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

Using the SymNRT removal tool

Use SymNRT only if you have tried to uninstall the Norton program using Windows Add/Remove Programs. Even if this works, you should run the tool anyway.


Programs that SymNRT can remove
SymNRT removes these--and only these--Norton programs:

* Norton AntiVirus 2004/2005/2006
* Norton AntiVirus Professional 2004
* Norton AntiVirus 3, 5 and 10 User Pack 2004/2005/2006
* Norton SystemWorks 2004/2005 Professional Edition
* Norton SystemWorks 2005/2005/2006 Premier
* Norton SystemWorks 2006
* Norton SystemWorks 2006 Basic Edition
* Norton Password Manager 2004
* Norton Internet Security 2004/2005/2006
* Norton Internet Security 5 and 10 User Pack 2004/2005/2006
* Norton Personal Firewall 2004/2005/2006
* Norton AntiSpam 2004/2005/2006
* Norton Ghost 2003/9.0/10.0

All you need to do is to download the tool by clicking here.

Removing NAV/NIS 2003 and earlier products

Download the following tools:

Rnav2003.exe
RnisUPG.exe
SYMCLN.exe

Now, after you have ran the tool(s) and rebooted your computer, go ahead with the following steps:

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

Deleting registry entries

Go to Start>Run and type regedit.
Click OK.

Browse to the following locations and delete the folders in bold:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Symantec
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec OLS Tools

Now that this is done, go to Edit, and do a Find for symantec, and delete whatever folders that comes up. CLSIDs etc should get removed by the tools.

Reinstalling your Norton products

Delete your temporary files by going to Start>Run and type %temp%.
Click OK.
Delete all the items in the folder, if some of them can't be removed - don't worry about it.

Now, if you are installing a Norton 2004 program, download and run the following tool:

LRSetup.exe

You might get a "Publisher cannot be verified" message from the SP2 Security Center. Just Run it.

Now, you can reinstall your beloved Norton product ;)

Should not a warning and instructions on backing up the registry
be included?

I love you for posting this.

At your request...

Although SymNRT is still available for download the old link for the SymNRT removal page is now redirected to the Norton Removal Tool which uninstalls ALL Norton 2007/2006/2005/2004/2003 products from your computer. (skip step 3 if your not going to reinstall your Norton product)

Note: Previously, there were two options available for this tool: On line removal using Internet Explorer and Manual File Download. Symantec has incorporated these two removal methods into one which simply involves downloading and running the tool.

Also see: Manual uninstallation documents for Symantec Client Security products
(including Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition and Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition)
Document ID:2002031914291648
Last Modified:06/06/2006

why we removing norton? is it a bad program? i just download a trial of its antivirus i didnt install yet but should i just delete it?

It is obviously a good program. If not they would be out of buniess. Some system do not run it very well for different reasons. Some it's software conflicts. For me it uses too much of my system's resources.
There are several very good freeware antivirus, antispyware, and firewall programs that are as good if not better than the subscription versions. As a matter of fact all of the freeware AVs have subscription versions also.
I use the Free Edition of AVG Antivirus. In the following link you will find several more to choose from.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic3616.html

bryan123456789.
I used to use Norton (2002) and didn't have any problems with it.
My only complaints, was the cost, and that it uses so much of your system resources.
In 2002, it was only an antivirus, and didn't include all of the other junk (firewall, etc.) it comes bundled with now.
It seems the more they add to the program, the more problems people are having with it.
That's why, in my opinion, it's better to use programs that are dedicated to one job, instead of trying to do everything.
You'll have fewer problems in the long run.
Do a search on this site for Symantec, and Norton, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

The last time my subscription was due, I didn't renew it, and switched to AVG.
To me, it performs as good, if not better (uses less resources), than Norton.
Not to mention that Symantec's products can be a real pain to remove, sometimes.

The link acklan provided, list several alternatives that work just as good as, any paid program.
Also, why pay a lot for something (Antivirus, Firewall, Anti-Spyware), that you can get for free, that will do the same job, if not better.

Just my $.02 worth.

I agree with acklan and tg1911. The information I provided about the Norton Uninstall Tool was not a recommendation to remove the program. It was "How To" information for those needing help with removing Norton. Symantec products can be difficult to uninstall if a user wants to remove it and the On line removal or Manual File download are two of the options offered to assist.

I tried to use the uninstall Tool.
It came up that I had to unisnstall through add/remove programs a program that I use ...ACT2000 which also seems to be by symantec.
The problem I have is that my subscription has expired, and there does not seem an easy way to renew it. ( subscription date reported as 12/30/1899), and following all the comments on this site, I am more than happy to get a free antivius program ( AVG?)
If I just remove the Norton Internet security 2005 in the system.. add/remove .. will that be enough?
I run windowsXP professional.
Any help would be really appreciated.. I hope that this post makes some sense.
cheers

Install AVG free, and then Uninstall Norton.

Make sure you have a firewall (like Zonealarm free) running too.

