[frank17]

I was, recently, presented with a netbook as a birthday present, an Acer Aspire One. I uninstalled McAfee Security Center and loaded PCTOOLS firewall and AVG A/Virus, it worked very well for sometime and I was pleased with its performance. I discovered that it was 'seeing' my desktop so I tried to connect. I set my desktop to share its public folder and tried to connect from my Acer. It had lost its connection and I tried the various tools under network and sharing centre. It blue screened and it would not get past the sign on page when rebooted. I rebooted to safe mode and checked the error messages, it said something about the adapter. I did a restore and tried again, same situation and when first booted up it did not see the desktop and when I tried the network tools it blue screened again. I performed a complete re-install of windows and followed the onscreen instructions, same again I had only had it less than a fortnight so I took it back to Currys.

They exchanged the machine and three hours later I took it back with the same problem.

This time I exchanged it for a larger Acer mini-laptop, this machine would not connect to the wireless router until I hard wired it. It then worked O/K wirelessly until I moved approximately two metres away and then it dropped out. If I moved within this range it would connect but then would drop-out if I moved out again, this was line of sight connection!

I then exchanged this for a Samsung N110 with W7 starter O/S. This seems to work O/K up to now, however I have not un-installed McAfee yet and it will have to go. It updates without warning and eats up the ram (1gb) so that the machine is very slow, when it stops installing its updates the machine leaps into action, however these updates seem to last for ever and it is constantly nagging me to register/validate or whatever.
This machine is seeing and conversing with my desktop public folders so I have no troubles with synchronising files and so far I am pleased with its performance except when McAfee is running its updates.

There seems to be a lot of advice regarding removal of McAfee and a lot of complaining and I wish to do it properly. I did download REVO to my desktop and I feel this is working O/K on that machine so I removed McAfee with this on the netbooks.
I cannot believe that the removal of McAfee would lead to this blue screening but until I get some advice I will leave it alone.

Can I ask what is the best way to remove McAfee so that I can install my own choice of security?

Frank

[BillSnapWire]

Hey man, I checked your issue out and I think I have the solution:
http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS100507
Thing is, I'm not positive if it will work on Windows 7. Check it out and try it anyways and get back to me.

[frank17]

Many thanks for the prompt response, my machine was supplied with McAfee as a trial, what will happen if I just let the trial run out?

Frank17

[JohnWill]

Uninstall the trial and use the McAfee Removal Tool. There are plenty of free AV and firewall products that won't expire.

[BillSnapWire]

Yeah, that is actually the basis of what I said in my previous post, ha.
But if you let the trial run out then you'll get all of that crap "Please Register" and "2 weeks free" etc. So just remove it with the removal tool (link in either my or johnwill post). If you remove it with the Windows utility then it doesn't usually completely remove it.

Make sure you've got some security ready to be installed as soon as you're done with McAfee, this will reduce the chance of you getting a virus.

[frank17]

Many thanks for the help I have received from you, I un-installed McAfee and then ran the MCR executable. The machine feels more responsive now, however it is early days and if computer problems were easily solved we would not need the help of willing volunteers such as yourselves.

Again many thanks for the advice and suggestions.

Frank17

[JohnWill]

I use the Windows firewall when necessary (on the road) and Microsoft Security Essentials. Works just fine for me.