McAfee will not uninstall: error 1712 and what the MCPR tool really does

Fix it now

Windows Installer tried to undo a failed operation and could not find the rollback data it had saved, so the product is neither installed nor removed. All three codes here are documented by Microsoft, and the supported route out is McAfee’s own removal tool. None of it costs anything.

sc query msiserver

1. Restart the computer first. A pending operation from a previous attempt blocks the next one, and a restart clears it.
2. Try the normal removal once more from Apps and Features.
3. If it fails again, download MCPR, McAfee’s consumer removal tool for Windows, from McAfee’s support site.
4. Run MCPR as an administrator, follow it through, and restart when it tells you to. Read the warning below before you start.
5. After the restart, check Apps and Features and Windows Security to confirm nothing McAfee remains and that Microsoft Defender reports itself as on.

Do not delete McAfee files, services or registry keys by hand. Self-protection restores or locks files, and hand-deleting leaves drivers registered against files that no longer exist – which is the state that is genuinely hard to recover from.

If Apps and Features is clean and Defender is on, you are done. If MCPR itself will not run, the next section covers why removal strands itself and what to do about it.

Why it happens

Windows Installer performs work transactionally. Before it changes anything it stores the information needed to put the machine back the way it was, and if a step fails it replays that information in reverse. Microsoft’s published text for 1712 is exactly that: one or more of the files required to restore your computer to its previous state could not be found, and restoration will not be possible. The transaction can be neither completed nor undone, and the installation is stuck in between.

Security software makes that state worse than it would be for an ordinary application, because the parts that resist removal are the parts designed to resist tampering – filter drivers loaded at boot, self-protection components, and services that restart themselves. A partly removed suite can leave those drivers registered while the management layer that would remove them has already gone.

The other two codes point at the package rather than at the rollback. Microsoft publishes 1723 as a problem with the Windows Installer package where a DLL required for the install to complete could not be run – a custom action failing, not a missing prerequisite. 2711 is narrower still: the specified feature name was not found in the Feature table, which means the package is being asked for something its own tables do not describe.

MCPR exists precisely for this. It is not a smarter uninstaller wrapped around the same package; it goes after the drivers, services and registry entries directly, and it removes McAfee consumer products it finds rather than one selected entry. That is why it works when the package route does not, and also why it is worth understanding before you run it.

MCPR removes McAfee consumer products on the machine, discards their local settings, and requires a restart to finish. The computer is left without third-party protection until you install something or Microsoft Defender takes over. Do not run it on a machine you cannot restart promptly, and do not run it while connected to an untrusted network.

Full reference

What Microsoft publishes for each code

The bracketed placeholders matter. On a real failure they are filled in – 1723 names the action, the entry and the library, and 2711 names the feature. Those names are the difference between guessing and knowing, and they turn up in the MsiInstaller entries in the Application log even when the dialog on screen has already gone.

What MCPR does that Apps and Features cannot

What you are left with afterwards

Briefly, nothing third-party – and then Defender. Microsoft documents that Microsoft Defender Antivirus is re-enabled automatically if the non-Microsoft product expires, is uninstalled, or otherwise stops providing real-time protection, and states the reason plainly: to help ensure antivirus protection is maintained on the endpoint. So the window without protection is the time between MCPR finishing and the machine restarting, not an open-ended gap.

Check it rather than assume it, though. Open Windows Security after the restart and confirm Virus & threat protection reports an active provider. A half-removed suite that still holds the registration is the one outcome worth catching, because Windows will not double up on your behalf while it thinks something else is doing the job.

When MCPR will not run

• Restart first. A pending Windows Installer operation blocks it as surely as it blocks anything else.
• Run it from an account with administrator rights, not a standard account with elevation prompts.
• Start Windows in Safe Mode and run it there. Fewer of the components that resist removal are loaded.
• Check the Application log for MsiInstaller entries logged while it ran; they name what it could not touch.
• If a drive is failing, deal with the disk first. Removal writes as much as installation does.

What the removal costs you

No. MCPR is free from McAfee, and the uninstall problem has nothing to do with licensing – McAfee’s subscription is a record on your account and survives removal entirely. If you have decided to stop using the product, cancel the automatic renewal in the account separately; uninstalling the software does not do it. And if someone is charging you to run a removal tool, walk away.

Every code this article covers

Confirm the fix worked

1. Apps and Features shows no McAfee entry.
2. In an elevated Command Prompt, fltmc filters no longer lists McAfee filter drivers.
3. Windows Security shows an active antivirus, whether that is Defender or a product you have chosen to install.
4. The machine restarts cleanly with no new Service Control Manager errors in the System log.
5. No McAfee services remain in services.msc.

Questions people ask about this