Afraid to remove current protection..

[b]Hello

I am NOT good at HiTech and am rather leery of messing around with things on my PC.

The Problem:
My new PC came with a trial time of Norton, and it has now expired… or the subscriptions have… not real clear on all that.

So now I am thinking of getting Avast on the new one, but am afraid to remove the Norton (and there are more than 1 mention of Norton on my “add/remove” thingy… so am confused)…lol
I had Avast on my old PC, but that one didnt have much on it before, so didn’t really have to deal with this before.

I read that it was recommended that previous antivirus programs be removed… But … umm…do i have to?
Is there any way i can try Avast on the new PC with out losing the protection I already have?

Ok. I know I have probably just confused you by now… but just think of how bad off I must be to sound this way…LOL

Any and all help greatly appreciated.

ps=I have no clue how to do things like this forum, so if i have messed it up too badly… please forgive.
I read the instuctions as best as i could but … they really dont help much!
I just wanted to ask a question, but no where did i see anything that said “how to ask a question” . LOL

Thanks bunches … [/b]

Hi LadyJ91, and welcome.

If your Norton subscription has expired then the protection you percieve is becoming less by the minute. It will only be able to detect older, known virii but but will not be able to protect against the many new ones being written.

Since your Norton is stale now anyway, why not do it right and get Norton off your computer first? You could try installing avast! without doing this but the chance of success is sort of slim.

You did fine …

No trouble:

  1. Remove NAV through Add/Remove programs from Control Panel. Boot.
  2. Use Symantec removal tool (browse their site to get it, there are one for each antivirus series). Removing your Norton program using SymNRT.
  3. Boot.
  4. Install avast! Boot.
  5. See what you get.

Norton will mess your avast! installation. You SHOULD remove it before.

You’re not losing protection, you’re entering in the protected world 8)

:slight_smile: Hi LadyJ :

 You sound like me several months ago when it came time to
 "replace" Norton with Avast. At that time I noticed 3
  different Norton "components" in my Add/Remove
  Programs, which I uninstalled one by one. It appears
  Symantec's "SymNRT" program, that Tech provided a link,
  now performs that "task". So I would encourage you to
  click that link and follow the directions; however, do NOT
  do "Step 3".

:slight_smile: Hello LadyJ !! We were there a few months ago. My hubbie saw Avast on the PC mag website, I believe, so first we had to uninstall the norton AV , then we went to Avast website, & downloaded and installed Avast, and have been very pleased with Avasts protection !!. If your Norton is expired, you need to think about installing Avast, just follow the directions.
I’m sure you will be as pleased with Avast as we have been!!

Before removing any of your protection, ensure that you download the necessary programs/tools first.

Download avast and save it to your Hard Disk.
Download the SymNRT removal tool that can remove the remnants of a number of different Norton Programs and save that too.

Disconnect from the internet and follow Tech’s step by step instructions and you should be fine.


Welcome to the forums LadyJ91 & natcat. :slight_smile:

Here are the simpified steps to take :

1 - Download avast but do not install

2 - Download SymNRT but do not use

3 - Disconnect from the internet

4 - Uninstall Norton per above instructions from Tech including using SymNRT

5 - Reboot computer

6 - Install avast!

7 - Reboot computer

8 - Connect to the internet

9 - Make sure avast! updates shortly after reconnection to internet

I hope this helps you. :slight_smile:


:-*greeting everyone!!
When I posted about Ladyj being afraid to uninstall nortonAV;
I was trying to say that we have already gotton rid of NortonAV, and downloaded Avast, and we are very happy with it :slight_smile:
What we read that avast does, well, it does it!!!
Hope everyone has a great day!! :smiley:

Oh yeah! Feel free to come back and ask for help if you need 8)
Welcome to avast forums :slight_smile:


Yes, LadyJ91 & natcat …

Please come back often, learn more, and maybe help others. :wink:


Thank You and I will :), we make sure that Avast is updated everyday, & Avast is great!! natcat :slight_smile: