Hello! Hope someone can advise.
I have Prey installed on my laptop (Windows 10). I’ve run a HouseCall scan and Prey seems to be implicated in a threat. I’m assuming this is a false positive, but thought I should check (see screenshot). I’m not sure what version of Prey is running because - duh - I don’t see where to find that information.
Comments welcome! Many thanks.
Sal
Hi @rng53, that issue it’s already fix for the lastest prey version, you can download it from https://preyproject.com/download 
Regards
Hi Javo, thanks for such a swift response. I downloaded the .exe file and received a series of messages: (1) ‘Prey seems to be already installed. To continue, we first need to remove the existing version. Shall we proceed?’. I clicked Yes. (2) ‘Are you sure you want to completely remove Prey and all of its components? This may take a while’. I clicked Yes. (3) ‘Something went wrong when performing the uninstall routine. Cannot continue.’ I clicked OK. (4) ‘Yikes, can’t proceed with the update. Please make the C:\WINDOWS/Prey folder is removed, and try again’. I clicked OK.
Next I went to Start>Settings>Apps to find Prey so I could remove it manually. It doesn’t appear! - at least, not under ‘Prey’.
Running out of ideas now, can you advise further please?
Many thanks
Sal
p.s. have found a ‘Prey’ folder now (though not in my list of Apps). It contains an Uninstall .exe file, see image below. However, I was checking it before clicking ‘yes’, and tried to see the publisher’s certificate, but nothing happens when I click that option. Can this be right? thanks.
Wow! Thank you for letting us know that! Gonna fix it as soon as I can.
The idea is that Prey is hidden, so a thief can’t be aware that the application is installed, that’s why you couldn’t find on your apps list.
Were you able to uninstall prey successfully?
Let me know if you need any help
Regards,
Javo
Thanks, Javo. Before I click ‘yes’ on that uninstall.exe, can you confirm it really is from Prey? It is completely anonymous and the ‘show information about the publisher’s certificate’ link doesn’t work. I haven’t liked to risk running it as it looks dodgy!
If it’s inside C:\Windows\Prey I can confirm is from Prey
OK, this is where we’re up to now…I confirmed the uninstall and it got partway through before the message shown below appeared. Can you advise further, please? Many thanks Javo.
Ok, I need to see your uninstall log to see what’s wrong, the file is in C:\Users%your_user%\AppData\Local\Temp\prey-uninstall.log, you can attach de file here or simply paste the content.
Also it’d be useful if you tell me (or a screenshot of) which files and dirs do you have into C:\Windows\Prey.
Sorry for the troubles.
Regars,
Javo
The prey-uninstall.log text file is blank. (Incidentally the AppData file isn’t easy to find - in case anyone else might find the information useful, I discovered how to access it via this PC World link..
Here’s the screenshot showing the contents of the C:\Windows\Prey folder. Thanks for your continuing help!
Hi Javo - I wonder if you can advise further on this, please? The screenshot you asked for is in my previous post, but the prey-uninstall.log text file you also asked for is blank so I can’t forward that info to you.
What should I do now?
Many thanks.
Hello - if Javo or any other Prey expert reads this, I’ll be very grateful for your comment! I was able to provide some of the information that Javo requested (see thread), so perhaps he is still working on this?
Many thanks in advance.
Hi @rng53,
Sorry for the long delay… Could you please check in your Task Manager if there’s a process called ‘Execution Service’ and ‘Node.js: Server-side Javascript’ ?
If those processes aren’t there you can just delete the C:\Windows\Prey folder and install it again normally.
Let me know how it goes.
Regards,
Javo
Thanks, Javo. Yes, there’s a process called 'Execution Service (32 bit) and one called ‘Node.js: Server-side Javascript (…’.
(is that good news or bad news?!)
Hi @rng53, that means the prey process is still running.
Can you run this cd C:\Windows\System32 then wmic product where name="Prey Anti-Theft" call uninstall as Administrator in your command prompt? (The command takes a little while to execute)
That should kill the processes and leave your C:\Windows\Prey folder without the ‘versions’ dir, then you could just delete the Prey folder and reinstall.
Let me know if you have any doubt.
Regards,
Javo
Hi Javo, thanks for your message. We tried to follow the steps you mention, but still had problems (which explains my delay in responding - I waited until I could ask someone more familiar with computers to take a look). It’s sorted now, after following the directions on this Prey web page and the directions under ‘This still doesn’t work’. So we unistalled Prey and reinstalled it, and it looks fine now.
Many thanks!