How can I remove Norton Internet security from my laptop? Evrytime I try my pc freezes and I have to reboot.?

Question

I downloaded Yahoo's free 30 day trial of Norton and have had nothing but priblems since. It takes about 15 minutes to log online, and everytime I try and remove it, my laptop freezes and I have to reboot.

Answer 1

Have you tried going into Start>Settings>Control Panel>Add and Remove Programs? Get a free antivirus instead, there's a good list here http://www.basicspywaretips.com/freevirusremovaltool.html

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

This is going to be a little lengthy but it will do the trick for you. I wrote this for someone who had AOL issues but it works for anything.

First you need to shut Norton off. Look at your Task Bar and find the Norton icon. Right click on it and exit the program.

Now right click on any empty space of the Task Bar. Select Task Manager from the list. First click on the Applications tab and see if any Norton items are running. If so, click once on the name of the item and then click on End Task at the bottom of the window. Close all Norton or Symantec applications.

Now click on the Processes tab. Scroll down through the list and look for any Norton or Symantec ".exe" items. If you find any, click once on the item to hilite it and then click on End Process. This shuts the program down by disabling it's ".exe" file.

Now that the Norton/Symantec programs are shut down you should be able to remove it from your PC.

I previously wrote the balance of this for a person with a similar issue with AOL, but all you have to do is substitute in the word Norton or Symantec where you see "AOL".


GETTING RID OF AOL ON YOUR PC

Do yourself a BIG favor. Remove anything on your PC that even mentions AOL. It is a resource hog and simply tries to take over your pc.

Click on Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs and remove any AOL programs residing there.

Now click on Start > Search > For Files or Folders > All Files and Folders
type in AOL in the top box and let the computer do a complete search of your hard drive. When it is done, click on Edit at the top of the window and click on Select All
Then click on File and click on Delete. It will ask you if you want to remove them. Click on Yes.

If you want to REALLY finish the job:

NOTE: DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE IN THE REGISTRY OTHER THAN WHAT I MENTION HERE. If you are not familiar with editing the registry and you do other things you may give yourself some big headaches.

Click on Start > Run >
type in regedit
click once on the very top directory to hilite it.
Hold down Ctrl + F; this will open a search window
type in AOL and then click on Find Next
when it finds an AOL entry, right click on it and select Delete and yes. (Do this if it is a folder in the left hand pane or if it is an entry in the right hand pane)
Hold down Ctrl + F again and repeat the process until you have cleaned your registry of all AOL items.
This may be a very tedious process so hang in there.

When you think you have it all out. Go back up to the top directory in the left pane, hilite it, and search for AOL once again just to make sure you didn't miss any.

Once you are completely done. Reboot your PC. This will reset the registry without all the AOL crap.

Once you reboot your pc, go to http://www.download.com and search for AVG Antivirus (Free). Download and install it. It's a great FREE antivirus progaram. It updates itself daily; scans your PC daily; and scans your incoming email for problems.

You should have a good spyware program also. You can use Microsoft Defender or some other free program. My recommendation is to purchase Spy Sweeper. It's $30 the first year and $20 a year thereafter.

Hope this all helps. It should rid you of your problem.

Answer 4

Use Norton's own removal tool. Here's their website for downloading this:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039