Speccy reports McAfee antivirus present and enabled but has been removed

[Bobsbob]

McAfee was pre-installed in my Lenovo V15 laptop (core i5, running win11, 64bit). I uninstalled McAfee and installed a paid for  program.

I used the recommended McAfee removal tool, MCPR, twice, and rebooted twice but Speccy shows McAfee antivirus is present, enabled and up to date.

I contacted McAfee technical support to say the antivirus had not been removed. 1st level technician remotely removed some remnants but speccy, on refresh, said McAfee antivirus still present.

Escalated to higher level technician, who remotely removed further remnants this time using 'regedit'.

On refresh Speccy still says McAfee antivirus present, enabled and up to date. McAfee agent says the problem is with Speccy as the is no trace of their antivirus present. So I removed Speccy and had a fresh copy installed, result the same, McAfee antivirus still present, enabled and up to date!

So i now might have two antivirus programs running which may work but I prefer just the one I paid for.

Has anyone else had the same or similar experience?

Any suggestions welcome.

[nukecad]

There is still some remnant of or reference to McAfee somewhere on you machine despite what the McAfee techs did/said. (probably in the registry but could be elsewhere).

Many softwares, especially AV softwares, leave such remnants/references behind after uninstalling them.

Speccy is seeing that remnant/reference and so is reporting it as still being there.

McAfee itself will have been uninstalled, it's just that persistent remnant that Speccy is seeing.

You could try Revo Uninstallers 'Forced Uninstall" mode to see if it can remove the remnant.
(Revo will probably have a list of all the things McAffe can leave behind in their removal database)
https://www.revouninstaller.com/products/revo-uninstaller-pro/#forced
You will need the Pro or 30-day Trial version of Revo to use 'Forced Uninstall'.

PS. I hope that these were genuine McAfee employess who you let access your machine.
There are many 'Tech Support' scammers out there who at best will take you money for doing nothing, and at worst will install malware if you let them remotely access your machine.

[Bobsbob]

4 minutes ago, nukecad said:

There is still some remnant of or reference to McAfee somewhere on you machine despite what the McAfee techs did/said. (probably in the registry but could be elsewhere).

Many softwares, especially AV softwares, leave such remnants/references behind after uninstalling them.

Speccy is seeing that remnant/reference and so is reporting it as still being there.

McAfee itself will have been uninstalled, it's just that persistent remnant that Speccy is seeing.

You could try Revo Uninstallers 'Forced Uninstall" mode to see if it can remove the remnant.
https://www.revouninstaller.com/products/revo-uninstaller-pro/#forced
You will need the Pro or 30-day Trial version of Revo to use 'Forced Uninstall'.

PS. I hope that these were genuine McAfee employess who you let access your machine.
There are many 'Tech Support' scammers out there who at best will take you money for doing nothing, and at worst will install malware if you let them remotely access your machine.

Hi nukecad, Thanks for the prompt reply. Yes they were genuine McAfee as I went to great lengths to ensure I was on the genuine website before I let them in and at no cost. I knew that removing programs left remnants but after two levels of expertise went through every folder/file/program/register I was hoping they had removed all traces of their own company product.

I will check out Revo, thanks for the tip.

[hazelnut]

Have you checked out Windows Task Scheduler?

Did it come with a McAfee Firewall component as well?

[Bobsbob]

10 minutes ago, hazelnut said:

Have you checked out Windows Task Scheduler?

Did it come with a McAfee Firewall component as well?

Hi and thanks.

No I had not checked the Task scheduler but I have now and nothing shows about McAfee.

I think it did come with a firewall but cannot see any trace of that. 

[Bobsbob]

I have downloaded "Revo Uninstallers" and ran it.

It did find a lot of traces of removed programs but nothing I could see of McAfee, but I used their remove all button.

But Speccky still reporting McAfee running and up to date.

I tried running Belarc advisor(which I quite like) but that cannot find any McAfee.

Very strange.

[nukecad]

I'm not sure what else to suggest, other than 'Feature version' updates to Windows will usually remove such leftovers.

Win 11 (and Win 10) is due a feature update to version 22H2 probably in October.

You could always try reinstalling Win 11, but that seems pretty drastic for what is a minor issue.

[Bobsbob]

Thanks nukecad,

I will wait for the feature update, as you say such a minor issue.

One thing I have thought of is to clear my cache, you never know.

regards