Can't Uninstall NORTON!

I have Avast anti-virus. Every time I reboot I get an error message that Avast can't run because it's incompatible with NORTON.

I can't delete NORTON. And, when I try to uninstall it from the control panel, not only does it stop me from uninstalling it, but it wants to send a message to Microsoft that there is a problem.

Help! I hate Norton.

 

In my opinion it is the most virulslike antivirus program that ever existed. Maybe that is why you can't get rid of it? Sad but true. Did it come preinstalled - you have the disk? Then you could try reinstalling it and then remove it from add/remove? But I guess it is deeply rooted into Windows, and it won't be easy.

Cheers,

 

Try booting into safe mode and uninstalling.

 

If Safe mode does not work give this a go : http://service1.symantec.com/support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039?Open&src=tranus_con_sl

As others metioned norton can be like a weed with deep deep roots

 

I've also had a similar problem. My dad installed McAfee on a system that already had Norton Systemworks (I think thats what it was called).. Anyway, McAffee launched the uninstallation for Norton Viruschecker, but instead of it going out peacefully, it seems like it just ripped the anti-virus part out of Norton Systemworks. Then Mcaffe anti-virus installed with most of Norton Systemworks on the system.After that, he got an annoying pop-up from systemworks saying that some components could not be found and he needed to reinstall Norton (the pop-up didn't just come up when anybody logged in... It came up every 5-10 minutes, some norton service was running in the background on a schedule). Playing games on this system could not be done because it kept jumping back to the desktop. He tried to uninstall Norton, and the uninstaller kept erroring out.. I told him one way to get rid of it was to just reinstall Norton, and thus delete McAfee. But as it turns out, he bought the license key and stuff for McAffee online, and he has "lost" McAfee keys before by uninstalling McAfee, and Mcafee would refuse to issue a new registration or tell is the old one. [Thus losing the virus updates and such]).. So he didn't want to break McAfee which was working fine... In the end, he just deleted the Norton directory... Ugh.. And then he got nothing but "blah blah could not be found" errors.. So then I had to go in and clean all the Norton stuff out of the registry manually.

That was over a year ago.. That Mcafee key expired, and I uninstalled McAfee and installed the Computer Associates virus checker that our ISP gives us (Verizon). Its an awesome deal.. All 5 computers at our house have it installed now, and we don't have to pay any money for a subscription or the price of the software. Its included in Verizon's DSL service, free anti-virus and free adware for all the computers in the home with free updates and such. Everything is running great now.. btw, both Norton and Mcaffee were trying to force us to buy subscriptions for each computer at our house. All 5 computers protected by McAffee would have costed us almost $100 a year in subscription costs. And that doesn't even detect spy/adware.

To heck with Norton and McAfee, I'll never use them again..

 

Still can't uninstall it, but at least I think that I got it to stop running.

I tried deleting all the files in the Norton folders, but some couldn't be deleted. I logged on as Administrator and deleted them. Then - possibly for some unrelated reason -- the computer was locked. I'd never set a password, and couldn't unlock it. I did a Restore, and everything went back-- including all the Norton files.

This time, though, it brought up the User License Agreement, and I DECLINED it. Yay. It told me to uninstall Norton. And, I did. Then it said to restart the computer. And, of course, Norton is back. Again I declined the Agreement. I probably won't be able to uninstall it but, at least, it's not running. I may keep trying, though, just out of hatred.

 

I would suggest try using the link the daacon provided. It will remove Norton, and you wont' have anymore problems.

Several norton programs are like what you described. They are impossible to remove, but you can download software from Norton that will remove them.

SG

 

Go to the "Start" key and click on the "Run" icon. In the dialog box type "services.msc" (without the quotes). Probably some service is not shutting down when the uninstall process is running its routine. Why would anyone want to uninstall such a wonderful piece of software (read sarcasm).

Scroll down and look for anything related to "Norton" "or Symantec" and stop the services from running. Try uninstalling the application again.

If that does not work try re-installing (I know) and reboot. Insert the installtion CD again and at the prompt chose "Uninstall". This should remove the application completely.

Hope this helps.

 

whatever version of Norton that came on my T43 uninstalled without a problem. I didn't do any setup or anything on it though, so it might not have been fully installed.

 

Yeah Norton is hard to uninstall. There are tutorials online, just google it.

I hate software companies that make it a point to make their programs hard to uninstall, like Microsoft and Symantec (norton)

Just google the tutorials and you should be fine.