Combofix Detects McAfee After Uninstallation

JOSHSKORN · 22 Nov 2013

My mother has a HP G72 laptop. Her McAfee has expired and I'd like to get her on something else. From the Control Panel, I have uninstalled everything from McAfee, and Combofix still seems to think McAfee is installed.

I've tried the McAfee removal tool (MCPR), yes I ran it as Administrator from the actual Administrator account. No luck.

I've deleted every registry key I could find on McAfee, except for a few which do not allow me to do so, which I find strange since I'm under the Administrator account. I was unable to change permissions successfully to be able to delete these keys. I have nothing under C:\Program Files (or C:\Program Files 32) pertaining to McAfee.

I was able to install Microsoft Security Essentials, however when clicking it, it just opens and then closes immediately. This is why I decided to give ComboFix a try after some Googling. I went ahead and made ComboFix continue, and 3 lines came up, all related to McAfee with the product IDs. I tried searching the registry for these keys, but no luck.

Any help?

UsernameIssues · 22 Nov 2013

Do not use Combofix on your own!!

:-(

I would not try any other tools/fixes - just wait.

ICIT2LOL · 22 Nov 2013

Josh just a suggestion and you have to make the final decision - what I do sometimes with the stubborn ones is go to regedit hit the HKEY for both the LOCAL MACHINE and USER lists open them out > go to Software > open them out and it should have an entry in there that you can right click on and delete. See my pic

Now BEFORE you do anything like this please back up the registry to do that you need to open regedit go to and click on File > export to Documents. I always do this after installing anyway it is a safe way of saving the reg from getting mucked up and then not being recoverable.

Jacee · 22 Nov 2013

Please attach the Combofix .txt file ... look here --->C:\ComboScan\Supplementary.txt
so I can see your results.

JOSHSKORN · 22 Nov 2013

ICit2lol said:

Josh just a suggestion and you have to make the final decision - what I do sometimes with the stubborn ones is go to regedit hit the HKEY for both the LOCAL MACHINE and USER lists open them out > go to Software > open them out and it should have an entry in there that you can right click on and delete. See my pic

I saw nothing there pertaining to McAfee

Jacee said:

Please attach the Combofix .txt file ... look here --->C:\ComboScan\Supplementary.txt
so I can see your results.

This is strange. I just reran combofix today and it didn't detect McAfee. The only thing I can think of which I did differently between today and my last scan last night was installed Malwarebytes and ran part of a full scan, which detected something not having to do with McAfee. I ended the scan because I didn't know if it would actually finish overnight or just halt when the system goes into sleep mode. I haven't changed any Power settings on the laptop, they are factory default.

Sorry for not appropriately naming the files.

Log1 - Last night's scan
Log - Today's scan

If you compare the two, immediately, you will see keys at the top of Log1.txt, which do not appear in Log.txt.

Again, what I'm looking to do is install MSE. I can't get the Security Center to open properly. I changed the Service startup type to Automatic. It still doesn't launch.

Jacee · 22 Nov 2013

McAfee is gone.
Let's see what Security Check shows ...

Download Security Check by screen317 from here http://screen317.spywareinfoforum.org/SecurityCheck.exe or here http://screen317.spywareinfoforum.org/
Save it to your Desktop.
Double click SecurityCheck.exe and follow the onscreen instructions inside of the black box.
A Notepad document should open automatically called checkup.txt.
Please post the contents of that document.

ICIT2LOL · 22 Nov 2013

Jacee could this have just been down to a simple reboot after running the Combo??

Jacee · 23 Nov 2013

I don't think McAfee was totally uninstalled before the first Combofix download was run.

ICIT2LOL · 23 Nov 2013

Jacee said:

I don't think McAfee was totally uninstalled before the first Combofix download was run.

Gotcha:)

JOSHSKORN · 24 Nov 2013

Jacee said:

McAfee is gone.
Let's see what Security Check shows ...

Download Security Check by screen317 from here http://screen317.spywareinfoforum.org/SecurityCheck.exe or here http://screen317.spywareinfoforum.org/
Save it to your Desktop.
Double click SecurityCheck.exe and follow the onscreen instructions inside of the black box.
A Notepad document should open automatically called checkup.txt.
Please post the contents of that document.

I read the log. It said something about Security Center not running. I knew this. I can't get Security Center running. The service is start to run Automatically.

I tried installing Microsoft Security Essentials, again and I got the same problem. MSE would open for a split second and then close. It literally flashed on the screen and that's it.

Do you think I need to do a Repair Install? I've also tried reinstalling Security Center with a .reg file, no luck.

Edit
Could there be something installed by HP, found in the Programs list that I can uninstall which would prevent Security Center from running? Again, this is a G72-262NR laptop.