Mcafee

Discussion in 'Software' started by dalkiel, Aug 16, 2006.

  1. dalkiel

    dalkiel Private First Class

    Hi

    My security center (virsca/firewall/spamkill/privacy) sub expired and I'm wondering whether to renew my sub. Are there better protection suites out there? i heard Norton is a big security risk. Any advice?
     
  2. PCJinx

    PCJinx Private First Class

  3. Dreamer

    Dreamer Corporal

    I wouldn't recomend renewing Macafee mainly because there is plenty of very good and free security software out there.

    AVG antivirus (highly recomended and free)
    http://www.majorgeeks.com/AVG_Free_Edition_d886.html

    Zone Alarm Firewall
    http://www.majorgeeks.com/ZoneAlarm_Free_d388.html

    Spybot S&D/Ad-aware
    http://www.majorgeeks.com/SpyBot-Search_&_Destroy_d2471.html
    http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ad-Aware_SE_Personal_d506.html

    These are all very good security programs that I have used for a very long time and have seen no problems with my computer at all.
     
  4. thisisu

    thisisu Malware Consultant

    don't renew mcaffee, period.
     
  5. Jud149

    Jud149 First Sergeant

    I agree. Do not renew as there is plenty of free stuff out there that is very good. Go to the malware section and read the sticky re how to protect your computer.
     
  6. COMPUABLE

    COMPUABLE First Sergeant

    >> My security center (virsca/firewall/spamkill/privacy) sub expired and I'm wondering whether to renew my sub. Are there better protection suites out there? i heard Norton is a big security risk. Any advice? <<

    Yes, I have some advice for you. As other posters implied; get rid of McAfee (as fast as you can) and install the freeware choices (conveniently available here at Major Geeks) instead. The McAfee, Inc. Company is probably one of the biggest deceptive rip-off artists on the web and their AV products have always been prone to failure as well as difficulty with the inevitable uninstallation of all of their various products...

    As an example; in March of 2006 a faulty "antivirus update" from McAfee Inc. mistakenly identified hundreds of programs as a Windows virus; which resulted in several companies that used McAfee products, inadvertently deleting significant amounts of data from the affected computers.

    For companies that had configured their McAfee antivirus programs or 'suites' to "automatically delete" any bad files, the error resulted in the loss of hundreds, and in some cases even thousands of files on systems in which the flawed update had been installed!

    Additionally, back in 2002 the State of New York filed suit against "Network Associates" over McAfee's outrageous and pompous EULA terms forbidding all users (including journalists) to "speak ill" of the company's security and anti-virus products, stating in the program installation's EULA that says that customers "shall not disclose any benchmarking tests or publish reviews of products without Network Associates' consent."

    My boss is totally hooked on Dell computers; which almost always come with some combination of McAfee products pre-installed. The first thing I do whenever a new Dell comes into the shop; is to uninstall McAfee and all of the other crap that comes (by default) with Dell machines using the very handy "Dell Decrapifer" tool.

    In my opinion, McAfee is second only to any Norton product with regards to intrusiveness, annoyance level as well as difficulty level during the inevitable un-installation process. I don’t even want their free trial; in fact I wouldn’t even use McAfee products if they were all offered as freeware. Life is just too short for all of the nonsense and hassle that their products come with. ;)

    If you have any doubts whatsoever regarding this; I'd suggest Googling the words McAfee Sucks and you will get an astounding 280,000+ plus hits! <lol>

    Good Luck!
     
  7. dalkiel

    dalkiel Private First Class

    Thanks folks - Question- Is the free ver of Zonealarm as secure as the full ver?

    Sarge Comp - Yes- my mcafee came on my dell laptop - 3 month trial - just expired. You mentioned I'd have a problem deleting the application. Should I use the program you mentioned first or try to uninstall via the standard way.
    Any other crap that i should remove from my DELL?

    To all - thanks for your advice. much obliged
     
  8. Jud149

    Jud149 First Sergeant

    What OS do you have. ZA will not work on '98 as they no longer support it and ZA would not word properly for me with my new XP Pro system. I'm now using Sygate which works well.
     
