Norton Security Scan removal

Archive
1

I'm no doubt going to be the millionth person to ask this, i honestly would not be suprised one bit. This program is getting beyond an absolute joke now, nothing that i do, no matter how many forums i read, how many guides i follow, or how many times i uninstall it - This scourge will not get the message and get off my computer.

 

This all started at least 3 months ago, i went away from my computer for a bit one day and when i came back Norton Security Scan was sitting in the background. I was confused, as i haven't used any Norton products in years, and i was a little bit concerned that this program somehow ended up on my computer.

 

Needless to say, i did a straight uninstall and didn't follow any guides or forums about uninstallation, to me it was just a basic uninstall.

 

Things where fine for a while, then one day after my nephew was using my computer, there it was again, sitting in the background. Straight away i suspected that he clicked something he shouldn't have - So i went through the internet history and i couldn't find a single shred of evidence that he went near any Norton website, his usual stuff was Facebook and Youtube with the occasional game.

 

I once again uninstalled it flat out.

 

Then about 4 weeks ago, up it came again. At this point it was really getting me annoyed so this is when i did some research into it, it was at this point my head started aching. I followed the guide supplied by Symantec, but some things where strange. I uninstalled the program, but when i went into Task Scheduler i couldn't see a single scrap of evidence that NSStub was around, or anything else relating to Norton/Symantec.

 

I went into the Registry, but once again, i didn't find anything in the HKEY Local Machine.

 

I assumed it was finished. A week later on a Sunday, it comes up again. I plead for help, and someone says to use a specific uninstaller for it (CleanWipe), but strangely, when going through the log afterwards all i seen was "not present on system" continuously.

 

Then once again, another Sunday (One week later) it once again installs itself. This time though, Task Scheduler DOES show Norton, i finally felt like i was getting somewhere. I followed the Norton processes for removal, but once again, it did nothing.

 

A week later on a Sunday it popped up again. A trend was being set i felt, every Sunday this was installing itself, however today it went against the norm - It actually popped up on Saturday (Today). Now i feel i have no idea what is happening. I honestly can't get anywhere with removing this god forsaken program.

 

Looking back, i've seen a lot of forum posters on various sites blaming the person for installing the program when it piggybacks on certain programs. It was coincidental that i upgraded my Adobe a few weeks ago when it started happening, but this is the thing - I'm ALWAYS very careful with adding additional extras, things like Yahoo Toolbar et al, so it just seemed massively unlikely i did.

 

But that's not saying i didn't. I really don't know. However the thing that gets me is this: If it was for instance Adobe that Norton piggybacked on, surely Norton would have popped up immediately after installation instead of sitting on the sidelines waiting for the perfect time to install itself steathily on my system?

 

I am on Windows 7 at the moment, whereas the guide i have seen from Norton relates to Vista/Windows XP. In essence though things can not be that different between operating systems.

 

Things i have tried:

 

Uninstalling through Add/remove programs

Uninstalling through Norton Security Scan folder

Using CleanWipe

Deleting Task Scheduler (Norton Security Scan) - NOT NSStub (As it isn't there)

There is no registry key in HKEY/Windows/CurrentMachine/RunOnce, its empty bar (Default)

 

I honestly have lost all hope, but i'm not formatting my computer - at the end of the day that should not be necessary, and there's no guarantees that it will cure this in the future should it happen again...

2

I'm not sure why it keeps coming back unless it is bundled with something that downloads updates regularly.  My wife accidentally installed this once and just a regular uninstall got rid of it and it never came back.

 

My advice is to download AUTORUNS and run it. This will show MANY things that run at startup. You won't believe it. You can search for Norton, etc. Be very careful about what you disable as you may end up with a non functioning machine if you disable the wrong stuff!

3

I currently don't have any Norton products installed, barring this Norton Security Scan. My own antivirus i use is Avast! but this isn't giving any warnings when Norton pops up.

 

One thing i am wondering about things like CleanWipe and this Power Eraser (and Malware Bytes) should i run the programs while Norton is still on the system, or should i do it like i have normall done it, were the product is already uninstalled.

