I have a problem removing an old McAfee VShield Application

[Old Man River]

I have a problem removing an old McAfee VShield Application

It?s on my old Compaq Presario 1685 that I dragged out to use, because of the damage done by the three hurricanes to several other Desktop computers of mine. (Some of which has been restored.) Bit, I can?t load Norton Antivirus, or any other Antivirus until I do remove McAfee.

It is nowhere to be found when I go to setting on the control panel and look for it in Add/Remove programs. I did a search from my ?Start? on ?Find? files, or folders and came up with quite a few. I removed most of those that I felt comfortable with removing and left only a few that I felt uncomfortable with getting rid of. (?Shared?)

On doing so, things were stable and I loaded my Norton Antivirus on it, but it really wasn?t working well, things were missing from it, so I restored it back to it?s original factory condition.

What I find when searching for files, or folders is too hard to list here. Two of which are shortcuts to MS-Dos.

I?ve purchased WinCleaner that has a program to remove things such as this, but it couldn?t find it either.

What can I do to remove this so I can get a good updated version of Norton, or whatever other Antivirus program installed? I sure don?t want McAfee; it conflicts with almost everything that is Microsoft.

 

[Uncle Bob]

I don't know what you've got against McAfee, from my experience Norton is if anything less neighbourly than any of the other popular AV programs.

However, if this is what you want to do..
I assume that the Vshield icon is still in the system tray when you start windows and that your system still runs normally apart from the fact that Norton AV fails to install with some sort of error message? (It may be helpful if you specify what the message says if this is the case,,,,,)

Can you right-click the VShield icon and select exit or disable? will Norton then install?

If you have the original McAfee installation discs/CD try re-installing-reboot-deinstalling

Otherwise, visit http:\\ts.mcafeehelp.com where you will find detailed instructions on manual removal of the software.

 

[Old Man River]

I don't know what you've got against McAfee, from my experience Norton is if anything less neighbourly than any of the other popular AV programs.

As I said, but in different wards, it doesn?t like any of my programs and conflicts with this computer and every computer I?ve ever loaded it on from a disc before; but that isn?t my problem right now. My problem is removing it so I can have an updated Antivirus loaded so I can be safe.

I don?t have the disc; the laptop came with it installed on it. I can disable it, hide it, but that wont help at all; it has to be removed, otherwise shared folders will get all messed up. If I were to remove everything, I may have a bigger problem. It isn?t what Norton says when I install it; it is that Norton is not fully installed with all of its functions. (Nothing is telling me anything; it?s just not all there. It?s because when I remove something belonging to either, something doesn?t get loaded.

Can you right-click the VShield icon and select exit or disable? will Norton then install?

No.

If you have the original McAfee installation discs/CD try re-installing-reboot-deinstalling

I don?t have it.

Otherwise, visit http:\\ts.mcafeehelp.com where you will find detailed instructions on manual removal of the software.

I?ve done that many times, with no Joy. There is no link on my computer for ?Un-Install? or on the Internet.

 

[redbeard1]

You could always remove it manually. Search the registry for the words Mcafee and Network Associates and remove what it finds. There will be lots of entries. Then search the hard drive for the same things and remove them, folders included.

The Norton not running properly may not be because of Mcafee. Sometime Norton has problems installing properly anyways. I've had to do manual removals of Norton to get it to work before, and I think it has more entries than Mcafee.

Either way when they don't work they are a pain to fix.

You could always try the free Antivir. I've never had it fail to install and run.

 

[montag451]

YEah, once, if you decide to, you get rid of all references to mcafee and norton/symantec, and download avg7free from www.grisoft.com

 

[Uncle Bob]

Cut and Paste from McAfeeHelp.com

Manual Uninstall of McAfee VirusScan 5.x, 6.x, and 7.x
Summary: This document explains how to manually remove VirusScan 5.x, 6.x and 7.x off of Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP.

Note: Log in as the Administrator (2000 and XP)

Attempt an Automatic Uninstall
Click on the Start button.
Highlight Settings then click on Control Panel. The Control Panel will then appear.
Double click on the Add/Remove Programs icon. The Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box will then appear.
Locate McAfee VirusScan on the list of installed programs and single click on it so it is highlighted.
Click the Add/Remove button.
Note: If at any time you are prompted to remove shared files, answer Yes To All.
Windows will then attempt to remove McAfee VirusScan from your computer. If McAfee VirusScan is successfully uninstalled you do not need to complete the remaining steps in this document. If you receive error messages or find that McAfee VirusScan was not completely removed then follow the steps below to manually remove the program.


