Uninstalled a firewall in 7, but websites are still being blocked

[Dustman]

So like an idiot I decided to give Peerguardian another chance after a two year split from it. I junked it last time because Hotmail and MSN messenger, along with Windows Updates were among the things blocked which made it useless to me. I assumed with the time passed they would have addressed this somehow by creating a way for allow lists to be easily created but they didnt. Anyway now for the issue. I completely uninstalled PeerGuardian from both my Mac's Windows partition and other PC downstairs, however the sites are still being blocked. No PG related services running in the background, and everything uninstalled seemingly the way it should have. Any advice to point me in the right direction would greatly be appreciated as last time it did this to me (couple years ago) i eventually gave up and reformatted.

P.S. I also realize that this issue isnt really what this part of the forum is for but if anyone had some insight I'd be forever grateful.

 

[killerrobot]

Did you use the coupled uninstaller for PG or some other way to uninstall?

 

[Dustman]

Did you use the coupled uninstaller for PG or some other way to uninstall?

Yep. Went to C:\Program Files\PeerGuardian and then clicked the uninstaller. I even reinstalled to uninstall it a second time to see if that would help. I found a thread on their forums about someone having the exact same issue but everyone there called the person a crazy n00b and didn't offer any actual advice. Appearently the theory is that PG only blocks sites while its in the system's memory, however that's obviously not the case as a command line in DOS and a check of Task Manager revealed that everything was unloaded and gone. I am stumped.

I also checked the Host file and nothing was there that shouldnt have been. Is there another file somewhere in Windows that stores "blacklisted" ips that PG could have modified without telling me? Like some kind of bonus hidden "feature" PG couldn't have been bothered to tell the end user about?

EDIT: I should also note that it's done this in the past with XP too so it's not a 7 issue.

 

[killerrobot]

I'd double check to make sure nothing had been put into the startup menu.
Also, a superlong shot - double check that it didn't add any block entries into the Windows firewall.
After that, I'd startup in safe mode and try uninstalling it from there.
I'd also try running CCleaner or similar program to clear out the cache before a restart.
That's all I can think of for now.

I share your sentiments in PG's absolute lack of ease of use for permitting access. I tried it once a few years back like you and never thought about it again.

 

[Dustman]

I'd double check to make sure nothing had been put into the startup menu.
Also, a superlong shot - double check that it didn't add any block entries into the Windows firewall.
After that, I'd startup in safe mode and try uninstalling it from there.
I'd also try running CCleaner or similar program to clear out the cache before a restart.
That's all I can think of for now.

I share your sentiments in PG's absolute lack of ease of use for permitting access. I tried it once a few years back like you and never thought about it again.

Windows Firewall is off. Always has been. Seems pretty redundant to use security software from the most hacked company in the world. Start up folder is empty as well. I havent ever used CCleaner but I will give that a shot. I just really don't want to format again lol. I know its not a fault of Windows... but GOD I hate Windows.

EDIT: Also tried creating a new user account and any Microsoft related sites still refused to load.

 

[Dustman]

So ran CCleaner. Still not letting me log into MSN or Hotmail. This is getting extremely frustrating.

 

[Dustman]

Anyone else have an idea? Hotmail inbox is growing quite large lol