List of Antivirus Uninstallers and Removal Tools

Anti-virus software components insert themselves deep into the operating systems core where they install kernel mode drivers that load at boot-up and create numerous files, folders, and registry entries in various locations making it more difficult to remove. It is not uncommon for some anti-virus programs to not completely uninstall itself using the usual method of Apps & features in Windows 10 or Programs and Features (Add/Remove Programs) in Control Panel or to result in various errors due to the presence of related services and processes running in the background.

Most anti-virus vendors provide clean-up utilities (removal tools) on their web sites to remove remnants left behind after uninstalling, or for a failed uninstall or failed reinstall. Remnants include related registry entries, files and folders created in various areas of the OS. It's always best to download directly from the vendor's site to ensure you are using the most current version of the uninstall utility as it is not uncommon for third-party hosting sites to have outdated versions which may not work properly.

Comprehensive List of Uninstallers and Removal Tools for Antivirus Software

• Microsoft Wiki: List of anti-malware product removal tools by Stephen Boots, MVP
• ESET: List of Uninstallers (removal tools) for common antivirus software
• Bitdefender: Removal tools (uninstall tools) for common antivirus software
• SingularLabs: Uninstallers – Security Software
• List of Antivirus removal tools
• Antivirus Removal Tool
• Comprehensive List of 26 Uninstallers and Removal Tools for Internet Security and Antivirus Software

Edit to add:  Microsoft Security Essentials Removal Tool

Edited by quietman7, 01 July 2020 - 06:10 AM.
corrected outdated link

Thanks for sharing!

You're welcome

Topic pinned. Thank You.

I was reading an old article from Brien Posey about a head to head comparison of Antivirus products and was surprised to find another antivirus manufacturer. This article is located here. The company is named Hauri and can be found here.

I fully understand that the presense of yet another antivirus manufacturer is not impossible or out of the ordinary but the results of Brien's tests when using their software were quite positive. With that being said, I looked into Hauri and found a removal tool for a virus that has been known to be very much a pain in the butt to remove. I know this fact from first hand experience. The virus I'm referring to is "Virut". I had a "run-in" with virut earlier this year and found out first hand just how tough this one is to try to remove.

While looking at the Hauri site, I happened across their removal utilities and found a removal tool for Virut that seems to be updated quite frequently. These tools can be found here along with quite a few others.

Now, to make myself very clear, I'm not pushing this product as being the "end-all-be-all" in antivirus products nor am I in any way, shape, or form associated with Hauri I'm just throwing this out there for the general knowledge that it seems there is an antivirus company that "may have" come up with a way to remove the Virut virus.

I'm hoping this information will be of use to someone and that hopefully it will lead to the actual removal of Virut from someone's computer in the near future. I cannot attest to it's effectiveness on removing Virut as I have not come across it again as of late.

For those who do not know the name Brien Posey, you can read about him and who he is here.


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Hope this helps,

Thank you for this useful website, but I have a question here: Is it true that the antivirus keeps all the viruses that was captured and when uninstalling it , it will release them?

sound really good with your software tool suppports. I also have a good antivirus and it is working superb way. It detects the virus effects files afirst and delete them without hampering OS.

tanx

thanks

This is very useful information. It's not easy to find all of these removal Tools for Antivirus software.

I'm a tad brain dead in recent days as CleanUp Antivirus invaded my computer. I used this site's suggested method to fix and finished at the end by deleting my hosts file - but I need to download a new one and I can't access it with the link provided.

Any ideas?

I think this is the first site I have ever used that didn't ask for money and actually helped.

Thanks.

Thanks

Uninstallers – Security Software

Edit by quietman7: Fixed broken link. Ultimate List Of Uninstallers Blog has been removed. According to Google search results, SingulareLabs acquired the Utlimate List.

It will be obvious from the content of my question, but I am new to the forum and don't have much experience with diy virus and malware removal.

that being said, the forum was a great help in ridding me of several issues...I did the 'download malware bytes from another computer onto a zip drive' routine last night and it worked perfectly.

At some point I was instructed to change my regedit.exe file to regedit.com to fix one of the multiple problems I have.

To get rid of the just in time debugging issue I still have I'm trying to follow the instructions from that thread but haven't changed regedit.com back to regedit.exe

I need the instructions on how to do that...seems simple but I need to follow directions vs. try to remember how to do it or I'm positive I'll blow up my whole pc.

Thanks

Edited by terrier01, 23 May 2010 - 08:25 AM.

I'll add the details when I've got a moment, however I felt this was important enough to give everyone a little heads-up:

Just found 2 machines in my shop with a new variant of "Personal Security" that isn't being *touched* by MAB or CFX. Nasty, nasty little creature. Looks just like the previous versions, same blue/white shield, etc. ~ but the bugger is HIGHLY resistant to everything I've thrown at it to this point.

Thus far, I can't determine its' origin, but despite the outward appearances this one seemed to snicker when CFX ran, nor will it allow an installation of MAB to run.

I'll try to follow up on this shortly.

Edited by EPGolfs, 25 May 2010 - 10:32 AM.