How to cleanly remove a firewall?

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by Dregg Heda, Aug 19, 2009.

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  1. Dregg Heda

    Dregg Heda Registered Member

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    I am about to remove my firewall and replace it with another. Unfortunately I dont have an image of my system before I installed the 3rd party firewall. Any suggestions on the best way to cleanly remove my firewall? I was thinking uninstall with revo, then do a scan with CCleaner. Any other things I should be doing? Any other tips on cleanly removing my firewall? I am currently using pctools v5. Thanks!
     
    Dregg Heda, Aug 19, 2009
    #1
  2. RobZee

    RobZee Registered Member

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    Essentially that is all I have done a numbers of times while trialing various FW's, although I use Your Uninstaller. Also, be sure to reboot.
    Rob
     
    RobZee, Aug 19, 2009
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  3. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

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    find out if the vendor supplys any special removal tool. if they do uninstall as normal,reboot if needed and then run the special removal tool.
     
    lodore, Aug 19, 2009
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  4. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

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    I would not recommend doing this too often. Back a few years when I was testing a lot of software firewalls, that's how I hosed my system on more than one occasion. So beware....
     
    Kerodo, Aug 19, 2009
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  5. stapp

    stapp Global Moderator

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    I would recommend using the firewall's own uninstaller and then rebooting twice to make sure all the drivers are gone before doing anything else.

    Then I would look in device manager (view>show hidden devices) and check that the drivers were really gone!!
     
    stapp, Aug 19, 2009
    #5
  6. JohnnyDollar

    JohnnyDollar Guest

    I would also check your local area network properties also, make sure it is not showing up there. Open up regedit and make sure it is deleted there. (HKLM/software/, HKCU/software)
    Then dig through your folders and delete any left overs.
     
    JohnnyDollar, Aug 19, 2009
    #6
  7. JRViejo

    JRViejo Super Moderator

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    Dregg Heda, I don't run PCTools, but if there is a Preference Option to load the firewall at start-up, make sure that's unchecked and reboot once, before using its own uninstaller. As a reminder, make sure you are NOT connected to the Internet while removing it.
     
    JRViejo, Aug 19, 2009
    #7
  8. HKEY1952

    HKEY1952 Registered Member

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    Although this references the Beta Version 5 of PCTools Firewall Plus, fw5beta.exe, it will provide an visual guide as to what changes have been made to the System.
    Please exercise caution when deleting or modifying any entries reflected in this list.

    McAfee SiteAdvisor: How does it modify my system?
    http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/pctools.com/downloads/17428282/


    HKEY1952
     
    HKEY1952, Aug 19, 2009
    #8
  9. the Tester

    the Tester Registered Member

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    I would use the programs uninstaller,then after a reboot run a registry cleaner and remove only the traces that you know are from the program that you uninstalled.
     
    the Tester, Aug 19, 2009
    #9
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