Downloaded ESET SS v4, but v3 won't Uninstall

I began the "process of renewing my subscription" several hours ago now, and what a convoluted mess. It seems ESET goes out of their way to make it so, even down to registering for this forum.

After making the purchase, and going thru the whole email and download process - which didn't like my original UN & PWs, but then finally did - I snagged both User Guides, as well as located and copied into Word all the various pages related to Uninstalling existing AV apps, etc. Yes, I was thorough, as usual.

According to ESET, you're not to use Add/Remove Programs, but their uninstaller found in start menu/programs/ESET/Uninstall. Clicking on that I'm asked, "Are you sure you want to uninstall this product?" After I click "yes," up pops a little warning window stating, "That action is only valid for products that are currently installed!" Well, it certainly IS installed and working, but their uninstaller isn't. No programs were running, I'd even disabled my net connection, tried it with & without disabling all ESET services, etc. For .02 cents I'd tell them to keep their new version, but I can't even get the OLD v3 off my computer now.

For the record, I've used computers since 1982 - have even built them myself - so am no rookie. So, what next fellas?

**When I tried to post this, it said "I’m not logged in," yet that’s the first thing I did. After logging in a 2nd time, it says "Invalid Forum Specified…blah, blah, blah," yet I was in the correct forum to begin with. What kind of BS is this?! It just gets more ridiculous by the minute...speaking of which, it's 3AM now. Thanks~

 

Try this "How do I manually uninstall my ESET security product?" KB article if you have trouble uninstalling your ESET product.

 

Actually, that's 'one' of the pages mentioned having copied into Word before I even downloaded the new version. I'm sorry, but I am so d^mmm mad right now, and can't believe I'm supposed to go thru all that, just to get their software off my system. This is unbelievable.

"Download a special uninstaller, go into Safe Mode, use DOS commands, risk screwing up my system..." I just did a clean reinstall of XP and tons of everything else over the past week, and am about 98% good to go...now this.

How they can release something that functions like this is beyond me. Thanks for the suggestion, but think I'll wait a while to see if someone else has another way to make this pig fly.

 

That document/tool is made if you have trouble uninstalling the regular way (which you are experiencing).

If you don't like to do this as a novice user, you could try to uninstall from control panel.. I don't know why this ain't recommended by ESET but as long it works half better then their recommended uninstaller it will do a better job .

And technically a upgrade from V3 to V4 is supported, only not recommended. So you can also just install V4 over V3. Ive done did myself as well and never experienced issue's with upgrades over older versions. Note: I do always choose 'Do not close this application: reboot is required!' [non-default option] in the upgrade process.

 

Due to other obligations today, and after staying up till 4am last night, I just got around to this issue within the past hour. Using the ESET uninstaller in Safe Mode did the trick, and v4 seems to have installed w/o any problems. Just updated the SB and running a scan now, so can hopefully move on to other things.

Just to note, there were some folders left behind (as detailed in that ESET bulletin), which I deleted manually. After that I ran CCleaner's Registry tool and found 4-5 old entries in there, which I also cleaned up before installing the new version.