Author Topic: Trend Micro Security - oddly like malware... (Read 14491 times)

tomos · « **on:** January 14, 2010, 03:53 PM »

I want to uninstall Trend Micro trial (it's installed on a new laptop)

Guess what - it may be possible, in fact I've seen loads of sites that tell me how to do it but none of them work for the version installed here (which version is it - I dont know, it wont tell me! 2010 presumably. It only allows me to open the programme window if I click on a pane which signifies that I agree to their eula). One helpful forum suggested going to Trend Micro site & downloading a removal tool. (Starting to sound like malware to me) So I searched three Trend Micro websites & found nothing - loads about uninstalling malware...

I understand a security suite doesnt want to be easily installed - but this smacks totally of take advantage of anyone unlucky enough to trial their software or buy a machine with it pre-installed

I suspect I have to register it before I can uninstall it - (that talked about with some other anti-virus lately here).
But my point is, well youv'e probably gotten my point by now $:-\$

I dont wish them well if they continue tactics like this

[edit] found the relevant info here http://esupport.tren...t-Security-2010.aspx I'll charge them for the last two hours of my life faffing around with their pile of

[/edit]

Bamse · « **Reply #1 on:** January 14, 2010, 04:05 PM »

http://esupport.tren...omp.aspx#RelatedInfo At the bottom there is 2010 info. "Trend Micro Diagnostic Toolkit" might be the key to fix.

Not sure it is an excuse but if a sucurity package was so easy to move about it would also be easy to trick by malware. Anyway, got the link from here http://uninstallers....lling-your-anti.html

There is a programm called AppRemover dealing with getting rid of security stuff http://www.appremove...pported-applications not compatible with your setup I think but shows your problem is common.

Last way out if something is broken could be a reinstall, then try again.

app103 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 14, 2010, 04:14 PM »

There was an issue with this with AVG at one time (not sure if it is still the case) where you could attempt to remove it through add/remove programs, which would always fail with an error message that told you to contact support and gave an email address. But when you contacted them you had to include your account number, which you would only have if you paid for it. If you didn't pay for it (using the free version) they wouldn't help you and left you on your own to find a solution.

I did eventually find the solution: Download the latest installer for their product if you no longer had the original installer, and during setup it would detect the installed version and give you a few options: install, repair, remove (perhaps upgrade). As long as you did it that way, it removed itself quite easily.

tomos · « **Reply #3 on:** January 14, 2010, 04:18 PM »

thanks Bamse, well there's lots of advice out there but as I said most of it was outdated - dont even remember how I found it in the end- I found a Trend Micro link for removing older versions & that got me on the right track.

True what you say about not making it easy to take advantage of the app, but I still suspect they think this is a cunning ploy
I should have taken a screenshot of the message window that said if you clicked on it you were accepting their eula - I carefully clicked on 'register later' (I'm translating here so not 100% sure of words used in English) anyways, programme wouldnt open it's main window if you clicked 'register later'

That's a crazy story App

the carrot is much better than the stick

they should know that by now the fools

J-Mac · « **Reply #4 on:** February 12, 2010, 11:51 PM »

This is one of those few times when a registry cleaner is valuable and recommended! I used to go crazy trying to remove all pieces of programs I no longer wanted but that refused to fully relinquish my computer back to me. Now when this occurs I pull out my jv16 Powertools weapons and search the registry for any leftover keys related to that program. This has worked for me every time.

However let me mention here that I do NOT recommend regularly scheduled registry cleanings just for the heck of it. Only for specifically directed search and remove ops like above.

Thanks!

Jim

f0dder · « **Reply #5 on:** February 13, 2010, 01:28 AM »

J-Mac: if you manage to get the application uninstalled, and it doesn't leave "dangerous" junk behind like filetype associations, and (especially!) COM-related entries (which is a wide array of things, including but certainly not limited to explorer extensions, IE addons, ...) then there's not much reason to run a registry cleaner. Yes, "leaving stuff behind" does feel wrong, but in the grand scheme of things it's utterly unimportant - even leaving thousands of registry keys behind doesn't matter much because of the way the registry is constructed.

J-Mac · « **Reply #6 on:** February 13, 2010, 03:38 AM »

All depends on what is left behind.

Jim

f0dder · « **Reply #7 on:** February 13, 2010, 03:40 AM »

All depends on what is left behind.
-J-Mac (February 13, 2010, 03:38 AM)

Yes, of course

- I did mention that in my post. But harmless residue bloat isn't to worry about, really.

