Prey's Uninstaller Denies An Uninstall

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graybeard

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Oct 13, 2011, 5:47:05 AM10/13/11
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I have spent countless time to correct that my PC is "not verified" as seen in the Control Panel and want to uninstall Prey totally without any desire to try to get it to function. I located the platform folder with the uninstaller but it will not work. It asks for the email address that was used to set up the account which is the same used on my Prey login but denies the uninstall. Revo Uninstaller as the Windows Uninstaller do not list the Prey installation. I found it on the c drive as a program(x86) file.However, In reading another post in simply using "delete" to get rid of it, will only cause just more  head aches.
 
Thank you

Tom Wood

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Oct 14, 2011, 4:15:41 AM10/14/11
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I think there are manual uninstall instructions on the website, in the FAQs.

 

Without looking at them, from memory, I think it is:

 

Stop the prey service.

Delete the prey service using “sc delete CronService”

Delete the installation folder: c:\prey

Remove the Registry Key: \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Prey

 

I think that does it.  Gone without a trace.  Sorry you couldn’t get it to work for you.

 

By the way, if you are still interested in resolving the issue, I’d suggest logging into the control panel and making note of the API key and Device key.  The API key is on your account page at http://panel.preyproject.com/profile.  The Device key is on the device page for the computer in question.

 

After you get them, then make sure these lines in the file C:\Prey\config match the ones you got from the website.  My guess is that they don’t match.

api_key='xxxxxxxxxxxxx'

device_key='xxxxxx’

 

 


Tom

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Marcie Cabral

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Oct 14, 2011, 8:58:36 AM10/14/11
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Why is this Prey software so buggy? I've had nothing but trouble getting it to work and when it finally did work it then stopped working a few days later.  I'm not a computer person so when you advise to go looking for code etc. My head wants to explode. If I could find another program to use at this point I would. 

JAM

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Drew Reece

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Oct 14, 2011, 9:45:56 AM10/14/11
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One issue that seems to come up is when people have firewalls & proxies that filter internet requests. Prey wants to confirm certain actions such as account creation & deletion with the control panel (eg at install & uninstall). If there is something blocking those requests setup will often break. The FAQ warns about this. Internet filters & antivirus software can also stop Prey's requests or decide to remove parts of Prey. 

As for other products, since your signature says you are on an iPhone, I'd recommend you use Apple's free find my iPhone.

There are also a ton of antitheft & security software alternatives…

Tom Wood

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Oct 14, 2011, 11:35:18 AM10/14/11
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Marcie,

  All I can say is that it is open source software, a collaboration of volunteers.  It is getting better all the time, but the team  doesn’t have the ability to test on every computer in the world, under every possible circumstance.

 

  I think there is something about registering and verifying new computers that doesn’t work right for a lot of users.  But the developers have a hard time duplicating the problem, and so we haven’t been able to find it yet.

 

Tom

Rich Wilk

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Oct 14, 2011, 11:49:26 PM10/14/11
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I tried going thru the four inistall steps outlined as follows but,
 
Stop service- I logged into my prey account and deleted my account
 
Delete prey service "sc delete Cron Service"- I found nothing in the Prey login account page, so opened every folder in the c:\Prey folder and found nothing of this.
 
Delete installation c:\prey folder- It would not delete and found that the "platform" file would not delete with the message "action can't be completed as folder is open in another program or file in use". Is my inability to delete "prey service" causing this?
 
Remove registry key: \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_Software found but nothing with Prey showing.
 
Appreciate your help.

Drew Reece

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Oct 15, 2011, 10:36:36 AM10/15/11
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Here is the FAQ for some of the removal steps on Windows.

Tom Wood

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Oct 15, 2011, 3:49:23 PM10/15/11
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Let me give a more complete list of steps for MANUAL removal on Windows, with more detail to eliminate some of the possibility of confusion.  These should only be used if the uninstaller does not work.  Using the uninstaller is definitely safer and is the preferred method.

 

1.       Remove the Prey registry keys.  Be VERY careful when following these steps making a mistake in the registry could screw up your computer.

a.       Hold the windows key and press R.  A run box will appear.  In that box type regedit and press enter.

b.      In the left pane, look for Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Prey, and select it in the left pane.  Press the delete key.

c.       In the left pane, look for Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Prey, and if you find it, select it in the left pane and press the delete key.  (You will only find it on 64-bit computers.)

d.      In the left pane, look for Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.  Select it in the left pane.  In the right pane look for the “Prey Laptop Tracker” entry.  If you find it, select it, and press the delete key.  (You will only find it if you are running prey in user mode, most users are in service mode.)

2.       Remove the Prey service.

a.       Hold the windows key and press R.  A run box will appear.  In that box type cmd and press enter.

b.      A command prompt should open, type: sc config CronService start= disabled and press enter.   The message [SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS should appear.  Note that the space between start= and disabled is required.

c.       Type: taskkill /f /im "cronsvc.exe" and press enter.  The message SUCCESS: The process "cronsvc.exe" with PID xxxx has been terminated. should appear.

d.      Type: sc delete CronService and press enter.  The message [SC] DeleteService SUCCESS should appear.

3.       Delete the Prey installation folder.

a.       Type: rmdir /s /q c:\prey and press enter.  No messages should appear.

4.       Prey is now completely removed from your system.

 

 

When creating this list, I actually tested it on my Windows 7 32-bit system.  (unlike my from memory posting the other day.)  I also noted that the FAQs have a mistake.  One can’t delete the service using services.msc.  I would suggest to the prey team that they adapt these instructions as an FAQ entry.

 

Tom

 

 

From: Rich Wilk
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011 8:49 PM
To: prey-s...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Prey-Security] Prey's Uninstaller Denies An Uninstall

 

I tried going thru the four inistall steps outlined as follows but,

 

Stop service- I logged into my prey account and deleted my account

 

Delete prey service "sc delete CronService"- I found nothing in the Prey login account page, so opened every folder in the c:\Prey folder and found nothing of this.

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