Author Topic: Removing Norton (Read 9483 times)

Allochthonous · « **on:** July 12, 2006, 04:14:22 PM »

I will soon be removing Norton Internet Security 2003 (with NAV) from a friend's machine. I have always heard that Norton can sometimes be pesky when it comes to removal. Does anyone have any tips on how to remove Norton smoothly and succesfully and how to verify that it was done so?

PK

GX1_Man · « **Reply #1 on:** July 12, 2006, 04:22:24 PM »

Tips are on the SYmantec site on how to remove the Norton virus. Follow the instructions carefully!

Allochthonous · « **Reply #2 on:** July 13, 2006, 07:18:05 AM »

OK, all of the articles on Symantec's site say to use "Add/Remove Programs" first, and if that is not successful, then follow their instructions. How do I know whether the removal was complete? I am removing it to install another AV program, so i need to avoid potential conflicts.

I hate programs that are such a pain to remove, by the way. I am not particularly confident when working with the registry, so i hope that it does not come to that.

PK

GX1_Man · « **Reply #3 on:** July 13, 2006, 07:46:30 AM »

Just give it a try and then view the areas in question before attemting to edit it. BE SURE and back up the registry first if you have to go that route and never buy Norton again.

Allochthonous · « **Reply #4 on:** July 13, 2006, 11:06:21 AM »

View which areas? How do I know whether the Add/Remove route resulted in a clean uninstall?

I would never buy Norton. I am doing this for an older lady who was told that Norton was the best. Now she is having trouble and even though she has paid her renewal fees, they will not help her because she has not upgraded her program from 2003.

I would rather run with no protection than use Norton.

No program should be this difficult to remove and have that many removal tools.

PK

GX1_Man · « **Reply #5 on:** July 13, 2006, 12:40:18 PM »

2003 should uninstall fine. It's to 2005 on versions that had serious issues.

tekman22003 · « **Reply #6 on:** July 13, 2006, 07:59:36 PM »

Remove Norton as fast as you can. Every time I have used Norton I have and had nothing but problems, my suggestion would be to delete norton as fast as you can and install AVG which is a free antivirus program. I have installed it on every computer I own and I have not had one single complaint.

Allochthonous · « **Reply #7 on:** July 21, 2006, 11:31:28 AM »

OK, the uninstall through Add/Remove says that it was successful, but when I search for "Norton" I find a few entries left over. And when I search for "Symantec" i find a few there too.

Also, I searched for "Norton" in the Registry and found a few entries, but I have no idea what they mean. I am a Registry noob. I am prepared to reinstall Windows if i have to, but would rather not take this route.

How do I make sure that enough of Norton is gone that it will not conflict with the AV program I plan on installing?

Should I use those tools?

PK

GX1_Man · « **Reply #8 on:** July 21, 2006, 12:31:54 PM »

All the info you need to remove the Norton virus is on the Symantec web site. It is very clear. Just read it and follow the directions exactly.

Add and Remove Programs is not enough.

Allochthonous · « **Reply #9 on:** July 21, 2006, 02:09:54 PM »

I do not think that "very" is an accurate descriptor. The Symantec site states:

Situation:
When you uninstalled Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall 2003 or earlier through Windows Programs list or Add/Remove Programs, the process failed. You want to use the Symantec RnisUPG removal tool to uninstall Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall versions 2003 and earlier.

Solution:
This document provides the latest version of the RnisUPG.exe file and the instructions for using it. RnisUPG.exe is a utility that removes the program files and registry entries installed by Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall, for versions 2003 and earlier.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
Use this utility only if you cannot uninstall through Windows Add/Remove Programs or the Uninstall option from the Start Menu.
RnisUPG will not uninstall Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall 2004 and will cause errors if it is used for this purpose. If you want to uninstall Norton Internet Security 2004, read the document Removing and reinstalling Norton Internet Security, Norton AntiSpam, or Norton Personal Firewall (2006/2005/2004 versions).