4
Gray wrote:

I currently don't have any Norton products installed, barring this Norton Security Scan. My own antivirus i use is Avast! but this isn't giving any warnings when Norton pops up.

 

One thing i am wondering about things like CleanWipe and this Power Eraser (and Malware Bytes) should i run the programs while Norton is still on the system, or should i do it like i have normall done it, were the product is already uninstalled.

Gray,

I'm not familiar with CleanWipe but the other two are Norton compatible and can remain on your computer for future use. Run them from safe mode either way. If there's something 'nasty' in there these will usually find it without causing problems for the rest of the system. The only Norton program that needs to be used with caution is the Norton Removal Tool. This will remove all traces of ALL Norton products from your system. I haven't suggested this because I don't think that the root problem is a Norton program.

Keep in touch, we'll leave a light on

5

I'm no doubt going to be the millionth person to ask this, i honestly would not be suprised one bit. This program is getting beyond an absolute joke now, nothing that i do, no matter how many forums i read, how many guides i follow, or how many times i uninstall it - This scourge will not get the message and get off my computer.

 

This all started at least 3 months ago, i went away from my computer for a bit one day and when i came back Norton Security Scan was sitting in the background. I was confused, as i haven't used any Norton products in years, and i was a little bit concerned that this program somehow ended up on my computer.

 

Needless to say, i did a straight uninstall and didn't follow any guides or forums about uninstallation, to me it was just a basic uninstall.

 

Things where fine for a while, then one day after my nephew was using my computer, there it was again, sitting in the background. Straight away i suspected that he clicked something he shouldn't have - So i went through the internet history and i couldn't find a single shred of evidence that he went near any Norton website, his usual stuff was Facebook and Youtube with the occasional game.

 

I once again uninstalled it flat out.

 

Then about 4 weeks ago, up it came again. At this point it was really getting me annoyed so this is when i did some research into it, it was at this point my head started aching. I followed the guide supplied by Symantec, but some things where strange. I uninstalled the program, but when i went into Task Scheduler i couldn't see a single scrap of evidence that NSStub was around, or anything else relating to Norton/Symantec.

 

I went into the Registry, but once again, i didn't find anything in the HKEY Local Machine.

 

I assumed it was finished. A week later on a Sunday, it comes up again. I plead for help, and someone says to use a specific uninstaller for it (CleanWipe), but strangely, when going through the log afterwards all i seen was "not present on system" continuously.

 

Then once again, another Sunday (One week later) it once again installs itself. This time though, Task Scheduler DOES show Norton, i finally felt like i was getting somewhere. I followed the Norton processes for removal, but once again, it did nothing.

 

A week later on a Sunday it popped up again. A trend was being set i felt, every Sunday this was installing itself, however today it went against the norm - It actually popped up on Saturday (Today). Now i feel i have no idea what is happening. I honestly can't get anywhere with removing this god forsaken program.

 

Looking back, i've seen a lot of forum posters on various sites blaming the person for installing the program when it piggybacks on certain programs. It was coincidental that i upgraded my Adobe a few weeks ago when it started happening, but this is the thing - I'm ALWAYS very careful with adding additional extras, things like Yahoo Toolbar et al, so it just seemed massively unlikely i did.

 

But that's not saying i didn't. I really don't know. However the thing that gets me is this: If it was for instance Adobe that Norton piggybacked on, surely Norton would have popped up immediately after installation instead of sitting on the sidelines waiting for the perfect time to install itself steathily on my system?

 

I am on Windows 7 at the moment, whereas the guide i have seen from Norton relates to Vista/Windows XP. In essence though things can not be that different between operating systems.

 

Things i have tried:

 

Uninstalling through Add/remove programs

Uninstalling through Norton Security Scan folder

Using CleanWipe

Deleting Task Scheduler (Norton Security Scan) - NOT NSStub (As it isn't there)

There is no registry key in HKEY/Windows/CurrentMachine/RunOnce, its empty bar (Default)

 

I honestly have lost all hope, but i'm not formatting my computer - at the end of the day that should not be necessary, and there's no guarantees that it will cure this in the future should it happen again...