I ran into this problem and posted it some months back. Dell insists McAfee DOES support their products that came pre-installed on Dell systems. However, I've yet to find any McAfee support people who know this. And, like you, I've received the exact same responses from McAfee and numerous disconnects from chat support whenever I tell them my OS, even if I preceed it with some mention of Dell and "preinstalled." I finally removed the preinstalled software, bought the retail CD and it's running fine. But I dread the day it doesn't.

No, they don't support retail on MCE, either. The reason I removed the preinstall and bought the retail was simply to get it to work. If I call them now with an issue, I'm certain they will hang up, again.

Dell sold me a computer without the mce 05 which was suppose to be on my system, After contacting them they sent me some cd's and a dvd to apply mce 05 but i am reluctant to do so. But my point is in the 2 cd's they sent 1 of them is for reinstalling dell  tools system software and guess what ? It does not have mcafee on this cd instead it has nortons so i think dell knows that they are the problem.  I would contact them and request the same system software reinstall cd which will give you 3 months of nortons. I still havent applied the reinstall dvd as i did not get any information on how to do this just the dvd. I dont want to reinstall and lose all my saved files as i havent a clue what to do. At this point i am thinking of just asking for a refund or something as i am getting nowhere with them.  I hope this helps

Windows XP and MCE are so similar that I find it hard to believe that compatibility isn't universal across both OSs. I have never liked the big antivirus packages because they install far more than what's necessary and I suggest that those discontent give some free alternatives a try. They are updated just as frequently as the big dogs but the companies that support them have a business model that makes money off of businesses, not home users.

I recommend that you consider moving to a free antivirus software called Avast. Unlike Norton and McAfee, it runs quietly in the background and quietly updates itself without running around your screen like a marching band.

Bought an XPS 600 last month and the sales person told the MacAffee Security Center was what they recommended.  I even asked why the had changed from Norton.

 

After four days on the phone with techs I finally found a guy down in Roseburg Oregon that told me to get rid of MSC. 

 

I also was having problems with installing my Dell AIO 964 printer.

 

I also mentioned that I had a Kodak Easy Share camera, which I just found out WinXPMCE does support.

 

I sent it back!!   I now wonder if I should just get my new xps600 at all.

Message Edited by DumbDan on 02-01-2006 01:41 PM

Hello,   I purchased a 4700 Desktop in April of '05. Everything worked fine with the pre installed McAfee until late Aug. or early Sept. at which time I started having trouble with Spam Blocker. Was told by McAfee to uninstall and reinstall. I t would download and get about 70% installed, but would then stop and give an error code. I didn't really need Spam Guard that badly, so I just sort of "let it slide" because the other 3  parts were working. Then in Oct. Virus Scan quit working. McAfee said to uninstall and reinstall, and yes, it wouldn't either. I happened to mention M. C. E. while they had remote control of my computer and the technician stopped immediately and said that McAfee did not support Media Edition. I took it one step farther though. I contacted Microsoft and they sent me an e-mail, which I still have, and told me that McAfee was correct and that their software would not run properly. Microsoft said that it would work for a little while, but would start giving problems that would only get larger with time. Microsoft said that this problem was not just with Media Center Edition, but was also causing problems running with XP Professional. Microsoft said, and I quote "McAfee is not compatiable with either operating system." They told me I would have to get another Anti Virus program, PERIOD. I got AVG and have had no more problems. What I'm wondering is this, does Dell know that customers are paying for 15 month subscriptions for McAfee, and are only getting from 4 to 6 months out of them? Here is a situation where both manufacturers say that their products are incompatiable, and like I said, I've got it in writing! So, there you have it, the only fix for the problem is another virus program. Hope I helped some and I wish there were another remedy, but that's the way it is.                              Thanks for letting me vent,   

And I called today to order a new XPS 600 and the sales person told me that hey are still selling them with McAfee installed on them. When I mentioned to the sales person that the McAffe was a know problem, she said she had no information regarding this issue. Why is it that Dell is still selling PC's with this software in them?   I can't imagine a reason for Dell to put their commitment to a product over the better interests of their customers, but it seems that is the case.

Here's an update from my original post starting this thread:  Last week I was told by Nancy Daily @ McAfee that McAfee is now supporting Windows Media Center.  Since then the following's happened:

1.  A lady from Tier-2 support remotly accessed my machine

2.  We re-installed the same old thing -- no behavior change

3.  The T2 went back to her development team and they have MC set-up in their lab to resolve the problem.  No final solution has been determined, but I'm hopeful.

I asked the T2 why the change and she said that Dell is pushing for this.

More later ...

I also am having major problems connected with McAfee Security Center, which came preinstalled on my XPS400. I did Live Chat with McAfee and their instructions resolved NOTHING. Can someone tell me how to uninstall the McAfee with all of its components (I am kind of new to computers). I tried uninstalling under Add/Remove Programs but got this message: installation cannot continue because some components (c:\progra~1\mcafee.com\agent\uninst\mpfrem.ui) are missing. I also tried using VSCleanupTool.exe (which is what the Live Chat technician said would work), when the computer rebooted I was getting the same messages. On opening I get a message on the desktop that says something about components missing or something. Whenever I double-click the McAfee Security Center icon on my desktop to launch it, I get this message: Some McAfee Security Center components might not have been installed or launched properly. Restart your computer to fix this. If this message appears again after restart, please reinstall McAfee Security Center. After restarting, I get the same message and when I try reinstalling with the CD it gives me the message about installation cannot continue....I'm totally lost and frustrated.

I got these from McAfee's Tier III support the other day.  They grant permissions on certain McAfee files to all users on the computer.  My (limited use) kids haven't fully tested this solution yet but I wanted to pass it on:

You can run these two commands from a cmd prompt:

CACLS %windir%\SYSTEM32\mclsp.dll /E /G BUILTIN\Users:F

CACLS %windir%\SYSTEM32\mcrtl32.dll /E /G BUILTIN\Users:F

Optionally, you canl also add Larry, Curly and Moe explicitly to the files’ permissions:

CACLS %windir%\SYSTEM32\mclsp.dll /E /G Larry:F

CACLS %windir%\SYSTEM32\mcrtl32.dll /E /G Curly:F

CACLS %windir%\SYSTEM32\mclsp.dll /E /G Moe:F

Cheers ...