• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

KAV Over- Automatically Switched to UltraAV-- Cannot Uninstall 700megs of files even though I'm Admin!

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

Viper69

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2003
Let me start by saying I'm logged in as the Admin- I checked, and I'm STUCK.

I tried using Unlocker, and the software won't allow me to delete even a single file let along the UAV folder.

I just turned on my computer, opened CNN, and out of nowhere Malewarebytes popped up with the lower images below all my typing, and my radar went up naturally. Tried to use Windows Unistall and that doesn't work- maybe because I had Malware quarantine what it found??

I couldn't even x out of the box on the bottom.

Then I googled a bit less specifically, and found on Reddit and later on PCmag. In short everyone is getting moved over to UAV, and it's garbage from what I read, worse no one seems to be able to remove it.


The UltraAv software was automatically installed without even asking me or letting me know if I wanted it, and there's a shortcut on the desktop. I did a KAV scan on AV's folder- of course it came up with nothing. Malware quite the opposite. I never received an email from this company nor from KAV about this.

I tried RevUinstaller a second time, and that was able to remove the UAV sort of. I put up a screenshot below with yellow. Right when RevoInstaller came to the UAV Program folder on my C drive, Malewarebytes popped up a warning, see below. It seems somehow the UAV software detects an attempt to be removed, and then try to initiate a reinstall perhaps? I cannot say for sure, but Revo software triggered UAV to do something. I quarantined the item before proceeding. There's about 1,000 files in quarantine, all UAV files from inside UAV program folder- 700megs!!

1726793468933.png


I restarted my computer after Maleware quarantine, and the folder remained. UAV did not install itself this time.

However, I cannot manually delete folder at all. I am getting some error maybe from Windows

Error read: You'll need to provide adminstrator permission to delete this folder.



I googled that error, and followed the instructions in italics- the below instructions did not fix the deletion problem. I get the same error. So I am STUCK.

a) Go to the drive that contains the file or Folder whose ownership you want to change.
b) Right Click of mouse on that file or Folder and Choose “Properties“.
c) Navigate to “Security” tab.
d) Click on Edit, then click Add.
e) Under the "Enter the object names to select box"- type "Everyone"(without quotes) and click on "Check names".
f) Click Ok
g) A new window will open up with Security tab- Under "Permisssions for Everyone", Check mark the "Full control" option.
h) Apply and Ok.
i) Ownership allowed for folder or file .



This is what a properties/Security tab looks like for all the files in the UAV folder after I followed the instructions.

1726794369970.png




I've been using KAV for decades and never had an issue. I dropped Norton long time ago as back then it used so much system resources.



This is annoying as can be for no reason.

1726781905652.png

1726782005325.png

1726782221220.png
 
Last edited:
A couple of ideas.

1) Tell Malwarebytes to allow these files to run. Then try to uninstall or Revo it.
2) Boot into safe mode and see if you can remove it. These days I'd have to google how to boot into safe mode.
3) Put this drive in another computer and see if you can remove it using the OS of the other machine.
 
A couple of ideas.

1) Tell Malwarebytes to allow these files to run. Then try to uninstall or Revo it.
2) Boot into safe mode and see if you can remove it. These days I'd have to google how to boot into safe mode.
3) Put this drive in another computer and see if you can remove it using the OS of the other machine.

Thanks! I’m going with number 2 for now. I googled not hard to do this, just different than Win7.

I tried #1 and that didn’t work.

Can’t do 3 because this is the only computer I have, other than a laptop, but that’s a good idea I didn’t think of.
 
Thanks! I’m going with number 2 for now. I googled not hard to do this, just different than Win7.

I tried #1 and that didn’t work.

Can’t do 3 because this is the only computer I have, other than a laptop, but that’s a good idea I didn’t think of.
You can do #3 on the cheap. Find out what type of drive you have. Plain ole' SATA, or M.2. Get a cheap dock for the type you have. For say... $20? you can get something that will allow you to connect your drive via USB to your laptop.

Tell me what type of drive you have and I can point you to a USB dock that will work for you. Plus you'll have a dock for backups, or troubleshooting, or large data transfers, or...
 
