How To Remove Mcafee Drive Encryption?
Introduction
Mcafee drive encryption is a feature that comes with the mcafee security.It was developed particularly to provide protection against unauthorized access of data on your system and also prevent theft of laptop or PC.This feature uses a strong AES-256 bit of algorithm for encrypting your hard disk content so that even if you misplace your laptop or PC, you can’t view or recover your data except by entering the correct password.
Mcafee drive encryption is usually pre-installed with mcafee security software.If you are using some other antivirus program then you need to install this feature yourself by visiting mcafee site and getting the installation setup of mcafee drive encryption.
Elements of Mcafee drive encryption:
This feature encrypts all data using a password and locks your hard disk.You can use any password of length 4 to 32 characters for this purpose.But the password should be strong that contains uppercase letters, lower case letters, symbols and number.It also allows you to store your key on some usb or dongle device .In this mode only the encrypted data is visible on the hard disk but not the original one as it is hidden from unauthorized users by creating a virtual environment where they cannot access your original files unless you enter a valid password.When you enter a wrong password ,it will lock your HDD with an “Enter new Password” window which requires you to enter a correct passwd in order to unlock your disk.
The most common reason for mcafee drive encryption removal is misplacement of HDD or laptop.You need to install this software on your system only if you are using it.Otherwise uninstalling this feature will not harm your system in any way .
Merits of Mcafee Drive Encryption:
-It adds an extra layer of security.
-There is no chance to decrypt data without a password.
-All the file names, folders and sub folders are encrypted during the encryption process so that even if someone accesses your files or PC, he/she can’t view the content of your hard disk.
Demerits of Mcafee Drive Encryption:
-You may face severe slow down in performance due to heavy encryption procedures.
-Although you will be asked to enter the password every time you start up your system , but it is not possible for a normal user to remember his/her passwords after some days.So, either they have to write their passwords on some paper for future needs or remove mcafee drive encryption from their system.
How to remove Mcafee Drive Encryption ?
-To uninstall any installed programs first,we need to open control panel of pc and go to ‘Programs and features'(for windows 8: right click on start button and select ‘Programs and features’)
-Now in this window we need to find out all related programs of Mcafee drive encryption like; Security for Windows 8(64 bit),Security for Windows 8(32 bit) etc.
-After finding all related programs, right click on it and select the ‘Uninstall’ option. It will prompt you to say that are you sure,click on yes button.Wait for some time till the process of uninstallation gets finished completely.
-Now if in any case you failed to find all related mcafee drive encryption programs then you need to look in the registry editor manually by following this path; hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\uninstall .
-Again choose the correct sub-folder which contains all data about mcafee drive encryption programs present in your system.It may have different names like Security Essentials ,Security Center etc.
-Now right click on it and select the ‘Uninstall’ option present at the bottom of the list(look for the file which is not having the .exe extension).This process will take you some time depending upon your PC speed.
-After completion of uninstallation,a window saying that ‘All removal operations were successful’ will popup.It means now mcafee drive encryption is successfully uninstalled from your system.
Note :
After removing Mcafee Drive Encryption if you are still getting prompted to enter any security key then open cmd in administrator mode by using this path :C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe with admin credentials .A black screen with white text named “prompt” should be opened,type in the following command and hit enter:
“netsh firewall set service type = remote service mode = disable”
Now try to uninstall mcafee drive encryption again.It should work this time.If not,repeat the process of opening cmd with admin credentials and carry on further steps starting from step 5 given above.
Conclusion:
Mcafee Drive Encryption is a good security tool but it puts a lot of pressure on the system. If you are not using mcafee drive encryption feature then there’s no need to install it again. Just uninstall the one present in your pc,and if you failed to uninstall mcafee drive encryption from the control panel then try manual methods given above which will surely work for you .
As we have seen,mcafee drive encryption removal is very easy and does not require much technical knowledge.It only needs patience.However,it may cause serious slow down of system’s performance if you do not remove all related mcafee drive encryption programs from your pc.
