Norton Protection Center 2006

[Guest]

I just installed Norton Antivirus 2006, and Symantec, in their infinite
wisdom, decided to add Norton Protection Center to all their products this
year. It has its own button on the taskbar...it monitors the Windows XP
firewall (I use ZoneAlarm), checks your Windows Update status, and provides
antivirus alerts (which the regular Norton Antivirus does anyway). Oh
yeah...and it constantly pops up.

So, I've tried deleting the button through the program and also turned it
off for the three things it monitors. It can't be deleted through right
clicking. I don't know the exact name to terminate the process in TaskManager
(Norton has about 10 things on there).

I know this is a trivial problem, but it's really bugging me. Does anyone
know how to remove it? I'm not keen on mucking in the registry since I don't
really know what I'm doing. I do have Hjack this if someone knows how to
interpret the log.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Terri

 

[Heirloom]

The easiest way to remove it would be to remove all things Norton or
Symantec. Although, there are still followers of this 'bloatware', the
numbers are declining.....and just try to get meaningful support! The
Norton AV alone is about 70Meg, without the defs......a perfectly good free
AV, like Avast!, is about 7Meg with defs.....can you say 'bloatware?' The
more crap they throw into the app, the more you have to go wrong or conflict
with another proggy. The Norton/Symantec applications are also very
invasive. Even after uninstalling, there is a ton of detritus scattered
throughout the machine that must be removed manually if you want it gone.
Sorry I didn't answer your question on the features, just wanted to throw my
2 cents in about Norton....I'm sure you can find those that will praise it.
Heirloom, old and just my opinion....I could
be wrong

 

[Steven Myers]

The Norton/Symantec
applications are also very invasive. Even after uninstalling, there is
a ton of detritus scattered throughout the machine that must be removed
manually if you want it gone.

Yep. One by one, I found far less instrusive apps to do the things Symantec
apps had been doing for me. It finally came down to Ghost, but Symantec
swallowed its major competition. So I made a few Ghost boot disks and then
uninstalled everything Symantec. Had to pick through the registry for the
many remaining references, of course.

 

[Heirloom]

Steven,
For about half the cost of Ghost, you can get Acronis True
Image........much faster and more feature rich. You can catch it on special
for about $19-$29 U.S. I have been most impressed with it....don't know
about Ghost, but, with Acronis you can do incremental backups and you can
restore individual files/folders or the complete backup.
Heirloom, old and works for me

 

[Steven Myers]

Steven,
For about half the cost of Ghost, you can get Acronis True
Image........much faster and more feature rich. You can catch it on
special for about $19-$29 U.S. I have been most impressed with
it....don't know about Ghost, but, with Acronis you can do incremental
backups and you can restore individual files/folders or the complete
backup.

Thanks, Heirloom. I checked out Acronis when I was grasping for alternatives,
and it looked pretty good.
But the point was to get Symantec out of my life, which I've done without
spending any more money.

 

[JoSoap]

So why did U buy/install it? I have used Norton for the past three years,
no probs. U don't like it uninstall it
Jo

 

[Dave]

It's interessting that you say "Acronis True Image........much faster and
more feature rich" and then you say "don't know about Ghost, but, with
Acronis you can do incremental backups and you can restore individual
files/folders or the complete backup". How do you compare their features
in one statement and then say you don't know whether Ghost will do those
things? It sound like maybe you like one and don't know much about the
other. If so, just say that. BTW, Ghost will do incrementals and restore
individual files/folders or complete backups too. But I don't know much
about Acronis True Image so I won't attempt to make a comparison or say
which is better.

 

[Dave]

Amen!

So why did U buy/install it? I have used Norton for the past three years,
no probs. U don't like it uninstall it
Jo

 

[Heirloom]

Good point, Dave, and well taken. I did say "don't know about Ghost"
because I have never used it. I did, however, do a considerable amount of
comparison on different websites that reviewed different backup proggies.
Maybe unfairly, on my part, but, I formed my opinions from that. I guess
you could say that is putting 'blind trust' in the opinions of others, but,
tests did show that Acronis was considerably faster, a smaller footprint and
less cost. What I 'did not know' (remember) was whether Ghost could do the
incremental or individual file/folder backups and that was what I was trying
to convey.
Admittedly, I should have made myself more clear and honor your statement.
My intent was sincere.
Heirloom, old and will try to do better

 

[Dave]

I understand and can appreciate your position. Personally I don't believe
reviews much though. I've bought and used many products and developed an
opinion totally different from those reviews I read. I'm a happy user of
Ghost and am satisfied with it's speed and footprint. And the cost was free
after rebates. Like I said though, I haven't used them all and am not in a
position to make comparisons. But I suspect many on here speaking with
great authority one way or another haven't either. Take care.

 

[Guest]

I have taken into account all your responses...and thank you! For those that
don't like Norton...I've used it for years with no real problems (other than
my AutoProtect is sometimes disabled on startup), but I have heard about
Avast and will try it next year. For this year, as I've said, I've already
paid for and installed Norton 2006.

For the two people who were offended that I was annoyed at the new addition
to this year's product...the Norton Protection Center...you may find it
useful, but I did not like it in my system tray. I like to keep my computer
organized...I want to clean my father-in-law's out every time I use his...he
has his WHOLE desktop and system tray cluttered, so you can't even find what
you're looking for!

Actually, I figured out (by accident) how to disable it from my system tray.
I found instructions on how to disable the NVIDIA Driver Helper Service (as
it slows down both boots and shutdowns and is not needed). While doing that,
I found out how to disable the Norton Protection from my system tray. I'll
outline it, in case it helps someone else.

Right click on "My Computer" > Manage > Services and Applications > Services

scroll down until you find it (it actually says "Norton Protection

Services")...when you find it, right click on it and click "Properties" >
press "Stop" and on the "Startup type" set it to "Disabled."

Thanks again for everyone's help!
Terri