# I want rid of norton.... (doing a spring clean)



## noname (27 Jan 2008)

I got a 3 month trile of norton when I bought my laptop & like a big fool who nothing about computers I went & activated it.

I didn't renew after the 3 months have expired, but cant seem to remove norton from the laptop.

when I try to remove it Manually I an given a message telling me that the programme is being used eventhough i have everything turned off.

can anyone please tell me how to remove this Sh*te from my laptop.

also it is time to do a "spring clean" on the laptop i have heard of a few reg cleaner programmes, but have also heard that you can do damage if you don't know what you are doing. any recomendations?


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## chris20051 (27 Jan 2008)

Is the Norton running in the background?

There's a few things you can do

1) Start, Run type MsConfig, click on the startup tap and untick and boxes with Norton and apply, restarts the laptop and try to unstall again
2) Start, Settings, Control Panel, click on Admin Tools, then services, righclick on any norton programs and stop them, then try and unistall

I use a program called ccleaner and found it best and its Free!!

best of luck


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## z109 (27 Jan 2008)

If the manual uninstall has failed, you may need to try Norton's own "remove our rubbish software from your pc" tool. Norton caused me no end of trouble on one pc, but removed itself happily from the other one.

Here's a link to the tool:


Be very careful, though - it can break your system - 
- back up all your data
- make sure you have system restore disks
- best to do it somewhere you have access to another pc so you can google any error messages that come out

Best of luck!


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## noname (27 Jan 2008)

cheers chris, I will give that ago after the dinner.

yes Norton is running in the systems tray (bottom right hand corner, if that is not the right term)

also when I look at the processes in the task manager ther is quite a list, how do I know what i need & what is junk?

thanks to you 2 yog, will be back if no joy.


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## noname (28 Jan 2008)

Hi, just an update on this, I have seemed to stop norton from running (at last) by stopping all the many norton processes. - i had to google each process name to find out which was norton.

but still cant seem to remove the programme, I am a little warey of downloading your suggestion Yoganmahew, because as I said I dont know what I am doing (& I worry abit weather the backup's I do are good enough)

now that Norton is stopped however the machine is running alot smoother.

I still have about 32 processes running - does this seem normal, are all the microsoft processes needed?


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## ClubMan (28 Jan 2008)

noname said:


> but still cant seem to remove the programme


Even in safe mode? What about:

The PC Decrapifier


> , I am a little warey of downloading your suggestion Yoganmahew, because as I said I dont know what I am doing (& I worry abit weather the backup's I do are good enough)


You should probably get help from somebody who does know what they're doing so.


> I still have about 32 processes running - does this seem normal, are all the microsoft processes needed?


Depends on what they are. Lots of things run as a matter of course even if your _PC _is otherwise "idle". You can do _Start > Run > msconfig _to run  to see what gets started at boot/login time. Or you could use the third party .


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## aircobra19 (28 Jan 2008)

In my experience I have found the only way is to use Nortons own application. Otherwise you'll be cleaning bits of it for ages. If it doesn't work. You might even have to reinstall it to fix the stuff thats broken. Then try uninstalling it again using their tool. I remember on one machine it took something like 10 hrs to uninstall one version of Norton. Its really is the worse software I've ever seen. 

If you consider it only takes an hour or two to reinstall windows and your applications (if you know what you are doing - and assuming you have your data, drivers, etc backed up) that can be the most time effective way to clean a machine sometimes. Perhaps now is a good time do a backup, take a note of the hardware so you'll be able to find drivers etc. Password, bookmarks, email etc.


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## BlueSpud (28 Jan 2008)

If it's a Dell, then DeCrapifyer is your only man.  No need to know what ur doing, it just runs & works......

I have used it a few times & plan to use it again in the future.


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## noname (28 Jan 2008)

will the DeCrapifyer work on a packard bell?


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## aircobra19 (28 Jan 2008)

noname said:


> will the DeCrapifyer work on a packard bell?



Does anything work on a Packard Hell? (only kidding).


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## Guest125 (29 Jan 2008)

Download ccleaner and use it to remove Norton.Remove the Liveupdate first and then remove any other programs associated with Norton.What av are you going to use instead of Norton? Be careful not to leave your computer on-line without protection.


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## noname (29 Jan 2008)

thanks caff, I don't use norton atm, I am using AVG, Spywareblaster & adaware.

I have figured out how to do a full system back up, unfortunatly before I figured out how to do this I lost the ability to copy & paste/drag, also I have lost my games (solitair/frecell & so on)

any more advice.


(edit; I accidentally deleted IE7  google seems to think it may be a problem with my internet settings)


OH & thanks for everyones help so far


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## ClubMan (29 Jan 2008)

noname said:


> thanks caff, I don't use norton atm, I am using AVG, Spywareblaster & adaware.
> 
> I have figured out how to do a full system back up, unfortunatly before I figured out how to do this I lost the ability to copy & paste/drag, also I have lost my games (solitair/frecell & so on)
> 
> ...



As I said earlier:


ClubMan said:


> You should probably get help from somebody who does know what they're doing so.


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## noname (29 Jan 2008)

thanks for the helpful response clubman, unfortunatly not an option unless I want to hand over €€€€€ (something I would rather not do, esp if I am able to do it myself & learn in the process)


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## ClubMan (29 Jan 2008)

I'm not sure that it would necessarily cost €€€€€€s. And you may even find some willing enthusiast who might do it as a favour or for a nominal fee. Fair enough if you want to learn but you seem to be doing it the hard way - especially if you have deleted a bunch of stuff off your machine because you don't know what you're doing...