You can do #3 on the cheap. Find out what type of drive you have. Plain ole' SATA, or M.2. Get a cheap dock for the type you have. For say... $20? you can get something that will allow you to connect your drive via USB to your laptop.

Tell me what type of drive you have and I can point you to a USB dock that will work for you. Plus you'll have a dock for backups, or troubleshooting, or large data transfers, or...
Unfortunately it’s my OS drive in my sig.
 
Frustrating Update with a lot of images.

I went into SafeMode, and could not delete the folder, I get the same error. I checked, under Accounts I'm the administrator!

The folder is in my C:\Program Files directory. I clicked on properties of the UltraAV folder. The folder was set to Read Only. I checked all the folders in the Program Files directory, they are all set to Read Only. When I do the following below to any of the folders, I observe the same errors/messages. I'm STUCK, this is such crap.

I was able to uncheck Read-Only on the Program folder in SAFEMode, the MS Window whizzed through thousands of files. It was stuck on some files, so I clicked Ignore, and it went through the others. I checked the Program folder and many other folders after this process, SOMETHING has changed, but I don't know what. All the folders, including Program folder remain listed as Read Only. Now when I try to uncheck the Read Only box, the diaglog reads "Unset-read-only", it used to read something else before I did the above described in Safemode.

Below I see these messages in safemode or in normal startup of Win11. Frustrating. I've never had folders that won't uncheck the Read-Only box damn it!


1726878241340.png

Then I see this
1726878280166.png

I click OK, and I get this POS box again, it doesn't matter which folder I use in the Program directory.

1726878617321.png

I click Continue, and I see this file with error box. This file is found in the UltraAv folder. Clicking continue doesn't work, clicking Ignore only moves me onto the next file with same crappy results.

I have no idea what Windows did in SAFEMODE when it sped through all files in the Program Directory. But something did change.

1726878699461.png


I checked around on the rest of my computer and all the folders are Read Only- WTH, like WTH. The files inside some of the random folders are not set to ReadOnly though, which is not the case in Program Directory.

I am STUCK all because of the stupid US gov't and Windows.

I do not know why the computer thinks I need admin privileges when I'm logged in as Admin (that's the only account on PC), and I did some searching, and the settings for the Admin are correct, Admin has Full Control. I saw something on a MS forum from MS, and my PC was already set as instructed. This is annoying as can be.

I learned the folders are not set to Read Only, there is no check mark, the box is filled in and has a dash. I thought Win11 had a new way of showing a file or folder was ReadOnly.

See here post 22 if needed > https://www.tenforums.com/general-support/136641-windows-10-customizing-folders-3.html#post1674384

So far all the solutions I've come across provide solutions for setting the correct account permissions. Mine seem fine from what I've compared to these solutions.

I followed these steps, and my admin account was already set correctly.

  1. Right-click on your C Drive, and choose Properties.
  2. Go to Security tab.
  3. Click Advanced, then Change Permissions.
  4. Highlight the user, and click Edit.
  5. Choose This folder, subfolders and files under Applies to:.
  6. Choose Full Control under Basic Permissions.
  7. Hit OK.

NONE of the solutions address my case of "need privileges", nor what to do when the Admin account has full control.

I'm lost, and stuck with a problem, and 700megs of BS data files on my OS drive

I found this video, but it didn't fix the permissions issue.

 
Last edited:
By now I'd be backing up my files and just doing a Windows reinstall.

Removing an antivirus, and especially one that is busted is damn difficult. At least without a vendor-supplied tool which can strip the install out, as I imagine there's numerous hooks into your OS from it, just like every other AV
 
By now I'd be backing up my files and just doing a Windows reinstall.

Removing an antivirus, and especially one that is busted is damn difficult. At least without a vendor-supplied tool which can strip the install out, as I imagine there's numerous hooks into your OS from it, just like every other AV
Hey Janus!

I was thinking the same thing. Would the reinstall affect my secondary drive? I haven’t needed to reinstall an OS in decades. I don't think it would.

I’m going to try a few more things before doing a Windows reinstall, but it’s on the list now.
 
