Norton AV 2002 stopped updating for me a few months back. Fought with it for a bit, gave up and downloaded AvastAV. As all the post here state, Avast objected to running with Norton. I disabled Norton and, of course Avast still objects. Avast seemed to be scanning my email though, which is what I want mostly. When I decided to Uninstall Norton I found Windows AddRemove Programs refused to do it. I went around following posted advice about removing Norton. I found the Symantec Removal Tool no longer exists on the Norton site. I checked with FTP (Mozilla) too, and found all the RemovalTool folders on the Symantec site empty. I expect they’re rewriting it. Anyway, as all the posters say, that tool won’t eliminate everything anyway. I doubt it’d remove Norton from my Windows AddRemove list if WinXP can’t do it.
After an afternoon of following tips about manually evicting Norton, the next day my WinXP Search Files&Folders function didn’t work. I finally restored a backup of my C: drive to get back to square one.
Yesterday I did a ‘FREE’ download of PerfectUninstaller “we can uninstall what Windows AddRemove can’t”. If it worked it would be kind of handy. I just tried it. Soon as you want to uninstall something it takes you to a site where they want $40 for the app. This just MIGHT be worth it IF it worked, to evict Norton from my system. BUT… I have no faith that it’s going to work and I’ll be out $40. So… has anyone here any opinions of this PerfectUninstaller, or has used it? Or, of course, better yet, know what Avast uses as an indicator that Norton is running on my system?
As I mentioned above, Windows AddRemovePrograms would NOT work to uninstall. But I think I may have solved my own problem just now. (hopefully!). Free download of Total Uninstall 4 from http://www.martau.com/
I tried it on Norton2002, and holy smoke!, it ripped Norton right out of the AddRemove Progams list! Next boot Avast no longer was objecting about Norton!
I hate to celebrate too soon though, have to wait a few days and see what else I might have destroyed with my new weapon.
BTW, your link on the Symantec Norton Removal Tool is still not working for me.
Whatever you do…be sure to check your Programs Files/commonfiles folder for any Symantec/Norton shared folder to delete it manually.
Also check your “My Documents and Settings” for a Symantec folder there too. Same thing there too.
I had a 90 day trial version of Norton 2006 and was able to manually remove Norton/symantec from my Add/Remove Programs. Then used the Norton Removal Tool…which did remove a bunch of stuff…including folders in the Program Files …but not from the Common files.
Years ago, I had a HP Pavilion 504n 2 ghz, WinXP Home that came installed with Norton 2002. I later removed it through my Add/Remove programs because it was such a resource hog. Then used AVG Free, at the time. I did not have any problems with the removal though.
Choosing ‘a 2003 product’, the closest match to my Norton2002, I then choose XP, then get ‘connection timed out’. As I said, I FTP’d to Symantec and those Removal Tool folders were all empty. Perhaps we are using different Symantec servers in different parts of the country?
I do appreciate your advice, but I also have Symantec WinFax Pro installed. The first day I was trying to eliminate Symantec I Uninstalled that, OK’d the deletion of a BUNCH of ‘shared’ files. Next day my Windows Search function didn’t work. Lucky I have a great backup system (DriveImage7), I restored C: and started over. So… right now everything SEEMS to work although there’s lots of Symantec left in there. I’m inclined to leave things alone, at least for a while. Thanks for the advice guys.