Larian Studios Forums General Chat Chat (Anything) anti-virus help?

A few months ago I had my computer reformatted by the college tech people. When they reformatted it they put on McAfee Anti Virus. This thing kept popping up all the time and I went to turn it off because I was trying to write a paper, and it hasn't been seen since because I haven't been able to find it.

I bought a new anti-virus program and now it won't install unless I uninstall McAfee first. But it won't let me uninstall McAfee. It keeps saying it can't find the installation package VScan451.msi.

I think I might have a virus so I would like to run a scan but I can't even get McAfee to run.

How can I get rid of McAfee so I can install this other anti-virus program?

I have mc affie and its good.... not sure why you can't uninstall it.

If you already have a virus, that may be preventing you from running and installing/uninstalling other AV software... Have you tried using an online scan such as Trend Micro's Housecall to clean your system? Or you might try downloading and running a stand-alone utility like McAffee's Stinger, which will detect and clean many of the most common viruses...

1. try uninstalling it in safe mode with no connection to the internet.
2. I dumped McAfee--had problems with it and Norton is AWFUL.
3. A free program very nice is
http://www.free-av.com/ Download this and have it ready after the uninstall. Trend Micro--already mentioned has a good rep--never used it myself though.

Try to reinstall the Mcaffee, so the files will be replaced and after that you unninstall it.

Obs: A free antivirus what is up in concept is AVAST.

We have already a thread for that ... please try using the Search Function while feeding it with "viruus" and "worm" or so. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

My tips :

- four eyes see more than two.

Result : keep at least two freeware virus scanners on your harddisk - if you want to be sure, then get Ad-Aware and Spybot as an addition. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

- The German AVK by G-Data receives in tests the best results so far - whereas Symantec and McAfee are not so good. Kaspersky and F-Secure are also good. (Test in a recent issue of the mag "c't".) AVK is also quite slow.

- Free vius scanners : F-Prot, , McAfee's Stinger (only most recent threats, because it scans only a very small number of viruses that are "in the wild) , AVG, AntiVir ... there are enough, I think.

A visit to the Antivirus Bulletin web-site is also not uninteresting. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Alrik.

Heya mickey,

Remember me? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

First,
Alrik is right.

Second,
Why you want to get rit of McAfee?
It's decent anti-virus. Just like any other anti-virus these days.
People have their preferences. But thrurh is none of the major anti-virus developpers can't affort to make bad stuff anymore. Competition is murder.
I tried a few of them. And for a long time I used PC-cilin. Partly couse it was adeptable with my firewall and other stuff I'm running.
With this puter I got a free subscription to Norton. And that's been running just fine too.

Have you tried windows search function to look for that file? It prolly has something to do with what/the way those guys installed it too. So you prolly need to ask them about it.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

Last advice . If you know a good site showing news to security things or virus-threads, visit it regularly !

I often visit the site of the german mag c't for that, because they present there such things. Or www.heisec.de , a daughter site of that, so to say. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Unfortunately I don't know any english-language sites for that - that's why I mentioned the Virus Bulletin - but sites of anti-virus developers are good as well, for example Sophos, they even have a picture gallery of viruses. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Alrik.

Yeah, I remember you. It's good to see you again. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The reason I want to get rid of Mcafee is because I couldn't actually find it on my system so I went out and bought a new one. Even though I've found it all the related files, I still can't get it to run.

Hi Mickey,

You may be able to manually uninstall it.

1. Start the computer in safe mode. To do this, reboot your computer and as soon as "Now Loading Windows" appears (or it might be just before that), press F8 and select Safe Mode. Once Windows loads, it will inform you that it is in safe mode.
2. Open the folder C:\Program Files\ and delete McAffe from there. You may want to zip it to make a backup first incase things go wrong.
3. Open the Start menu and select Run.... Type RegEdit and click OK.
4. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee.
5. Open the Registry menu and select Export Registry File. Make sure Selected branch only is marked. Save the file to your Desktop. This is a backup in case this doesn't work.
6. Delete the McAffe branch from your registry.
7. Close the program and restart your computer normally.

This should remove all McAffe files from your computer and all references to it from memory. Other installers should no longer detect McAffe. If you have any strange errors after removing McAffe, you can open the file you saved to the desktop and it will rebuild the registry branch you deleted.

Let us know if you need clarification.

Here's the thing. There is no McAfee folder in C:\Program files nor can I run the regedit thing. I've tried that and it opens and then disappears in a split second. The same is true of msconfig too.

I tried using the McAfee stinger someone mentioned and it found 37 infected files and a handful of viruses but the problem still remains. I tried using the other link that was in the same post, and I downloaded the thing (very slowly) but it wouldn't run. Said something about Error 102.

I'm attempting to download another anti-virus program right now in hopes that works.

- Try using the search function of the OS. Best is, you use as a search kriterium the phrase "VScan451.msi" , but I guess this package has been on a CD that the people used to install.

- Look into temp directories - those unter win and those specified by the CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT

- Look into the win folder. There must be a folder called "application data" or so. Examine every directory there.

- Look into the list of services. There must be a background scanner or guardian that's why it pops out so often. I assume it could be some sort of service.

- In the explorer options, turn off the thing that it won't display hidden files or system files or both. You'll have one difficulty less, then. ( I think this option should be turned off by everyone, because worms and viruses just love these flags "system" or "hidden" . )

- Try using the search function by using as seearch kriterium *.MSI Then you'll find any MSI installation packages, I hope.

- Try using the search function of REGEDIT or REGEDIT32 by using "VScan451.msi" as search kriterium. Note the path that is displayed (if ever). If there are results, try using these results as seach kriteria, if you don't succeed.

- Use the search function with using the thing "contains text" and then type "Mc Afee" or so in. Be sure it searches *everything*



That's it for now.

Alrik.

mickey, it sounds like you are trying to do this from the DOS Prompt.
That is why it is disappearing from you like that.
Run regedit or msconfig inside of windows.
Here is the path:
Start/Run…/(then a pop-up box will come up)type in either regedit or msconfig in that pop-up box and then just hit enter.

Now this will work for WIN98 and WINXP, but WINME is another story.
You have to do it differently.
If you have WINME let us know.

Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Okay, well now I am trying to run the chkdsk.exe utility but when I run it it says "Windows found errors on the disk, but will not fix them because disk checking was run without the /F (fix) parameter."

How do I run it so it fixes the errors it finds?

If you are using WINXP double click on 'My Computer', right click on your 'C' drive and left click on 'Properties' on the pop-up menu, left click on the 'Tools' tab, in the 'Error-checking' section left click on the 'Check Now' box.
Tic both selections in the Check Disk options and then left click on the 'start' button.
Your computer will display a pop-up asking you to do this on next Reboot.
This is what you want.
Then Reboot your computer.
Leave your computer alone and let it do it's thing.
This can take quite a while so be prepared for a long wait.
It does 5 different scans.

I hope this helps you.
Tsel