Reinstalled XP to remove preinstalled McAfee

Question

I just bought a new Inspiron 6400 - beautiful machine. It came with Windows XP Home and McAfee preinstalled. I uninstalled McAfee through the 'Add and Remove Programs' control panel. Sadly the Windows Security Center still told me 'McAfee VirusScan reports that it is up to date ...'. That was obviously wrong since McAfee had been uninstalled. I used RegScrubXP to remove left-over McAfee traces in the registry and after this performed a manual search and removed about 50 more. Then I installed AVG. Sadly Windows Security Center still told me 'McAfee VirusScan reports that it is up to date ...' At this point I had spent about four six of stuffing around including researching the problem on the internet. I decided to cut the losses and reinstalled XP which was without problems. I am extremely disappointed the Dell pollutes their otherwise fine product with this absolutely terrible software that cannot be uninstalled. McAfee comes as a 90 days trial which is meant to be uninstalled if the user decides not to continue with the product. I noted that four days after foolishly registering with McAfee (which I needed to do to see the subscription status), I already got a e-mail that bugged me to extend the subscription. Terrible!

jorgk3 · Answer

Oh, I forgot two things:

I also used Ashampoo's Windows Optimiser which didn't help.

And after reinstalling I ran into the problem that I no longer had the Hibernate button when turning off the PC. It's a know problem

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/KB893056

and Dell must have obtained and installed the hotfix, but I don't have it.

jorgk3 · Answer

Actually, the machine is so nice and fast that the reinstall was done in under an hour. Putting the drivers back with the "Dell Resource CD" was no problem either. The advantage of reinstalling is that other preinstalled software of doubtful usefulness (like the AOL package) went out the window as well.

The point is that one needs to decide to reinstall **before** putting any programs or data onto the machine. And while one is at it, one might as well partition the drive.

Alfiegirl · Answer

Same problems here. After THOROUGH clean of everything, Windows and Norton STILL detect McAfee firewall. Wake up, Dell, and find a better fix for this! People should not have to reinstall Windows or reformat their hard drive to remove this garbage!

latrans91 · Answer

I just bought an E510 and everything was going along pretty smoothly.  Then, silly me, I let McAfee install its privacy module.  Now, after a day of fighting with it, I'm ready to throw it into the Pacific.   And now I hear rumors that the only way to get rid of this verminous program is to reinstall XP  (I like that:  viruses,  worms, and  vermin)    PLEASE:  Say it ain't so!     Is there a way to make McPRIVACY just quietly go away?   What is it supposed to do, by the way?  I mean besides breaking the browser and refusing to be OFF when it says it's off.   latrans

Alfiegirl · Answer

McAfee site has 'clean' tools for every separate program, but, as I experienced, the clean tools really don't do a thorough job. Windows and other AV still detect the ghostly remains as being 'active.' You could try it, though. Dell informed me that only a complete reinstall would remove all traces of McAfee. I truly feel your pain. I attempted a complete reinstall and it did not go well. Perhaps I'm an idiot, but I clicked the option 'Install' (2 options on reinstall CD, 'Install' or 'upgrade')----after doing that, the only install option was for XP Pro---I have MCE---but ok, MCE is based on XP Pro, so I click to start....It then starts to create a SECOND OS on my machine instead of completely reformatting the entire drive. When I start up the machine again, I get a gray screen message that I have 2 OS choices on my machine---MCE and XP Pro. My immediate thought was 'run away! run away!' (Brave Sir Robin ran away....) ---- I selected MCE---it was all of my original stuff intact, and then I did a system restore (from a point I created earlier) and all was back to previous state. I won't attempt another reinstall. Too much hassle for a new computer. I hope you have better luck than I.

latrans91 · Answer

Thanks for the feedback and good wishes. It was painful, but i did go ahead and reinstall the OS--though not 'in a couple of hours,' as a far more knowledgable user claimed for their own  reinstall to eliminate McAfee.   I have used McAfee off and on since their first AV version, never again.  Their aggressive Sales-Program-On-My-Hard-Disk is quite annoying, as is their 'inability' to uninstall themselves completely when requested.  Add to those irritants the Truly Klunky&Stupid PRIVACY module, and I, for one, am done.  The boys at Dell need to re-think their Bundling philosophy.   On the bright side, re-installing the OS did eliminate the AOL files--another clinging octopus you don't want to let get its tentacles on your system.     later

Virus & Spyware

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