BleepingComputer.com: Problems with MSE after removing Vista Security 2012

Greetings Gurus!

I've been a lurker here for a long, long time and have nearly always found exactly what I needed when dealing with computer issues. This is a great site and so are the people who contribute to it. Many thanks to everyone associated with it for their help and support over the years!

Moving on...

My neighbor's PC became infected with Vista Internet Security 2012 scareware. I followed the tutorial here:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-vista-internet-security-2012
which worked perfectly. However, his PC now has a strange issue which I have not been able to rectify nor have I been able to find info related to it.

When I click the icon to start MSE I receive an error that the services associated with it are not started and to "Click Here to start this service". When I "Click Here" I'm told the service selected is damaged and can not run and to try re-installing the program. When I attempt to re-install it, I get an error that "Only one instance of MSE... yada, yada, yada,..." Next I attempt to uninstall it and receive the following error:

"Error 0x8004ff56 The Security Essentials Installation Wizard is missing a filter manager rollup package needed to complete the installation. To continue installing Security Essentials, you must first download the required package."

It then has a "Download required package" link and when I follow the link I arrive at a page that tells me I need to update my version of Windows XP to fix the problem. The computer has Vista SP2 installed on it. I'm stuck in an endless loop. I can't re-install it, uninstall it or fix it.

I'll be most appreciative of any suggestions offered!

Regards,
Coach

Use AppRemover to uninstall it: http://www.appremover.com/

Hello Coach Steve,

If you found a system restore point before the infection, you could try that route.

Here is a link regarding uninstalling MSE version 2: How to manually uninstall Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0.1963 if you cannot uninstall it by using the Add or Remove Programs item

I haven't personally tried it.

I am having this same problem and neither of the above solved my problem. When I try to uninstall Microsoft Security Essentials...I cannot even find it! Nothing has worked so far.

Broni, on 26 December 2011 - 04:11 PM, said:

Thanks for the suggestion and the link. It sorta worked. It was able to remove most the program from the system but wasn't successful at removing the registry entries. However, after following the link provided by Artrocks below.....

Artrooks, on 26 December 2011 - 04:29 PM, said:

...I was able to clean up the extraneous bits and pieces here and there (Registry mostly) that were still present. Once that was taken care of, install was a breeze!

Thanks so much for your quick and helpful replies!

Happy New Year!!

Coach

Good news