Can't get rid of Norton

Hi there

Help me somebody! Please!

My new Acer Aspire laptop, running XP, came with Norton 2006 , which I think was AV and Auto Protect. I decided to uninstall it, having had problems with Norton before and being a fan of AVG free.

I used the removal tool from MG and it was reported as sucessful, however, it still showed Norton 2006 as active in windows security centre.

I now believe this may be because I actually downloaded AVG free before uninstalling Norton. No problem I thought, I have a Norton 2005 AV disk, I'll uninstall AVG and Spybot S&D (which I believe can conflict with NAV), then install Norton 2005 then uninstall it, taking anything left from 2006 with it.

Nope, it now shows 2005 in the security centre as being active, even though I currently have no AV installed that I am aware of.

I've run CCleaner and Regseeker repeatedly, but am sure there are still registry entries for Norton.

How on earth can I get this either off my computer, or get it to realise Norton is not there?

Assistance, please.

 

Try this...

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

 

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showth...t=102968&highlight=uninstall+nortonp?t=103782

 

Thanks for the quick response.

Have already tried the tool Viet Vet, but will try it again.

RPG, your link doesn't seem to work.

 

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Norton_Removal_Tool_SymNRT_d4749.html

 

Just tried the removal tols again and it still shows 2005 in the security centre, this is driving me mad.

All suggestions welcome.

 

Sorry Have not a clue, I stopped using Norton a long time ago; I found it as helpful as a STD.

Good luck

 

...and a Whole Lot Harder to get rid of .........

 

You can try manually deleting symantec registry entries if your game.....

First thing to do is Back up the Registry(this is important).

The presence of uninstalled security software in the Registry can conflict with newly installed security software.
Go to Start, then click on "Run". Type in "regedit"
Go to the top of the Regedit window. Click (+) next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Go down the thread until you see Software. Click on Software and scroll down the thread until you see Symantec. Right click on Symantec and choose "Delete".
From there go down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and repeat step 3. Restart your PC.
Click (+) next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, now: Click (+) next to Software, Click (+) next to Microsoft, Click (+) next to Windows and Click (+) next to CurrentVersion.
Select the Run folder. Right-click and delete each Symantec entry you see (if present). Restart your PC.

Introduction to the registry:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/registry

 

This is officially now beyond a joke.

Because it is a new machine with nothing of importance saved, I decided to to a reinstall from the rescue disk, therefore Norton 2006 would be complete, shut it all down, then uninstall it using the removal tool.

Did that and it still showed as reporting itself turned off in security centre.

Went into safe mode and deleted every reference to symantec in the registry apart from one, that wouldn't delete. Rebooted and it is still showing.

Will this thing not go?

Please help.

 

Now THAT'S interesting. I do believe that you should be able to delete any entry in the windows registry, at any time, for any reason. Not, of course, that I freely recommend it...

There must be something that you are missing, but I admit (quite unhelpfully) that I can't imagine what it is.

 

Do you use Ad-Watch? I had the same problem, not being able to get rid of Norton and McAfee. After each reboot, Ad Watch put things back the way they were. This is what it is designed to do, unless you don't want it to. This drove me nuts for months. It was a happy day when it was resolved.

 

No I don't have Adwatch, Raleigh86.

I reinstalled from recovery disk, so what is on there now is really just the facory preoaded stuff (a lot of it).

I even disabled Norton 2006 in services.msc before using the tool recommended by RPG, which I'd used previously on another machine successfully.

After using the tool there is a Symantec shared folder that will not delete in normal mode beccause it says it is being used by another program, but deletes OK in safe mode.

 

Well, I've finaly got rid of it, or as good as.

This has caused me so much hassle and has wasted so much time, I really need to consider how I can best take up my complaint with Symantec. I intend to hound them.

After I used their removal tool last time I did a search with RegSeeker and still found 62...Yes....62 symantec reg items. This was where I lost my head and deleted the lot. Although I checked they were all symantec after a reboot my machine was officially dead.

I got the message windows\system32\config\system is missing or corrupt, etc. From this point I couldn't do anything as it wouldn't go into recovery centre.

I had to get into my bios settings (I thank MG for getting me through this) to get it to boot from CD first and then set facory defaults again.

This may have been my fault, I don't really know, but if it hadn't been for them, I wouldn't have been in that position.

I've managed to remove it from the windows security centre, by disabling everything to do with norton & symantec in services.msc and msconfig, disabling everything I could find. Then using add/remove and then the tool.
Even though everything is supposed to be removed with the tool I still had to manually delete two programme files and I know there is still a lot on the machine in the background. I suppose this will all go over time when I use CCleaner and a reg editor at some point down the line.

