[SOLVED] Vista Firewall : how to use Windows Firewall only ?

Question

On my new Dell Inspiron with Vista 9400 clicking on the security center, I was surprised to see that McAfee Personal Firewall is active, but Windows Firewall inactive. How to uninstall McAfee Personal Firewall under Vista Professional and have only Windows Firewall running ?

Message Edited by pachat on 04-23-2007 06:18 AM

GioAguilar · Answer

You can go to the MSCONFIG and go to services and startup as well, and disable McAfee FireWall, and then restart the computer... Or open McAffe Security Center click on the Internet & Network , then click on configure on the right down corner and then you will see the option to disable the Firewall

GioAguilar · Answer

Do you have the McAfee icon on the lower right corner...??? If do, you just need to click on it...   Did you pay for McAfee, did you get a free trial version...???

pachat · Answer

Thank your for the tip. The problem is : I do not see any line with 'McAfee' or 'Firewall' in the lists given by MsConfig. No \Program Files\McAfee directory either and nothing in System32 beginning with MPF (McAfee Personal Firewall)

pachat · Answer

I don't have a McAfee icon in the systray. I never installed any McAfee soft, trial or commercial. I just found that on the pre-installed Vista of my Dell Inspiron 9400 I'm not the only one in that case : http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=vista&message.id=22925&query.id=451786 and just notice that when double-clicking on the Security Center icon in the systray, it says that I have McAfee firewall running and not Microsoft Firewall. I just want Microsoft Firewall to run and don't see any place where McAfee shows up where I can deactivate or, better, uninstall it.

Message Edited by pachat on 04-15-2007 02:44 PM

mike3960 · Answer

what virus protection do you have runig if it's McAffe it is probably not well installed i had the same thing with my inspiron 6400 . i fixed my problems by removing McAffe and instaling KASPERSKY 6   good luck

pachat · Answer

I use avast! As I said, I never installed any McAfee. But tried the tools to uninstall that they have on their site. Message Edited by pachat on 04-16-2007 12:27 AM

pachat · Answer

No McAfee to uninstall in the list Control Panel / Uninstall.
No McAfee in ApplicationData
(I was in the session as Administrator - which account I had previously activated - and had Folders Options showing all system files and directories).

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Has any one clicked on the Security Center and looked at the list of Firewalls there ? And found that McAfee is the one running despite (s)he never had installed any McAfee product ?

The problem is that Windows (from the Help) says that the firewall is not properly configured. If I click on "Update parameters now" it activates the Windows Firewall without deactivating McAfee Personal Firewall. So it ends with two firewalls running, which not a good thing (as stated in Windows help and I beleive so). So coming back to McAfee Personal Firewall only, I have no way to parametrize it.
Dell's McAfee Personal Firewall pre-installation leads to an insconsistant situation.

In fact, I want to get rid of the pre-installed McAfee Personal Firewall
and just use the Windows Firewall.

How to ?

andreychuk · Answer

Go to the control panel, look under programs and click the uninstall program link..... And with the Vista Builds of Mcafee they are not going to be there. Its gonna be in another directory such as Application Data or something of the sort.

Message Edited by andreychuk on 04-16-2007 12:09 AM

andreychuk · Answer

You also have technical support with your new purchase so you can utilize it. Try giving them a call and see what they say.

pachat · Answer

Good point : i used in fact a very good chat service from McAfee http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/chat.asp   They send me a mail with what to do. Later, I found the same on the Internet at http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2007/04/windows_vista_is_lying_to_me_1.html scroll down to 'Method B from MVP Torgeir Bakken (more elegant)'   So the thing was that Vista was giving a false information about the firewalls. 'Method B' obliged Vista to rebuild its security repository.   Then I activated Windows Firewall (was not working through Windows step by step, but only through 'Activate or Deactivate Windows Firewall')   Now its ok : thanks for your input.

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[SOLVED] Vista Firewall : how to use Windows Firewall only ?

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