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August 25, 2005
Uninstalling Norton products
As a caller to this mornings computer help section on 774's Computer Help section discovered recently, uninstalling Norton security programs can be less than simple.
There's been some discussion on the topic in the Bleeding Edge forum, and I advised the caller that there is a program that can seek out those components that sometimes get left behind.
Here's some links: The Add/Remove Software approach won't work if some files and utilities aren't running. So try this.
And if you still have problems, SymNRT can be quite a help.
Posted by cw at August 25, 2005 12:24 PM
Comments
Firslty love you show on 774.
My Problem(s)...can you help.
I bought my HP (Windows XP Media Centre edition) at Harvey Norman in February. it came with Norton Antivirus 2004 and Norton Firewall. When the time came to subscribe (at about 60 days) I subscribed to teh antivirus only and used the Microsoft firewall function in Windows XP.
In the last coiuple of months I noticed that Windows automatic update was continuing to try and update files that it had already installed. I called the Microsoft centre and over two 1.5 hour phone calls, tried to get to the bottom of the problem. At their suggestion I uninstalled Norton anivirus.
I then spend another unknown number of hours trying to reinstall the NAV 2004 that I had paid a years sub for and finally gave up and downloaded NAV 2005.
I used their tool plus their free time...when I could get through to them to fially uninstall and install NAV 2005.
Nowe I have two problems. I have a Trojan Horse in C:/Windows/System32/diskperff.dll that Norton cannot get rid of...even in safe mode with System Restore turned off. The problem is that Norton cannot identify the type of Trojan Horse and therefore I cannot dowload the tool to get rid of it.
I also notice that the Windows update function is still trying to update files that are already installed...even though I rolled back the computer to mid June...under Microsoft's instructions.
What do I do now?
Jeff
Posted by: Jeff Gordon at August 25, 2005 12:57 PM
Repeat the post in the Bleeding Edge Forum. It might take several iterations and discussion in the forum is better suited to this job and the Bleeding Edge Blog itself.
HTH
Posted by: Ananda Sim at August 25, 2005 03:06 PM
Hi
SymNRT.exe does not always work as intended. It can leave folders/files behind. I speak from bitter experience. The only way to completely remove a Norton product isto delete any remaining files and manually edit the registry. (However, jv16 is useful in doing the latter.)
Posted by: Bert Smith at August 25, 2005 03:12 PM
UGH! I had this problem with a client's PC once - they had an ancient and long out-of-date version of a norton AV product which I uninstalled. The problem is that it left a registry entry in the startup for the TCP stack, so as soon as I rebooted there was no more network access. Quite a headache to debug and fix, that one. I often forget that the event viewer can be handy in such situations.
Posted by: Watermelon Boy at August 26, 2005 01:13 PM
It seems that Symantecs Norton products are a bit like the Pommy motorcyles of the same name. Neither are relevant in 2005. Both behind the times. And I used to ride a Norton Commando.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 26, 2005 03:14 PM
My usual approach is to remove all the Norton components through "Add/Remove Programs" in the Control Panel (including LiveUpdate and any other stuff) - I think a few restarts are involved - and then run SymNRT.exe. This has been quite effective on the various machines I have tried it on.
Posted by: rajt at August 28, 2005 10:27 AM