A friend of mine was talking about this the other day and apparently they (Mcafee) attach a hidden program to their software so that when you try to uninstall it you can't (unless you know where to look for the hidden program). It's to frustrate people into giving up and buying another (or an initial) subscription. I don't know enough about computers to advise you on how to find it but if you've got any friends who are that way inclined, I'm sure they will know what to look for.