Last edited:
You could do a variation of #3. Get Unbuntu or some other Linux flavor on a bootable USB drive and boot into a "live" environment, which is to say boot off the USB. Then, manipulate your files from the disk "externally" as it were.
 
You could do a variation of #3. Get Unbuntu or some other Linux flavor on a bootable USB drive and boot into a "live" environment, which is to say boot off the USB. Then, manipulate your files from the disk "externally" as it were.

Thanks, I've heard of that, but I know nothing about it. Not that I'm not unwilling to try, but I would not know the steps to do it, literally.

The part I cannot figure out is the admin/permissions issue. I don't think that is related to the UltraAV having done some searching on the net where others have the same observed error message.
 
Thanks, I've heard of that, but I know nothing about it. Not that I'm not unwilling to try, but I would not know the steps to do it, literally.

The part I cannot figure out is the admin/permissions issue. I don't think that is related to the UltraAV having done some searching on the net where others have the same observed error message.

It's very common for there to be filed that are locked or dependent on services (and vice versa) that are effectively stuck there without being removed properly are almost never going away.

Have all of the services, registry entries, etc for UAV and KAV been removed? Or is there still lingering files?

If you do the live boot (ubuntu, etc) deletion it will work, but if the OS is still looking for those files you may end up with weird issues in the OS. Up to and including being unable to boot
 
It's very common for there to be filed that are locked or dependent on services (and vice versa) that are effectively stuck there without being removed properly are almost never going away.

Have all of the services, registry entries, etc for UAV and KAV been removed? Or is there still lingering files?

If you do the live boot (ubuntu, etc) deletion it will work, but if the OS is still looking for those files you may end up with weird issues in the OS. Up to and including being unable to boot

Hey Janus! Oh I didn't know that some files/folder could be "locked" due to services and so forth jeez, how complex.

KAV has not been removed because I haven't found a good AV that I'm willing to get. I was thinking of Bitdefender, but their renewal policy sounded very sketchy, ie the first year cost is great, and then 2nd year they make things hard, saw that across the net. Maybe F-secure or ESET..not sure yet who I'll pick.

I DID look in the registry via Edit>Find using Regedit. There are UAV entires. There's a UAV folder, and then there are various lines found elsewhere not a TON, but yes there are.

I checked Processes and Services. There's a KAV service seems related to KAV program, but there was no UltraAV or anything that looked remotely AV related in services, except for one KAV entry.

It's weird, I was in the Program Folder where UltraAv folder is located, and I was able to delete my entire SteelSeries folder and contents.

There's no other account I use to log in, so it's not like I'm using 2+ accounts with different admin rights either.

I've never seen this before.

I released the Malwarebytes quarantine that are from the UltraAV folder. I restarted to see if the UAV software would install maybe make it easy to uninstall. It didn't install again, so I've must have removed some files with Revo.


I'm going to do a fresh install of Win11 Pro, ugh.

AND, I'm thinking this might be a good opportunity to get new M.2. I only have 1 TB in each. I'm going to see what else is out there, and if the cost is good, I'll get them.
 
Last edited:
Your account being a local administrator is different from an administrator account. Just like if you run a command from command prompt or powershell from your user context (even as a local admin) is different than running when you do right-click run as admin.

I have a feeling that with you changing permission and changing other settings some files getting deleted, etc probably messed with some stuff.

Regarding AVs, I don't have much trouble using just the built in Microsoft AV. I had nod32 for years, it was fine (id get multi-machine licenses id find on slickdeals).

I personally stopped even testing Kaspersky when the Fed government stopped using it (I work for a state institution). So when we were doing POCs we dropped it. Bitdefender and Sophos are both fine though from my memory.
 
Last edited:
Your account being a local administrator is different from an administrator account. Just like if you run a command from command prompt or powershell from your user context (even as a local admin) is different than running when you do right-click run as admin.

Ah, that's true thanks! I saw my Samsung 980 Pro on sale for like $89, but the 2TB model was not on sale.
 
Your account being a local administrator is different from an administrator account. Just like if you run a command from command prompt or powershell from your user context (even as a local admin) is different than running when you do right-click run as admin.

I have a feeling that with you changing permission and changing other settings some files getting deleted, etc probably messed with some stuff.