Download the registry cleanup file
Download VirusScan.zip to your desktop.
Unzip VirusScan.reg to your desktop.
Double-click the file VirusScan.reg to remove the VirusScan registry entries.
When prompted, proceed by clicking Yes.
Follow the remaining steps to ensure VirusScan is completely removed from your pc:

Remove the McAfee VirusScan Shortcuts
Windows 95/98
Click on the Start button.
Highlight Settings then click on Taskbar & Start Menu. The Taskbar Properties dialog box will then appear.
Click on the Start Menu Programs tab.
Click on the Remove button. A list of folders will then appear.
Locate the McAfee folder and double click on it so it is highlighted
Highlight VirusScan Home Edition and click on the Remove button.
Locate the McAfee Shared Features folder and double click on it so it is highlighted
Highlight Safe & Sound and click on the Remove button.
Locate the StartUp folder and click on the plus sign (+) next to it.
If StartUp does not have a plus sign next to it skip the remaining steps in this section and continue with the 'Delete the McAfee VirusScan Files' section.
Within the StartUp folder, single click on Mount Safe & Sound Volumes so it is highlighted, then click the Remove button.
Click the Close button followed by the OK button.
Windows Me and 2000
Click on the Start button.
Highlight Programs
Locate the McAfee folder and single click on it so it is highlighted
Right click on VirusScan Home Edition and click on Delete.
Windows XP
Click on the Start button.
Highlight All Programs
Locate the McAfee folder and single click on it so it is highlighted
Right click on VirusScan Home Edition and click on Delete.

Delete the McAfee VirusScan Files
Double click on the My Computer icon on the desktop.
Double click on the C: drive.
Double click on the Program Files folder.
Double click on the McAfee folder
Single click on the McAfee VirusScan folder.
Press the Delete key on the keyboard to delete this folder. Answer Yes to any prompts about deleting files or programs.
Single click on the VirusScan Wireless folder.
Press the Delete key on the keyboard to delete this folder. Answer Yes to any prompts about deleting files or programs.
Close all open windows until you are back on the desktop.
Double click on the My Computer icon on the desktop.
Double click on the C: drive.
Double click on the Program Files folder.
Double click on the Common Files folder.
Single click on the Network Associates folder.
Press the Delete key on the keyboard to delete this folder. Answer Yes to any prompts about deleting files or programs.

Delete Misc. McAfee Files
Click on the Start button.
Highlight Find or Search then click on Files or Folders. The Find Files dialog box will then appear.
In the Named field type in MCKRNL.VXD then click the Find Now or Search Now button.
The computer will then search for the file. When the file is found it will be displayed at the bottom of the dialog box.
Once the file is found right-click on the small icon to the left of the file's name. A pop-up menu will appear.
Left-click on Delete to delete the file. Answer Yes to any prompts about deleting the file.
Repeat steps 3 - 6 for the following files: Avsmcpa.cpl, Avsmcpa.cpl.manifest, Avsmcpa.dll, MCSCAN32.VXD, MCUTIL.VXD, VSHIELD.VXD, VSHINIT.VXD and NaiFiltr.sys
Once all of these files have been deleted close the Find Files dialog box by clicking the X in the top right corner.

Remove the SCAN reference from the Autoexec.bat (Windows 95/98 only)
Click Start.
Click Run.
In the text box type: SYSEDIT
Click OK.
The System Configuration Editor window will appear with a cascade of text files.
Remove the line C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\NETWOR~1\VIRUSS~1\40~1.XX\scanpm.exe C:\
Remove the line @IF ERRORLEVEL 1 PAUSE
Click on the System Configuration Editor window File menu at the top left corner of the window.
Click Exit.
Click Yes when prompted to save changes to AUTOEXEC.BAT
McAfee VirusScan is now removed from your computer.

If you can't follow the above, nuke the pc

 

[farscape]

Dang, Unc-Bob, I just read te message and was going to flip over to mcafee and...


Beat me to it.


I've had a few probs with older Mcafee uninstalls - normally the suite packages (3.... hint) and having to do a convoluted uninstall.

 

[Old Man River]

Well, I got most of it off. There?s still a hidden something on there. I don?t know what it is, or where it is. I followed all the directions you kind folks gave me, but while installing a copy of Panda Defense Internet System it told me it?s there. I have Windows 98 and had: McAfee Vshield 4.0.2 ? 1998.

Panda was mostly installed, but I have some problems with it. I give up.