Removing Antivirus

I have been reading various posts here that reccomend having only one antivirus installed & I mentioned this to my son. He has 4 different ones installed on his Compaq XP so I suggested he remove all but one. He is afraid to remove them because there are a lot of quarantined files. He showed me the Norton quarantined file & it was huge.

What happens to the quarantined files when you remove the program?

Can you list the four programs?

Norton Anti Virus (expired), Spy Bot S&D, Advanced System Care 3, Webroot Firewall & CC Cleaner. After looking at his list, I'm not so sure these would all fall into the same category.

To get a new antivirus (which he needs) he would have to at least get rid of the Norton that has expired, but with all those quaranteened files, he's afraid it will crash. He purchased the computer second hand & there are no cd's to repair a crash. That is why I was asking what happens to the quaranteened files.

[Malware Removal Specialist]

Those will all work together.

There is no good reason to keep quarantined files. All you can do with them is restore them and re-infect the computer. Uninstalling Norton will not crash the computer and I'm wondering why he thinks it will?

Also an outdated antivirus is almost like not having any at all. It's very risky.

First download a new antivirus. Do not install it yet!

These are all free and are very good. Personally I use Avast Home Edition.

Remember to only install one antivirus!
 
1) Avast! Home Free Edition
2) AVG Free Edition
3) Avira AntiVir Personal

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To completely remove Norton/Symantec go to add remove programs and uninstall anything with Norton, Symantec or Live Update in the name.

Download the Norton Removal Tool (SymNRT) to your Desktop.

Once downloaded please close ALL open browsers, also save any work because this may require a restart.

• Go to your desktop and double click on the removal tool and then click Setup.
  
• Once open Click Next
  
• Accept the license agreement and click Next
  
• Type in the letters/numbers that you see into the text box then click Next.
  
• Then click Next and the tool will start running.
  
• Once finished restart the PC.
• Delete Nortonremoval tool from your Desktop.

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Now before going online install the new antivirus.

He was afraid removing the program might delete necessary files the quaranteened files were attached to. That seems logical to me as well since the antivirus program imlpies just that when it suggests quaranteening files. I'm glad to learn it won't. I'll print your instructions out for him.

Thank You!

[Malware Removal Specialist]

He was afraid removing the program might delete necessary files the quaranteened files were attached to.

I understand the reasoning but if I may clarify. When an antivirus finds for example an important System File that is infected by malware it will "strip" the malicious code from it and then restore the cleaned file back to it's proper location. If it can not be cleaned it will either go ahead and quarantine it or leave it in place then give you a warning of whatever action was taken. Once quarantined they can not be accessed by any program other than the antivirus to either restore them or remove them completely.

The rule of thumb with quarantined files is leave them quarantined for a few days. If the computer is still running good then empty the quarantine.