Cannot remove an antivirus

[bryankendall]

I have an antivirus software, Symantec, that was installed by my computer technician when he replaced my harddrive. I want to remove it.

When I go to "Add Or Remove Programs" I click on "Remove". It looks as if it is uninstalling correctly and gets nearly to the end of this process. Then it stops and I get the error message Fatal Error During Installation.


How do I get this Synmantec software off of my PC?


Thank you.
Ryan Fendal

[TBoneit]

You need to go to the Symantec website and search for their uninstaller. It will uninstall the Norton programs.
There instructions on that site to help use the uninstaller.

Beaware that the Norton uninstalller will remove all Norton programs not just the Antivirus.

Then when you are rebooted just go to the Program Files folder and rename any folder such as Symantec or Norton and also in Common Files under the Program Files folder there will be a Symantec Shared folder that ou should rename. Reboot to be sure no problems and if no problems then you can delete those folders.

I suggest that you keep the internet uinplugged from the PC until the Norton is gone and a New Antivirus suite is installed.

Good Luck

[hech54]

Google "Norton Removal Tool".

[bryankendall]

I bought this software PERFECT UNINSTALLER and it works great. Try it. I took out this software that I could not remove in any other way. Its great!

bryan

[PhoneMatt]

Norton Removal Tool is free. Just go to:
http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039?OpenDocument...ag&lg=en&ct=us and follow the prompts.

Be aware that if you use pretty much anything else but this tool to remove Norton Antivirus, you might have a major problem running parts of Microsoft Office, especially Excel 2003-2007. There is a major conflict between what is left behind from Norton and newer versions of Excel.

Matt

[oldfart13]

Doesn't always work. I have a client who just now asked me to find something else as this did not completely remove Nortons from his system. Kaspersky that he just bought won't load since it says that Nortons is still on the system. I have to find him something else since Norton's help is MIA....

[aedipuss]

make sure he ran it at least 2 times with reboots between each.

[RLT69]

Go to Norton's site and search for information on how to manual remove norton. Norton leaves behind alot of junk, especially registry keys.

Step one would be to unistall Norton using Add/Remove. Note: some versions require the Norton Install cd. The install CD has the remove function.

Step two would be to remove all Norton/Symantec installed programs, e.g., Live Reg.

Step 3 would be to use Norton's uninstall utility.

Step 4 would be remove registry entries that are listed in the manual uninstall instructions.

Step 5 would be to delete/rename all Norton/Symantec folders left behind.

That should remove Norton from your system. Make sure to reboot after each step.

[lordsmurf]

CCleaner

[INFRATOM]

Norton runs in kernel mode so, go to icon in systray and disable auto protect then go to services and stop and disable the services. Reboot the computer .. after that no file should be active and uninstall from add and remove. uninstaller may do the same Norton uninstaller is better because it can clean out everything. Norton is good it doesn't have much of a spyware and profile reporting. AVG even deep into holidays it has updates!! every time most programs look for update report your software profile and usage which is really you without your name well your IP address too which is close enough.