# Getting rid of ActivClient - the un-uninstallable program! yargh :(



## spaceboy_psy (Dec 21, 2008)

afternoon folk, wondered if anyone here has any insight into kicking the arse off this bloody annoying program? It's ActivClient by ActivIdentity: http://www.actividentity.com/products/activclient_family__home.php

It seems to be for reading smart card security card things (which I will never be using) and for all sorts of esoteric "security" purposes, which probably means letting MI6 into my computer to see if they can accuse me of terrorism 

HP must have put it on my laptop, i guess from one of the drivers or something because i recently did a clean XP install. Unless it came with XP Pro - ???

It's running 3 processes now (accrdsub & 2x acevents) plus sometimes it runs accoca.exe and I don't need it don't want it but I CAN'T get rid of it because it's not in Add or Remove Programs 

Tried just deleting the program files out of desperation but 3 or 4 were always in use and then it reinstalls itself on startup - the real insult! That was a challenge, now I'm determined 

So got Dr Delete - applied it to the whole folder - same again, reinstalled.

This looks like the next step - http://www.theeldergeek.com/manually_uninstall_programs.htm

... but it's a little over my head and I'd love to hear from someone more clued than myself first - is there a safer option? Will the instructions in that link work?

Cheers very much for ANY help offered in my little vendetta


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## Frank4d (Sep 10, 2006)

I use a batch file to disable Active Client on computers at work. Paste the following into Notepad and save the file as kill_active_client.bat (or some other clever name). Then double click the batch file to run it.

:: Stop Running Services
sc stop acachsrv
sc stop acautoup
sc stop accoca
sc stop scardsvr
:: Disable Services
sc config acachsrv start= disabled
sc config acautoup start= disabled
sc config accoca start= disabled
sc config scardsvr start= disabled
:: Delete registry startup item
reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run /v accrdsub /f


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## spaceboy_psy (Dec 21, 2008)

Awesomeness - thank you!

deep breath now, I'm going in...

aha - some are gone, but not all.. restart time and I'll come back - one sec


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## spaceboy_psy (Dec 21, 2008)

Right! Brilliant! accrdsub was still running after the bat, but not after a restart! AHAHA I can feel victory within reach :up: thanks so much Frank, you clever sod!

unfortunately - there is still one instance of acevents running 

Could this be because previously there were always two instances of it?

So is there maybe a line we can add to the .bat perhaps...?

EEEEEE so excited to be RID of this bugger!


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## Frank4d (Sep 10, 2006)

I don't recall if acevents.exe is started by one of the others, or if it starts on it's own. Is acevents.exe gone after a re-boot?


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## spaceboy_psy (Dec 21, 2008)

Ok, so accrdsub was still there after running the bat, as was 1x acevents. After a restart accrdsub was gone but acevents still there, just restarted one more time and indeed, acevents still here.

Annoying little thing isn't it! All these sneaky little processes starting eachother up like some nasty little gang.

So that you know what's there, in case I've a different version or something, there are four .exe's in the ActivClient folder:

accoca
accrdsub
acevents
acregcrt

now what next...


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## Frank4d (Sep 10, 2006)

Autoruns is a utlity from Microsoft that shows the startup items on your computer: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

It is like HijackThis (you may have seen mentioned on this website), but more thorough. If you can find the registry key or other startup for acevents.exe, we may be able to kill it too.


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## spaceboy_psy (Dec 21, 2008)

All gone! damn handy app, cheers for all your help mate

There were two ActivIdentity dlls starting up btw, but not anymore 

gone gone gone gone gone!

Many many thanks, again :up::up::up:


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## Frank4d (Sep 10, 2006)

Glad we got rid of it.


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