From what I see on the AV-Comparatives report, traces of an uninstalled AV never quite go away. AV traces are sort of like eating garlic. Every time you think your body has finally digested garlic, then BURP! -- here it is again!
One on the best analogies I have ever heard- congrats! And at least I don't need to uninstall WD. The rest are problematic and is one of the reasons I don't use them anymore even though I have licenses for most of them.
This! The best uninstaller I've ever used. PLUS I then run the AV's tool to remove remnants as second measure just in case. But the worst AV to uninstall in my experience is Webroot and McAfee
That will help. But if you're just using it scan for leftovers are running the standard uninstaller, often there can be things like drivers left behind, which will still be loaded at startup and can cause problems. If you use the HiBit's Installation Monitoring, so that it has a record of every file and registry key created when you install an antivirus, it should be able to remove pretty much all leftovers. The downside is that any other changes which are happening to the system when you monitor an installation (e.g. if Edge updates in the background) will also be monitored. As a result, you need to make sure that you verify what it wants to delete.
When uninstalling an AV solution by using standard "add or remove programs" method, some AVs does not remove Windows Security Center information. So if you want to test another AV, it won't install, because (most of them) checks if there's another AV installed(via Security Center). So basically uninstall via add or remove programs, reboot, use specific uninstaller tool by your AV vendor, reboot. If there is still Security Center leftovers from previous AV installation(your new AV still detect your old AV) then you need to clear Security Center information. After uninstalling your AV, you can check your Security Center status by using Command Prompt: WMIC /Node:localhost /Namespace:\\root\SecurityCenter2 Path FireWallProduct WMIC /Node:localhost /Namespace:\\root\SecurityCenter2 Path AntivirusProduct There are several ways to remove obsolete entries in Security Center. There are some threads about it at Malwaretips HERE and HERE
LOL, good one. And I have to say that the uninstallation tool from McAfee works pretty well even though it does leave a few empty folders if I recall correctly. BTW, I did not read the article yet.
So mebbe using by a firewall product that does not rely on...basic windows firewall and WFP altogether