J-Mac · « **Reply #8 on:** February 13, 2010, 01:09 PM »

Yes, you did mention it, but your point was that they aren't necessary - Tomos was specifically talking about a case where a Program known for such problems - TrendMicro - was uninstalled but left enough behind to cause him problems. This is common with some security programs; you should not have more than one active A-V scanner installed at a time, so when one leaves behind remnants of itself you will have great difficulty installing the next one. I have experienced this twice, and both times the issue was a leftover registry key that was preventing the installation of the newer programs I was trying to install.

Jim

Innuendo · « **Reply #9 on:** February 13, 2010, 07:12 PM »

Something similar is happening on Dell PCs right now. They ship with a trial version of McAfee installed. If you want to get rid of it you have to agree to the EULA and let it activate the trial period first or Very Bad Things Happen (tm).

J-Mac · « **Reply #10 on:** February 13, 2010, 10:34 PM »

Actually that is a perfect example of crapware. The last three Dell machines I purchased were immediately wiped and the "bare" OS then reinstalled. Without TM and without Dell's "Support Center". Oh yeah, it also gets rid of Dell's lousy branded Google search pages.

Thanks!

Jim

f0dder · « **Reply #11 on:** February 14, 2010, 07:20 AM »

Actually that is a perfect example of crapware. The last three Dell machines I purchased were immediately wiped and the "bare" OS then reinstalled. Without TM and without Dell's "Support Center". Oh yeah, it also gets rid of Dell's lousy branded Google search pages.
-J-Mac (February 13, 2010, 10:34 PM)

Too bad you generally don't get a bare OS install disc with dell machines (heck, these days you often don't get a disc at all, just a recovery partition)... and the license keys are (obviously) OEM keys that can't be used with a retail OS disc. I hate this practice.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #12 on:** February 14, 2010, 11:02 AM »

Actually that is a perfect example of crapware. The last three Dell machines I purchased were immediately wiped and the "bare" OS then reinstalled. Without TM and without Dell's "Support Center". Oh yeah, it also gets rid of Dell's lousy branded Google search pages.
-J-Mac (February 13, 2010, 10:34 PM)
Too bad you generally don't get a bare OS install disc with dell machines (heck, these days you often don't get a disc at all, just a recovery partition)... and the license keys are (obviously) OEM keys that can't be used with a retail OS disc. I hate this practice.
-f0dder (February 14, 2010, 07:20 AM)

I think you got Dell confused with HP. HP was the one that constantly does the chronically useless recovery partition nonsense, and has/had the multi-CD recovery sets that (without prompting) obliterated the user's data.

I use a set of Dell OS install disks (XP home, pro, Vista, etc.) for reinstalling Windows on all brands of computers and have never had a problem. I ordered 3 Dells last week for clients, and all of them come with clean install media.

Sure the OEM/Retail thing is a bit of a PITA, but at least they do cross manufactures so you only need 2 copies of each for complete coverage.

f0dder · « **Reply #13 on:** February 14, 2010, 11:30 AM »

I think you got Dell confused with HP. HP was the one that constantly does the chronically useless recovery partition nonsense, and has/had the multi-CD recovery sets that (without prompting) obliterated the user's data.
-Stoic Joker (February 14, 2010, 11:02 AM)

Granted, my memory is a bit fuzzy on this, the museum I used to admin had a pretty heterogeneous (too mild a word, really - sometimes I even feel chaotic is too mild) setup. A bunch of different Dell machines purchased at different times (workstations as well as laptops), acer laptops, self-assembled machines, etc. But I'm pretty sure I've had both recovery-partition and OEM-install-media with the Dell machines. One thing that's for sure, though, is that the install media wasn't clean Windows discs, and that the OEM keys didn't work with clean discs.

Apart from that, the level of crapware has varied a lot. The first Dell machines had none of it, the second batch we got some years later had tons of it. The acer laptops were the worst, plenty++ of crapware and no media, just the recovery partitions - which of course had the crapware.

J-Mac · « **Reply #14 on:** February 14, 2010, 01:48 PM »

No, I'm talking Dell. My last HP was a Media Center box back in about 2002 or 2003 and it actually wasn’t too bad, though I have read about how much junk they include nowadays.

