How to disable a McAfee service?
Solution 1:
Disable the option Prevent McAfee services from being stopped
(for stand alone installations of VSE 8.5i or later)
Start > Programs > McAfee > VirusScan Console.
Right-click Access Protection and select Properties.
Deselect Prevent McAfee services from being stopped.
Click Apply.
Close the VirusScan Console.
Solution 2:
This is how you do it if you are like me and:
You are at work
Running on a remotely managed SOE (including remotely managed McAfee) with Windows XP or Windows 7
Have "peasant" permissions (But you need Local Admin, most users will have this)
Here's how to disable it once off: (So that it's safe to plug in an external device, note it will be back when you next reboot)
Download ProcessHacker here
Run ProcessHacker.exe as Adminstrator(Important! It won't work if you run it normally.) To run as admin, right-click ProcessHacker.exe and select
Run as administrator.Select the following processes in the main window (if they exist) and press Delete(or right-click and select "Terminate"): Engineserver, FrameworkService, mcshield.exe, mctray.exe, mfevtps.exe, shstat.exe, udaterui.exe, vstskmgr
Step 3 will knock most of them out, but a few will re-spawn like a virulent phoenix from the ash, typically: Engineserver, mfevtps, shstat, vstskmgr
To kill whatever remains, find them in ProcessHackers main window and on each one individually, right-click and select "Terminator". It will display a whole list of hacky ways to try to kill the process. Leave the default options ticked, and click "Run Selected". One of the methods WILL be able to kill every remaining process.
Enjoy your current session without a computer infected by this terrible antivirus. But before plugging in an external device ALWAYS double check that the above processes do not exist in ProcessHacker. They are able to be restarted remotely and by other integrated applications such as Microsoft Outlook.
To wipe it from your computer permanently:
Download Unlocker" here and install. You might have to reboot. (Note it's home site seems to change frequently, but you should be able to get it all over the place, like cnet or filehippo etc.)
Run all the "Once-off" steps above to disable McAfee.
Using "My Computer" (or explorer whatever you want to call it) - Navigate to the McAfee installation folder which will usually be C:\Program Files\McAfee
Delete everything you can.
For anything that remains, right-click the files, and select the "Unlocker" option. Change the drop-down to "Delete" and press OK.
If Unlocker tells you it can't delete it, but can try on reboot, tell it to do that.
Once you've done this for all remaining files, you might have to reboot. When you've done this McAfee should be goneski.
Make a Mojito and rest easy knowing that McAfee won't nuke that photo of you and your wife/husband from your camera ever again.
The technique here is a result of a trying a buttload of different ways to kill it, including Task Manager, Process Explorer, tskill etc. etc. It's the most reliable way I've found.