With Windows me, I had a paid AV subscription with Norton. When I began the XP upgrade, it produced a report which listed hardware/software which might not be compatible with XP. Norton antivirus 2004 was on the list. Instructions said to remove any incompatible programs before upgrading to XP, that after the upgrade, uninstall for these programs might not work.
My Norton renewal date was March 5th, 2 weeks away, so I figured I'd utilize the "FREE" AOL McAfee AV offer rather than pay for a renewal. I uninstalled Norton & downloaded McAfee thru AOL. Ran a scan...no viruses!
When I began the XP upgrade again, the McAfee AV did NOT appear when it produced the "incompatibles" report, so assuming all was well, I completed the upgrade.
At Windows XP startup, it had an "alert" on the bottom right tool bar that it did not detect any AV protection. So I went to reinstall McAfee from the AOL screen again. I got the following message:
" The version of McAfee SecurityCenter that is installed on your computer is designed for a different operating system. If you recently updated your computer from one operating system to another, please uninstall McAfee SecurityCenter, restart your computer & then reinstall McAfee SecurityCenter to get the correct version for your operating system."
I went to start, control panel, add/remove programs, highlighted the ONLY McAfee item called McAfee SecurityCenter & clicked Change/Remove. It gave me the message: "In order to uninstall McAfee SecurityCenter, you need to uninstall McAfee Security Services first"...but where is it?? Not on the list.
So at this point, my AV is not working, I cannot remove it, I cannot install new.
Getting angry and tired, it was past midnight, began at 9pm, uncomfortable going to bed w/ no AV running.
Got on with AOL LIVE support chat a few times. No luck. One said to do what I already did, another said to go to safe mode, when none worked they referred me to a phone # for a specialist. After a 20 minute hold (1:45am now) I hung up.
In desperation and ignorance, I did a search in c drive for "McAfee" and deleted all files I found. Big booboo. Now the message I get says "The installation cannot continue because some components
(c:\progra~1\mcafee.com\agent\uninst\screm.ui) are missing."
My brother, who has same op system, e-mailed me a zip file of the "missing" McAfee files & we tried again. No luck. Tried to Download the newest version of AOL Security Edition thinking it might override the old. Not.
I'm at a loss as to what to do next. The instructions did say that uninstall might not work after XP upgrade, but McAfee was NOT on the list provided.
Hoping someone can offer advise as I am not comfortable with not having AV software running.
Was advised to unplug modem or cable wire completely to avoid contamination.
Please advise...thanks in advance!
PS: Great website & service offered!
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