Norton/Symantec has become the virus

[David Schwartz]

I had to use the Norton's Uninstaller program to remove Norton AntiVirus
2008 from my computer. To do this, it required me to uninstall Symantec's
pC Anywhere first. So I did. Then I took out AntiVirus 2008 and
reinstalled it. Then I reinstalled pC Anywhere 10.5. Now when I start the
computer lup, first of all, the startup windows doesn't look the same. I
don't get the big blue Welcome to Windows screen, I get the smaller windows,
one of which asks me for my password. I don't believe I have a password. I
don't know if I ever did. The computer always started right up to my
desktop. I don't enter a password, just press enter and the computer starts
up. But I never had to do this. I went to User Accounts to try and
allieviate this problem, but it seems the pC Anywhere did something to an
awgina.dll file in the registry. I don't want to screw around with it right
now and I don't want to uninstall pC Anywhere at the moment because I need
to use it this weekend, but can anyone understand what I am talking about
and how I can get back to the same old startup routine that I had before I
uninstalled and reinstalled pC Anywhere?

Thanks

 

[Brian A.]

I had to use the Norton's Uninstaller program to remove Norton AntiVirus 2008
from my computer. To do this, it required me to uninstall Symantec's pC
Anywhere first. So I did. Then I took out AntiVirus 2008 and reinstalled it.
Then I reinstalled pC Anywhere 10.5. Now when I start the computer lup, first
of all, the startup windows doesn't look the same. I don't get the big blue
Welcome to Windows screen, I get the smaller windows, one of which asks me for
my password. I don't believe I have a password. I don't know if I ever did.
The computer always started right up to my desktop. I don't enter a password,
just press enter and the computer starts up. But I never had to do this. I
went to User Accounts to try and allieviate this problem, but it seems the pC
Anywhere did something to an awgina.dll file in the registry. I don't want to
screw around with it right now and I don't want to uninstall pC Anywhere at the
moment because I need to use it this weekend, but can anyone understand what I
am talking about and how I can get back to the same old startup routine that I
had before I uninstalled and reinstalled pC Anywhere?

Thanks

I know exactly what your talking about, that's why I stopped using 10.5 or
lower and now use PCA 11 which doesn't cause the issue by replacing msgina with
awgina. I'll take a look on my PC's here to find the saved registry keys I
changed to fix the issue. Basically there are a few awgina files that need to
be changed back to msgina.

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Windows Desktop User Experience }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Brian A.]

I had to use the Norton's Uninstaller program to remove Norton AntiVirus 2008
from my computer. To do this, it required me to uninstall Symantec's pC
Anywhere first. So I did. Then I took out AntiVirus 2008 and reinstalled it.
Then I reinstalled pC Anywhere 10.5. Now when I start the computer lup, first
of all, the startup windows doesn't look the same. I don't get the big blue
Welcome to Windows screen, I get the smaller windows, one of which asks me for
my password. I don't believe I have a password. I don't know if I ever did.
The computer always started right up to my desktop. I don't enter a password,
just press enter and the computer starts up. But I never had to do this. I
went to User Accounts to try and allieviate this problem, but it seems the pC
Anywhere did something to an awgina.dll file in the registry. I don't want to
screw around with it right now and I don't want to uninstall pC Anywhere at the
moment because I need to use it this weekend, but can anyone understand what I
am talking about and how I can get back to the same old startup routine that I
had before I uninstalled and reinstalled pC Anywhere?

Thanks

Ok, on one PC I have 3 reg files saved that have awgina and all 3 have it in
C:\Windows\System32. Replace awgina.dll in C:\Windows\System32 with msgina.dll.
I'll check on the other PC's to see if I changed it anywhere else.

The three reg keys for the above are:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDLLs

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components\311F0B18B19FF4744B685E6152E98199

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Windows Desktop User Experience }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[David Schwartz]

How would I replace the files?
Any chance on screwing my registry, and therefore, myself?
Dave

 

[Brian A.]

Look in C:\Windows\System32 for both awgina.dll and msgina.dll, if my
recollection is correct they should both be present but don't hold me on it. If
msgina is not present you can copy it over from C:\Windows\System32\Dll Cache.
If they are both present rename awgina.dll to awgina.dl_.
Next click Start > Run, type in regedit and press Enter.
Go to each reg key mentioned in my previous response, Right click on the entry
and click Export in the popup menu. Give each an identifying name such as
awgina1, awgina2 and awgina3. Save it to your desktop or any other place easy
for you to find.

In the Right pane of the "SharedDlls" key look for awgina.dll under the Name
column, when found Right click the listed entry, click "Rename" in the popup
menu and change awgina.dll to msgina.dll.

In the Right pane of the "Components\311F0B18B19FF4744B685E6152E98199" key
look for awgina.dll under the "Data" column, when found Right click the listed
entry under the "Name" column and click "Modify" in the popup menu. In the
"Value data" text input box change awgina.dll to msgina.dll.

In the Right pane of the "Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" key look for
awgina.dll under the "Data" column, when found Right click the listed entry
under the "Name" column and click "Modify" in the popup menu. In the "Value
data" text input box change awgina.dll to msgina.dll.

Close out of the registry and reboot, you should boot to Windows without any
prompt. If you are still prompted then you'll need to go to Control Panel >
Users and change the way users log off and on.

The above should not cause any problems and will keep PCA from requiring a
username\password at boot. If any problem(s) do arrive, double click each of
the saved reg keys to merge them back into the registry and reverse the change
made in C:\Windows\System32.

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Windows Desktop User Experience }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[David Schwartz]

Wow. As the parallel universe Spock said, "Captain Kirk, I will consider
it."
But maybe I should just uninstall pCAnywhere 10.5 and get the latest
version.
Maybe not.
I just don't want the blue screen of death.

 

[Brian A.]

Perhaps these from Symantec support will help ease your mind.
What is a GINA?
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...566110057ab61?OpenDocument&seg=hm&lg=en&ct=us

Even though the document above states that PCA v10.5 does not apply, I found
the case to be opposite and Symantec has an article supporting that. The only
thought I have is that it may not have to do with chaining GINAs.
Cannot restart normally after installing pcAnywhere 10.5 on Windows XP
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...56b05002134f1?OpenDocument&seg=hm&lg=en&ct=us

More articles on GINA.
http://searchg.symantec.com/search?...site=symc_en_US&output=xml_no_dtd&context=hho


--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Windows Desktop User Experience }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375