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.
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/87249-unable-install-latest-version-program-vista.html
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 [ 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
