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Question

McAfee firewall

Jun 25, 2011 3:09AM PDT

still shows active on PC.

Dell-xps500-512ram-12gHD-Pent-lll....came with 98se.....now has XP.

Came with free McAfee Suite pre-installed, after 6 months went to free Ad-aware after that. Anyway, when I go to security center in control panel it says mcafee firewall is on and windows FW is off. I turned on Windows FW and it said having 2 on at the same time could cause problems, so I turned Windows FW off. I uninstalled mcafee a long time ago using their removal tool and just lately did it again when I seen the FW still active.Did a search on my PC for all things mcafee and nothing. Any ideas how to get rid of it?

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
No anti-virus?
Jun 25, 2011 3:20AM PDT

I will let others answer your specific question about McAfee, but may I ask, if you uninstalled McAfee a while ago in favor of an anti-AdAware, what are you using for anti-virus?

I assume you mean Lavasoft's AdAware, but that only finds adware. It is not an anti-virus scanner, and without that, your computer OS is vulnerable.

About McAfee. If you open the System Configuration Editor, (Start > Run, type in msconfig and click OK), then go to the Startup tab, check through the list for anything McAfee based. If you find anything, remove the tick, then reboot the computer.

Make sure you turn the Windows Firewall on as soon as possible.

Mark

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Sorry...
Jun 25, 2011 4:07AM PDT

should have added I had paid Norton along with Ad-aware and now have paid Webroot w/spyware sweeper as a stand alone. Run the free SuperAntiSpyware and malwarebytes once a week.

As for the Startup tab request, thanx for the input, but nothing there seems to be mcafee related.

Now when I need to, I uninstall everything with Revo uninstaller, great program.

Any other ideas for this PITA mcafee fw ?

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That's good.
Jun 25, 2011 4:38AM PDT

I see you have the paid version of Nortons. Does that include a firewall? If so, is that component turned on? If not, enable that, reboot the computer and see if the Security Center reports that Norton is your firewall.

I'm guessing that a Win 98 upgraded to Win XP system did not always report security components properly, especially when software changes were made. I had a similar issue with my Win 98 system some years ago, and never resolved it.

However, another thought. McAfee may have installed a Service. This should have been removed when you uninstalled McAfee, but head over to the Services Console, (Start > Run, type in services.msc and click OK), and scroll down the list and see if there is anything relevant listed there. If so, double click the entry to open the dialog window and disable it if necessary.

Mark

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Had Norton...
Jun 25, 2011 7:10AM PDT

now I have paid Webroot w/no FW.

Tried the services.msc thing, nothing there. Found another thing to try, will let you know what happens.

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Answer
McAfee Removal Tool
Jun 25, 2011 8:47AM PDT

If you haven't already, please use the McAfee removal tool to get rid of all things McAfee, including the firewall.. Download the removal tool from:

Note: Clicking on the link below will immediately open the download dialogue window.
http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe

In addition, before running the tool, remember that the McAfee suite installs all its parts separately and as such, the McAfee firewall will show up separately in the Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs.. If you haven't uninstalled it there, please do so, then run the MCPR.exe programs to remove all remnants.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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Already used McAfee tool and no go, but.....
Jun 25, 2011 9:46AM PDT

found what did. I deleted the repository folder in system 32. Went to services.msc, paused windows management instrumentation, went to C/windows/system32/wbem and deleted the repository folder. Went back to WMI and restarted it. No more mcafee fw. Restarted windows fw and all's good except now security center does not recognize my webroot av. I know webroot is on and working, so whatever, I can monitor it myself.

Your opinion: Should I stay with the paid Webroot in the future or go with one of the free ones out there ?

Thanx for the replys to my post.

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Your Choice.. Webroot Is A Good Antispyware Program
Jun 25, 2011 10:32AM PDT

If it works for you, great..

The "Repositiory" folder stores configurations for a number of programs that are installed.. You might have been able to remove the McAfee configuration simply by removing the subfolder for that portion only or by simply disabling the WMI service, restart the machine, then re-enable it again and start the machine again.. Still, I guess that if you uninstall Webroot, then reinstall it, it should reconfigure the system and Security Center should find it again.

There are scripts available on the net which will rebuild the repository. Just an example below:

http://www.myitforum.com/articles/1/view.asp?id=11203

Hope this helps.

Grif

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Thanks for all info
Jun 25, 2011 10:56AM PDT

Like you said reinstalling webroot should fix that issue, not worried b/c its working fine right now.

If I went with free real time AV in the future, do you have a favorite? If you don't like to endorse products here, I understand.

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Well, My Favorite Is What Works For The User
Jun 27, 2011 4:21AM PDT

I've got customers that swear by one or the other, and some that can't stand some of those same ones..

So, I'll recommend the four below.. Since they're free, install one, try it for a while, then uninstall it and try one of the others.. After you try them all, you should have an idea of the one YOU like.

Avira
AVG
Avast
Microsoft Security Essentials

Hope this helps.

Grif

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Thanks
Jun 28, 2011 3:37PM PDT

for the tip. I'll do my homework on all 4. I ask b/c I need a less intrusive program for my older Dell and I'll put the best all around AV on the newer PC.

Again, thanks