How To Remove Your Norton Products, Removal instructions for most Symantec Norton products Options

[tg1911]

Please post the exact error messages you're receiving, Bernie70.

[Bernie70]

Thanks tg, I didn't get the message when i used Firefox to d/l the program. I ran the program and I've successfully removed Norton. I deleted the program folders and the registry folders.

Thank you Lethal for your knowledge and excellent instructions.

[Roniez]

Just want to post an update,

There is new urls for the removal tools

they are as follow.

Dutch: www.symantec.com/symnrt_nl
German: www.symantec.com/symnrt_de
French: www.symantec.com/symnrt_fr
Italian: www.symantec.com/symnrt_it
Swedish: www.symantec.com/symnrt_se
Finnish: www.symantec.com/symnrt_fi
Danish: www.symantec.com/symnrt_dk
Norwegian: www.symantec.com/symnrt_no
Polish: www.symantec.com/symnrt_pl

[Orange Blossom]

Thanks for posting this. I'm going to try this out since there are leftover bits from Symantec after I uninstalled it.

Reason for uninstalling?

1) I had it free from the University since I was a student, now that I am graduated I was required to get rid of it.

2) It is a system hog.

3) I needed a firewall besides Windows

4) ZoneAlarm is much easier to understand

Orange Blossom

[Orange Blossom]

I ran the online version twice and the download manual version once, and I still had a few registry entries to clear out. But then everything related to Symantec, near as I can tell, was gone.

Orange Blossom

[Deele]

I have a problem. I want to install NSW 2002 (that's my favourite of Norton's) but when I install it (not mine computer) it doesn't install Norton AntiVirus! At the start of installation it say's nothing but in the end, when I start NSW, it shows that I haven't installed NAV! I think that on this computer was installed other version of NAV and it expired. Now, NSW automatically restricts to install NAV another time. Do any of theese... tools... that is used to remove symantec products, will help in my case!?

[Orange Blossom]

It is important when installing an anti-virus program that the old one is uninstalled. I have also found it helpful to delete everything related to the old one. Thus, using the uninstall tools mentioned in this thread will be very useful. You may find, like I did, that it will take more than one usage. I used the online method twice, then did it manually once.

Good luck,

Orange Blossom

[notb4coffee]

Hm.. i like how ppl suggest AVG free.....

Since in my experiance its the worst freeware out there.
it dosent remove 90% of what norton does.....

And almost everyproblem can be solved by searching the symantec website...
ppl are just way to lazy,

If it's "the worst freeware out there", then what's the best?

I'm preparing to unistall my Norton SW 2002 Pro Edition and go with the sugestions posted here:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic1628.html
and thought the AVG would be a good choice.

I've had Norton for the last several years (3 different products on 3 home PC's) and have always renewed my subscriptions annually for the AV definitions on each machine. If I had any problems I could USUALLY find the solutions on the Symantec site (I'm not one of the "just toO lazy" persons), even though they weren't normally EASY fixes but rather more of the type that would make a newbie run screaming to his nearest Geek Squad location instead.
Most times I had issues even with the installs...it never went smoothly on any OS. Regardless, I kept their products. Well, not anymore!
Today, when I went to renew my subscription for the product on my PC, I was informed it was no longer available for renewal. I could only "upgrade" to a newer version for $40.00. Well, none of the displayed upgrade choices would work on my system, as I'm running WIN ME. So I called Symantec and they offered me the 2005 for $30, but it was only the NAV product. It wasn't Systemworks or Systemworks Pro---that would be $70. After much questioning, the rep tells me that my software will completely expire tomorrow and then not work at all.....not just the AV part, but all of Systemworks (i.e. Cleansweep, Utilities, WinFax, etc.). Well, he's right. It won't work.... because I'm UNINSTALLING IT! Not only is the product a system hog like others have said, but it's expensive. Renewal would have cost me more this year than ever before. The rep said, "You're supposed to replace your product every two years.", which means to me that they're disposable. Like a diaper.

So, back to my question: which AV would be the best? Now that we've ruled out Norton.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions,
Mary

[Scarlett]

You could look here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic3616.html

It is a personal choice really . ;)

[acklan]

Hm.. i like how ppl suggest AVG free.....

Since in my experiance its the worst freeware out there.
it dosent remove 90% of what norton does.....

And almost everyproblem can be solved by searching the symantec website...
ppl are just way to lazy, and btw... LRsetup should be used when installing any "newer" version of norton like 2004, 2005,2006,2007


Edit:
just wanted to inform you, that SymNRT also now removes these products.

