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TheMissingLink
Contributor
Message 1 of 45

Delete quarantined files

Over time, McAfee assembles many quarantined files in C:\ProgramData\McAfee\VirusScan\Quarantine om my (fast) Win7 64 system. Typ. from 5,000 to 10,000 in a couple of months it seems, all as BUP files (prob. mostly cookies)

If I use the interface and do "Select All" and then "Delete" surely it starts deleting but at the pace this goes it will take -literally- days!

Going to the folder and manually deleting the files does not work as they seem to be protected by McAfee itself. I managed to get this done on another system by starting in Safe-mode and then deleting. There must be a better way... how?

44 Replies
k3tg
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 2 of 45

Re: Delete quarantined files

I am not aware of any other way to do this. I usually delete mine every 3 days and it only takes a couple of minutes.

TheMissingLink
Contributor
Message 3 of 45

Re: Delete quarantined files

So you startup in safe-mode every couple of days to clean-up stuff McAfee leaves behind? I was hoping the tool could be set to auto-delete files older than a certain date for example. The way it is now is not really user-friendly... Could CCleaner do this? Isn't there a tool that cleans this up on shutdown or startup?

Maybe you mean you do this every three days in McAfee itself...? Yes, that would make more sense of course, I still don't like it.

I read about MQM : McAfee Quarantine Manager, what is that?

Message was edited by: TheMissingLink on 8/20/10 10:35:50 PM CEST
newjack
Former Member
Message 4 of 45

Re: Delete quarantined files

Ccleaner will probabley clean that out.Although i would be carefull with the registry portion of that program.If you just use the cleaner tab i find it to be pretty safe.It also cleans out alot of other junk .I have a question about this for you.Do you get that many qaurantined items?I hav`nt had any since i installed mcafee 2010 including cookies.Not sure if this is good or bad.Although i would rather have nothing in there.I find it odd that tom has to clean his every 3 days and you said you have alot.Are most of these cookies?                                                                          Thanks Jack

TheMissingLink
Contributor
Message 5 of 45

Re: Delete quarantined files

Nope, just tested... CCleaner doesn't touch this one. Are you sure you look in the right folder? I just checked (McAfee is still deleting files in this folder); the last two hours or so as I've been looking for this problem and a solution I already 'collected' 115 files here!

k3tg
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 6 of 45

Re: Delete quarantined files

I should clarify the files I clean are potentialy unwanted programs or pups every 3 days or so depending on my schedule at work. I apologize if I misunderstood your question.

Peacekeeper
Message 7 of 45

Re: Delete quarantined files

I havent deleted anything in 3 weeks had maybe 200 there and they all went in 1 minute.

Maybe just let it finish then delete it weekly.

TheMissingLink
Contributor
Message 8 of 45

Re: Delete quarantined files

I'm working on a solution (found something that might be able to automate this) but having to do this manually is not something I'd like... Yesterday I was also cleaning-up an other system and that one had >10,000 files! I think McAfee should add an option to allow this to be 'auto-cleaned'.

Also I tried to delete ONE program yesterday and it did not work (well, not withing 10 minutes it didn't)... there's something buggy about this part of the interface (also watch the memory consumption when deleting >2000 files, it rockets! My main system has 8Gb so there it didn't hurt, the (XP) system with 10,000+ files had only 1Gb, you can guess what happened to the speed when only this task consumed so much that the system used >1.6Gb...)

Peacekeeper
Message 9 of 45

Re: Delete quarantined files

Ok point taken will add this to our phone call agenda for monday.

Peacekeeper
Message 10 of 45

Re: Delete quarantined files

Really this appears to be a problem with your installation can you try a reinstallation after uninstalling via the mcpr tool. in useful links tab above

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