failure unistalling CAV - now big trouble

Help for Comodo AntiVirus
#1

I tried to uninstall CAV (because my system was running unacceptably slow) using Control Panel → Remove Programs but the install failed, apparently because the uninstaller could not find the CAV.msi.

Interestingly, I installed CAV using the setup.exe file downloaded from Comodo, so I was of no help in helping the installer find the msi. After the failure to uninstall Windows (XPsp2) would not successfully boot, apparently always hanging when the windows installer that failed during the uninstall tried to finish up.

To make a very long story short, I have now got windows to boot, but I have an icon in the systray that wants me to enable the CAV on-access scanner, which of course fails because CAV is nowhere to be found on my computer, although there are a few remnant Comodo folders. Even CPF seems to have disappeared.

Reinstalling CAV fails, too, with a windows installer error, although I don’t remember what it is. Help? Ideas? Thanks!

Jim

#2

Jim

Pls make sure to send an email to support so that they can help you. Sorry for the trouble :frowning:

thanks
Melih

#3

Thanks for your concern, Melih, but on further review it looks like there was an unfortunate interaction between Windows Desktop Search and CAV. Uninstalling WDS ended up finding the CAV uninstall problem and solved it. You may want to inform the developers about a possible problem with WDS. Thanks!

#4

Glad it was resolved.
I will ask them to test it further for compatibility with WDS. Can you pls give me more info on versions/OS pls so that we can recreate the environment.

thanks
melih

#5

I’m sorry I don’t have much more information. I downloaded and installed WDS within the last week or so. Same with CAV. CPF is the latest. I also had a couple of WDS plugins running, including the one for openoffice.org and the one for pdf’s and maybe one for archives. Windows is XP Pro fully updated with security updates and some others.

#6

I’m having the EXACT same problem. This is the second machine I’ve tried uninstalling on and got this problem BOTH times on BOTH machines. What gives?

#7

We passed this to the dev guys…
fingers crossed :slight_smile:

Melih

#8

Hi, Just for information with compatibility test with WDS.

  1. Installed WDS(WindowsDesktopSearch-kb911993-V2-x86-ENU.exe) over CAV and then I uninstalled CAV
  2. Installed CAV over WDS(WindowsDesktopSearch-kb911993-V2-x86-ENU.exe) and then I uninstalled CAV

In both the cases I didn’t find any issues.

#9

Hi guys,

I also tried Comodo antivirus but later switched on to Mcafee Internet Security Suite which I purchased.

Faced the same uninstall problem while uninstalling Comodo, but managed to solve with the following steps.

Problems faced:

  1. No uninstall entry found in Add/Remove programs. So I had to delete the
    program files folder manually.
  2. After deleting the program files, rebooted the PC. Comodo automatically
    launches setup again though it was not found in startup folder or in registry.

Solution:

  1. Stop all Comodo services using the command services.msc from start → run.
  2. Kill any/all comodo processes from the task manager.
  3. Delete the Program Files folder.
  4. When you run the setup.exe, windows installer unpacks the setup.exe and
    copies the contents of all files under “C:\Documents and Settings.…”. Search for
    Comodo under this directory and delete the folder. This install location is written
    into the registry. Search in registry and delete the entry.
  5. Search for comodo entries in registry and delete them. If you are using win2k or
    winxp, better to use regedt32.exe instead of regedit.exe.
  6. Backup registry. Run regcleaner and clean the registry.
  7. Run ■■■■ cleaner and remove any temporary files found.
  8. Boot the PC into safe mode once.(Just for safety)
  9. Reboot the PC.

FYI, I do not have windows desktop search.

Comodo team:- It would be better to provide a clean uninstaller with CAV.

Thanks,
Balaji.