This sounds to me as if one should only use the tools if Add/Remove is unsuccessful, yet to the normal user, this process SEEMS to have been succesful. It is only after further investigation using methods not know by the casual user (i.e. RegEdit) , that one discovers that the process was not succesful.

The casual user would assume that by "failed," Symantec means that there was an obvious problem that reported an error in the uninstall procedure.

I will use the tools and see what happens.

PK

GX1_Man · « **Reply #10 on:** July 21, 2006, 02:57:53 PM »

And you looked at this page?

http://service1.symantec.com/support/nav.nsf/docid/2001092114452606

If that doesn't get it for you ask Dave Taylor:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_can_i_fully_remove_norton_antivirus_from_my_system.html

Allochthonous · « **Reply #11 on:** July 21, 2006, 03:03:50 PM »

Yeah, I looked at that page too.

That Ask Dave page may come in handy. That was my problem. I did not know what registry entries to be concerned about.

Thanks.

Allochthonous · « **Reply #12 on:** July 21, 2006, 07:33:57 PM »

OK, I removed all Norton components that I could find in Add/Remove, then ran both the Rnav2003.exe (NAV 2003 uninstall utility from Symantec) and the RnisUPG.exe (Norton Internet Security " "). All appeared successful - the tools did create logs, but I am not sure how to read (interpret) them.

I see nothing that obviously looks like a Norton program running in Task Manager or in Startup or Services in MSCONFIG.

"SymantecNetDetect.job" was in the Task Scheduler, so I deleted it.

There were a few "Symantec" folders still sitting around. Some are empty - a couple have a file or two in them. - I assume these are safe to manually delete???

When I look in the registry under HKEY LOCAL MACHINE/SOFTWARE - I see no obvious trace of Norton. But there is a "Symantec" entry with "InstalledApps," "PatchInst," and "SharedUsage" beneath it.

When I look in the registry under HKEY CURRENT USER/SOFTWARE - I see no entries for either.

So, what should I do next to make sure that this *censored* program is GONE so that I do not run into any trouble after installing a new AV program?

PK

GX1_Man · « **Reply #13 on:** July 21, 2006, 08:18:30 PM »

Delete the Symantec and Norton folders and you are ready to move on to another antivirus. Where do you go from here?

Congratulations on removing the Norton virus.

Allochthonous · « **Reply #14 on:** July 22, 2006, 06:31:25 AM »

Before I proceed, I just wanted to add that when I do an actual "Find" in the Registry for both "Norton" and "Symantec" and do still find quite a few hits here and there. I just don't know what most of them are or whether they should be a concern. One site I read said to delete the folders, then go the registry and look in specific locations.
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_can_i_fully_remove_norton_antivirus_from_my_system.html

I followed these steps. (I did go ahead and delete those keys mentioned in my last post.)

Do I just ignore these other hits and move on?

Sorry for all of the questions. I have never had to go through so much to make sure a program was uninstalled.

By the way, I am moving on to Avast Home AV. I have been using it for over a year on all of my machines and have no complaints thus far.

PK

GX1_Man · « **Reply #15 on:** July 22, 2006, 06:55:06 AM »

I think you are good to go. You have done your homework.

The way Norton products (and many others) are and Microsoft's O/S you may never get EVERYTHING out without a format and reinstall, but you have no active issues.

Allochthonous · « **Reply #16 on:** July 22, 2006, 09:33:35 AM »

By looking in the registry, how do you determine what is "active"?

pk

GX1_Man · « **Reply #17 on:** July 22, 2006, 09:50:57 AM »

Use Task Manager (Ctl+Alt+Del) to see what processes are running. That is the easiest way to check.

Allochthonous · « **Reply #18 on:** July 24, 2006, 07:29:13 AM »

Well, Avast seems to have installed without any problems. It has been running for a while through a couple of restarts and an update, and no problems thus far. I think I have succesfully liberated this PC from the clutches of Norton.