Norton AntiSpam 2004, 2005 & 2006
Norton AntiVirus 2003, 2004, 2005 & 2006 (includes NAV Pro)
Norton Ghost 2003, 9.0 and 10.0
Norton Internet Security 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 (includes NIS Pro, NIS essentials)
Norton Password Manager
Norton Personal Firewall 2003, 2004, 2005 & 2006
Norton SystemWorks 2003, 2004, 2005, & 2006

I would like you to qualify that statement. I have it on 13 computer at my house, as I have stated several times in this forum. I have personally installed it on over 200 computer in the last 2 years and find it an excellent program. I have replace Norton MacAfee and PCcillian on many computers and afterward determined that the previous AV was causing the problem. The 4 computer I am on 5 to 8 hours a day, all connected to the internet, have been running AVG 6 and now 7.1.394 and in three years I have not contracted a virus.
I have read others that did not like AVG for whatever reason but they were very specific in their complaint. The complaint in that context allowed others to make an informed decision. Yours clearly does not. This is a help oriented forum. If you are going to blast software we recommend here you could at least give us the benefit of you experience and explain your comments.
Does not remove 90% of virus'? Which ones? I would like to know because AVG email scanner catches 5 to 20 malwares per week between my computers.
If you search this forum you will find almost endless complaints about Norton but few about AVG. There is a reason you can find fixes for Norton so easily. There are so many. Countless users have pained over fixing Norton and that is why they loses quite a few customers at renewal.
I look forward to the long list of virus' that AVG will not remove.

[notb4coffee]

You could look here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic3616.html

It is a personal choice really . ;)

Thanks, Scarlett

Update on my Norton products uninstall: All of Systemworks did NOT "expire" and quit working as the rep from Symantec told me they would. I'm sure it was a sale/scare tactic used in order to get people to update their product on the spot. (Anyone surprised? Anyone? Anyone?) Of course, I no longer have the most recent AV definitions since my subscription expired 2 days ago, but at least my PC is still running smoothly. I'm going to do some reading and investigating as to the best new AV program for me personally from the recommendations on the forum and then do the uninstall this week after I make a decision. I'll post my adventure here on the board when I'm finished.

Mary

[TMacK]

I am so impressed with the SymNRT Removal Tool! Ran it once and other than a few e-mail's from Symantec that I had saved in my documents it got rid of everything related to Symantec.
Needless to say,that made the install of AVG and Zone Alarm firewall a walk in the park.
Thanx for the great information!

[scratcher]

I thought I should contribute with a little something to help you get rid of those pesky Symantec home user products.

Hi Lethal_Banana:

Thanks a bunch!

I 'uninstalled' [sic] NAV several years ago when, because of some sort of glitch, I found it impossible to renew my subscription and so decided to move on to freer pastures.

Your post has helped me to finally get rid of what I hope were the last traces of it - all 650 Kb of them ...

The question I'm left with is, if NAV is as some aver such a great program, why does it only pretend to uninstall itself when one hits the UNINSTALL button? Why involve the user in such a hassle in trying to actually get rid of it?

Now, you can reinstall your beloved Norton product ;)

Nice to see someone with a sense of humor.

Cheers,

scratcher.

This post has been edited by scratcher: Oct 31 2006, 08:18 AM

[scratcher]

I thought I should contribute with a little something to help you get rid of those pesky Symantec home user products.

To remove program folders manually

Browse to the following locations and delete the folders in bold.
C:\Program Files\ (Delete all folders beginning with Norton or Symantec.)
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec ...

Hi Lethal Banana:

I reported in my last post that, after following (as I thought) your wonderfully detailed instructions, I was enormously relieved to feel that finally I'd seen the last of NAV.

I was wrong. I missed a trick. I'm sorry to say that I overlooked your instruction about manually removing Symantec folders from Docs and Settings.

Some days after the cleanup, on poking around in Documents and Settings in my Win2K machine, I was shocked to discover in the APPLICATION DATA directories of two users TWO SYMANTEC FOLDERS!

I promptly removed them, made a backup of the registry using ERUNT, ran RegSupreme (a very conservative registry cleaner and my favorite) and was astounded to see it come up with a list of 1140 useless and obsolete keys, and this after I had cleaned the registry only a day earlier.

At first I thought RegSupreme had gone haywire as it's never ever come up with so many junk keys before, but since it's never been wrong I allowed it - after it had made a backup - to delete all 1140 keys. I then ran NTREGOPT, a registry optimizer, to pack the registry.

The result: a more than 200 Kb reduction in the size of the registry, a reduction of my bootup time by one minute, and an all-round increase in efficiency.

ALRIGHT!

I then decided to check out my XP system and sure enough found a Symantec Directory in Docs and Settings, removed it, made a registry backup, ran RegSupreme and once again it found 1140 junk keys which were promptly deleted.

After running NTREGOPT it reported a reduction in the size of my XP registry of 660 Kilobytes!

And, just as with Win2K, there were the corresponding improvements in bootup time and all-round efficiency. Both machines feel now as they did when they were brand new.

Many thanks and Cheers,

scratcher.



For ERUNT and NTREGOPT: http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

This post has been edited by scratcher: Nov 3 2006, 08:23 AM

[peter41]

Hi,

I'm trying to prepare myself for uninstalling NIS 2003 (which includes NAV, LiveReg, etc as part of the product). I've read the posts on this and other sites, including Symantec's) with interest - and some concern. I do not run any other Norton/Symantec products on my XP Home system.

If I've got it right, SymNRT is now superceeded, and now the tool to use is Norton System Removal Tool.exe? (Symantec doc 2006031710323113 last mod 3/11/06)?

Do any of you know how good - or poor - a job this latest tool (Norton System Removal Tool.exe, not SymNRT) does? (Scratcher - which removal tool did u use?).