New twist on old (Norton) question

Hello, All
I know there are a ton of posts here about Norton uninstall
problems, and I'm aware of them.
But my question is this: I bought a new machine w/ Vista pre-
installed (don't worry; I've still got
3 others w/ XP Pro that all work flawlessly---in case Vista doesn't
pan out). One of the first things I
did was to uninstall Norton (in my experience, it's far more trouble
than its worth). Then I went to
Symantec, dwnloaded their Norton uninstall tool, and ran it. OK so
far....
Then I fired up an old friend--Registry Workshop--and ran a search
for keys/values/data containing
the string "symantec". 920 (that's not a typo) hits. So I spent
approx. 1.5 hrs backing up all those keys
to .hiv files, and then deleting those keys in registry.
So what happens? I went to re-boot, and Windows tells me that the
box can't start correctly 'cause
vital files are missing, and it's going to go into Sys Restore if it's
OK with me; so I say fine. [And you know
what's coming, right?] And then the box fires up just fine, and all
920 reg keys related to Symantec are
right back where they were before the 1.5 hrs of manual key-deletions!

My present question: Why would any of those Symantec keys be
vitally-necessary for Vista to
boot up?
TIA.

riprap
living under the bridge eating binary roadkill

"riprap" <> wrote in message
news:47620a4b-1051-433d-a87c-...
> Hello, All
> I know there are a ton of posts here about Norton uninstall
> problems, and I'm aware of them.
> But my question is this: I bought a new machine w/ Vista pre-
> installed (don't worry; I've still got
> 3 others w/ XP Pro that all work flawlessly---in case Vista doesn't
> pan out). One of the first things I
> did was to uninstall Norton (in my experience, it's far more trouble
> than its worth). Then I went to
> Symantec, dwnloaded their Norton uninstall tool, and ran it. OK so
> far....
> Then I fired up an old friend--Registry Workshop--and ran a search
> for keys/values/data containing
> the string "symantec". 920 (that's not a typo) hits. So I spent
> approx. 1.5 hrs backing up all those keys
> to .hiv files, and then deleting those keys in registry.
> So what happens? I went to re-boot, and Windows tells me that the
> box can't start correctly 'cause
> vital files are missing, and it's going to go into Sys Restore if it's
> OK with me; so I say fine. [And you know
> what's coming, right?] And then the box fires up just fine, and all
> 920 reg keys related to Symantec are
> right back where they were before the 1.5 hrs of manual key-deletions!
>
> My present question: Why would any of those Symantec keys be
> vitally-necessary for Vista to
> boot up?
> TIA.
>
> riprap
> living under the bridge eating binary roadkill

Orphaned registry keys really don't affect the system performance.
They just sit there and do NOTHING. And they take very little HDD space.
Since the system is not generating errors about Norton trying to start or
run, I'd be really tempted to leave them alone.

--
A Professional Amateur...If anyone knew it all, none of would be here!

Change Alpha to Numeric to reply

I had a similar problem with Symantec. I uninstalled it using Programs &
Features and then tried to install McAfee Security Center and it would not
install because there were elements of Symantec remaining on my system. So I
used the Norton Removal Tool to completely uninstall Symantec, but McAfee
still saw remnants of Symantec on my system and would not install. I used
Smarty Uninstaller and it found broken program remnants of Symantec and
removed them, then McAfee installed without difficulty. For details of
install/uninstall problems and links see this tutorial.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/87...ram-vista.html


"riprap" wrote:

> Hello, All
> I know there are a ton of posts here about Norton uninstall
> problems, and I'm aware of them.
> But my question is this: I bought a new machine w/ Vista pre-
> installed (don't worry; I've still got
> 3 others w/ XP Pro that all work flawlessly---in case Vista doesn't
> pan out). One of the first things I
> did was to uninstall Norton (in my experience, it's far more trouble
> than its worth). Then I went to
> Symantec, dwnloaded their Norton uninstall tool, and ran it. OK so
> far....
> Then I fired up an old friend--Registry Workshop--and ran a search
> for keys/values/data containing
> the string "symantec". 920 (that's not a typo) hits. So I spent
> approx. 1.5 hrs backing up all those keys
> to .hiv files, and then deleting those keys in registry.
> So what happens? I went to re-boot, and Windows tells me that the
> box can't start correctly 'cause
> vital files are missing, and it's going to go into Sys Restore if it's
> OK with me; so I say fine. [And you know
> what's coming, right?] And then the box fires up just fine, and all
> 920 reg keys related to Symantec are
> right back where they were before the 1.5 hrs of manual key-deletions!
>
> My present question: Why would any of those Symantec keys be
> vitally-necessary for Vista to
> boot up?
> TIA.
>
> riprap
> living under the bridge eating binary roadkill
>

