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Resolved Question

Stop a service that won't stop?

Jan 11, 2012 6:20AM PST

I have downloaded and installed a home version of McAfee on top of my old Virus Scan Enterprise and now the PC comes up with a couple of error dialogs on bootup. Apparently the new installation could not remove the original and there are remnants left behind. One of these remnants is mcshield.exe and I need to stop the service from running before I can complete the uninstall of the old software.

The mcshield is a tenacious ****** and I cannot find a way to disable it. Windows services and Task Manager both say access denied. I tried EndItAll (3rd party service killer) and that too failed.

I've posted this to the McAfee forum and so far no replies. McAfee tech support keeps me on hold forever. I'm hoping that some Windows freaks out there might have a suggestion.

Win Xp SP3

Thanks

Discussion is locked

Maylar has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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And ...
Jan 11, 2012 6:46AM PST
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Answer
Did you try their removal tool?
Jan 11, 2012 6:40AM PST
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Answer
Stop a service that won't stop?
Jan 11, 2012 10:30PM PST

The removal tool is only for consumer products and won't work with the Enterprise version I was running.

How far back will Xp allow restore?

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Enterprise = Very Good News.
Jan 12, 2012 1:39AM PST

You or your company paid dearly for that version and its support. Why not use that now? (you don't have to answer but it's always interesting.)

If I need to stop a service I boot safe mode to flip the service to disabled. NO I DON'T STOP IT! And I reboot to safe mode again and so far, it's stopped every time.
Bob

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Answer
Got it done
Jan 13, 2012 10:45PM PST

I was able to do a system restore back to the time before installing the new home version, and then successfully remove Virus Scan Enterprise with the normal Windows uninstall. The McAfee removal tool cleaned up the files from the new install and I was able to redo it all and keep the same license. Thanks for that suggestion.

Only reason I wanted it removed is that it was an old unsupported 8.0.0 that I could no longer update. The consumer version is more appropriate for my home needs. I'm sure I purchased it legit but that was a while ago and I don't have the account info. Anyway I'm good to go, thanks for the help.