Can't Remove Trend Micro Icons from Control Panel & Security Cen

[Leo Grayson]

I removed Trend Micro 2008 from my PC a few weeks ago, but Trend Icons are
still showing in my control panel and the Windows Security Center, and I
cannot remove/delete them.

The one in the control panel may not be a problem, but I am concerned about
the one in the security center.
When I check the firewall status, it tells me that the Trend firewall is ON,
which is impossible because it has been uninstalled. The virus protection
status also says that Trend Micro Anti-virus is up to date and running -
which is also impossible.

I could live with this, but when I tried to install Comodo Firewall &
Antivirus it gave me an error message that said there was a conflict with
Trend Micro software.

Since the only trace of the Trend Micro software left on my PC is the above
icons, I believe that it must be them that Comodo is detecting, and why it
will not install properly.

Can anyone here tell me how to get rid of these last traces of the Trend
Micro program, so that my security center will not give false info, and so I
can install and try the Comodo product.

I have XP Home SP3 which is up to date, and I'm currently using the standard
windows firewall, with Spyware Terminator & Antivirus, but I would like to
give Comodo a try if I can just get rid of the last traces of the Trend Micro.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help

Regards, Leo.

 

[Ron Badour]

The control panel icon is probably the result of having a TM .cpl file on
your drive. Do a find on *.cpl and delete the one that appears to be
related to TM. Renaming it won't work unless you change the file extension.

The other problems are probably due to TM entries in your registry. See
what you can find using the find function on the registry editor
(regedit.exe). If you find an entry, right click and select export and save
the file to your desktop. Then delete the entry. The .reg file you created
will reset the registry to the way it was should you delete something that
is needed. When you are done with that entry, press F3 to continue
searching and follow the same procedure for each entry that is found. When
nothing more is found, reboot and see how things look.
--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

 

[Leo Grayson]

The control panel icon is probably the result of having a TM .cpl file on
your drive. Do a find on *.cpl and delete the one that appears to be
related to TM. Renaming it won't work unless you change the file extension.

The other problems are probably due to TM entries in your registry. See
what you can find using the find function on the registry editor
(regedit.exe). If you find an entry, right click and select export and save
the file to your desktop. Then delete the entry. The .reg file you created
will reset the registry to the way it was should you delete something that
is needed. When you are done with that entry, press F3 to continue
searching and follow the same procedure for each entry that is found. When
nothing more is found, reboot and see how things look.
--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

Ron, Thanks for your response. I followed you advice and found a lot of
*.cpl files but none seemed to be related to TM. I also found and removed
some registry entries for TMIS and the earlier PC-Cillin, but there were some
others which I could not delete. So I still have the useless Icons in
Control Panel and the Security Centre.

Good news is that I have now been able to install and run Comodos Firewall.
so I'm going to settle for that and ignore the icons and the false info from
the Sec Centre.

I'm a relative novice, and poking aroung in the registry makes me nervous
because I don't fully understand what I'm doing.

Thanks again, Leo.

 

[Ron Badour]

Since there was nothing obvious by name, do a search again and then double
click each .cpl file and see what opens.

The registry can be kind of scary at first and I cannot tell you how many
times I had to reinstall W95 when I was learning about the registry. You
can make tons of registry changes without affecting the ability for the PC
to boot. That's why you back up (create registry files) of anything you are
going to delete since if change doesn't work right, you can then restore
what you deleted.

--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

 

[Leo Grayson]

Since there was nothing obvious by name, do a search again and then double
click each .cpl file and see what opens.

The registry can be kind of scary at first and I cannot tell you how many
times I had to reinstall W95 when I was learning about the registry. You
can make tons of registry changes without affecting the ability for the PC
to boot. That's why you back up (create registry files) of anything you are
going to delete since if change doesn't work right, you can then restore
what you deleted.

--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience





Ron, Once again thanks for your help. I found & opened most of the cpl files and none were related to TM, though there were two that would not open for me. They were "bthprops.cpl" and "irprops.cpl"

Re the registry, I have already had to use System Restore to save me
because I somehow managed to delete my internet connection. It did the job
and I'm back on line, though I think it also replaced some of the TM stuff
too.

When I downloaded Comodo's firewall I also downloaded their registry cleaner.
I have been using Ccleaner to clear out old files and to occasionally clean
the registry. It seems to be a fairly gentle cleaner, but Comodo is clearly
much more agressive. Because it automatically creates a restore point, and a
backup file, I bit the bullet and gave it a run. It found and removed
several more TM and some older PCcillin entries, plus literally hundreds of
others which I could not identify. Didn't touch anything essential though,
because everything seems to be working fine since.

But ..... the icons are still there, and the Sec Centre is still telling me
porkies. However, since I have managed to install and run the Comodo
firewall, which is what triggered this issue, I'm prepared to ignore the
obsolete icons and the false info in the SC. I might worry away at it when I
have a bit more time to spare, but right now this taking up more of my time,
(and yours) than I can justify spending on it. On the plus side though, I
have learned some valuable stuff, and I'm just a little bit further up that
long steep learning curve.

Best Regards, Leo.