How can I remove McAfee virus protection

Question

How can I remove McAfee virus protection

Bryan Kelly 641

HP Pavillion laptop, Windows 11, latest update.

I have removed McAfee from this computer. But when the computer is started, it often opens a dialog trying to force me to upgrade. Go to Windows -> settings -> Apps and it is not there. Scroll through the installed list carefully reading each entry one at a time. There is nothing that looks anything like MaAfee.

But the dialog keeps popping up and it has no way to close it. I cannot even move it. It is modal and I cannot do anything with that dialog there. I must restart until it seems to give up.

What might be done to get this off my computer?

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2 answers

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Answer 1

DaveM121 931.8K Independent Advisor

McAfee is very hard to remove from Windows, the uninstall process does not fully remove it, it is best to use the official McAfee Removal Tool (MCPR) to remove McAfee, most likely there is some registry key remaining from McAfee that is causing the problem.

Click the link below to download a small free utility that does not require installation.

https://download.sysinternals.com/files/Autoruns.zip

When the file downloads, unzip it.

Run Autoruns64 as Administrator

1

Select the 'Logon' tab at the top of Autoruns.

Please provide a screenshot of all entries on that tab.

2

Select the 'Scheduled Tasks' tab at the top of Autoruns.

Please provide a screenshot of all entries on that tab.

Bryan Kelly 641 Reputation points

2026-09-17T19:43:27.43+00:00

I ran the removal tool from the first reply. On restart the dialog returned so ran it again. The dialog remains. I will post several images. As can be seen, there is no button to close or minimize the dialog. Sometimes it covers the entire screen and I can only reboot.

I ran the sysinternals app and will put those screen shots in here. I looked carefully and did not find anything that looks like McAfee.

screen after two removals.png

The above came up and when clicking Skip this Offer the top line increments to Step 2, 3, etc. It does not skip.

and the next two

and after scrolling up

Oops, this image did not work first time.

Answer 2

Ramesh 181.2K Volunteer Moderator

Please try the MCPR tool from McAfee to uninstall the product cleanly.

Uninstall McAfee from a Windows PC using the MCPR tool | McAfee Support

If you still see the upgrade notification at startup, please post a screenshot of that dialog.

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