How to Uninstall Trend Micro

What is Trend Micro?

Trend Micro is a company that provides commercial versions of security products, such as Antivirus, Antimalware, and other Internet Security programs. Its first product was PC-Cillin, which recently changed its name to Trend Micro Internet Security. Even now, Australia knows it as PC-Cillin and Japan as Virusbuster. They even have a very popular online virus scanner platform called Housecall, which is still used by a number of companies. Because their products provide protection from spam, virus, malware, adware, and a strong firewall, it is known as a complete security product.

How to Uninstall Trend Micro

Trend Micro products are designed for system security, so it installs files in the core of the OS. This is the reason it is not very easy to remove Trend Micro files manually. To uninstall it completely, you can employ these methods –

  1. Trend micro Diagnostic Toolkit
  2. Uninstall from the Control Panel
  3. Manual Registry and folder Removal
  4. Third party software

Trend Micro Diagnostic Toolkit – You can download the Trend Micro Diagnostic Toolkit from their website. The toolkit has features provided with the software, and uninstall option is one of them. Follow these steps once the toolkit is downloaded –

  1. Double click the downloaded file.
  2. Select the E option which says Uninstall.
  3. Select the Uninstall Software option.
  4. Click the Uninstall button.
  5. Click Yes to restart your system.

This toolkit will remove all the folders and files related to Trend Micro.

Uninstalling from Control Panel – Trend Micro can be uninstalled using the windows uninstaller program. As Trend Micro files sit with core system files it is better to run the uninstaller in Safe Mode. To uninstall in safe mode follow these steps –

  1. Restart your system.
  2. During boot keep hitting the F8 key on the keyboard.
  3. Choose SAFE MODE using the arrow keys from the options and then press Enter.
  4. Once in Safe Mode, go to Control Panel and click on Program and Features option on Windows Vista / 7 or Add and Remove Programs option on Windows XP.
  5. Select Trend Micro from the list of Programs and click uninstall.

This will remove Trend Micro from the system completely. Also, you can use the Trend Micro Diagnostic Tool in Safe Mode and uninstall it. Once this is done, some files in the system can be manually deleted.

Manual Registry and Folder Removal – Even after the uninstallation process is done in safe mode, some of the quarantined files will still remain in the system. To delete these files, follow the steps below.

Delete this folder –

C:\Program Files\Trend Micro

Delete these files from their locations –

C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\tmtdi.sys
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\tmxpflt.sys
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\TM_CFW.sys
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\vsapint
c:\ WINDOWS \tmasca.exe

Now close all open windows and then perform the following steps-

  1. Click on Start and then click on Run.
  2. Type Regedit and Click on OK.
  3. Delete the following keys.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Trend Micro\tmasea

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Antispyware Engine Agent

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Antispyware Client Agent

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersionUninstall\{E106F686-3F2F-45B8-9B38-932DE0B6E788}

Boot the system in normal mode once all the folders and keys are deleted.

Using third party software – You can use the software listed below to remove Trend Micro from the system completely. For instance, Perfect Uninstaller is an uninstaller application that provides a force uninstall option to remove all the files and folders from the system. RegGenie is a registry tool that you can use to clean up all the registry keys related to Trend Micro to ensure complete removal of the software.