusion list not being available. Only annoying for some, but when you have that one program that tests positive in it that you know isn't a virus, it suddenly is a big issue.

[SFB]

Yeah, I recently did away with Norton, what a PITA that can be also (I edited the registry according to Norton instructions). AVG is certainly a good alternative all the way round.

[strathmeyer]

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this"
"Then stop doing that."

[Beady]

I've been using F-Prot for ~15 years. It's virtually invisible, fully automatic, and I haven't caught a virus since I first installed it. I have it set to download any updates at 1 AM, and run a check at 2 AM, every morning; the only way I know it's on my machine and running is that, every now and then, I'll get a report that it found and deleted a virus.

[Alkatran]

The only reason I had McAfee is that it's required (and, thank god, supplied for free by) my university to connect to the network.