norton removal

[themuddaload]

Hi. I just ordered a new laptop, and unfortunately it comes preloaded with a 30 day Norton antivirus trial. =(

Can anyone direct me to a good, free, not a virus, Norton removal program?

(the OS is vista ultimate, dunno if its 32 or 64 [I haven't touched a vista computer for more than 2 minutes at sam's club once, so I dunno if being 64 would make much of a difference]</noobreveal>)

[Skripka]

Hi. I just ordered a new laptop, and unfortunately it comes preloaded with a 30 day Norton antivirus trial. =(

Can anyone direct me to a good, free, not a virus, Norton removal program?

(the OS is vista ultimate, dunno if its 32 or 64 [I haven't touched a vista computer for more than 2 minutes at sam's club once, so I dunno if being 64 would make much of a difference]</noobreveal>)

My experience in the past has been that Norton is almost impossible to remove...short of reformat and reinstall with a vanilla OEM for sys builders disc.

[coastdweller]

My experience in the past has been that Norton is almost impossible to remove...short of reformat and reinstall with a vanilla OEM for sys builders disc.

You're experience is not even worth mentioning.

http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

[themuddaload]

You're experience is not even worth mentioning.

http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

Thank you sir. I will be sure to try this out when I recieve the laptop next week.

[HermanAB]

New machine? Get the Decrapifier:
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

No new PC should go without it...

Cheers,

Herman

[Keyper7]

Still, if you receive a vanilla Windows install disc, I strongly recommend you to use it. I don't know who you bought the machine from, but Dell and HP, for example, tend to add their own bloat.

[Skripka]

You're experience is not even worth mentioning.

http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

The last time I let Norton be in the same room as one of my machines was about 6 years ago. :P

[themuddaload]

New machine? Get the Decrapifier:
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

No new PC should go without it...

Cheers,

Herman
^^ has anyone else used that?

Still, if you receive a vanilla Windows install disc, I strongly recommend you to use it. I don't know who you bought the machine from, but Dell and HP, for example, tend to add their own bloat.

Its a Toshiba. Im not sure what you mean by "vanilla Windows install disc"

[Skripka]

Its a Toshiba. Im not sure what you mean by "vanilla Windows install disc"

He refers to an OEM sys builders disc-that JUST has the Windows installer on it--No manufacturer crap/bloatware.

[Polygon]

um norton is not impossible to remove

start > control panel > programs and features (or add/remove programs)

select norton and click uninstall. done.

[Sealbhach]

select norton and click uninstall. done.

In my experience, that doesn't completely remove it, there's still bits of Nortonware around afterwards. *ugh*


.

[handy]

In my experience, that doesn't completely remove it, there's still bits of Nortonware around afterwards. *ugh*


.

Are those bits known to phone home?

[Keyper7]

In my experience, that doesn't completely remove it

In my experience, that doesn't completely remove anything.

CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/) FTW!

[handy]

In my experience, that doesn't completely remove anything.

CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/) FTW!

:lolflag:

I see nothing has changed over the last few years on that front.

[Polygon]

i had norton 360 installed on my laptop, and just uninstalling it from program files completely removed the program. No remaining processes left running after that (and i have checked)

[zmjjmz]

i had norton 360 installed on my laptop, and just uninstalling it from program files completely removed the program. No remaining processes left running after that (and i have checked)

Well ofc, you deleted all the binaries.
It could still leave bits of crap in the registry.

[Polygon]

Well ofc, you deleted all the binaries.
It could still leave bits of crap in the registry.

and does that matter? ive been running my laptop for 6 months after i uninstalled it and its still perfectly fine.

[handy]

Bit's & pieces left floating around in the registry were particularly common on 95 through XP, I don't know about Vista as I have had nothing to do with it at all.

I'm speaking about general software removal on windows, not just Symantec's products.

[ghindo]

um norton is not impossible to remove

start > control panel > programs and features (or add/remove programs)

select norton and click uninstall. done.I work at a computer help desk, and I generally find it to be a bit more difficult than that.

When we need to remove any Norton/Symantec product, we generally run the Norton Removal Tool linked in this thread, as we find that if we do not, it can conflict with future anti-virus installs.

[etnlIcarus]

To answer the thread question: Avira AntiVir.

AVG is another, more common option but recently, I've seen a lot of complaints about it's heuristics quarantining benign files and occasionally borking the system.

I used AntiVir for several years and found that it works fine - though sometime over the last couple of years the new owners have made it considerably heavier on system resources. I wouldn't recommend it for really old systems.

[Keyper7]

To answer the thread question: Avira AntiVir.

Uh, I think that wasn't the thread question.

I do agree that Avira's detection rate is very good, though. I personally prefer Avast because of its password system and boot-time check, but Avira never caused problems for me other than the annoying upgrade ads.

