ok so we just renewed our subscrition with panda antivirus online and downloaded the new program.... but it says its incompatible with mcafee antivirus and that i need to uninstall it..... for one.... i dont remember ever having mcafee.... and two.... i found anything to do with mcafee and deleted it.... out of programs, out of windows, it wanst in the add remove programs list.... and i even deleted andything to do with mcafee out of regedit.... so is there any other way i might try and find mcafee and delete it? thanks

Welcome to the forum majik_420 :wave:
It seems that you have covered all the bases really. I would do a search including hidden files and folders for anything Mcafee related and delete anything it finds.

sigh* another problem... for whatever reason.... probably for a year or so now, my search thing is broken.... i try and search and it says "A file that is required to run search companion cannot be found. You may need to run setup." maybe if someone knows what "setup" it is talking about i can hook that back up.... and since were on the topic of search.... theres this "handy" (intusive) little srchasstnt thing that i cant get rid of on ym computer.... i try to delete it but it comes back in literally seconds... its on my start bar thing at the beginning of every time i start my computer.... im just full of problems.... but id appreciate any kind of help

OK majik.....
Go to Start>Run and type sfc /scannow in to the run box and press enter (note the space after sfc)
This will start the system file checker. It will scan your system and try to repair/replace any files you have missing or corrupted. If you haven't installed sp2 you might be asked to insert your XP disk.

After that go to Start>Run and type msconfig in to the run box. In the top right corner click on the startup tab. Look for the search assistant in there or just uncheck everything except your antivirus and firewall software.
Reboot and tell us if it solved the problem

well ok.... got that search thing back.... searched for mcafee... found some ccokies and webpages... deleted everything it came up with under that.... but panda still thinks i have mcafee installed on my computer....i guess im just gonna delete it and try reinstalling it.... and as for the other (unwelcome) srchasstnt, still cant get rid of it.... tried a million and one way to get that one out.... but its not that bad... but ummm anyway thanks for gettin the serch program back.... and i dont know if theres much else you can help with ..... but if you have any ideas ill gladly accept them

Well you might be on the right track with uninstalling and trying again with the Panda software

For the search assistant (and any other nasties on your PC) you need to go to the Hijack This Logs forum. Follow the instructions and a member of our security team will analyse your log and help you completely clean your system