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## aircobra19 (29 Jan 2008)

noname said:


> ...also it is time to do a "spring clean" on the laptop i have heard of a few reg cleaner programmes, but have also heard that you can do damage if you don't know what you are doing. any recomendations?





noname said:


> ...I have figured out how to do a full system back up, unfortunatly before I figured out how to do this I lost the ability to copy & paste/drag, also I have lost my games (solitair/frecell & so on)...(edit; I accidentally deleted IE7  google seems to think it may be a problem with my internet settings)
> ...



I agree with Clubman. I'll also add, how about fix one problem at a time. Did you sort out Norton yet?


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## noname (29 Jan 2008)

cheers aircobra19,

you are very correct about trying to fix 1 problem at a time, I got carried away with myself. 

If anyone is interested, I have figured out that I have uninstalled my accessories and utilities. if anyone can help it would be appreciated, 

I would rather fix this issue before I take up the fight against norton, which has improved, I have stopped norton running, but still can't remove it all.

anyhow I have backed up all my personal files, & am about to do a system backup (tried one last night, but the external hard drive I have was formated in a way where it could only take files up to 4GB) I have a feeling that I am going to have to reboot the system, I haven't done this before, can anyone be Kind enough to talk me through it?


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## ClubMan (29 Jan 2008)

If you don't know how to reboot the system then I once again reiterate my advice that you should get somebody to help you!


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## noname (29 Jan 2008)

fair enough clubman, but did you have to learn to do something the first time?
I want to learn how to sort things like this out.

if it bothers dont post on the thread, & if it really bothers you, please lock/delete the thread. Sorry.


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## aircobra19 (29 Jan 2008)

I won't touch a machine with Norton on it. Accessories and utilities are not the priority here. I'll give you odds you're going to keep messing with it until its unrecoverable and you have to reinstall windows. 

How did you uninstall the Accessories and utilities.


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## ClubMan (30 Jan 2008)

noname said:


> fair enough clubman, but did you have to learn to do something the first time?
> I want to learn how to sort things like this out.


You mean the original problem or the new ones that you have created in the meantime while trying the address the original problem? Or both?


> if it bothers dont post on the thread


It doesn't bother me to post what I think is constructive advice in situations like this.


> & if it really bothers you, please lock/delete the thread.


Why would I do that!?


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## noname (30 Jan 2008)

aircobra19 said:


> How did you uninstall the Accessories and utilities.



I stupidly went messing around with the "add/remove windows componants" in add/remove programmes. (I am not the only one to have ever done it)
[broken link removed]

although I am going to give it up for this eve now, it was about this time on monday night that I started to mess around too much for my own good.


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## noname (30 Jan 2008)

ClubMan said:


> You mean the original problem or the new ones that you have created in the meantime while trying the address the original problem? Or both?



both, but as aircobra19 said I sould really take it one job at a time.


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## aircobra19 (30 Jan 2008)

noname said:


> I stupidly went messing around with the "add/remove windows componants" in add/remove programmes. ...



Would it not occur to you to add them back the same way? The clue is in the title. "*ADD*/remove" etc.


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## noname (30 Jan 2008)

tried that, yeah that is a good clue lol, unfortunatly, when I do it I recieve a file cannot be found message.

I am in work atm so cant click on the links, thanks for the help though.


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## aircobra19 (30 Jan 2008)

If you stick the Windows CD in it gives you the same options to add/remove.

Its going to take long time (perhaps an unrealistic amount of time) to do this over the web, if you are going to reveal something new in every post like that. Or to put it another way. In the time period of 3 days taken to get this far, you would have reinstalled a fully working Windows in an hour or so. So its a very poor use of time. What is your objective here, uninstall Norton, fix your PC, learn about the computer? Bit of scope creep going on. There are better ways of learning this, pick up a Windows or an A+ Book or do a course


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## Seagull (30 Jan 2008)

If you're running XP, you should be able to go back to a restore point before you removed the Accessories and utilities.


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## noname (30 Jan 2008)

thanks seagull I was looking at that last night, couldn't see any previously saved restore points, but like I said above it was late & I didn't want to make matters worse, so I left it for this eve to have a proper look.

are restore points saved automatically, or would I have to set one up?


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## ClubMan (30 Jan 2008)

No offence but for somebody who claims that they want to learn you don't seem to be doing much in the way of rooting out relevant information off your own bat...


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## noname (30 Jan 2008)

aircobra19 said:


> If you stick the Windows CD in it gives you the same options to add/remove.


 
when I bought the laptop (from PCworld - I know  ) I never actually recieved a windows CD.

I think I am going to have to bring it in - no time this week due to work, so if I can do it in the meantime great, if not Qua sera sera.


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## noname (30 Jan 2008)

ClubMan said:


> No offence but for somebody who claims that they want to learn you don't seem to be doing much in the way of rooting out relevant information off your own bat...


 
no offence taken.

time is very restricted this week due to work, (not home till 9 most evenings this week) I am doing as much research as I can in the evening, but AAM is one of the very few sites that I can get in work which is why I am picking yer brains, again thanks for advice given so far.


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## ClubMan (30 Jan 2008)

noname said:


> when I bought the laptop (from PCworld - I know  ) I never actually recieved a windows CD.


Many (most?) _PCs_/laptops don't come with installation _CDs _these days. They may include the recovery media images on a spare hard disk partition from where it can be booted or burned to _CD-R[W]_.


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## aircobra19 (30 Jan 2008)

noname said:


> ...time is very restricted this week due to work, (not home till 9 most evenings this week) I am doing as much research as I can in the evening, ...



I would thats a bad time to experiment and do things the long winded way by trial and error. Where yo might make mistakes and compound the problems. 

Depending on which version of Norton you have, I think it has its own system restore, called go back. Does it disable XP's one? I don't know. All I know I uninstalled it a few times and it took forever.


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