Stop VPN from reinstalling?

I have BitDefender installed on a MacBook Pro and Mac Mini. I'm pretty sure BitDefender didn't have a VPN when I first started using it. I have another VPN that I use, which I've subscribed to for several years and am happy with. I've never used the BitDefender VPN, and don't want it on my Macs using up disk space and resources. The BitDefender VPN starts up every time I start my Macs, even though I have "Run at Startup" turned off. I've uninstalled it from both Macs several times now with the BitDefender uninstaller. BitDefender automatically reinstalls the VPN within a day or so every time I uninstall it. It does this without asking, and with no indication that it's reinstalling it. It just shows back up. I've looked through the BitDefender settings, and don't see any setting I could change that would stop the VPN from being automatically reinstalled.

This is completely obnoxious and uncalled for. I'm about ready to completely uninstall all of BitDefender and switch to another product because of this - even though I have a lot of time left on my license. Is there any way to stop this ridiculous behavior?? I Googled and found others having this same issue, but none seem to have found a solution. One person said they had contacted support about this, and support said it was a known issue they were looking into - but that was last year! Ugh.

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randw

Agreed! I tried to delete it and it says I don't have permissions.. so I try to set permissions and I can't again! And the BD Uninstaller in the same folder does not have the option, only to uninstall BD... Geeez how annoying! Why did this even install (and multiple times) without asking!

Paul_C

I have the exact same issue. It's driving me nuts - I'm sick of uninstalling Bitdefender VPN and then it automatically reinstalling without asking me. Luckily my account's renewal date is in less than 2 weeks - if it keeps installing, I'm simply going to move to Intego.

Anduain

Malware IMO. I have the same issue and will seek a refund as they don't care.

RussC

Exactly the same here. Annoying and obnoxious.

Krausz

In the same boat, support people promised that the next update would fix it, that was five updates ago..... am I missing something?

Kangajoe

I have also tried to uninstall Bitdefender VPN by doing the following:

Disabling the Bitdefender VPN Service in Windows Services
Disabling Bitdefender VPN in Windows Start-up to prevent it from auto-running
Uninstalled using a third party uninstaller program that also removes all Windows registry entries
Deleting the Bitdefender VPN folder in the programs folder on the C: drive

After all of that effort, the F****ING thing reinstalls itself on the next reboot!

I have also looked for somewhere in the dashboard settings and also in the online account settings to disable the VPN completely.

Alas, I have found NO WAY of getting rid of this annoying piece of unwanted junk from my PC!

So, please BITDEFENDER, will you take the lead here and make this annoying part of an otherwise good security suite an option that can be removed permanently?

Rather than ramming down my throat every time I restart my PC?

If you can't, I think you will find a lot of people, like me going else, and taking their cash with them!

stoe

Same here. I'm very annoyed that this piece of software default gets installed on MacOS. You can't disable it. You can't remove it separately so it looks at first. I stumbled across a thread on Reddit which was the solution.

Text from the source thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/BitDefender/comments/mobvup/guide_uninstalling_bitdefender_vpn_on_macos/

This little **** has been annoying me the past week. Somehow in an update it has managed to install itself without my permission.

Search for and open BitDefenderUninstaller in your Applications folder
Tick Bitdefender THEN tick "Uninstall VPN only"
Continue (it'll ask you to enter your password)
Done

Special thanks to this user on Reddit which pointed it out: https://www.reddit.com/user/Hi_Human_Im_Human/

Atreides

I've had it with this VPN re-installing itself with EVERY update on back end. I've uninstalled via the "Uninstall VPN only" method several times and am tired of it returning. Bitdefender has become nothing but bloatware at this point with this relentless upsell for VPN. Time for a new product.

jibbits

Suggestion for the Windows users, I can only guess that there might be a way to ****** the same thing in the underlying Mac shell.

This worked for me right now. I ran this under the Administrative command prompt - the 'normal' admin prompt will give you "access denied". Google it for more information to learn how to run it.

Run this command line to uninstall silently:

"C:\Program Files\Bitdefender\Bitdefender VPN\installer\installer.exe" /uninstall /silent

Voila, the BD VPN will be erased.

You can open up Windows Task Scheduler and configure a task to run every time you log in, check and remove it automatically. Try the command line above or you can input my ****** below.

****** that I created for it is below. Please test it, no guarantees that it is perfect. The BD team may change directories in future versions so watch for that. Copy everything from "@echo off" on down into notepad, save it as rem-bdvpn.bat somewhere, and enjoy.

@echo off

:: little ****** to quickly/quietly remove Bitdefender VPN.

:: this sniffs for the directory and file 'installer.exe'

if exist "C:\Program Files\Bitdefender\Bitdefender VPN\installer\installer.exe" goto remove

:: this will send us to the end of the ****** if there is no directory or executable above.

goto end

:remove

:: this silently removes the bitdefender vpn

"C:\Program Files\Bitdefender\Bitdefender VPN\installer\installer.exe" /uninstall /silent

:: this quietly removes the bitdefender VPN directory after uninstall is done.

rmdir /q /s "C:\Program Files\Bitdefender\Bitdefender VPN"

:: now we're done, go to the end.

goto end

:end

Eleni33

Thanks jibbits that ****** worked for me.

You don't happen to have a hammer for the 'let's forget the application password' by any chance do you??

reinstalling B@tSH*t Def for the 2nd time in days, just to get my password back, or morelikely fix what was bugging me and ignore having a password to secure the app entirely