How to remove left over norton drivers

[Rilla927]

Hello,

my daughter brought me her laptop and it had norton installed when she bought it and she removed it but not is all gone.

I tried installing Private Firewall and it freezes.

EDIT:

I did try the removal tool. I'm sorry, I thought I posted this.

[Cudni]

use their tool
http://us.norton.com/support/kb/web_view.jsp?wv_type=public_web&docurl=20080710133834EN&ln=en_US

[Daveski17]

I once had a hell of a time removing leftover Norton software from a computer I was trying to install an AV on. I had to run the Norton removal tool more than twice. I don't know why it appeared to miss things the first couple of times. Oddly, the installer of the AV I was trying to install detected these leftovers from Symantec. Not so long ago I found a Symantec BHO (browser helper object) in IE on my smaller laptop. I haven't used Norton on it for three years! Good luck with trying to remove those drivers.

[GlobalForce]

Norton? Norton what? It helps to be precise.

[chinook9]

I have used the Norton Removal Tool on a number of occasions and it has always worked very well. The instructions indicate that it will remove all Norton software.

[Daveski17]

-{ Quote: "I have used the Norton Removal Tool on a number of occasions and it has always worked very well. The instructions indicate that it will remove all Norton software." }-

I have known quite a few people who have experienced the same thing as me. The Control Panel on my laptop still has a blank icon with the legend 'Symantec LiveUpdate' on it. If I click on it, Windows claims that it can't find it as it doesn't exist. I have run a couple of AVs since Norton on this particular laptop though with no problems. The Symantec BHO I found may have been deactivated, but that isn't the same as 'removed' in my book.

Interestingly, McAfee uninstalled cleanly & quickly & I can't find any trace of it. In my country it is becoming more difficult to buy a laptop computer without an AV pre-installed (usually trial-ware). Bullguard & Sophos weren't so bad but increasingly Symantec's Norton & McAfee are becoming prevalent.

One of the reasons I had my current desktop computer custom built was so I didn't end up with any trial-ware AV. It has only ever had MSE & never had Adobe's PDF Reader.

[Franklin]

Remove Invalid CP Icon (http://windowsxp.mvps.org/cpicon.htm)

[Rilla927]

It was NIS 2010 or 2011. I have run the removal tool in windows and in safe mode and the legacy drivers (4) are still there. I managed to get Kaspersky AV installed but Private Firewall does nothing but freeze after it installs.

[Mr.PC]

Give AppRemover (http://www.appremover.com/get/appremover.exe) a try...

[Rilla927]

Thanks Mr.PC I gave it a try and it didn't detect norton.

[Matthijs5nl]

1. Right click My Computer and Select Properties
2. Click Advanced tab
3. Click Environment Variables
4. Below the bottom Environment Variables window pane (System Variables), click New
5. For Variable Name, enter devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
6. For Variable Value enter 1
7. Click OK. OK to close My Computer

Then open Device Manager, go to View, there select Show hidden devices
In the main panel locate Non PnP devices, expand that.

Leftover drivers will be written in grey. Try to find out which belong to Symantec. You can see more details by right clicking and going to properties, you can also Google the driver names.

[Daveski17]

-{ Quote: "Remove Invalid CP Icon (http://windowsxp.mvps.org/cpicon.htm)" }-


OK, thanks for the info. :thumb:

[Rilla927]

-{ Quote: "1. Right click My Computer and Select Properties
2. Click Advanced tab
3. Click Environment Variables
4. Below the bottom Environment Variables window pane (System Variables), click New
5. For Variable Name, enter devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
6. For Variable Value enter 1
7. Click OK. OK to close My Computer

Then open Device Manager, go to View, there select Show hidden devices
In the main panel locate Non PnP devices, expand that.

Leftover drivers will be written in grey. Try to find out which belong to Symantec. You can see more details by right clicking and going to properties, you can also Google the driver names." }-

OMG, I just kiss you!!

It worked as smooth as butter. Thank you so much...this will go in my arsenal.

I found 8 drivers for NIS and 5 drivers for Avast that was previously on here.

I found left over drivers from keyloggers etc. I didn't even know my daughter had a laptop until a few days ago. I wish she would have brought it to me right away.

[GlobalForce]

And Private Firewall .. still freeze?

[Rilla927]

I haven't tried it yet. Have a few chores to do and then I will install and let you know.

[whitedragon551]

Wow. I found a whole slew of crap left over from F Secure, AVG, Zone Alarm, Symantec, Rising, OA, and Immunet. This is going to take awhile.

While we are here anyone know how to remove Norton Power Eraser? Seems its one of the only tools they dont have a removal tool for. I have a NPE folder in my %appdata%\Local folder and every time I delete it and reboot it always comes back.

[chinook9]

-{ Quote: "OMG, I just kiss you!!

It worked as smooth as butter. Thank you so much...this will go in my arsenal.

I found 8 drivers for NIS and 5 drivers for Avast that was previously on here.

