Friday, October 23, 2009

Uninstalling Kaspersky antivirus software

My problem uninstalling an antivirus by Kaspersky began one month ago, after a download of a Kaspersky  antivirus trial copy (operating system Windows 7 evaluation). I was very pleased with Kaspersky's performance and decided to purchase the Kaspersky 2010 antivirus software 5 days before the expiration date. That's when the REAL TRIAL for me began .........

A window popped up with a reminder that the trial copy was expiring and to activate purchased Kaspersky antivirus software. I entered the activation code only to have a window popup requesting a password to continue. I didn't know the password ( I'd vaguely remembered entering one in the trial copy settings) so I closed the reminder window. I double-clicked the 2010 antivirus software in my downloads folder, to install it. A message appeared, instructing that the current copy of Kaspersky 6.0 antivirus software be uninstalled. When I tried to uninstall it, a window popped up requesting an "uninstall password". So, I went to the Kaspersky website to find information on the installation problem. Finding nothing relevant, I completed an online form, for customer support, explaining the situation and requesting help.

For the next 2 evenings, customer support and I went around in circles. They emailed a password that was given to me when I purchased the new software. In order to reply, I had to complete another online form explaining that I didn't need "that" password and what the problem was, again. Their followup reply would be in reference to my " Resolved Case" and a request to complete a survey on the service I'd received.

Realizing this wouldn't be resolved by completing online forms, I called customer service - wait time up to 20 minutes. After talking to a rep, I was sent the link to download the kavremover10. I followed the instructions and executed the program.... it could not find the trial copy. Next, I received the link for the kavremoverUI10 . I had to save the executable program on my desktop, run it in safe mode, and restart my computer after removal. Upon restarting, my mouse was no longer working (had to do a "recovery"). I repeated the safe mode process and restarted. The Kaspersky icon was gone, but when I looked at the programs in my control panel - the Kaspersky trial copy remained (or some of its components).

NOTE: To avoid running remover tool in safe mode:  http://kavremover.blogspot.com/
When I spoke to the customer rep again, my case was sent to the techies to figure out why this trial copy wouldn't go away. I was emailed a link to download a special diagnostic tool called GetSystemInfo 4. By now, I was so sick of wasting time on this "installation" process, that I
took matters into my own hands. Below is what I did:

1. went to control panel - trial copy of Kaspersky 6.0 for windows workstations was still there
2. clicked on uninstall/change
3. selected modify
4. clicked on all components of Kaspersky - was allowed to set protection and anti-virus components to a red 'X' (set them to not available for installing - though I'm not sure this is necessary)
5. clicked on install and the installation wizard popped up
6. clicked install - (forgot to check trial version, because I was prompted for activation code)
7. clicked back to previous screen and selected trial version button
8. selected install - and then canceled it
9. clicked on the kaspersky folder under start/programs
10. clicked on uninstall and the remaining components were deleted

I'm sure I went through a lot of unnecessary stuff, but I hope this info helps those who may have encountered the problems I had with uninstalling Kaspersky.


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