Permissions issue with uninstaller and mb-clean tool

[Winter]

Setting up a separate thread for something I discovered along the way of fixing another problem.

I had to uninstall & reinstall Malwarebytes to resolve an issue.  I would start from just logging into the computer and not having and programs, browser windows, etc. open.

Running the uninstaller (Add/Remove Programs) had the following experience:

1) The uninstaller might not delete C:\Windows\System32\mbae64.sys...it completes successfully, but  a re-install will conk out because the installer can't overwrite it. ("DeleteFIle failed; code 5 Access is denied.")

2) The mb-clean.exe might not delete mbae64.sys either

3) Trying to rename/delete mbae64.sys can fail because access denied...and you can't take ownership of the file.

I lied to the computer - tried to rename the file to mbae64.sys.bak, when it popped up Access Denied, I ignored all of that and rebooted the machine with that prompt still open.  The machine came back up with the rename complete and I was able to delete the file.

I don't know where the problem lies, but I suggest that both the uninstaller and the clean tool need the ability to take ownership of this file in order to delete it...and me trying to manually take ownership of the file to delete it never seemed to work.

Hope this information helps.

[respinoza]

Thank you so much for the feedback, in our next release of mb-clean we plan on doing a post reboot confirmation clean up as well for files that are not successfully deleted before a reboot. We would have additional logging as well to confirm that nothing is left on the system. I'll ping you when this version will be ready.

[Telos]

@respinoza On the next mb-clean release please provide a preclean confirmation window that shows all that the cleaner will remove. Also the cleaner should create a restore point prior to taking any eradication actions. Thank you.

[Porthos]

Also might script the output of the key to the desktop.