  9. COMPUABLE

    COMPUABLE First Sergeant

    >> Sarge Comp - Yes- my MacAfee came on my dell laptop - 3 month trial - just expired. You mentioned I'd have a problem deleting the application. Should I use the program you mentioned first or try to uninstall via the standard way? Any other crap that i should remove from my DELL? << dalkiel

    My understanding; from posts by McAfee users in several computer-based forums that I attend, is that "the trick" to removing it "the standard way" is: before uninstalling SecurityCenter, you must first entirely uninstall VirusScan, Personal Firewall, Privacy Service, and SpamKiller beforehand.

    I've often read that if it is not done exactly this way, several McAfee users have reported problems afterwards entirely ridding their computers of all of the assorted McAfee "leftovers" still in the Windows registry, etc. This McAfee article provides "their version" of the steps regarding removing SecurityCenter from your computer.

    However, I should tell you in advance that I've never actually used the methods listed above. And there are numerous people on the web who categorically state over-and-over again that the only way to entirely get rid of everything that the McAfee installation "infestation" delivers to your PC, even after correctly following the steps for removing it "the standard way;" is to wipe the hard drive (via formatting) and then to reinstall windows.

    As for your question: "Should I use the program you mentioned first or try to uninstall via the standard way" - as I mentioned previously, my advice would be to uninstall McAfee and all of the other crap that comes with Dell machines using the "Dell Decrapifer" tool. I've actually used this tool dozens of times on fellow employees, friend's and relative's Dells and have never experienced a single problem with it.

    All of the Dell "default" software that this tool removes is entirely useless in my opinion. Probably 95% of the Dell OEM software installations are either "trial versions" or "lesser functioning" (cripple-ware) versions of these products which nag you to upgrade (BTW the entire list can be found on this page).

    Note: Make sure that you read all of the instructions on the related webpages very carefully (and even make a copy of them if you can) before making any changes. Additionally, I just skimmed through that site again and it appears that "The De-Crapifier" has recently changed names and is now called the "PC De-Crapifier" (find out more about this here). Currently, the developer of the PC De-Crapifier has targeted it for use on most Dell machines; however it will theoretically run on any computer which has the installed software listed on that page.

    Good Luck! :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2006
  10. dalkiel

    dalkiel Private First Class

    Hi again

    Ran PC decrap and it seems to have a problem uninstalling the security center. The 3 things left on the laptop are the center/privacy and shredder.

    Running decrap brings a dialog box that states center unistalling but it has been there for almost 45 min. Suggestions?

    Also I noticed that there is an option to remove Roxio sonic. Is it worth keeping?

    Thanks in advance
     
  11. dalkiel

    dalkiel Private First Class

    COMPUABLE - you know your way around Dell systems. Should I use the uninstaller to remove remaining security center and privacy service? DEcrap doesnt seem to be able to remove it although it removed the other components of the security center.
     
  12. COMPUABLE

    COMPUABLE First Sergeant

    >> COMPUABLE - you know your way around Dell systems. Should I use the uninstaller to remove remaining security center and privacy service? DEcrap doesnt seem to be able to remove it although it removed the other components of the security center. << dalkiel

    I'm sorry to hear that the tool didn't remove everything as planned. It's certainly odd that the security center and privacy services were not "entirely" removed and that some of the components still remain on your computer.

    Although, my experience using the "Decrapifer" tool is limited to when the Dell systems are "brand new" (right-out-of-the-box), I've used this tool probably dozens of times and every single time it removed everything that I wanted it to; and in much less time than it would have taken to manually remove all of the crappy Dell "extras."

    You might want to try contacting the developer of the tool directly (BTW the authors's name is "Jason York") and "Leave a Reply" at the bottom of this page which is located on the PC De-Crapifier's yorkspace.com blog.

    Additionally, I read on the PC De-Crapifier's web page; that a "basic log file" is generated after the De-Crapifier is run. It’s stored on the root of the C: drive. You might want to look this log over as well; in order to see if it gives you (or Jason; when you contact him) any clues as to why the security center and privacy services was not entirely removed.

    Good Luck!
     
  13. PCJinx

    PCJinx Private First Class

    May I suggest...
    Find all files and folders associated with McAfee and note their locations...
    Reboot in safe mode...
    Remove these files and folders...
    Use hijack this to deactivate McAfee registry entries...
    Use a registry cleaner to remove all of the McAfee registry entries that no longer have files or folders to associate with. (I think there is a registry cleaner here on site if you have none)
    Beboot... Done.

    I use this method to remove things that quite frankly don't want to go away.
    So far with 100% success. :)
     

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