Problem with McAfee Security Center

Please explain in pain english your paragraph that starts with "when". My brand new Dimension 9100 w/XP froze on me and I had to call service to get restarted - nothing had worked, so, they restored everything. Thus, I want to get rid of troublemaker and install ZoneAlarm Complete and other stuff like S&d Spybot. Your opinion?

...but his basic instruction to clean McAfee from the registry can be accomplished in a number of ways. His method was to use a registry cleaner to do so. I recommend a different way. If you've got McAfee installed on the computer, please tell me what programs and which versions you have installed. (RIGHT click on the red M" in the lower right corner, choose "Virus Scan/About" and give me the "build" number, the virus definitions and the scan engine number.) I should be able to provide instructions on how to manually clean things up...First though, you'll need to run the standard uninstall by opening the Control Panel, the double click on the "Add/Remove Programs" section, then highlight the various McAfee programs you want uninstalled, then click on the "Remove" button.

Hope this helps and let us know more about your specific version of Security Center, Virus Scan, Firewall, etc.

Hope this helps.

Grif

I have Mc Afee personal firewall plus v6.o.6014 activated, the rest of security center is not- I have one week old computer. When I right clicked on "M", I didn't see the "build" number, the virus definitions and the scan engine number(I assume because nothing is activated). By the way , if I'll get ZoneAlarm Pro, will I have to pay some kind of renewal fees every year?

Also, what's the best way to back up my new system?

Thousands Thanks, Grif. If not for you and other good guys and girls in this forum, I would pull all my hair out

Before uninstalling the firewall, disable it/turn it off, then restart the computer so the firewall isn't running. After that, because nothing else has been activated, you should be able to do a standard uninstall from Add/Remove Programs. Remove Security Center and all other things McAfee, if that's what you want to do. Once that's done, follow the manual steps in the instructions at the link below to completely remove McAfee items from the computer..

How do I Uninstall Personal Firewall/Plus?

How to best backup your system depends on what you have. Most new "brand name" systems such as your Dell should have a "Recovery CD" (or CD/s) which will reinstall the operating system and all currently installed programs back to factory condition if you need to format and reinstall the computer. If you have those Recovery CD's (and maybe a "Resource CD" which contains all the hardware drivers), then all you really need to back up are those "unreplaceable" items. Things like: personal documents that you have created and saved, music files, picture files, program installer files that you have purchased and downloaded, and maybe new drivers that you've downloaded and installed. Personally, I try to keep ALL of those items in one or two folders so I can frequently burn them to a CD or DVD as a backup.

Yes, you'll need to pay an annual fee to keep ZA Pro current. On the other hand, I like ZA FREE version. You might consider it. Because I use separate programs for each service, such as a separate antivirus, separate firewall, etc. I only use ZA free.

Hope this helps.

Grif

Tried couple times. Every time I restart computer, The M comes back red. So, how do you disable firewall?

Since we're at disabling/removing programs, how do I remove Quickbooks: SimpleStart Special Edition. I have used everything I know about program removal, including add/remove program in control panel; also, ran Search and deleted all associated with Quickbooks files, but after restart it pops-up back again, but not every time. Maybe every 4th-5th restart. Very annoying! Help

You should be able to shut down the firewall by clicking on Start-Run, type "msconfig", then click on the Start Up tab. When that loads, UNCHECK all boxes dealing with the McAfee or Network Associates. If you can't, it's not that important. Simply use the instructions at the link below. (Sorry, the link in my previous post was bad.):

How do I Uninstall Personal Firewall/Plus?

As to QuickBooks, it shouldn't be a problem. Typing "Uninstall QuickBooks" in Google displays a number of hits including the two links below:

http://www.quickbooks.com/support/faqs/qbw2003/119196.html

http://www.quickbooks.com/support/archive/faqs/docs/w_reinstall50.html

Hope this helps.

Grif

As you have been warned before, please check the forum policies.

Grif