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New Computer pre-loaded with McAfee -- SHIT!

J

Jeff Strickland

Flightless Bird
The Wife & I were out the other day and found what they call a NetTop PC for
$200. It came with XP, and this was a good thing. We asked the salesgeek
about upping the RAM from the factory 1G to 2G. Not possible, was the short
answer. But, he had a close cousin in the back that came with a better
processor and 2G or RAM. He didn't mention that it also came with Win7
instead of XP. Crap! Instead of going across the store and buying RAM for a
machine that has no visible means of opening the case, and getting to the
same price point in the effort, we just bought the upgraded machine -- not
understanding that it also was upgraded to W7.

We got it home and began setting it up before we discovered it was W7. This
isn't a huge hurdle, just a minor disappointment. Anyhow, I began to load
the antivirus subscription that comes from my ISP. The anti-virus is really
an Internet Security Suite, in case anybody cares. The ISS comes up with
it's name, followed by, "powered by McAfee." I hate McAfee.

Don't try to change my mind, I'm convinced that McAfee is just a virus that
blocks the other viruses (virii ? ). I uninstalled McAfee and reinstalle
dthe VSS -- same result. I noticed that the machine would not complete the
McAfee Family Protection <whatever it was doing>, and hung. McAfee is
rampant in the Registry, even after it has been Uninstalled with what was
formerly Add & Remove Programs.

Now, the problem.

I went into the Registry and did a Edit>Find on MCAFEE, and deleted all
keys.

This turns out to to be a mistake. I can open Internet Explorer, but it
won't build the Home Page for either of the two home pages for the two tabs
I like. I can do a Windows Update, so the Internet works. Only IE doesn't
work. Of course, the Updates can come in without IE, but it's important to
note that the Internet connection itself isn't giving me trouble.

I _think_ that IE is looking for directions to a previous set of search
results or pages visited, or something like that. IE opens, then gathers a
list of places it has been. There is a registry entry that says it's been
somewhere, but the list of the somewheres has been deleted because I changed
the registry.

I have a network set up -- workgroup, with Shared Folders and such -- that I
can run a download of IE8 from. If I downloaded the IE8 Setup from
someplace, would Reinstalling fix the Registry mess that I have created?

Alternatively, maybe I could go back into the Registry and zero-out the
entry that says IE has been somewhere, then it won't look for the list of
places that I deleted. The trouble here is, I don't know what to do ...

Did I say how much I dislike McAfee?
 
B

Bob

Flightless Bird
McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Uninstallers/McAfee-Consumer-Product-Removal-Tool.shtml

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlrjeff@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:hjr2cb$qdv$1@news.eternal-september.org...
> The Wife & I were out the other day and found what they call a NetTop PC
> for $200. It came with XP, and this was a good thing. We asked the
> salesgeek about upping the RAM from the factory 1G to 2G. Not possible,
> was the short answer. But, he had a close cousin in the back that came
> with a better processor and 2G or RAM. He didn't mention that it also came
> with Win7 instead of XP. Crap! Instead of going across the store and
> buying RAM for a machine that has no visible means of opening the case,
> and getting to the same price point in the effort, we just bought the
> upgraded machine -- not understanding that it also was upgraded to W7.
>
> We got it home and began setting it up before we discovered it was W7.
> This isn't a huge hurdle, just a minor disappointment. Anyhow, I began to
> load the antivirus subscription that comes from my ISP. The anti-virus is
> really an Internet Security Suite, in case anybody cares. The ISS comes up
> with it's name, followed by, "powered by McAfee." I hate McAfee.
>
> Don't try to change my mind, I'm convinced that McAfee is just a virus
> that blocks the other viruses (virii ? ). I uninstalled McAfee and
> reinstalle dthe VSS -- same result. I noticed that the machine would not
> complete the McAfee Family Protection <whatever it was doing>, and hung.
> McAfee is rampant in the Registry, even after it has been Uninstalled with
> what was formerly Add & Remove Programs.
>
> Now, the problem.
>
> I went into the Registry and did a Edit>Find on MCAFEE, and deleted all
> keys.
>
> This turns out to to be a mistake. I can open Internet Explorer, but it
> won't build the Home Page for either of the two home pages for the two
> tabs I like. I can do a Windows Update, so the Internet works. Only IE
> doesn't work. Of course, the Updates can come in without IE, but it's
> important to note that the Internet connection itself isn't giving me
> trouble.
>
> I _think_ that IE is looking for directions to a previous set of search
> results or pages visited, or something like that. IE opens, then gathers a
> list of places it has been. There is a registry entry that says it's been
> somewhere, but the list of the somewheres has been deleted because I
> changed the registry.
>
> I have a network set up -- workgroup, with Shared Folders and such -- that
> I can run a download of IE8 from. If I downloaded the IE8 Setup from
> someplace, would Reinstalling fix the Registry mess that I have created?
>
> Alternatively, maybe I could go back into the Registry and zero-out the
> entry that says IE has been somewhere, then it won't look for the list of
> places that I deleted. The trouble here is, I don't know what to do ...
>
> Did I say how much I dislike McAfee?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
 
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