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Sep 30th, 2008, 6:53pm
   Mischel Internet Security Forum
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   McAfee Security Centre and the Dell package		 « Previous topic | Next topic »
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   Author  Topic: McAfee Security Centre and the Dell package  (Read 2968 times)
Ian
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McAfee Security Centre and the Dell package
« on: Jan 8th, 2007, 10:45am »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Hi folks,
 
Just treated myself to a nice new Inspiron 9400, with 1920x1200 17" wide LCD and GeForce 7900 graphics.
 
I asked them not to install any of the usual 'foistware' (don't want to start a thread about the various categories, but this means something like 'demos, trials and other non-essential extras that are included because of some contractual agreement between SW & HW manufacturers'). After all Dell "don't build a PC for anyone, they build it for you". Except that it came with all the clutter on it...
 
Unistalled McAfee before any registration done - no McAfee.com folder left, or anything on Add/Remove. But, here's the rub - Windows Security Center still claims that the AV and Firewall are protecting the PC. This is a mystery - no entries in msconfig, registry or running processes, yet it kicks up a fuss about multiple applications when I try to install my 'preferred brand'. Advice is to disable the one I don't want, but it's no longer there to disable... Cannot reinstall - it was on HD but not with media - cannot find the right version on McAfee's list of trial SW so it'll be difficult reinstalling and removing it again.
 
I'd rather not have to fdisk the HDD and reinstall XP MCE plus all the necessary stuff on a two-day old laptop... Can anyone help me out?
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siliconman01
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Re: McAfee Security Centre and the Dell package
« Reply #1 on: Jan 8th, 2007, 11:28am »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Does running this removal tool solve the issue?
 
http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/displayDoc.asp?frames=1&docID=408302&pa ram1=246&HotTopic=YES
 
Also, this forum may help you too.
 
http://forums.mcafeehelp.com/index.php?sid=19b0b7a16d4a946b845feed578176 752
« Last Edit: Jan 8th, 2007, 11:35am by siliconman01 » IP Logged
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Ian
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Re: McAfee Security Centre and the Dell package
« Reply #2 on: Jan 8th, 2007, 2:12pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
That tool goes through what looks like a thousand registry entries! Very thorough, but after rebooting the Windows Security Center still shows McAfee Personal Firewall Plus an McAfee VirusScan still running...
 
It'll take me an age to sort through that forum - I did a search on 'cannot uninstall security suite' and got 39,001 hits!!!
 
One of the problems is I didn't even bother paying attention to which version of the software was installed. I think we can safely say it has gone, and that hte error now lies in the Windows Security Center - I'll just run a quick search in the Registry for anything that looks likely.
 
Nothing looks out of place. I notice from HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Security Centre\Monitoring that there is nothing set for either the McAfeeAntiVirus or McAfeeFirewall keys.
 
Perhaps I need to look through Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)? Not sure about that though...
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Re: McAfee Security Centre and the Dell package
« Reply #3 on: Jan 8th, 2007, 2:41pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Okay - it was the WMI Repository that was in error - found this link
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1639276,00.asp
which was an eye-opener - fancy anyone being able to spoof the level of protection on a system?! Shocked On an MS OS too... ShockedShockedShocked Grin
http://xgatech.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2691 held the solution - pause the WMI service, delete the C:\Windows\System32\wbem\Repository folder, restart the WMI service to rebuild the Repository, reboot and voila! No more false reporting of McAfee security ghosts!
 
Thank goodness I don't have to reinstall from scratch - mind you, if I had, it would have been easy to partition the hard drive up (I think like Linux - three partitions are IMO the right number for any OS, with System, Applications and Swapfile in separate places). Do you know any good repartitioning tools?
« Last Edit: Jan 8th, 2007, 2:42pm by Ian » IP Logged
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siliconman01
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Re: McAfee Security Centre and the Dell package
« Reply #4 on: Jan 8th, 2007, 4:09pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Very glad you got McAfee sorted out.  Cheesy
 
Quote:
Do you know any good repartitioning tools?

 
The only one I have used is PartitionMagic 8.  Of course now it is owned by Symantec.  It works very well.  I don't know of any free versions of it.
 
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/
 
The DSLReport forum or WildersSecurity forum may have other options.
 
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Re: McAfee Security Centre and the Dell package
« Reply #5 on: Jan 9th, 2007, 11:54am »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Yeah, I used that one up to the buyout (v6 or so). Norton didn't offer any upgrade deal for existing PowerQuest customers, or at least any that I saw, and the version I had didn't work on the XP NTFS5 format so I let it lapse. I've tried Paragon's Hard Disk Manager 6.0, but it seemed unable to create or delete partitions that involved the system drive. IIRC there was a cover-mount copy of v8.0 on one of my recent magazines, which may have more success.
 
I guess I could try installing Linux again, then reformat the partitions it creates to NTFS. There's a hidden recovery partition on the Dell (I only see 105GB out of 120GB, which is a big difference even allowing for the "1MB=1,000,000bytes" approximation). It's almost certain to trip up anything less capable than PartitionMagic...
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Re: McAfee Security Centre and the Dell package
« Reply #6 on: Jan 9th, 2007, 2:51pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Well, I'm not too swift concerning the various options for the task you are endeavoring.  So I cannot offer any intelligent advice or comments other than Partition Magic 8.0 did permit me to partition my C: hard drive into a C and D partition.
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