On Jan 5, 3:41 pm, uvbogden <uvbog...@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:
> I had a similar problem with Symantec. I uninstalled it using Programs &
> Features and then tried to install McAfee Security Center and it would not
> install because there were elements of Symantec remaining on my system. So I
> used the Norton Removal Tool to completely uninstall Symantec, but McAfee
> still saw remnants of Symantec on my system and would not install. I used
> Smarty Uninstaller and it found broken program remnants of Symantec and
> removed them, then McAfee installed without difficulty. For details of
> install/uninstall problems and links see this tutorial.
>
> http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/87...latest-version...
>
> "riprap" wrote:
> > Hello, All
> > I know there are a ton of posts here about Norton uninstall
> > problems, and I'm aware of them.
> > But my question is this: I bought a new machine w/ Vista pre-
> > installed (don't worry; I've still got
> > 3 others w/ XP Pro that all work flawlessly---in case Vista doesn't
> > pan out). One of the first things I
> > did was to uninstall Norton (in my experience, it's far more trouble
> > than its worth). Then I went to
> > Symantec, dwnloaded their Norton uninstall tool, and ran it. OK so
> > far....
> > Then I fired up an old friend--Registry Workshop--and ran a search
> > for keys/values/data containing
> > the string "symantec". 920 (that's not a typo) hits. So I spent
> > approx. 1.5 hrs backing up all those keys
> > to .hiv files, and then deleting those keys in registry.
> > So what happens? I went to re-boot, and Windows tells me that the
> > box can't start correctly 'cause
> > vital files are missing, and it's going to go into Sys Restore if it's
> > OK with me; so I say fine. [And you know
> > what's coming, right?] And then the box fires up just fine, and all
> > 920 reg keys related to Symantec are
> > right back where they were before the 1.5 hrs of manual key-deletions!
>
> > My present question: Why would any of those Symantec keys be
> > vitally-necessary for Vista to
> > boot up?
> > TIA.
>
> > riprap
> > living under the bridge eating binary roadkill

To NotMe & uvbogden:
Very much appreciate your input.
I believe what NotMe's saying about the orphan reg keys not really
hurting anything, and I know that's true. It's just that I tend to be
a freak on keeping things as close to razor-clean as I can....And as
far as uvbogden's post: I appreciate the shared experience + the link
added. I will check it out!
Have an excellent weekend [:-P
riprap

riprap wrote:
> On Jan 5, 3:41 pm, uvbogden <uvbog...@discussions.microsoft.com>
> wrote:
>> I had a similar problem with Symantec. I uninstalled it using Programs &
>> Features and then tried to install McAfee Security Center and it would not
>> install because there were elements of Symantec remaining on my system. So I
>> used the Norton Removal Tool to completely uninstall Symantec, but McAfee
>> still saw remnants of Symantec on my system and would not install. I used
>> Smarty Uninstaller and it found broken program remnants of Symantec and
>> removed them, then McAfee installed without difficulty. For details of
>> install/uninstall problems and links see this tutorial.
>>
>> http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/87...latest-version...
>>
>> "riprap" wrote:
>>> Hello, All
>>> I know there are a ton of posts here about Norton uninstall
>>> problems, and I'm aware of them.
>>> But my question is this: I bought a new machine w/ Vista pre-
>>> installed (don't worry; I've still got
>>> 3 others w/ XP Pro that all work flawlessly---in case Vista doesn't
>>> pan out). One of the first things I
>>> did was to uninstall Norton (in my experience, it's far more trouble
>>> than its worth). Then I went to
>>> Symantec, dwnloaded their Norton uninstall tool, and ran it. OK so
>>> far....
>>> Then I fired up an old friend--Registry Workshop--and ran a search
>>> for keys/values/data containing
>>> the string "symantec". 920 (that's not a typo) hits. So I spent
>>> approx. 1.5 hrs backing up all those keys
>>> to .hiv files, and then deleting those keys in registry.
>>> So what happens? I went to re-boot, and Windows tells me that the
>>> box can't start correctly 'cause
>>> vital files are missing, and it's going to go into Sys Restore if it's
>>> OK with me; so I say fine. [And you know
>>> what's coming, right?] And then the box fires up just fine, and all
>>> 920 reg keys related to Symantec are
>>> right back where they were before the 1.5 hrs of manual key-deletions!
>>> My present question: Why would any of those Symantec keys be
>>> vitally-necessary for Vista to
>>> boot up?
>>> TIA.
>>> riprap
>>> living under the bridge eating binary roadkill
>
> To NotMe & uvbogden:
> Very much appreciate your input.
> I believe what NotMe's saying about the orphan reg keys not really
> hurting anything, and I know that's true. It's just that I tend to be
> a freak on keeping things as close to razor-clean as I can....And as
> far as uvbogden's post: I appreciate the shared experience + the link
> added. I will check it out!
> Have an excellent weekend [:-P
> riprap


