Lavasoft are a company whose raison d'etre is to keep computers safe from viruses etc. My son mistakenly downloaded a trial version of ad aware se plus, he thought he was downloading google earth. I have been trying now for two days to remove it as I cannot upgrade my Mcafee virus protection while it is there. I am receiving a message that Ad Aware Se Plus is preventing Virus scan from loading. I have tried contacting Lavasoft but this is impossible. I have tried this forum and no one from lavasoft has replied. I need help and I am appalled that a company who should be making life easier for consumers have produced software which has left my son's computer unprotected. There is nothing coming up in ADD/REMOVE programmes and I have cleared every file relating to ad aware or anything else to do with lavasoft. Mcafee suggested that there may be something left in the registry which is conflicting wit Mcafee. I don't even know what that means......

Hello mrmxyzptlk,

Please see my post in this Topic, which should give you the answers that you need: Help me remove ad-aware se personal (temporarily), need removal tool.

The link containing the registry editing (regedit) is the one that you are most likely to need.

You have not said which operationg system that you use - should you be unfamiliar with regedit, go to http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?m...up+the+Registry and select the instructions for your OS (ie: XP, 2000 etc).Please remember that this problem was created by McAfee, not by Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE - should you require someone to take you through the process step-by-step, please contact McAfee's Helpdesk.

Regards,

Spike

Please remember that this problem was created by McAfee, not by Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE.

Dear Spike

I cannot see how being unable to remove a lavasoft product can be Mcafees problem.

Hello mrmxyzptlk,

I trust that you followed and read the links in the Topic that I posted above. If so, you will realise that you are far from alone in this and like all the others quoted in those links, you are being frustratingly inconvenienced, for which I commiserate with you.

Please also read this Topic: McAfee Conflict , in particular the comments from Ai_Tak (who was helping you in your previous postings, here: http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=7018). And then there is the whole of Ai_Tak's final post which I won't quote in full here but which is informative - as with the links that contained regedit instructions in my post above, you could look to see if any of the items mentioned are present in your son's computer.

Yes, sometimes there are traces of a program left after uninstallation and it would appear that Ad-Aware SE may be leaving a registry entry. I have uninstalled plenty of programs that left behind whole folders of files, etc, let alone registry entries. This has never prevented me from installing a different program that performs the same or similar functions, immediately afterward.

This problem first appeared in June 2006, 8 months ago, with the release of an upgrade of McAfee's programs . Then in September 2006, McAfee issued a "patch" that was supposed to correct/stop this situation arising. Yet here we Ad-Aware volunteers are, 5 months later, still explaining the situation to posters caught up in the aftermath.

Regards,

Spike