McAfee Virus Scan In Vista

[Brian Tilley]

When I bought my Dell Laptop, it had McAfee Security Software installed. (30
day demo)
I did not want to use (buy) this so I uninstalled it and installed other
software instead.

Now I have the following problem.

Despite the fact that I uninstalled the McAfee software correctly and have
subsequently searched the entire filesystem for any trace
of the software, Windows Vista (Home Premium) Security Centre insists that
the "McAfee Personal Firewall" and "McAfee Virusscan" are both still
installed and running on the machine. I have looked at the running processes
and there are no McAfee processes that I can find.

I've run a Registry Cleaner and, despite finding a couple of hundred orphan
entries (mostly caused by Windows Update), the problem still exists.

I've searched through the Registry and found several mentins of McAfee in
the following Keys

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security
Center\Monitoring\McAfeeAntiSpyware

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_MFEHIDK\0000

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Enum\Root\LEGACY_MFEHIDK\0000

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_MFEHIDK\0000


Does anyone know
1. If it will be safe just to delete these keys?
2. If deleting them will solve the problem?

After having to perform a re-install when I tried tinkering with an XP
registry, I've developed a healthy reluctance to tinker in there.

Hope someone can help.

 

[Malke]

When I bought my Dell Laptop, it had McAfee Security Software installed.
(30 day demo)
I did not want to use (buy) this so I uninstalled it and installed other
software instead.

Now I have the following problem.

Despite the fact that I uninstalled the McAfee software correctly and have
subsequently searched the entire filesystem for any trace
of the software, Windows Vista (Home Premium) Security Centre insists that
the "McAfee Personal Firewall" and "McAfee Virusscan" are both still
installed and running on the machine. I have looked at the running
processes and there are no McAfee processes that I can find.

I've run a Registry Cleaner and, despite finding a couple of hundred
orphan entries (mostly caused by Windows Update), the problem still
exists.

I've searched through the Registry and found several mentins of McAfee in
the following Keys

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security
Center\Monitoring\McAfeeAntiSpyware

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_MFEHIDK\0000

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Enum\Root\LEGACY_MFEHIDK\0000

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_MFEHIDK\0000


Does anyone know
1. If it will be safe just to delete these keys?
2. If deleting them will solve the problem?

After having to perform a re-install when I tried tinkering with an XP
registry, I've developed a healthy reluctance to tinker in there.

It will not hurt to delete the registry entries, but here's how to fix the
issue:

Right-click Command Prompt and Run as Administrator. Type the following
command:

winmgmt /salvagerepository

The first time you run this it will fail. It will issue stop commands to
the services causing it to fail. It might take a couple minutes for the
services to shut down. Run the command again and reboot your system.

If the above doesn't work or if you get "the repository is consistent", do
the following from an elevated cmd prompt:

net stop winmgmt [enter]
cd /d %windir%\system32\wbem [enter]
ren repository repository.old [enter]
net start winmgmt [enter]

BTW, you should have a healthy reluctance to use a registry cleaner. Here's
why:

http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099

Malke

 

[gls858]

When I bought my Dell Laptop, it had McAfee Security Software installed.
(30 day demo)
I did not want to use (buy) this so I uninstalled it and installed other
software instead.

Now I have the following problem.

Despite the fact that I uninstalled the McAfee software correctly and
have subsequently searched the entire filesystem for any trace
of the software, Windows Vista (Home Premium) Security Centre insists
that the "McAfee Personal Firewall" and "McAfee Virusscan" are both
still installed and running on the machine. I have looked at the running
processes and there are no McAfee processes that I can find.

I've run a Registry Cleaner and, despite finding a couple of hundred
orphan entries (mostly caused by Windows Update), the problem still exists.

I've searched through the Registry and found several mentins of McAfee
in the following Keys

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security
Center\Monitoring\McAfeeAntiSpyware

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_MFEHIDK\0000

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Enum\Root\LEGACY_MFEHIDK\0000

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_MFEHIDK\0000


Does anyone know
1. If it will be safe just to delete these keys?
2. If deleting them will solve the problem?

After having to perform a re-install when I tried tinkering with an XP
registry, I've developed a healthy reluctance to tinker in there.

Hope someone can help.

I see you got help, but you might want to take a look at the following
article explaining how to backup and restore the registry. Probably
would have saved you from having to reinstall.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756

gls858

 

[Brian Tilley]

...... but here's how to fix the
issue:

Right-click Command Prompt and Run as Administrator. Type the following
command:

winmgmt /salvagerepository

The first time you run this it will fail. It will issue stop commands to
the services causing it to fail. It might take a couple minutes for the
services to shut down. Run the command again and reboot your system.

If the above doesn't work or if you get "the repository is consistent", do
the following from an elevated cmd prompt:

net stop winmgmt [enter]
cd /d %windir%\system32\wbem [enter]
ren repository repository.old [enter]
net start winmgmt [enter]

Thanks very much for the info.
winmgmt reported the repository consistent,
but I followed your second set of instructions and (following a reboot)
The Security Centre has forgotten about McAfee and reports the correct
status for my security programs.

Brian