My ISP (BTinternet) has provided Symantec antivirus software as part of its broadband package. It has now moved to McAfee instead. When trying to install McAfee, the installer would not go ahead as Ad-Aware SE Personal was present on my PC. I deinstalled Ad-Aware program and removed all mention of Ad-Aware and Lavasoft from my registry and deleted all Lavasoft files on my PC. However, McAfee still will not install and keeps saying that Ad-Aware SE Personal is installed on my system.

Are there further steps I can take to remove any residual trace of Ad-Aware from my system?

Thanks for any help anyone is able to give me on this.

hi,

Try downloading the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility, run it and remove any traces of Ad-Aware SE.

You should then be good to go. Incidently, if you wanted you could install Ad-Aware AE (the newest version) after installing McAfee.

Casey

Robin P
plz run W.I.C.U. as cas recommended before.
This is probably not enough...
- push WIN + >R< / type 'cleanmgr' and enter / drive C = ok / tag temp. files/temp.internet files/recycle bin and
fire it up.

Regards
Raziel

Thanks for the replies. However, Windows Installer CleanUp Utility is not suposed to be used if you have Office 2007 installed (which I have). Any other ideas please?

try to clean it only with 'cleanmgr' .
let me know if it fails

Can't find anything about a conflict between wicu and Office,to be on the safe side
create a System restore point before you start the wicu install.
Now run wicu and delete all Lavasoft/ AAW SE entries ( and not more ).

Lol. No, it shouldn't be used to try and remove the Office 2007 system. It's fine to run.

Casey

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried cleanmgr first, and that did not help.

Next I did create a restore point and ran Windows Installation CleanUp Untility. There were no entries for Ad-Aware or Lavasoft in the list, so there no action I could take.

The McAfee installer still says that Ad Aware SE Personal is present.

ok.
goto
Documents and Settings/All Users/Application Data/ and delete the entire lavasoft folder

Appl. Data is a hidden folder, to make it visibly adjust your settings...
1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Click on the ‘Tools’ menu item
3. Click on ‘Folder Options’ item
4. Click on ‘View’
5. Uncheck ‘Hide extensions for known file types’
6. Hidden Files and Folders, check Show hidden files and folders

run a windows search for Ad-Aware, Lavasoft and delete it manually (if there)
Now reboot

Is McAffee still grumbling - try to clear the McA logs.
Raziel

I'm afraid that I'd already done this before coming to this forum, but thanks for the suggestion. There's really nothing on my PC which even hints of Lavasoft as far as I can detect.

hi again,

We've had problems with this before and users have been in touch with McAfee about it, but there never seems to be a resolution. I went over to the McAfee forums and had a search through there and it appears there were some compatibility problems - this is why McAfee refuses to install.

However, we seemed to have cleaned Ad-Aware off your computer, but it's still complains. This, unfortunately, is common. It must be looking in some really obscure places.

On a brighter note, Ad-Aware AE seems to cause no compatibilty issues, so maybe you could try installing the AE version and see if the McAfee install goes through. Then you can choose if you'd like to keep AE or not.

Casey

Casey, thanks for the advice. I tried installing Ad-Aware AE, I still could not install McAfee. I removed Ad-Aware AE ,and that gave no change. McAfee still sees Ad-Aware SE Paersonal. So I'm still left with no antivirus software.

Robin P
last attempt :
install 'CCleaner'*, open it and hit the 'Registry' button, start a search for registry errors (CCleaner will ask if
you want to backup - do that), after backup, run CCl.
Now hit the 'Cleaner' button - analyze and clean - reboot.
Still no success...

download and install 'avast', for me it's more effective than other products.
To run no AV program isn't a good idea.
Regards
Raziel

Random thoughts:

Check to see if AAW SE left anything in your win.ini file.

Also check start>programs>startup and see if there's a residual AAW Shortcut there.

Dunno if they'll help, but worth a try