How To Uninstall McAfee

If a McAfee product is installed on your computer and you wish to switch to another protection suite, then you will first need to completely uninstall McAfee from your computer. This is necessary, as one should only use one protective suite on a PC because different protective software can conflict with each other and cause frequent system slowdowns and compatibility errors.

The purpose of this article is to provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to uninstall McAfee on a Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista computer.

To completely uninstall a McAfee product, first uninstall it through the Control Panel and then run the McAfee Consumer Products Removal tool (MCPR.exe).

You can use MCPR.exe to remove the following suites:

  • PC Protection Plus
  • Internet Security Suite
  • Total Protection
  • Wireless Protection
  • VirusScan Plus

You can use MCPR.exe to remove the following McAfee products:

  • SecurityCenter
  • AntiSpyware 
  • Wireless Protection
  • Data Backup
  • VirusScan
  • Personal Firewall
  • SpamKiller 
  • Privacy Service
  • Anti-Spam
  • QuickClean 
  • SiteAdvisor

Uninstall McAfee products in Windows 2000 and Windows XP through the Control Panel

  1. Click Start and then click Control Panel.
  2. In the Control Panel window, double-click Add or Remove Programs.
  3. Locate and select the McAfee Security Centre product.
  4. Click the Remove button.
  5. Next in the McAfee Security Center dialog box, select the McAfee products you want to remove and click the Remove button.
  6. If a Warning dialog box appears, click Remove.

Uninstall McAfee products in Windows Vista

  1. Click Start, type Programs and Features in the Start Search box, and press Enter.
  2. Next, select the McAfee Security Centre product and click Uninstall.
  3. Now, select the McAfee products you wish to remove and click Remove.
  4. Click the Remove button if a Warning dialog box appears on your screen.

After you have removed the McAfee product via the Control panel, download and run the MCPR.exe file.

Run MCPR.exe

Note: Please note that MCPR.exe does not work on Windows 95, 98, and ME systems.

  1. Download MCPR.exe.
  2. Save the file on your desktop.
  3. Double-click MCPR.exe to run the removal tool.

    Note: If you use Windows Vista, right-click MCPR.exe and then click Run as administrator.

  4. When you receive CleanUp Successful message, restart your computer.

Note: You need to restart your computer to fully remove the McAfee product.

In case a problem occurs during the removal process when you run the MCPR.exe file, then you will receive a CleanUp Unsuccessful message. In such a scenario, first perform and save the troubleshooting logs and then contact McAfee Technical Support and provide them the log files to receive assistance on troubleshooting the issue.

To save the troubleshooting logs, perform the following steps:

  1. Click View Logs in the Cleanup Unsuccessful dialog box (the logs will open in a Notepad window)
  2. Next, click the File menu of the Notepad and then click Save As.
  3. Save the file on your desktop and name the file in format MCPR-Date.txt (for instance, if the date is March 26. 2010, name the file as MCPR-Mar10-26.txt)

When you receive response from McAfee technical Support, you may use the recommended solution to resolve problems related to the product on your computer.