Disable Norton Internet Security 2012 Activation pop up temporarily

How to keep Norton totally installed, but get rid of that annoying pop up asking you to register.  It will also stop the Norton Internet Security services from starting.  Therefore, you should have another antivirus program installed before you attempt this.  After you complete these steps, you can always re-enable Norton by going through these steps in reverse.  At that point, you will need to activate Norton.  If you have already activated Norton and don't want to use it then use the  Norton Removal Tool instead.

 

How to keep Norton installed, but disable the Service:

 

Step 1: Open Norton and disable EVERYTHING.  I went through every single window and option and set everything to off or red.  You'll especially want to turn off Norton Product Tamper Protection, as described here.

 

Step 2: Click Start, and type: services.msc

 

Step 3: Scroll down to Norton Internet Security

 

Step 4: Right click on Norton Internet Security and choose Properties

 

Step 5: Copy  the "Path to Executable."  (Highlight the entire path and click Ctrl+c)

   Mine is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Norton Internet Security\Engine\19.1.0.28\ccSvcHst.exe" /s "NIS" /m "C:\Program Files (x86)\Norton Internet Security\Engine\19.1.0.28\diMaster.dll" /prefetch:1"

   but yours may be different.

 

Step 6: Open My Computer, then paste in the address bar.  Delete everything from the address bar after "ccScvHst.exe" including "ccScvHst.exe."  Then, hit enter

 

Step 7: Scroll down to "ccScvHst.exe."

 

Step 8: Rename this file to "ccScvHst 1.exe" or to whatever you want to.  Just remember that you'll need to be able to change it back to its original name if you ever intend to use Norton again,

 

Note: If it does not allow you to rename it at this point, reboot in safe mode and try steps 5-8 again.  Save this webpage to your desktop first unless you memorized this entire page.

 

Step 8: Repeat steps 2-8, except this time do it for "Norton Anti-Theft" in the services list.

 

Step 9: Restart your computer.

 

Step 10: Go back to services.msc.  You should now see that "Norton Anti-Theft" and "Norton Internet Security" are not running.  

 

Notes: This does not remove any files.  All you have done is trick Norton into not being able to find two files that it needs to be able to run.  If you restore those two files referenced above to their original names Norton should run as normal again.  Of course, you can always use Norton Removal Tool if you want to completely remove Norton from your computer.