Malwarebytes as main Antivirus  

SoFine409 said:

Should you ever be able to remove that key, Malwarebytes has a setting that prevents it from registering in WD.

Yes, my dear friend, I know that. Long story short:
Have a look at the screenshot in my post#16. With that setting, Always register MB in Security Center turned on I assume that it is registered. ( McAfee which was the registered AV till then has removed itself from the Security center since it was already uninstalled.) When I look at Windows Security center, I find McAfee gone, but MB hasn't registered. WD remains the primary AV and WD and MB work independently/side by side..

Porthos: "With any new install Malwarebytes 4.0’s new default behavior is to register in Windows Defender Security Center (also known as Windows Security Center, Windows Action Center) as a primary line of defense. Due to Microsoft’s implementation of Windows Defender Security Center, this means that Windows Defender will disable itself as a result (depending on your operating system). Though we do not prevent you from running traditional anti-virus with Malwarebytes, we recommend that you keep Malwarebytes registered as your primary security to get the most comprehensive protection against threats."

This didn't happen in my case. Someone also had reported this elsewhere.

If you read the whole thread you will get the grip. My previous post was specifically addressed to Porthos in continuation of our discussion.

f14tomcat said:

@jumanji

This is a powerful tool, and running Regedit under it you would be 99.99999999% assured of being able to delete that rogue key. Common sense prevails, which I know you have in abundance.

PowerRun v1.4 (Run with highest privileges)

Thanks for recommending PowerRun v1.4. I now have one more tool in my arsenal.

I used Revo Uninstaller Forced Uninstall with the Revo's log. ( It keeps a traced install log of the most used programs which it uses for the forced uninstall. That removed a ton of registry entries but still the registry key Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center\Provider\Av\{8BCDACFA-D264-3528-5EF8-E94FD0BC1FBC} showing McAfee as the Primary AV still remains.

Common sense? Oh! I believe something of it or like it, is still left in me and before running Revo's Forced uninstaller I had backed up the registry.

I am still thinking whether to use PowerRun v4.1 to forcibly remove that entry for I am happy with both WD and MB running side by side with MB not registering in Security Center and curtailing WD.

I thought of it but have no idea what those services are. I believe those are well camouflaged to prevent users from disabling . Another reason why I ran the Revo forced uninstall and that should have disabled/or deleted most of those services.

Even after the forced uninstall, I find a handful of registry entries including the one that shows McAfee as the AV provider in Security Center (as in the screenshot in my post #29) and those could not be deleted.

For now I am leaving it at that for I don't want to waste my time on it any further.

( I believe McAfee has to keep those entries to prevent users from reinstalling McAfee and activate the free subscription afresh for the assigned period and to that extent makes it impossible to delete those by any normal means.. My free subscription was for a period of 1year+ from the day I activated the system on 25 Dec 2019)

@jumanji you can run side by side by turning that feature off it is the same as you have now both running and doing there thing, no different, to clean up them mcafee links run this from this post at mcafee skip the uninstall stuff jump straight to the tool they list MCPR tool run it it will clean up the reg links and get ride of the redundant startup stuff. believe me there will be some services still running , i made the mistake of using revo to kill mcafee as well bad bad mistake it dose not get ride of it and leave you with a half backed install. https://service.mcafee.com/webcenter...%3Dp65rwav2m_9

Hi, I did run MCPR some three days back and it did not remove any or most of the registry entries. It had only removed some two McAfee folders in C: Then only I did a forced uninstall with Revo Uninstaller with its logs Database.



It removed tons of registry entries and now what is left is only a handful of registry keys/values/data which cannot be deleted.
No problems with using the Revo's Forced Uninstall using its Logs Database. My PC is still doing well .