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PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT

Why is Kaspersky still on my PC?

Glow can detect leftovers of programs you’ve uninstalled

Q After reading a nrecommendation in your Cover Feature back in Issue 700, I downloaded and installed system-analysis tool Glow (www.snipca.com/52372) and was fascinated by all the information it gave me. However, I was surprised to find that Kaspersky antivirus and firewall software were installed on my PC. I used these in the past but switched to Bitdefender a few years ago.

I contacted Kaspersky’s support, and they told me to download and run its Kavremover removal tool (www.snipca.com/55187), which I did.

However, Glow still reported that Kaspersky software was installed. Kaspersky then suggested doing a ‘system dump’ using its Get System Info tool. This generated a very detailed report, but I’m reluctant to send this information to Kaspersky.

Is it possible that Glow’s report is wrong, or is Kaspersky still active on my PC? Should I be worried that there are leftover traces of Kaspersky? And is it even possible to eliminate them if Kaspersky’s own uninstall software can’t manage it?

Vee Kumar

A We certainly understand your concern, but we very much doubt that you still have any Kaspersky software installed on your PC. Glow and similar tools scour the Windows registry to gather information. Typically, the registry is full of entries that might make a tool such as Glow think a piece of software is present when, in fact, it’s just a digital leftover (see screenshot 1 ).

Of course, you’d hope a dedicated clean-up tool such as Kavremover would do a more thorough job. However, this is a difficult task, especially when multiple versions of a product have been installed on a PC over a number of years. Kavremover certainly deletes Kaspersky’s apps and services, but deleting entries from the registry can be risky, so it is sensibly cautious in this regard.

The result is that remnants are left behind that Glow misinterprets. You could delve into the registry manually to look for and delete all Kaspersky entries, or use third-party software to attempt to do the same, but we couldn’t honestly recommend either method.

Why? Because, as we mentioned, meddling with the registry risks destabilising your system. So, if Bitdefender is running without problems, we’d advise ignoring these phantom entries. While we accept it’s annoying that these leftovers remain, they’re not a threat, whereas trying to clear them from the registry might be.

If you’re still concerned, you can check which antivirus and firewall tools you’re using. To do so, click the Start button followed by the Settings cog, then ‘Privacy & security’ followed by Windows Security. Next, click Open Windows Security and then, under the ‘Protection areas’ heading, click ‘Virus & threat protection’. Now click ‘Virus & threat protection settings’ or ‘Firewall & network protection’.

We’re confident that what you’ll see here will be Bitdefender (alongside Microsoft Defender), not Kaspersky. In the very unlikely event that it tells you Kaspersky is still active, click the ‘Manage providers’ link 2 , then use the options in the ‘Security providers’ box to set your preferences.