Removing Norton

[GX1_Man]

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]

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

pk

[GX1_Man]

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

[Allochthonous]

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]

Thanks for posting back. Good luck.  

[Javen]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

PK

[GX1_Man]

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]

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]

Thanks for posting back.  

[Michael]

This tool has been working fine for me.