Okay, here's the chronology to my tale of woe trying to upgrade from NIS 2012 to the latest version as best as I can reconstruct it. My computer is a Dell 9000/435 with Windows 7 Home Premium x64 fully updated to last month's Patch Tuesday offerings. And I don't use Identity Safe.
As of 3:30 pm on Dec 9th, I had a perfectly routine experience thus far over the last year with an installation of NIS 2012 that was now only 11 days from expiration. So, while browsing Amazon for other reasons, I decide that this year I will upgrade to the latest version online before buying my license.
So I launch NIS by clicking the icon on the task bar, click on the SUPPORT tab, select "New Version Check" and follow the instructions to do an "over-the-top" upgrade to the latest version of NIS. So far, everything's going okay. And, after a system restart I get to the message that NIS was upgraded successfully. ("You have successfully activated and registered Norton Internet Security, and now have 11 days of protection for up to 3 PC(s).") I then run "Live Update", download a few updates and everything is working fine so far.
I can't remember exactly why I launched it the second time, but then I got an error message similar to what NicholasMartinelli reported on 12/04 (though I failed to record its actual number at the time so I can't say that it was the exact same error condition, but "Error 8504, 104" sounds about right.) At that point, I do a system restore that appears to be successful in that I got my earlier version of NIS back and, so far, had not yet noticed anything else wrong with the system.
But after the restore, I noticed that the NIS icon wasn't in the task bar anymore. So I attempted to launch NIS from the Start button but got another, different error message that I also failed to record. Oh well, the system restore process had warned that it might break programs or applications that were rolled back so I didn't let that bother me.
So I get my installation disk for NIS 2012 and proceed to run it thinking that that would fix whatever the problem was. Was I wrong about that. (Yes, I've since read the post about using NRT in a proper sequence for a good uninstall.) After the restart, I had exactly the same symptoms pduffy12001 reported on 12/09: "It uninstalled Microsoft Office, Explorer, and a large majority of smaller programs." In my case, it also uninstalled Google Earth, Adobe Reader and probably other staples as well that I haven't discovered yet. Also "uninstalled" may not be the best word to describe the process since all the pointers in the Start pane, on the desktop and even the listings in the add/remove control box are still there
But wait! There's even more! After noodling around for a few hours, I discovered the following:
I can turn on Windows Firewall, but not Windows Defender. Also, I can't install Microsoft Security Essentials.
If I try to turn on Windows Defender, I get the following message:
"Action Center can't turn on Windows Defender. Please try again later."
Also, if I try to run a second system restore, I get this message:
"System Restore could not start."
I also get this message text for several executables:
"Windows cannot find 'G:\NPE.exe'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again."
(I couldn't launch it from the desktop in safe mode either because msconfig also won't launch with the same error
message. See below.) (Also, G: is a USB drive.)
'G:\SAS_9997.EXE' [SUPERAntiSpyware free product]
'G:\Norton_Removal_Tool.exe'
'G:\mseinstall.exe'
'C:\Windows\system32\systempropertiesprotection.exe'
'C:\Windows\system32\systempropertiesadvanced.exe'
'C:\Windows\system32\msconfig.exe'
But the executable to install MalwareBytes Anti-Malware Free will give me this message:
"ShellExecuteEx failed; code 2.
The system cannot find the file specified."
Finally, I was able to install Comodo Cleaning Essentials to my USB drive I guess because I only had to extract it rather than install it. But when I launch it, it might flash on the screen for a half a second or less. And then it disappears and I can't see any evidence of it running, not even as a process in Task Manager.
Okay, one more thing: AFAIK, my system retained Notepad, Paint, Calculator and Windows Explorer. Everything else got blown away. But all of my portable apps that I run from a USB drive (including Google Chrome and Thunderbird) appear to be unaffected by this. Also my Kindle App for Windows is still good with no loss of content either.
So my system is still running but quite vulnerable and with lots of system and user applications unavailable. And, of course, the possibility that the mayhem is not over also exists.
So what do you think? What advice do you have for a hapless schmuck like myself who hasn't made a system image for backup purposes in the entire three years that he's owned the computer. (It seems to me that if I could get back the system restore function, I could save myself a lot of trouble reloading Windows and all of my apps from scratch, don't you think?)
P.S. I included a lot of detail so someone here can better identify the exact cause of all my grief, giving me all the more hope for a quick remedy.