New Laptop/Antivirus Removal

Hi folks, got a new Dell Inspiron 1300 laptop there, the cheap enough one. and I have Mcaffe Security Centre on it. I would like to remove it as cleanly as possible as I have heard it AV's can be very difficult to remove sometimes. I hope to put AVG AV and ZA FW on it as I have been happy with these on my previous PC.

It's McAffee Security Centre 90 day trial that came with it. And Straight away it wants me to register it. I don't even want to do THIS, I just want to remove it straight away. In the Add/Remove programs there is a McAffee uninstall program, and 2 other symantec programs for removal(a live update one and something else). Didn't think McAffee and Sysnatec were the same company??!!

Should I just remove all these?
Will it be that easy?
Has Anyone done this before, and would like to advise?

Thanks

I'd wipe the hard drive and reinstall the OS the way you like it.

I've had to remove McAfee also. Yes remove it from the Add/Remove menu. Symantec is a mystery. Not on my new Dell but I would remove the live update program. Wiping the hard drive and reinstalling is not necessary.

In add/remove programs there is

LiveReg (Symantec Corporation)
Live Update 2.6 (Symantec Corporation)
McAfee Uninstaller

I also have Norton Ghost 10.0 in the Add/Remove Programs list. So this answers the Symantec Question.

I will probs just remove all these using the Add/Remove Programs.
How would I wipe the hard drive and reinstall the OS? Not too confident of doing this. Is it straight forward?
I went here


but it says

Note: Before uninstalling SecurityCenter, you must uninstall VirusScan, Personal Firewall, Privacy Service, and SpamKiller.

Click to expand...

The fact that I have not done the McAfee Product setup, then maybe this dosen't apply yet?

If I go to Program files/McAfee there is only a SpamKiller Folder, no uninstall file in here.

In Program Files there is also a McAfee.com folder with an Agent, Personal Firewall, Shared and VSO Folder. In the Agent Folder there seems to be an uninstall Folder (Uninst) and this has a uninst.ico file. Maybe this corresponds to the McAfee Uninstaller in the Add/Remove Programs list. Is that how that works?

There is also a Symantec Folder with a Live Update Folder, no uninstall file in here.

There is also a Norton Ghost Folder with an Agent, Browser, Console, Shared, Utility folder and some other files, no uninstall file in here.

Any thoughts.

Thanks

It's only the third or fourth time of me turning on my laptop and I get Symantec Ghost automatically playing a video of how great Ghost it is. Dell really should allow us not to have these on them. Another subject I know.

ted said:

Wiping the hard drive and reinstalling is not necessary.

Click to expand...

I never trust the standard install of any operating system, which usually either includes a lot of features I don't want or leaves off the stuff I do want. Sure - one can add or remove features using add/remove but I prefer to do it from scratch, especially if the vendor has included a lot of software I don't want or need (such as the antivirus software reffed by the OP).

Don't trust add/remove to properly remove any software.

mcafee

remove firewall first and reboot
then remove av and reboot
finally remove mcafee security centre as there are no products installed any more

and reboot

extopia said:

I'd wipe the hard drive and reinstall the OS the way you like it.

Click to expand...

might sound obvious but make sure you have all the software to reinstall, including OS if you consider doing this. Dell doesn't ship CDs unless you request them (and pay)...

Of course. If you have to pay extra for the discs, do so. You're gonna need them eventually.

I bought one of these last June (€399) & have just removed anti virus with Add/Remove. I also used msconfig to temp stop other annoying features from starting.I have loaded AVG instead.
I would advise against reinstalling at this stage.The laptop can be brough back to "out of box" using existing software(read the manual pdf). If you do decide to go the route of complete reinstall rather than using Dells restore, be sure to extract the key just in case & burn a copy of the driver folder. You also will need to straighten up the partitions as the hard drive contains 2 hidden partitions(fdisk or whatever).Also make sure to set your bios to boot from cd.
inncidently, its quite easy to change the harddrive on these(4 screws) & I have done this to load Xp pro/linux duel boot using an old 2&half inch hd from an old faulty sony laptop.Windows loads great but loading the dell motherboard drivers is very difficult.The existing modem driver would not work in windows but an updated driver would. In the end I was happy to put back the original HD & existing setup.

Is this the free avg you're using or the paid up avg...I had avg for a while and caught a trojan that resulted in me wiping the hard drive....granted it was the free version but not a great advertisment!

Im using the free version.

avg let in a trogan on my computer too and resulted in a total wipeout as well. I have kerio as my firewall but does anyone have a good (free or at least cheap) trojan tracker as they appear to be the ones getting through?

trojans and spyware can be caught by installing a scad of packages to deal with them on top of an anti virus too.

1. AdAware SE (free)
2. Xoft Antispy (free)
3. MS Defender (free)
4. Ewido from AVG (free)

Install all, update all , run all . MS and Xoft keep themselves updated, the other you must update manually like AVG

went into safe mode and removed McAfee uninstaller Add/remove. Select everything i.e. FW, etc. what ever is there.
Tried to remove Norton Ghost 10.0 but could not do this from safe mode so I had to to this from my account. This also removed LiveReg (Symantec Corporation)
So I only had to remove Live Update 2.6 (Symantec Corporation), which I done in safe mode.
Will install AVG and ZA FW next and see how it goes.
But I am just after noticing that my Hard drive seems to be split. So in My Computer I have a Shared Documents Folder, a My Account Documents, A Local Disk (C and a Backup(D one plus my DVD-RW Drive (E.
But I presume this Backup(D is something to do with the AV that was on it. In this D drive there is a RECYCLER folder and a System Volume Information.
Any Ideas on this?
Is this just a waste of space? I am sure I will still be able to store stuff on it but just a bit annoyed with it.
Maybe I should just reinstall the OS??!!

The anti-virus & ghost are different. You have deleated the ghost partition(backup) & this has become logical drive D with its own recycle area. This will push up the CD & USB key one step to E & F. You have gained 3 Gigabytes & have lost your backup.