Regarding AVs, I don't have much trouble using just the built in Microsoft AV. I had nod32 for years, it was fine (id get multi-machine licenses id find on slickdeals).

I personally stopped even testing Kaspersky when the Fed government stopped using it (I work for a state institution). So when we were doing POCs we dropped it. Bitdefender and Sophos are both fine though from my memory.

I see now. The ones I have in mind are nod32/ESET, F-secure, Bitdefender.

Was nod32 a pain in the rear when it came time to stop subscribing? Was nod32 low in system resource utilization? KAV always was, unlike Norton.

I was going to get Bit, but man I read some horror stories how they hook you for the first year on super cheap price, right now I can get it for 9$ for one year. But when you go to resubscribe, the price is jacked up, and they make it a pain to stop subscribing hoping you give up. One guy I read about stocks up on new subscriptions online froom vendors, ends his current sub, and installs the new ones to keep costs cheap.

BTW look what I came across re UAV.....:mad:


 
With nod I would buy annual codes and never gave payment info directly to them.

All this said, computers are fast and I haven't found an AV that causes large performance hits for over a decade. That said, I also don't see much reason to buy a 3rd party one.
 
+1...

Windows Defender and the integrated firewall have worked fine for me for several years. Granted, I'm not a mindless clicker and do my best to avoid anything questionable, but they have kept me virus-free in that time. I haven't paid for an AV program in ages.

But man, so weird that Kaspersky just DLs and installs another AV program... like.......... WOW.......WTF???
 
Came back to look at this thread as I saw talk about KAV > UAV elsewhere. Seems this is how KAV decided to deal with the US ban of its products and services and is switching users to an alternative. At least the owners of the replacement seem to be western leaning.
 
With nod I would buy annual codes and never gave payment info directly to them.

All this said, computers are fast and I haven't found an AV that causes large performance hits for over a decade. That said, I also don't see much reason to buy a 3rd party one.

Annual codes, meaning you bought it from a 3rd party vendor like an Amazon or Newegg etc? If so, that's what I have always done too.

+1...

Windows Defender and the integrated firewall have worked fine for me for several years. Granted, I'm not a mindless clicker and do my best to avoid anything questionable, but they have kept me virus-free in that time. I haven't paid for an AV program in ages.

But man, so weird that Kaspersky just DLs and installs another AV program... like.......... WOW.......WTF???

I don't know why, but I'm always a little skeptical of MS for some reason re AV.

As for KAV, dude you are telling me. If you google KAV or UltraAV, there's not a SINGLE site I have visited that doesn't have a litany of angry, concerned people and I'd say virtually 99% are uninstalling from what I've seen. KAV claims an email went out to everyone. I never received such an email, and many others report the same, some did receive it.

The other bizarre part is how many different variations of uninstalling people have had to do in order to uninstall it. I haven't come across 2 people who had uninstalled it the same way yet, a few are reinstalling windows like me for the very reasons you guys cited here, AV programs are notorious for getting into everything on your computer, so who would trust that- not me.

From reddit, KAV forum, other computer forums etc, everyone is upset.

One day is fine, and the next we see a mysterious program. In my case, I was on my computer, just surfing the web reading the news, and UltraAV installed itself WITHOUT any notification. The only reason I "noticed" it was because malwarebytes picked it up in the background!!! Like the WTF?? And sure enough there was this shortcut on deskstop. Nothing like taking over someone's computer.

Came back to look at this thread as I saw talk about KAV > UAV elsewhere. Seems this is how KAV decided to deal with the US ban of its products and services and is switching users to an alternative. At least the owners of the replacement seem to be western leaning.
Right, if KAV had gone with someone that is KNOWN, and provided timely notification etc, etc..but they didn't. I can't imagine any of the majors would have said No to their USA customer base.
 
if KAV had gone with someone that is KNOWN,
I'm not a RAH RAH Rights Murica Don't Tread on MEH kind of guy... but I don't want any program installing another program without me knowing it. IDC if it's the most trusted software known to humanity. The problem, to me, is the automatic installation. The fact that it's a royal PITA to remove makes it even worse.
 
Back