Norton AntiVirus disabled ater removing password stealer threat

[Guest]

Thank you, but I was referring to uninstalling/reinstalling Norton CE. We
can't do anything with it.

 

[Guest]

I am in the same boat. At this point I can not uninstall Norton Corp. I am
left unprotected. Does anybody that has or had the same problem know a work
around to uninstalling Norton Corp? I first need to uninstall before having a
chance of reinstalling Norton Corp. Does anybody know if there is any other
damage done from this false bug?

Thanks SteveR

 

[Guest]

You can't seem to uninstall using the normal Control-Panel Add-Remove
Programs becuase MS Anti-Spy has so thoroughly mangled the repository that
the info is useless. You can however, run the setup from the Norton Install
disk, and it will complete the uninstall OK. I never got the repair option
to work, but have been able to uninstall and re-install on a couple of
machines using this technique..

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Thanks very much for posting this, Gary. This is info I just don't have a
way to get to at this point--I do have clients using Microsoft Antispyware
and Symantec Corporate, but I'm not on site with them, and was able to head
them off before their installs were affected, as far as I've heard.
--

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I have another Symantec user who has found that uninstalling and
reinstalling were possible when he used the setup code from the original CD.
If this avenue is available to you, that's what I'd try.

--

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Have you tried using the setup program on the original CD ? One user has
reported success by going that route here--he was able to uninstall, and
then reinstall successfully.

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[Bill Sanderson]

Thanks--that would be an alternative if the CD uninstall/reinstall isn't
working or is unavailable. I'm uncertain whether that also affects the
antispyware definitions files--this is something I haven't tested.

I'd want to be sure 5807 definitions remain properly in place after the
system restore operation--but I'm glad to hear that worked for you.

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[Bill Sanderson]

The beta product is explicitly unsupported, and there are clear warnings at
the download site about use on production machines. I can assure you that
Microsoft does care, the customer support folks are not in a position to
support the beta product.

The 5807 definitions are out there on the distribution servers. Issues with
caches, either ISP's caches, or perhaps on corporate networks, have dogged
the definition update process throughout beta1, and they are a problem with
this update.

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[Guest]

Guys! I can assure you that Microsoft does care. I must warn you though that
Microsoft AntiSpyware has proven tests for better Spyware removing. Please be
assured and do not uninstall it. However, mainstream technical support is not
currently avalible. Thanks

Brandon
Support

 

[Guest]

Hi Gary
Thanks for the suggested, I tried to uninstall from the disk, but
the disk seems to be looping not allowing me in to even have any options. I
see a box, "Continuing installation Please wait while the Symantac Packer
prepares the next installation step.. and then , "An error occurred that
prevents this installation from completing" What version of Symantec do you
have? I have 8.1.0.825
Anybody else with the version 8.1.0.825 Corp verson have any other
suggestions? I have a computer repair guy telling me I may have to scratch
the hard drive and start over! Help please I have this problem on 4 computers
At this point still trying to uninsall symantac and reinstall.

Thanks
SteveR

 

[Guest]

Hi Brandon
Who do I send my repair bill to at caring Microsoft? I have
spent most of the day with this shutting down my business. How does something
like this happen?
If Microsoft cares then they should be willing to pay the expense i will
occurr at fixing this problem on 4 computers.

SteveR

 

[Guest]

Well, there certainly are a lot of posts about this, but I haven't found one
that has gotten this to work yet. Short of wiping my disk and reinstalling
(which would cost a lot of $ in lost time in addition to what we've lost so
far), what can be done?

 

[Guest]

I finally got NAV uninstalled by manually going in and deleting any and all
reg settings that matched 'symantec'. After deleting a hundred or so of
these, I had decided to give up, bite the bullet, and wipe my hard disk. Just
for kicks I tried installing again and it finally worked this time.

Sheesh! Microsoft, you should take more care in testing your updates, even
in beta form, if it's going to cause this much ruckus!

 

[Bill Sanderson]

The other fix that has worked for others is that if you are on XP, or
another Windows version including the System Restore feature, that you use
System Restore to revert to a restore point before this issue
arose--probably any restore point before midnight of last night should work.

I would then re-check Microsoft Antispyware to be sure that the definitions
remain on 5708--maybe do a new File, check for update--and check both
programs for normal operation.

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[Bill Sanderson]

Symantec products are indeed difficult to manually uninstall.

You're absolutely correct that this issue was caused by Microsoft's
definition update, but most tech support folks will quickly recognize and
sympathize with the difficulty you mention on the manual uninstall.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Bill - System restore may well help.

Use System Restore to restore to a restore point before Midnight February
9th.

That should revive Symantec Antivirus. Then make sure Microsoft Antivirus
is on definitions 5807, and that if you go to Help, about, and hit
diagnostics, you see 160/160 at the end of one of the lines.

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[Guest]

I am having the same problem if you go to www.symantec.com/autotools
Then click #1 it will remove all of the notron products. Although I had to
get rid of it in my reg.
hope this helps!

 

[Guest]

I wounded 2 XP boxes with this issue. I was able to get one resolved doing
the System Restore utility. The other had "System Restore" turned off, so I
had to perform the manual removal of Symantec, which is well documented on
Symantec's site (Document ID: 2002081213583048). After following that
document, I was able to re-install SAV Corp 8.0. One lasting symptom was
resolved by downloading and running their sevinst.exe utility.

This is a bit of a pain, but I think (hope!) wiping the hard disk is a bit
of an overkill.

 

[Guest]

Same thing happened to me today. This scares me because I have a lot of
customers that run both Norton Corporate and AntiSpyware. Fortunatley, I
backed up the Norton regfiles before it deleted them. All I had to do was
reimport the registry files and I was back up and running.

It seems a little too convenient to me that Microsoft AntiSpyware completely
wrecks your Norton AntiVirus on the verge of them releasing their own OneCare
Live AntiVirus software.

I still have my original reg file if anyone feels it will be useful to them
I can find a way to get it to you.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Thanks - that's a useful link, although having read the docs, it is still
unclear to me exactly which tools are relevant to users of, say, Symantec
Antivirus Corporate Editions.

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