Very common are situations where users notice on their computers the presence of some software that they themselves did not install. One such application is a virus protection toolkit called McAfee. How to completely remove this package, will be further considered as detailed as possible. But it’s worth mentioning right away that to carry out such actions it is necessary to take into account some important nuances, without which knowledge it will not be possible to completely get rid of this software.
What is McAfee and how does the application get to the computer?
To begin with, McAfee, despite its spontaneous penetration of user computers running Windows operating systems, is not a virus or adware threat. On the contrary, it is an officially released and distributed antivirus. But why, then, is it installed without the knowledge of the user? In fact, users often themselves agree to install it when installing other software products.
Most often this is due to the development of Adobe. Even when updating the Flash-player at one of the stages, you can see a proposal to install an additional component (affiliate software) in the form of the desired antivirus. Users do not pay attention to it, thoughtlessly click the continue button, eventually get an additional antivirus, and then they begin to think about how to remove McAfee in Windows 10 or in another operating system used. It would seem that it is bad to install this antivirus package? Here you should not forget that if you already have one antivirus, and this is not a built-in Windows tool, but a third-party development, installing the second one can simply provoke conflicts between them at the software level, which will invariably affect the entire system of protecting your computer from all kinds of threats .
How to remove McAfee from the 10th or any other version of Windows using the "native" developer utility?
But it is not all that bad. You can get rid of this software quite simply. One option may be to use a special uninstall program from the developer of this package. It is called the McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool. The utility itself is free and is presented as a portable version in the form of a single executable EXE-file. How to remove McAfee with it?
The procedure is as follows:
- run the application;
- click the continue button;
- accept the license agreement;
- enter captcha to confirm actions;
- waiting for the complete removal;
- reboot the system.
How to completely remove McAfee: standard procedure in Windows
But suppose the user does not have such a utility at hand and it is not possible to download it, for example, due to lack of Internet access. How to remove McAfee in such a situation? There is nothing particularly complicated and there is, however, the actions taken and the time spent will require a little more.
Since this antivirus is official software, after installation it can be found among installed applications in the programs and components section, which is located in the standard "Control Panel".
To remove the main elements of the antivirus, just select the program and press the delete button.
Note: depending on the type of product installed, deletion may be blocked, so the operating system must first be loaded in safe mode by selecting the corresponding item in the start menu, which is called up by pressing F8 at the start of the download. In Windows 10, to use it first, on the command line launched with administrator privileges, you will need to run the sequence bcdedit / set {current} bootmenupolicy legacy.
Residual component cleaning
Despite the seemingly complete uninstall, it’s too early to rejoice, because the main problem is just how to remove McAfee completely and not partially. The next step will be the search and cleaning of residual components (files, folders and registry keys). Here the first thing to do is get rid of registry entries. After calling the editor (regedit), you need to call the search engine (Ctrl + F), search for the name of the antivirus and delete all the keys found, moving from one to the other by pressing the F3 key or the search continue button.
Similarly, the search must be set in the "Explorer" or any other used file manager. There should not be a problem with deleting files, since the registry keys have already been cleared.
Separately, you should pay attention to the removal of your own virtual drivers installed by the antivirus, which are located in the drivers directory located in the System32 directory. The names of all files will begin with mfe.
To simplify your task a little, you can start cleaning the system disk and without fail mark the point of removal of temporary components. Only after performing all of the above actions will it be possible to restart the computer system and make sure that the antivirus is completely and completely removed.
Using uninstall programs
But let's see how to remove McAfee on Windows systems using some simpler methods. One of the optimal solutions is the use of specialized uninstall programs like iObit Uninstaller or Revo Uninstaller. Such utilities remove both the main components of installed applications and all residual elements. For the most complete cleaning, upon completion of the standard procedure, it is necessary to use a powerful scan with the subsequent removal of all residues or turn it on even before the start of the main procedure.
Optimizer Applications
In principle, if the user performs an uninstall on their own, programs designed to optimize the operation of Windows systems, for example, CCleaner, Advanced SystemCare and their analogues, are also suitable as an additional tool for cleaning the system from unnecessary garbage.
When activating the search for problems in one click, it is enough to simply mark the modules for cleaning the registry and deleting garbage files, and then confirm the deletion of everything found if automatic cleaning is not activated initially.
Which tools are better?
So, how to remove McAfee, figured out. But which instrument should I prefer? It seems that manual uninstallation is a thankless task (you never know which component of the antivirus you can skip). But the use of uninstallers in all cases gives the optimal effect, and the participation of the user in all processes associated with the removal of any software, including, by the way, additional panels of web browsers, and even pre-installed programs of the operating systems themselves, is minimized .