I used to do the same thing. I would spend hours searching for any damn
utility I could find to futz with my OS. If you lurk here much, you'll
find that the thinking from the experts all leans toward not using reg
cleaners at all, or very little, and only then by individuals who truly
know what they're doing.

--
Dave T.

"Many people die at twenty-five and aren't buried
until they are seventy-five".
Benjamin Franklin

To me a reg cleaner in a moderately skilled user's hands is like hiring your
butcher to do your appendectomy...you may or may NOT survive...

--
A Professional Amateur...If anyone knew it all, none of would be here!

Change Alpha to Numeric to reply
"Dave T." <> wrote in message
news:vmVfj.60628$ t...
> riprap wrote:
>> On Jan 5, 3:41 pm, uvbogden <uvbog...@discussions.microsoft.com>
>> wrote:
>>> I had a similar problem with Symantec. I uninstalled it using Programs
>>> &
>>> Features and then tried to install McAfee Security Center and it would
>>> not
>>> install because there were elements of Symantec remaining on my system.
>>> So I
>>> used the Norton Removal Tool to completely uninstall Symantec, but
>>> McAfee
>>> still saw remnants of Symantec on my system and would not install. I
>>> used
>>> Smarty Uninstaller and it found broken program remnants of Symantec and
>>> removed them, then McAfee installed without difficulty. For details of
>>> install/uninstall problems and links see this tutorial.
>>>
>>> http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/87...latest-version...
>>>
>>> "riprap" wrote:
>>>> Hello, All
>>>> I know there are a ton of posts here about Norton uninstall
>>>> problems, and I'm aware of them.
>>>> But my question is this: I bought a new machine w/ Vista pre-
>>>> installed (don't worry; I've still got
>>>> 3 others w/ XP Pro that all work flawlessly---in case Vista doesn't
>>>> pan out). One of the first things I
>>>> did was to uninstall Norton (in my experience, it's far more trouble
>>>> than its worth). Then I went to
>>>> Symantec, dwnloaded their Norton uninstall tool, and ran it. OK so
>>>> far....
>>>> Then I fired up an old friend--Registry Workshop--and ran a search
>>>> for keys/values/data containing
>>>> the string "symantec". 920 (that's not a typo) hits. So I spent
>>>> approx. 1.5 hrs backing up all those keys
>>>> to .hiv files, and then deleting those keys in registry.
>>>> So what happens? I went to re-boot, and Windows tells me that the
>>>> box can't start correctly 'cause
>>>> vital files are missing, and it's going to go into Sys Restore if it's
>>>> OK with me; so I say fine. [And you know
>>>> what's coming, right?] And then the box fires up just fine, and all
>>>> 920 reg keys related to Symantec are
>>>> right back where they were before the 1.5 hrs of manual key-deletions!
>>>> My present question: Why would any of those Symantec keys be
>>>> vitally-necessary for Vista to
>>>> boot up?
>>>> TIA.
>>>> riprap
>>>> living under the bridge eating binary roadkill
>>
>> To NotMe & uvbogden:
>> Very much appreciate your input.
>> I believe what NotMe's saying about the orphan reg keys not really
>> hurting anything, and I know that's true. It's just that I tend to be
>> a freak on keeping things as close to razor-clean as I can....And as
>> far as uvbogden's post: I appreciate the shared experience + the link
>> added. I will check it out!
>> Have an excellent weekend [:-P
>> riprap
>
>
> I used to do the same thing. I would spend hours searching for any damn
> utility I could find to futz with my OS. If you lurk here much, you'll
> find that the thinking from the experts all leans toward not using reg
> cleaners at all, or very little, and only then by individuals who truly
> know what they're doing.
>
> --
> Dave T.
>
> "Many people die at twenty-five and aren't buried
> until they are seventy-five".
> Benjamin Franklin