I think that any program that takes this amount of work and generates the amount of traffic on the web regarding it's removal is no more than a rogue programme and should be classed as malware.

If any of the superb guys on the malware forum could produce a sticky for it's removal, it would be justified and in the right place.

Rant over. Thanks to those who's help I have appreciated.

 

Rob, what keywords did you use when searching for Norton in your registry?

 

Yeah, I was wondering too if he searched only for Symantec, or also for Norton...

 

I used both symantec and norton when searching.

 

AND21OB: Forgive me for referring to you in the third person when I posted after BLADESOFHALO; that's bad manners, I just didn't realize I was doing it when I wrote my post...

A possible solution, though time consuming (but perhaps worthwhile, considering the trials you've already suffered):
1. Acquire an installation tracking program. Though there are several, I cannot recommend any more highly than TOTAL UNINSTALL. There is a free and a purchasable version. Either is adequate, ridiculously simple to use, and extremely thorough. EVERY executable that I install on my machine goes through it.
2. B/U the registry.
3. Reinstall the NAV 2006 using T/U in the prescribed manner. This means install, restart if the executable requires it, allow NAV to startup, and complete the T/U operation.
4. Uninstall NAV using the NAV uninstaller, then uninstall using T/U. This is a slightly different procedure than T/U would normally be used in, but the program's authour (Gavrila Martau) has recommended it for "stubborn" uninstalls & cleanup.
5. Repeat 2,3, & 4 for NAV 2005, and b/u the registry again. Keep track of this particular b/u with some distinctive name-if you have some problem after the following step, THIS is the b/u you need to use to restore the registry to a functional state.
6. At this point you have spent something like a quarter to half hour. If your machine still has signs of NAV in residence, you proceed to the time consuming portion:
7. TOTAL UNINSTALL keeps a record of the registry changes made for every install/uninstall. You can print them from T/U which make the process easier.
Check every key (AND any subkey and values under those keys) that is listed for any remaining signs of ANY NAV or NORTON or SYMANTEC or LIVEREG or (Liveupdate-sorry, I don't remember the actual alphabetic spelling, but as I remember, it is a "shortened" version of the word which should be easy to recognize), then take a deep breath and DELETE all of them.
8. Restart. If you are succesful in removing NAV, monitor your machine's operation for a suitable timespan, and if no anomolies are found you can delete the registry backups. You have defeated the Dragon.
9. If you still find NAV on your machine, then the OEM operating system probably has some unidentified "trigger" that is still trying to run NAV and that is what is showing up in the security centre. You may never find it, but you can rest assured that NAV is actually uninstalled and then safely ignore the notice. However, if you still have lots of time to kill, you can compare all 3 registry backups for any keys that are unique-that is, not common to all three of them-and perform step 7 again on any that you find.
10. If you have problems with the operation of you system, use the backup from step 7 to restore to a functioning condition. This state is probably the best you can achieve, but any remnants of NAV should be benign and not interfere with your continued use of your machine.

To reassure you, I followed this outline myself two years ago and now count myself as a Dragonslayer.

Good luck, my friend, and remember to b/u all valuable data- in the worst case, a system reinstall is the worst that can happen (as with any computer problem)...

 

No problem Prisoner, I'm used to my wife speaking about me like that, ha ha.

I'm quite happy with what I've achieved so far, it has been a massive learning process and ironically I feel ultimately to have benefitted. Though I still hate Norton for it.

Your suggestion is very interesting and as I'm only going to use the laptop for minor stuff for a while, will definitely give it a go when I have the time.

Thanks again.

 

Someone has probably already said this but when i need to remove 2005 Norton i go download the trial version then uninstall after installing it. This might sound weird but when Rnav and Norton uninstall don't work this is the only option. You can also try Microsoft clean up tool. if you go the route of trying to cut it out of registry. also if you go that route use a tool called crap cleaner to clean up the broken registry after words. It has a back up tool Ive never used it but if your computer has made it to me then most likely I'm last line before reformat.

 

I know how you feel And21ob. My Norton Internet Security became corrupt. On startup computer would freeze and display some message about being disabled although I hadn't done anything.
After many hours on the phone to several people from Symantec who each spent hours with me my computer is still stuffed. It takes a minute to even open up My Computer.
Going through the Read and Run me I get to windows defender instal and I get a message "Windows installer could not be accessed"