Norton and virus problems?

Question

i got on my friends computer and it has viruses so i told him to put on ad aware se.. well it came up with a bunch (80) critical objects and there was a trojanhorse downloader and this antispyware (thats really spyware) called errorsafe

so we were trying to put on legit antivirus stuff like avg and spybot and get rid of the rest...

well...

we tried to get rid of all the norton stuff and when we tried to delete it from the start menu the computer rebooted automatically. then we tried to delete another norton thing in the start menu and it said you have to delete it thru the add/remove programs. so we went there and it said that access to this is denied!

sounds awful fishy, what can i do?

Answer 1

Well, you've already done a great thing by helping him and finding out the problem. Perhaps try booting into safe mode before trying to fiddle with settings and especially scanning.

A Trojan virus is a destructive program that masquerades as a benign application. Unlike viruses, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves but they can be just as destructive. One of the most insidious types of Trojan horse is a program that claims to rid your computer of viruses but instead introduces viruses onto your computer [Like this ErrorSafe you mentioned].

Trojan horses are broken down in classification based on how they breach systems and the damage they cause. The seven main types of Trojan horses are:

* Remote Access Trojans
* Data Sending Trojans
* Destructive Trojans
* Proxy Trojans
* FTP Trojans
* Security software disabler Trojans
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS) Trojans

The best way to get rid of this, is to identify it specifically and to download the malicious software removal tool. Windows do a malicious software removal tool that is used for a few specific common viruses [blaster etc] and helps to identify and remove others.

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

Download from the link above.

The following link goes to a well known antivirus company who provide an online virus scan that you can use if you're unsure about downloading the tool, this website will find security vulnerabilities, spyware and viruses and offer advice to fix them. It would be good to keep a routine check using this website.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/


Good Luck
M.

Answer 2

Completely Remove Symantec Products
http://www.schrockinnovations.com/removenav.php
Remove Symantec / Norton AntiVirus and LiveUpdate
http://ict.cas.psu.edu/training/howto/util/removenav.htm

Answer 3

since it said access denied when you tried to delete it, the computer more then likely has an administration id and password on there. you need to find out what the password is to access the administration settings and either delete everything or change it to your own settings before you will be able to delete almost any program files like Norton.

Answer 4

Oh for goodness sakes people...
Do your research..

To get rid of Norton you have to have the removal tool.. and you wonder why people (*Real techs*) don't like Norton.

Here, go here and download this and FOLLOW the instructions.

Norton
Is NOT FREE although they've been out for decades and
have a Trial Version. Also to remove their AV software,
you have to have their removal tool to remove it all
the way. Some newer systems have Norton installed
and every time that you uninstall it and reboot, it
wants to reinstall. Here is the link to remove
Norton:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

Answer 5

You will find that the account you were logged on through is not an administrative account. You need to log on with an account that has administrative privileges.

Answer 6

I agree with teef_au.

Answer 7

Teef_au is correct....