My Dells had the following junk: The Dell Support Center, which made Windows Help, the Event Log, and a number of other standard Windows tools branded with Dell's name. My problem is it ran all the time and reported my config - all of it - back to Dell continuously. At least the earlier boxes did. They claimed that it allowed them to serve me better w/support, though when I did have to call I got their truly terrible India operations. (BTW, I normally don’t mind support centers in India as long as competent people are staffing them; I worked with engineers from India most of my career and they were about the brightest coworkers I ever had. But Dell's were poorly trained and could hardly speak/comprehend English). So the Dell Support Center didn't help at all and just stole CPU resources.

Also, they had - and still have, I believe - a program pre-installed that takes over misspelled URLs and throws you to a Dell/Google branded page filled with ads. Can be uninstalled but you need to remove a registry key or it occasionally returns. I never have figured out what event(s) triggers it to rise from the dead like that.

Finally they have a version of Trend Micro installed - or did in 2008 anyway - that as mentioned here doesn’t not allow you to uninstall it until after you register the product and give up about as much personal information as your mother ever had.

Not too awful bad but still a pain. My last desktop box is a custom job from Falcon Northwest, which though it has had its own myriad problems came with a full retail copy of the OS and had nothing installed except that which I had specified. Check that: it also had a few benchmarking programs that they use for pre-shipping performance testing. And they asked me if I wanted that left on the computer first.

Thanks!

Jim

Innuendo · « **Reply #15 on:** February 14, 2010, 02:38 PM »

Actually, you're both right when it comes to whether or not Dell computers were shipped with an OEM recovery disc. There was a time span of a year or so a few years ago that Dell did not ship an OEM OS disc with their PCs. You could buy one as an up-charge when you ordered the machine, though.

Fortunately, they did away with that nonsense and have gone back to shipping an OEM OS disc with every machine they sell. Dell also does everyone a favor in that the OEM OS is just the bare OS. All the trialware, additional drivers, etc. are shipped on a second disc that doesn't have to be used.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #16 on:** February 15, 2010, 05:15 PM »

Actually, you're both right when it comes to whether or not Dell computers were shipped with an OEM recovery disc. There was a time span of a year or so a few years ago that Dell did not ship an OEM OS disc with their PCs. You could buy one as an up-charge when you ordered the machine, though.
-Innuendo (February 14, 2010, 02:38 PM)

(hehe) Yeah all the manufacturers tried the recovery partition about the same time - The same time they were all putting only 256MB RAM in XP machines which resulted in XP eating a hole in the drive where the PageFile wasn't anymore (rendering the recovery partition useless). I do recall seeing (dell's) $10 for OS CD option back when, now that you mention it. I hadn't meant to make it sound like Dell was totally Innocent. I just meant that HP (/Compaq) was the worst for that type of (garbage "recovery" disks) nonsense.

Fortunately, they did away with that nonsense and have gone back to shipping an OEM OS disk with every machine they sell. Dell also does everyone a favor in that the OEM OS is just the bare OS. All the trialware, additional drivers, etc. are shipped on a second disc that doesn't have to be used.

I did a reinstall today for one of the staff, on a ~5 year old Dimension 4550 using an XP sp3 home Dell OEM CD. Install and activation went fine & the OS was as vanilla as it could be.

Innuendo · « **Reply #17 on:** February 15, 2010, 10:19 PM »

I just meant that HP (/Compaq) was the worst for that type of (garbage "recovery" disks) nonsense.
-Stoic Joker (February 15, 2010, 05:15 PM)

Unfortunately, when it comes to evil trends in the ways computer equipment is sold, HP/Compaq are *always* the worst perpetrator of any given 'nonsense'.

dhuser · « **Reply #18 on:** February 17, 2010, 09:28 PM »

For HP's preinstalled crapware, with my HP Pavilion Elite desktop that I ordered in December, I was given a choice at setup of weather or not to activate Norton Internet Security. If you choose no, it warns you and you can just it uninstall it without issue. I am actually surprised that was not a lot of preinstalled software on my new computer, and that they can be uninstalled without a problem.

Innuendo · « **Reply #19 on:** February 18, 2010, 08:25 PM »

One great option in dealing with the crap is the excellent program Decrapifier. It targets all of that crapware that come preinstalled on computers & eliminates it in one fell swoop.

J-Mac · « **Reply #20 on:** February 18, 2010, 09:10 PM »

One great option in dealing with the crap is the excellent program Decrapifier. It targets all of that crapware that come preinstalled on computers & eliminates it in one fell swoop.
-Innuendo (February 18, 2010, 08:25 PM)

I have read that sometimes it removes an app or two that you didn't want removed. True? Or are there safeguards against that? I would think there are but I haven't used it so I don’t know for sure.

Thanks!

Jim