Remove obsolete "Local Services" entries

[terry b]

Hello, All!
Can someone tell me how to manually-remove obsolete entries under
Local Services in mmc console?
Way back when I used Norton products I ended up w/ a couple of
Symantec entries in Local Services. Even though I've long since gone
thru & manually-deleted beaucoups Norton-related entries in the
registry, those Local Services entries insist on hanging around like
ugly hemorrhoids.
Anybody know what registry loc I need to get into to remove those
things?

Thanks in advance [)

terry b.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Terry,

Symantec's products add/modify hundreds (or thousands) of registry
keys/values and removing them all manually is impossible unless you trace
the installation using a snapshot tool. If you want to remove the program,
first, try uninstalling
the program via Add/Remove Programs. If that does not help, look for the
uninstaller tool available at Symantec's site for that particular product
which you intend to remove.

Note that uninstaller utility may not be available for all the products, but
Symantec provides REG files for removing some products. Go to:
http://www.symantec.com/search for more information.

BTW, the Services entries are present in this registry location. One or more
of the sub-keys may be related Norton products. You should be able to
identify them easily by reading the "DisplayName" and "ImagePath" fields in
the right-pane in the Registry Editor.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services]

 

[terry b]

Hello, Ramesh
Thanks for the input. Actually, when I removed NortonSystemWorks from
this machine I did go to the Symantec site, printed out their pages on
"manually removing NSW 2002" and followed those detailed instructions
as best I could. [What a hassle!] For some reason those actions did not
remove the Local Services entries in question.....;
I went to the registry loc you cited; I've got 9 entries whose subkey
names have a "sym" prefix. None of them mention Symantec as a whole
word. I suppose I could use NTBackup to do a sysstate backup, export
those keys, and them delete them. What do you think?

terry b.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Terry,

In a default Windows XP installation, there are 3 or 4 entries starting with
"Sym..", which are NOT Symantec related. It's best advisable to have a look
at ImagePath or DisplayName. Once you're sure that's the entry you want to
remove, delete it. At any case, it's best advisable to do a backup.
(NTBackup will do, or get ERUNT from the following site)

[ERUNT] Registry Backup and Restore for Windows
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

[ERUNT Download URLs]
http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt.zip
http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt-setup.exe

[Installing & Using ERUNT]
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt

 

[terry b]

Ramesh,
I checked all 9 of the subkeys in question, and all the image paths
list highly-abbreviated file locations in
\%WINDIR%\System32\Drivers\...
Again, none of them mention Symantec by name....
Possibly the most efficient route would be to [after backing up
either system state or the registry---or both!] download one of the
driver-identification apps on the market [e.g., "WinDriversBackup
Professional"], go thru and see if additional information is available.

Again, Ramesh--thanks for the input! Your contributions to the
various Windows forums [and elsewhere on the web] have been invaluable
to the multitudes of bewildered computer users!

terry b.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

You're very welcome Terry.