ESET Smart security

[Gary Key]

I am trying to install a new version and I cannot unstall the previous version 1 file left "ekrn.exe" it says cannot delete being used by another person or program. I won't let me inststall or repair.HELP PLEASE

[proactivelover]

delete these entries from your registry
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESET
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ESET
then restart window and delete eset folder

[Gary Key]

Did that still cannot delete eset smart security. What next ?

[The Nodder]

I had that very problem.
Just in case you are not familiar with the registry I am including instructions.
If you are OK with the registry then you know what to do.

go to start, run, type in regedit, press enter.

In the "EDIT" menu in the toolbar,
scroll down to "FIND"
enter in "Find What" "ekrn.exe"

make sure that all 3 of these are selected.
Keys
Values
Data

Click on "Find Next" at top of box.

Then you will get either 3 or 4 entries.

When you get an entry just press "DELETE" ONCE for each entry.
When you delete an entry, press "F3" & that will continue the search.

there are 2 ways to delet the entries.
In the right pane delete the file name entry, and you can select the others in that pane entry also.
You can delete the key in the left pane, in XP the key is shown by a marker.
In Vista it is not.
You have to click on a key about the middle of the left pane and move down selecting a key
untill you get the correct one usually at or near the bottom of the left pane, then delete the complete key in the left pane.
It is best to delete the key in the left pane & you have then got rid of the comlete key.

these are the keys in question, in my PC anyway, I use Vista.
If you use XP you can do a search as above and you will get any entries that are in there.
The procedure is exactly the same.

----------------------------------------------
If you search for these manually then, for goodness sake, take your time and ensure they are correct.

The first key is one entry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Installer/Userdata/
/S-1-5-18/Components/F5DC69A3E25CBA648833A4CFF36AF00E/ekrn

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/ControlSet001/Services/ekrn

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/ControlSet002/Services/ekrn

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/ekrn

---------------------------------------------
when finished restart & then delete the installation folder of ESS.

Now you can remove it.

Do nothing else to your registry except for the above, or you may need to re-install your OS.

[Ranger Bob]

I have not tried this but I was wondering if it might be worth trying to uninstall in Safe Mode. Usually AV and Firewall software do not run in Safe Mode so you might find it easier to uninstall.

[The Nodder]

If you are replying to my post, a couple of minutes gets rid of those entries.

ESET really needs to look at the uninstall routine for ESS in Vista.