How to manually remove Symantec Antivirus safely

Symantec Antivirus or Norton Antivirus is a very popular anti-virus program. However, when the user uninstalls (Uninstall), the system will often fail and sometimes lead to the reinstallation of the entire operating system.

For different versions, we also have different ways to remove. Therefore, you need to check carefully which version you are using as the version by going to the About section and viewing the version number (version). The article will show you how to remove new versions.

Symantec AntiVirus 10.1 Client

This version is for workstations, often used on systems using the operating system version 2000 / XP / 2003. How to remove includes 5 steps:

Lock Tamper Protection : you need to lock Tamper Protection before locking Symantec AntiVirus services.

- Open Symantec AntiVirus , at the Configure menu, select Tamper Protection .

- Uncheck ' Enable Tamper Protection ' and click OK .

Locking Symantec AntiVirus programs: The programs that are being executed should be locked: ccApp.exe, Vpc32.exe, Vptray.exe. To turn off these 'processes', select Start - Run , in the dialog box type ' taskmgr.exe ' and Enter or right click on the system tray and select ' Task Manager '. In the ' Windows Task Manager ' window, select the ' Processes ' tab and then select ccApp.exe, right click ' End Process ', continue with the remaining 2 processes.

Lock Symantec AntiVirus services : We need to stop the Symantec AntiVirus services before proceeding to delete the registry value. Click Start - Run , type " services.msc " in the Run dialog box and then OK . Find and select the following services then right-click them, select " Stop " to stop working: SAVRoam, Symantec AntiVirus , Symantec AntiVirus Definition Watcher , Symantec Event Manager , Symantec Settings Manager .

For Symantec AntiVirus 10.2 Client version, the above 2 steps will be shortened as follows:

Lock Symantec AntiVirus services in Services

- No process: Vpc32.exe

- Service part, will include: SavRoam, Symantec AntiVirus, DefWatch, ccEvtMgr, ccSetMgr.

Removing Registry keys : This is the most important and complex operation. Ideally, you need to back up the entire registry before taking the steps below.

Select Start - Run , type " regedit " then OK . In the Registry Editor window, locate the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key * ShellexContextMenuHandlers , in the left pane, right-click LDVPMenu and select Delete .

Find the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTInstallerFeatures key. Here, there are many keys that are numeric characters in the form of 32F36B64A4B252548A72860862EBE504 . Click on each key and look at the right pane. Any " SAVMain " key will delete the entire key.

Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTInstallerProducts again , and we will see more keys with mixed letter characters like " Features ". Also perform a key search and look at the right pane to see which value is " ProductName - Symantec AntiVirus " then delete the key (left).

Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInstallerUserDataS-1-5-18Products , this key also includes numeric keys. In the left pane, expand each key by clicking the (+) sign before the key name, select the InstallProperties key. If there is a " Display Name - Symantec AntiVirus " section on the right, delete the entire key.

Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall key, perform the search for each key and note that Symantec AntiVirus must have the entire key removed.

Delete the following keys:

# HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTInstallerUpgradeCodes20A7FB42A06BB49448A397B3CB77ED4D
# HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesInstallerUpgradeCodes20A7FB42A06BB49448A397B3CB77ED4D
# HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREINTELDllUsageVP6
# HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInstallerUpgradeCodes20A7FB42A06BB49448A397B3CB77ED4D
# HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARESymantecSPBBC
# HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARESymantecSymantec AntiVirus
# HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARESymantecSymNetDrv
# HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesEventLogSystemSAVRT

Expand the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesInstallerFeatures , look in the keys and note the right pane, which key " SAVMain " will delete the entire key. Next, find the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesInstallerProducts key and, likewise, find which lock on the right side Symantec AntiVirus has to remove the entire key.

Find the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun , in the right pane, delete the vptray value. Continue with HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARESymantecInstalledApps key, in the right pane, delete the following values: AVENGEDEFS, Common Client, Common Client Data, Common Client Decomposers, NAVNT, SAV Install Directory, SAVCE, Savrt, SPBBC, SymNetDrv, VP6ClientInstalled, VP6UsageCount.

Find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServices key, delete the following sub-keys: ccEvtMgr, ccSetMgr, DefWatch, NAVENG, NAVEX15, SavRoam, SAVRT, SAVRTPEL, SNDSrvc, SPBBCDrv, SPBBCSvc, Symantec AntiVirus, SYMREDRV, SYMTDI.

Find the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesEventLogApplication key, delete the following subkeys: ccEvtMgr, ccSetMgr, DefWatch, LiveUpdate, SavRoam, Symantec AntiVirus.

Type the keywords you need to search to be more accurate and quick in Registry Editor

On the left pane of the Registry Editor, locate the top part of My Computer, on the Edit menu bar, select Find, type " VirusProtect6 ", delete all the keys that contain this string. Continue to work on the search term " 933187C5788574F4889B3B1FBB35638A ".

Following the operation in the above Registry, we take the remaining steps to remove Symantec AntiVirus 10.1 Client. However, the following 2 steps may affect other Symantec programs that are installed on the system. Therefore, you must check to see if there are any other Symantec applications besides AntiVirus 10.1 Client.

1. Open Registry Editor, delete the keys :

- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareSymantecSharedDefs
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareSymantecCommon Client
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareSymantecSymEvent
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesSymEvent

2. Find the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun key , in the right pane, delete the ccApp value. Restart the computer.

Symantec AntiVirus has been completely blocked with values, services and programs. The next step is to delete the Start menu and the hard drive. Right-click Start on the taskbar, select " Explorer All Users ". The Windows Explorer window will appear, the path will be C: Documents and SettingsAll UsersStart MenuPrograms (C is the operating system installation partition). Symantec Client Security - Symantec Client Security . If you are using multiple Symantec applications, you will only delete Symantec AntiVirus. If only Symantec AntiVirus is available in this directory, then delete Symantec Client Security.

The next step is to delete the files on the hard drive by pressing Windows + E or Start - Programs - Accessories - Windows Explorer to open Windows Explorer. Open the operating system installation partition, here is the C: Program FilesSymantec drive, delete this directory. Continue to find the Program FilesCommon FilesSymantec Shared folder , if Symantec AntiVirus is the only Symantec application on the system, delete the following folders: Decomposers, SPBBC, SPManifests, SSC, VirusDefs.

Finally, locate the folder C: Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataSymantec and delete the 2 subdirectories Common Client and Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition. We have completed the manual removal process for Symantec AntiVirus 10.1 Client or Symantec Client Security 3.1.

Systems that install Symantec AntiVirus 10.2 Client or Symantec AntiVirus 10.1 and Symantec Client Security 3.1 server can refer here.

Norton Removal Tool 2007.2.02.14

For machines that have removed Norton 2003/2004/2005/2006/2007 versions with a system failure, uninstallation is not complete, you can use Symantec's free utility, Norton Removal Tool, depending on the version. operating is Me / 98 or 2000 / XP / Vista which download here. After downloading, executing, the utility will automatically detect programs on Symantec on the computer and give solutions, you will follow the steps that the utility requires and will have to restart the system many times. step by step.

Thanh Truc