How to disable a McAfee service?

Question

I am trying to disable a McAfee Real-Time Protection service, but if I go into Services/Properties, then try to set it to Manual or Disable - it says that

unable to open service McShield for writing on Local Computer. Error 5. Access is denied.

I've tried logging in as an Admin, to no avail. I've tried resetting permissions in the registry to the key where the McAfee service is described...nothing helped. Logging in with Safe Mode did not help either.

How can I disable this service? Is there a way to disable a service before even getting into Windows?

P.S. Uninstalling McAfee is not an option.

Answer 1

Disable the option Prevent McAfee services from being stopped

(for stand alone installations of VSE 8.5i or later)

1. Start > Programs > McAfee > VirusScan Console.

2. Right-click Access Protection and select Properties.

3. Deselect Prevent McAfee services from being stopped.

4. Click Apply.

5. Close the VirusScan Console.

Answer 2

I found this regarding Mcafee Virus Scan 8.5 : How to disable McAfee Virusscan 8.5?.
I hope it's relevant to your McAfee product:

By default, the copy of Mcafee Virus Scan 8.5 comes configured to prevent Virus Scan services from being stopped. This is a safeguard against viruses stopping McAfee services and disabling Virus Scan. However, this also causes the "Disable On-Access Scan" menu item to be grayed out when right-clicking on the VShield icon in the system tray.

To turn this feature off and enable the menu item:

• Download and install the latest version of Virus Scan 8.5 over your
  current version.
• Right click on the VShield icon in the system tray and choose "Virus Scan Console".
• Right click the entry for "Access Protection" and choose "Properties".
• Uncheck the option for "Prevent McAfee services from being stopped" and click OK.
• The "Disable On-Access Scan" menu item should now be accessible when right-clicking the VShield icon.

The latest version of Virus Scan 8.5 is necessary because it resolves a bug that prevents the menu item from being enabled even though the above option is turned off.

Answer 3

It seems when your enterprise uses domain authentication, ONLY domain admin can stop the service. Local admin is not authorized. bummer!! The following will prevent McAfee from starting up: Start up in windows safe Mode, locate the [Program Files]\Mcafee\VirusScan Enterprise\ directory, rename the McShield.exe and reboot into normal windows.... Et Voila... my Outlook VSTO Add-In works! Now to figure out why McAfee sees my Add-In as a threat and how to get around it...

Answer 4

Start > Run > services.msc > Find the Mcafee service from the list then double click it and select "disable" or "manual" from startup type...

Answer 5

I was having serious performance issues with McAffee. I renamed McShield.exe to McShield.ex. That booger hasn't bothered me since.

Answer 6

The way I've been going about this and that has been working fine is to launch the services.msc console under the System account, and then stop/disable/whatever... the service from there.

To launch something under the System account I schedule a task to be run the next minute, that is:
from the console:
(let's say it's 16:29 now)
at 16:30 /interactive cmd.exe

in less than 60 seconds a new console (this time running as System) will come up. From there you can launch the services.mmc console and play with the annoying mvcshield to your will.