Since the advent of various computer programs and software, the concept of malware or viruses has become perhaps the prime concern of programmers and users as a whole, be it at home or any enterprise. These viruses, worms, or malware have a tendency to corrupt software, programs and undergoing processes that are necessary for a system to function in a well-knit-fashion. Viruses are programs that incorporate themselves into other programs (host) and change their functionality so as to disrupt the system’s normal procedure of executing day to day activities.
[Tip: Prevent Your Computer from Virus Infection Through The USB Drive.]
Software designers have designed a number of various highly efficient anti-viruses, which are more like vaccines, to prevent virus attacks and other malware functions to a system. McAfee has been among the pioneers of anti-virus designing, their each product being one of the finest of the world. It has set an example for budding anti-virus designers on how effective an anti-virus should be designed.
Problem in uninstalling McAfee Products :
However, there’s one major drawback of using McAfee products. A user faces problems in completely removing McAfee products if he has to uninstall one. Uninstalling the program from “Add or Remove Programs” in the Control Panel, or deleting the installed files from the directory location does not remove McAfee products completely. This hinders the future installation of similar programs when the user opts to install a new one. The system indicates that the previous McAfee product is still installed and it’s unable to carry out the installation of a similar new program. For example, an antivirus program cannot be installed on a system which had a McAfee antivirus installed previously.
The only way that remains is to format the system and start all over again.
Solution :
Unknown to most users, Mcafee itself provides a solution to this dilemma. The Mcafee Consumer Products Removal (MCPR) Tool, launched by McAfee completely uninstalls any McAfee product installed in the system. This tool is a simple “.exe” file, which on installation searches for any installed McAfee products on your system. It then uninstalls it, removing every trace of the program along with the standalone files. The main advantage of using this official tool is that it itself can be uninstalled and removed completely like any other program.
The MCPR Tool is a freeware available easily for download and easier to execute. The process for completely removing a McAfee product is described below :
1. Download McAfee Consumer Products Removal (MCPR) Tool.
2. Double click on the downloaded file to install it to your system. Windows Vista users need to right click on the downloaded file and then select to “Run as Administrator”. Confirm any messages appearing to continue.
[Note:- Close all McAfee programs running in the background before installing the MCPR tool.]
4. When all the McAfee products are removed completely, i.e., the removal process is finished, a message declaring “Cleaning Successful” appears. Restart your system to finish removing McAfee products completely from your system.
Use of McAfee Consumer Products Removal Tool enables the user to completely remove McAfee products from his system providing him with the liberty of installing similar products in the future without any sort of hindrance. The fact that MCPR can be normally uninstalled (removed) gives a boost to its utility.
nice share…. 🙂 very good tip…..
thnks for sharing…
In Task Manager, when I click End Task or End Process Tree, either nothing happens, or Access is Denied, so Step One doesn’t even work.
I`ve been looking for this.
Cool
Its a very Old udpate
If MCPR.exe is not working.. Take the backup of your windows registry. Delete all McAfee entries, will fix your problem.
McAfee Consumer Product Removal tool will uninstall all the versions from 2005 to 2011. The tool doesn’t support Windows ME and 98
Excellent tool worked well
Hi, your advice conflicts somewhat with McAfee’s own directions:
http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS101331
Document ID: TS101331
“How to uninstall or re-install supported McAfee products using the Consumer Products Removal tool”
This document gives the procedure as:
1. Uninstall your McAfee home user products using Add/Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel
2. Download and run the McAfee Consumer Product Removal (MCPR) tool
3. Re-install your McAfee products
(Of course, you may not be intending to carry out point 3!)
Have you found any drawbacks to what McAfee suggest?
As an update (23 April 2015), I’ve uninstalled a trial version of McAfee Livesafe from my Windows 8.1 laptop using McAfee’s procedure, even though I didn’t want to reinstall McAfee so wasn’t worried about conserving licences for different devices (which may be McAfee’s main reason for step 1 “Add/Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel”?).
My own procedure was something like this:
1. Check in Task Manager’s Services tab how many McAfee services there were (both those Running and Stopped) [15 for me]
2. Check whether McAfee was running a scan [it was so I had to wait till it finished]
3. Create a Restore Point, naming it “before McAfee LiveSafe uninstall”, in case it all goes horribly wrong!
4. Download (but don’t run) MCPR.exe using the link in McAfee’s TS101331 document
5. Select ‘Uninstall a Program’ in Control Panel [McAfee LiveSafe was the only McAfee program listed there for me]
6. Right mouse to Uninstall then tick all boxes, in the Remove McAfee Software panel that pops up, to remove everything
7. Click on the Windows Defender notification when Windows offers to activate it
8. Restart, as requested
9. Check in Task Manager’s Services tab how many McAfee services there still are [0 for me now]
10. Check that Windows Firewall’s successfully been re-enabled after removal of McAfee and McAfee’s firewall software
11. Run MCPR.exe from my Downloads folder [seems to remove a lot of buried components left after the Windows uninstall]
12. Restart, as requested
13. Click on Update in Windows Defender to get current list of malware from Microsoft
14. Click on Scan in Windows Defender, select Full Scan then run it
15. Create a 2nd Restore Point, naming it “after McAfee LiveSafe uninstall”, as a good base to be able to return to any time
All looks fine. Time will tell whether they all lived happily ever after!
Worked perfectly—Thank you
mcaffee is a real culprit
removed it by its own tool