Can I Delete Programs Like This?

[phillyman2004]

At my job everyday i have to work on new machines.....we have an automatic batch script that runs thru and does tweaks and installs programs on each machine

Problem is alot of these machines are come with McAffee AntiSpy and McAffee Security Center

This screws up our automation process because when installing Norton it questions the Security Center

Basically what i want to know is ...

Can i write a short script to Kill the Mcafee processes....Remove the Registry Entries....and Remove the Directory Tree ...as a solution?

If i remove all 3 of those things i should be ok right ?

[InTheWayBoy]

I probably wouldn't try to manually uninstall virus protection. You could try to script something that would initiate the uninstall process...maybe AutoIT or something that you can program to 'click' the appropriate buttons.

The problem with manually removing it is that it's almost a guarantee you're gonna miss something, leaving it half-installed. And by then you have no chance of uninstalling it unless you reinstall it first...and even then, that may not work.

Edited September 12, 2005 by InTheWayBoy

[chilifrei64]

What you could do is call the uninstall string from the registry. Not sure how McAfee works.. this may be a static string or a dynamic string.

Basically you would look at the

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

Key of the registry and find the Keys associated with McAfee and pull their uninstall string and run that in the batch file.

I used this method for uninstalling an old version of Pervasive SQL Client from about 50 machines.. Here is a copy of the script I ran to initiate the uninstall of Pervasive

start C:\WINDOWS\IsUninst.exe -fC:\PVSW\DeIsL1.isu -c"C:\PVSW\W32PTKUN.DLL" -mpsql.mif -a

I ran this from a batch script..

One thing I did encounter was Windows 2000 acted differently to this one because the uninstall string references C:\Windows as opposed to C:\Winnt.. So i guess just watch out for that one..

[HyperHacker]

Forcibly uninstalling an antivirus may leave your system in an unstable condition, as they often use device drivers and such and get buried really deep in the system.

If you have the option, just dump McAfee altogether.

[chilifrei64]

Just to clarify.. calling the uninstall string using a batch file is the same as calling the uninstall from add/remove programs. When ran... it executes the same uninstall process. This is not a forced uninstall process