Now I just need to decide whether to equip my friend with a third party firewall (Sunbelt Kerio) or just use XP Firewall. Anything too complex would confuse her, I am afraid. The same is true for Windows Defender.

Thanks for the help.

PK

GX1_Man · « **Reply #19 on:** July 24, 2006, 06:50:02 PM »

Thanks for posting back. Good luck.

Javen · « **Reply #20 on:** July 25, 2006, 12:26:45 PM »

After uninstalling 2006 on my 12th computer, I've realized Norton, while once good, sux now.

Go with AVG-Free it's better anyways

Visit
http://www.modernjaven.com

johnchain · « **Reply #21 on:** July 25, 2006, 10:17:28 PM »

Dave Taylor knows what he is doing. Any other hits could be references to norton or some other Jazz, norton is pretty much completely erased.

As for Avast....I think they're pretty good. I use Mcafee, not my favorite but I also never had complaints. My favorite is Kaspersky, in AV tests (where people purposely throw viruses at their computers and have AV's remove them) Kaspersky scored 1st or within the top 3. However, the reason it doesn't score well overall is because it's a little slower and very non-user friendly.

But that's just me.

Allochthonous · « **Reply #22 on:** July 26, 2006, 06:30:02 AM »

I used to use McAfee, until a little over a year ago when I had the most difficult time getting decent support for an issue. I got so mad at them for not reading e-mails carefully. It even went as far as a supervisor, but I still did not get resolution. I wasn't asking for much, just answers to my questions.

At that point I decided that it was stupid to pay $30-40 per year for something and not get support. What else was I paying for? Just virus definitions?? That is when I discovered Avast.

My friend ran into a similar problem with Norton. She was having LiveUpdate problems. They helped her for about 4 e-mails, then realized that she was using NIS 2003, which is no longer supported, so they cut her off. Even though she was past the time to get a refund (she had just renewed a couple of months ago) she still wanted me to get rid of it and go with Avast also.

I used to be a die hard PC-Cillin fan (back from around 1998-2002). That was a darn good product, then they went and got all too big for their britches too.

PK

GX1_Man · « **Reply #23 on:** July 26, 2006, 10:14:14 AM »

Quote

then realized that she was using NIS 2003, which is no longer supported, so they cut her off.

That really doesn't sound too unreasonable for any paid software, although I wouldn't use their current offering for free!

Allochthonous · « **Reply #24 on:** July 26, 2006, 10:20:41 AM »

I agree to a point I guess. Maybe I am just biased cuz I hate Norton.

PK

GX1_Man · « **Reply #25 on:** July 26, 2006, 04:19:31 PM »

They used to make a good product (pre-2003). I just can't believe how it has deteriorated, but that seems to happen to all products that SYmantec has acquired.

Some people swear by it. So, whatever floats your boat.

Allochthonous · « **Reply #26 on:** August 08, 2006, 06:40:42 PM »

Just as a follow up note: I was visiting the friend whose computer I liberated from Norton (with your help) today and after a few days' use (she had been on vacation), she said she now feels "free." She has noticed an improvement in performance and enjoys the low profile, yet trustable protection of Avast. She said that Norton prevented her from doing many things with all of its warnings and "protection."

Thanks again.

PK

GX1_Man · « **Reply #27 on:** August 08, 2006, 07:29:00 PM »

Thanks for posting back.

Michael · « **Reply #28 on:** August 10, 2006, 07:52:15 AM »

This tool has been working fine for me.

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Author Topic: Removing Norton (Read 9483 times)

Allochthonous

GX1_Man

Allochthonous

GX1_Man

Allochthonous

GX1_Man

tekman22003

Allochthonous

GX1_Man

Allochthonous

GX1_Man

Allochthonous

Allochthonous

GX1_Man

Allochthonous

GX1_Man

Allochthonous

GX1_Man

Allochthonous

GX1_Man

Javen

johnchain

Allochthonous

GX1_Man

Allochthonous

GX1_Man

Allochthonous

GX1_Man

Michael