I found left over drivers from keyloggers etc. I didn't even know my daughter had a laptop until a few days ago. I wish she would have brought it to me right away." }-

Thank you! A great piece of information to have. I didn't find anything that shouldn't be there but its nice to know how to check it.

[squid13]

-{ Quote: "1. Right click My Computer and Select Properties
2. Click Advanced tab
3. Click Environment Variables
4. Below the bottom Environment Variables window pane (System Variables), click New
5. For Variable Name, enter devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
6. For Variable Value enter 1
7. Click OK. OK to close My Computer

Thank You so much for that info. I did it to my computer and found some stuff that had been uninstalled long ago. Great piece of information.

[GlobalForce]

Great piece of old information (http://www.petri.co.il/display_phantom_drivers_in_windows_2000_xp_2003.htm). This trick's (http://oreilly.com/pub/h/3105) been around a looong time.

[Rilla927]

@Chinook9 & Squid13

Private Firewall is running sweet.

I agree...is a good piece of info and works very easily.

@Global Force

It might be old but there was only one person in this thread that knew about it.

[Matthijs5nl]

-{ Quote: "Great piece of old information (http://www.petri.co.il/display_phantom_drivers_in_windows_2000_xp_2003.htm). This trick's (http://oreilly.com/pub/h/3105) been around a looong time." }-
Old information, like everything else on this forums. But useful.

[cgeek]

Thanks Matthijs5nl for this incredibly useful tip! :thumb:

[GlobalForce]

One, that @ the time Rilla, knew it was needed. Thread solutions are a matter of known circumstance ;) and timing.

[Mr.PC]

Simply...

[Rilla927]

-{ Quote: "Wow. I found a whole slew of crap left over from F Secure, AVG, Zone Alarm, Symantec, Rising, OA, and Immunet. This is going to take awhile." }-

Pretty awesome, hah!

-{ Quote: "While we are here anyone know how to remove Norton Power Eraser? Seems its one of the only tools they dont have a removal tool for. I have a NPE folder in my %appdata%\Local folder and every time I delete it and reboot it always comes back." }-

I had that installed also, but it removed everything. By eye I seen either 2 or 3 drivers labled as Power Eraser.

[Rilla927]

Mr.PC

Are you saying the greyed out drivers show up under here?

I've always known about this but I don't remember the greyed out drivers. I also forgot about this until you showed this.

[Mr.PC]

-{ Quote: "Mr.PC
Are you saying the greyed out drivers show up under here?
I've always known about this but I don't remember the greyed out drivers.
I also forgot about this until you showed this." }-
1 Pic = 1,000 Words...;)

[yeow]

Hi Rilla927,

I found that in WinXP, default "Show hidden devices" did NOT show leftover entries for previous antivirus drivers.

Only after applying what Matthijs5nl posted (which also required to Show hidden devices), did those entries show up. Don't know about Vista & Win7.

-{ Quote: "1. Right click My Computer and Select Properties
2. Click Advanced tab
3. Click Environment Variables
4. Below the bottom Environment Variables window pane (System Variables), click New
5. For Variable Name, enter devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
6. For Variable Value enter 1
7. Click OK. OK to close My Computer

Then open Device Manager, go to View, there select Show hidden devices
In the main panel locate Non PnP devices, expand that.

Leftover drivers will be written in grey. Try to find out which belong to Symantec. You can see more details by right clicking and going to properties, you can also Google the driver names." }-Btw, thanks Matthijs5nl for posting the tip! :)

[AnonOT]

thanks for the tip/trick...tried it
wow lots of leftover stuff in here...let's see:
Avast
AVG
GData
F-Secure
Kaspersky
Norton
PC Tools
Online Armor
Returnil
Trustport
Prevx
Privatefirewall
ESET
Panda
Comodo

wow what have been I'm doing with my laptop XD

[Rilla927]

Wow, what a list.

I have to restore her laptop to factory settings. Since NIS is on there I wanted to ask folks that have used the removal tool before, do you uninstall NIS first then run the removal tool in windows? Or just run the removal tool straight out?

Thanks

[Mr.PC]

-{ Quote: "Do you uninstall NIS first then run the removal tool in windows? Or just run the removal tool straight out?" }-
Run the Tool straight out.

[Rilla927]

Thanks mate!

[Mr.PC]

-{ Quote: "Thanks mate!" }-
You are welcome! :thumb:

[tgell]

That was a good tip by Matthijs5nl. I always used Autoruns to look through the drivers and delete the ones I knew were no longer used. The tip can also be run from the command line.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/remove-old-drivers-after-upgrading-to-new-hardware/

-{ Quote: "In Windows 7 or Vista, the first thing you’ll need to do is open a command prompt in administrator mode. Type cmd into the start menu search box, and then use Ctrl+Shift+Enter to open in administrator mode. (You can also right-click on the command prompt and choose Run as Administrator)

Now paste in the following line:

SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1" }-