Uninstall McAfee Security Center

McAfee Security Center is an antivirus software tool that helps you detect viruses, spyware, and other malware. It can come preloaded onto your computer or can be installed by the user. Removing McAfee can prove to be difficult, and may require more work than uninstalling your average program.

Steps

Uninstalling McAfee Products in Windows

  1. Open the Control Panel. You can access this from the Start menu. If you are using Windows 8, right-click on the Windows icon in the lower-left corner of the Desktop view and select "Control Panel"
  2. Select "Programs and Features" or click the "Uninstall a program" link.
    • If you are using Windows XP, open "Add or Remove Programs".
  3. Highlight McAfee Security Center and click .Uninstall. If this doesn't work, read on.
  4. Close all windows and restart the computer. This will ensure that no extra processes are running.
  5. Click Start and search for "services.msc". Select it from the search results. (If you are using Windows 7, you can click "Start" and then "Run...". Type in "services.msc" and click "OK".)
  6. Right-click on each McAfee entry and select "Properties".
  7. Click the .General tab. Click the "Startup Type" menu and select "Disabled".
  8. Click the .Recovery tab. Select "Take No Action" for when the service fails.
  9. Reboot the computer. When your computer starts up again, none of the McAfee services should be running.
  10. Remove the McAfee installation again. Return to the Control Panel and try uninstalling McAfee again. McAfee should successfully uninstall if none of its services are running. If it doesn't, read on.
  11. Download the McAfee Consumer Product Removal tool. The MCPR tool is small (8.3 MB as of April 2017) and available for free from the McAfee website. The MCPR will remove the following programs:
    • McAfee Security Center
    • McAfee Privacy Service
    • McAfee Data Backup
    • McAfee Personal Firewall Plus
    • McAfee Easy Network
    • McAfee AntiSpyware
    • McAfee Network Manager
    • McAfee SpamKiller
    • McAfee VirusScan
    • McAfee SiteAdvisor
    • McAfee Wireless Network Security
  12. Right-click on the downloaded file and select "Run as Administrator".
  13. Click .Next to start the removal process.
    • Some users report better success when the MCPR tool is run while in Safe Mode.[1]
  14. Click .Yes when the User Account Control (UAC) window appears. The Deactivate UAC in Windows 7 is a system safeguard that prevents unauthorized changes to system files.
  15. Accept the "End User License Agreement" (EULA) dialog box. Click Next to accept it. Complete the Complete a CAPTCHA to continue.
  16. Restart your computer to finish the uninstall process. You will know the process is complete when the "Cleanup Successful" message appears. You must restart the computer to fully uninstall the McAfee product.[2]
    • If the MCPR tool reports an unsuccessful cleanup, click the View Logs button. The log will open in a Notepad window. Click File and select Save As. Save the log to your desktop with the name MCPR_date.txt. Call McAfee Technical Support for assistance. Provide them with the log file to assist them in troubleshooting.

Uninstalling McAfee Products in OS X

  1. Open your Applications folder.
  2. Double-click the "McAfee Internet Security Uninstaller".
  3. Check the "Uninstall SiteAdvisor" box.
  4. Click ..
  5. Enter your administrator password and click ..
  6. Click . once the uninstallation is complete.[3] If McAfee refuses to uninstall, continue reading.
  7. Click the "Go" menu and select "Utilities".
  8. Open the "Terminal" program.
  9. Type the following command and press .⏎ Return:
    • /usr/local/McAfee/uninstallMSC
  10. Enter in your administrator password and press .⏎ Return. You won't see any characters appear as your type the password.
  11. Look for the completion message. If the uninstallation was successful, you will see the following message:[4]
    • UIFramework uninstalled Successfully



Tips

  • Whenever you're having trouble uninstalling Norton and McAfee always make sure that nothing is disabled in MSCONFIG... startup and services tab you will have problems removing the program if any component is disabled pertaining to the software.
  • Before uninstalling SecurityCenter, you must uninstall VirusScan, Personal Firewall, Privacy Service, and SpamKiller.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ https://community.mcafee.com/message/135853
  2. ↑ http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?lc=1033&id=TS101331
  3. ↑ http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS101226&lc=1033&pf=1
  4. ↑ http://www.csus.edu/irt/servicedesk/support/forefront/Uninstall%20McAfee%20from%20Mac.pdf
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