AVG:
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/289/lng/us/tpl/tpl01

Software firewalls with freeware versions
(Run only one and disable the ineffective Windows XP firewall)

ZoneAlarm (freeware) V. 6.1.744:
http://www.download.com/ZoneAlarm/3000-10435_4-10039884.html
(you can have only one software firewall running. More than one will conflict)

Comodo firewall (freeware)
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

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

has anyone just used the link on the Symantec website to remove Norton Security programs?

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgen...v_lvl=&seg=

The instructions for uninstalling the Norton Security programs seem a bit incomplete. For instance, how do I backup my registry and how do you delete the registry folders (ending in symantec). For a newbie like me, the instructions seem a bit complicated. I'm sure it has helped a lot of people though.

Used it about a month ago.



All that is required are the instuctions under Step 2.



If you are using XP, create a System Restore Point. For all others, go Here or Here .

As far as I can recall, the tool itself also removes the registry folders as well as the program folder itself; so you won't have to worry about it. You can doublecheck if you wish. Please make note of the quote below:

If you are uninstalling Norton security programs, are you having trouble downloading the program: symnrt.exe from their website? I've tried but all I get is a message that I have a firewall, etc...or the target computer wouldn't let me d/l the program.

I can download anything else on the next, cept this. thanks.

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

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

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

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

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!?

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

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

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

It is a personal choice really . ;)

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.

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

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!

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?





Nice to see someone with a sense of humor.

Cheers,

scratcher.

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/

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?).

I used them all.

If you had read my post you would have learned that they do a very poor job.

I just used the removal tools at the top of the page,(NAV/NIS/2003 and it is a life saver. Worked easy and as far as I can tell it did the job.
Installed Kaspersky 6.0 internet security.

Hey. Well, I'm hopeful that this situation can be resolved w/ Symantec/Norton...I could scream and claw my face over this tsuris. Oy! Who needs such aggravation? I'll get back to you and tell all. Thanks.
-Neddy

A few yrs ago I inadvertently included a hacked version of NSW in a e-mail folder, some time later I received an email from my ISP telling me than symantec was pissed that I was uploading illegal products and that I should probly stop doing that. I checked with the symantic site for updates and found that they had banned me from there updating service. Not wanting to have a multi million dollar company upset with me (lol) I immediately went thru the painstaking process of removing Norton from my computer (all regedit manual removal). Within 1 day of the ISP warning I started receiving spam, junk mail, and easily catchable virus's in my email account's. After 3 or 4 yrs i am still receiving up to 1000 a week, my email account has become some what of a house hold joke as i just open my email, select all and delete once a week my wife however is on the same network as me and receives none of these emails (or very few). My question to you is how do I stop this (the joke is getting boring) and is it just coincidence or is symantec sending these?? Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks Mmurlan

can you not just change e-mail address?

I tried that several times and the problem seems to follow me around on whatever address I use.

or a faster way is just launch regedit, search for Symantec and delete every string with that name walaaaaaaaa

Thank you, Thank you. I signed into BC specifically to find out how to exorcise Norton. I found your solution without even having to post the question.

Norton Internet Security 2008 is a good upgrade for NIS 2007 and NIS 2006. It seems to be less of a system hog and includes better and new protection; for anyone who still uses Norton/Symantec.

ty leathalbannana and all others. you took the fear out of this removal. im free (RAM)!!!

If you not planning to reinstall symantic products, I found some issues and other folders and files that need to go.

C:\PROGRA~1\SYMNET~1\SNDMon.exe /Consumer

C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files\AXXPEE.dll

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WholeSecurity

also if you used the anti spam w/Yahoo email you might have issues when deleting some folders after a search for "norton".
i had to first go to Yahoo email and insure the norton anti spam folder is empty. then delete the stubburn folder in your "norton" search. then go to you email and edit out (delete) the "norton" anti spam folder. since norton accepts hotmail, something similar may need to be done there to.

your also going to find the SymNRT in the registry. unfortunatly i did not take note of where it was before i deleted the key. sorry.

please some one who is more knowledgable ck this info. that could be most anyone here.

igo

I found this Symantec: Norton Internet Security version Comparison chart:

Click to view attachment

I went to the Download and run the Norton Removal Tool and there is a warning:

'The Norton Removal Tool uninstalls all Norton 2008/2007/2006/2005/2004/2003 products and Norton 360 from your computer. If you use ACT! or WinFAX, back up those databases before you proceed.'

I did a search files and folders and found winfax.dll. I clicked on it and got a 'Caution: ...These files are used by he operating system and by various programs. Editing or modifying them could damage your system.'

Needless to say, not knowing much about the inner workings of my pc, I am concerned to do anything that might mess things up.

Please help me!!!! I've deleted things from my old pc and had errors afterwards about not being able to locate certain dll files.

My pc has Norton Internet Security 2005 that was bundled with my HP Pavilion notebook and has expired.

Hi there

Hope you can help! I bought a new laptop and it came with a trial version of Norton installed. I haven't actually activated anything. I would like to get rid of it, but am very nervous of messing with the registry. How do I back up the registry, and more important, how do I restore it if needs be?

Thanks

Demystifying the Windows Registry The preceding link will help you understand and likely answer your questions.