Nowadays I'm trying Comodo's Security Suite. I've always liked their firewall so I'm giving their antivirus a shot.

[dragos240]

Why not just install ubuntu? If it comes with vista, wouldn't you rather jump off a building?

[themuddaload]

Why not just install ubuntu? If it comes with vista, wouldn't you rather jump off a building?

no.

ubuntu will have a nicey spot on a removable hd.

[dragos240]

no.

ubuntu will have a nicey spot on a removable hd.

Oh, and apt-get has super cow powers, and aptitude does not have super cow powers.

[him610]

Can anyone direct me to a good, free, not a virus, Norton removal program?

Go the the symantec website. There is an uninstaller available for download.

I can attest to this because my work laptop came with it. After asking the same question, and receiving the same advice, I downloaded and ran it, and by the way, the uninstaller does work.

Cheers from
Location: (39.791500 N 76.951815 W)

[jerrrys]

i removed norton from wife's computer early last year. used the norton uninstall which did leave junk behind. i went through the files and register, but never know how good that is. then today i seen this, hooked up to the link and did a norton reclean just to see. wellll...it took a little while to do, but it never really tells you if it removed anything so i guess no harm done. just cant say if any good came of this cleaning

[timberjack]

I once had the same problem with kaspersky-av on a vista pc, it had to be removed with a special kaspersky tool before letting me install another av

To be honest i thought it was creepy ;)

even after using the tool the registry still had kaspersky entries.

[themuddaload]

Personally, I don't see why computer companies would preload your brand new shiny computer with crap that is just short of being a virus/malware. Do they get paid by the software companies to put on their software?


oh, and side question -
What is the latest version of ubuntu? its been a long time since I have done much with linux. (gonna have to try out beryl as well, I've always been a glutton for eye candy.)

[Skripka]

Personally, I don't see why computer companies would preload your brand new shiny computer with crap that is just short of being a virus/malware. Do they get paid by the software companies to put on their software?


oh, and side question -
What is the latest version of ubuntu? its been a long time since I have done much with linux. (gonna have to try out beryl as well, I've always been a glutton for eye candy.)

1) Yes.

2) Intrepid Ibex or 8.10

[MaxIBoy]

oh, and side question -
What is the latest version of ubuntu? its been a long time since I have done much with linux. (gonna have to try out beryl as well, I've always been a glutton for eye candy.)


Didn't you know? Beryl's been dead for a long time. Also, the "Compiz Fusion" project (a stopgap project to merge Beryl back into Compiz) has served its purpose and is now dead as well.
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/2743/chistory2pe1.png
http://smspillaz.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/compiz-an-interesting-history/

[abn91c]

Uninstall norton from add/remove programs or use the removal tool mentioned in the other posts, Reinstalling windows is very bad advice and a waste of time. CCleaner will clean the regitry also safely

[Exershio]

Uninstall norton from add/remove programs or use the removal tool mentioned in the other posts, Reinstalling windows is very bad advice and a waste of time. CCleaner will clean the regitry also safely

How is it very bad advice? I personally would NEVER use a computer without first reformatting and reinstalling Windows (if I wanted to use Windows). I can't stand all the bloatware that comes from Toshiba/HP/etc

Plus, reinstalling windows takes like... an hour or two at most, depending on how familiar you are with the process.

[yther]

Most likely he will not get a vanilla Windows disc, however. I had to reload the OS on my boss' machine after the HDD croaked, and what they had from Toshiba took over two hours to run and loaded all of the factory bloatware back on. Oh well, she had never removed it before, so no real difference in the end. :P

[BGFG]

Never had the norton uninstall problem. never installed it or had a machine preinstalled. What i would suggest for your new machine as a totally free and very functional suite of free apps that work amazingly well:

Avira/Avast - Best Free antivirus options
Kerio Sunbelt - Firewall (comodo always gives me stability issues for some reason)
SandboxIE - No malware, period. (amazing for working with known infected files also)
CCleaner - General file and registry cleaner
Defraggler - one of the best defrag tools today
Recuva - deleted file recovery
Easy Cleaner - More machine maintenance/optimization
SIW - complete system information

I'm in Xp right now and this is my lineup. check http://www.techsupportalert.com/ for all the above and more. Enjoy your new machine.

[themuddaload]

Anyone know which of these work for vista 64 bit? It sounds like alot of them don't work on a 64 bit os.

thanks.

[BGFG]

Just visit the link i gave. there is a 64 bit section. Also, all the software I listed are listed there. So you will get the info you need.

[themuddaload]

Yeah, I went to that site, and found the 64 bit section, but like none of them are natively 64, and they don't work 100% as well.