Norton Utilities 15 thinks I have google chrome installed

Whenever I use the browser cleanup function of NU 15, it shows the list of browsers & indicates whichever ones are installed.  I have IE (and who doesn't) and firefox 4.0 installed.  I was surprised that NU lists google chrome installed as I never had google chrome installed ever.  Im thinking this may be a bug in the browser cleanup utility.  Has anyone else that don't have chrome installed seen this?

 

 

NIS 2011 v.18.6.0.29 / Norton Ghost 15 / NU 15.0.0.122 / Windows 7 Pro SP1 x86 / IE9

 

 

Browser cleanup.png

Whenever I use the browser cleanup function of NU 15, it shows the list of browsers & indicates whichever ones are installed.  I have IE (and who doesn't) and firefox 4.0 installed.  I was surprised that NU lists google chrome installed as I never had google chrome installed ever.  Im thinking this may be a bug in the browser cleanup utility.  Has anyone else that don't have chrome installed seen this?

 

 

NIS 2011 v.18.6.0.29 / Norton Ghost 15 / NU 15.0.0.122 / Windows 7 Pro SP1 x86 / IE9

 

 

Browser cleanup.png

Thanks for the suggestion.  I checked all of the folders inside AppData for my user acct and nothing was found for anything google.  Ive seen this bug on another computer in the house with NU v.14.5.  No google software ever was installed on either system but the browser cleanup in both versions of NU report that Chrome is installed.  Im still thinking that this is a bug in the cleanup utility.

Your other system also running IE9?

 

I think it may be because IE9 is not supported yet.  I saw a post by a Symantec employee about a planned update for version 15 but he gave no idea about when it may be.

 

Dave

 

Edit- Here is that post

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/yahoo-webpage-won-t-work-after-Norton-Utilities-scan-on-Internet/m-p/428640#M33311

Actually I think that an update was released through SmartUpdate for NU 15 because I ran SmartUpdate and it found a product update and since then IE is being detected in the browser cleanup and I do have IE9 installed.  Im going to use my Win7 XP Mode VM and install NU on that and see if it detectes chrome as being installed even when its not.

Pcloverxp,

 

I'm sending you a private message as the team would like to get a little more information for this.

 

 

Pcloverxp,

 

We need a little more information to determine why NU thinks Chrome is installed.  There are some HTML files we need to dig in further.  Could you do the following:

 

1.  Open Norton Utilities
2.  Select "Clean your Disks"
3.  Select "Reports"
4.  Send us the three most recent "pgscan" HTML files
(some examples shown below)

pgscan_01.17.2011_09.28.52.html
pgscan_01.19.2011_09.06.43.html
pgscan_01.21.2011_14.53.44.html

 

You can send them to the same email address as before.  Thank you for your patience with this.

 

 

Thank you for the logs.  We might have a solution for you.  If not, there's one more file we'll need.

 

1.  Shut down Norton Utilities
2.  Navigate to the following location:
C:\Program Files\Norton Utilities 15\
3.  Delete the "Cache.db" file
4.  Restart the computer
5.  Restart Norton Utilities and see if "Google Chrome" shows as being installed


If "Google Chrome still shows as being installed in the "Browsers" section of the Norton Utilities "Clean your Disks" window, proceed to step 6.


6.  Navigate to the following location in the computer

C:\Program Files\Norton Utilities 15\

7.  Send me a copy of the "DetectorLog.log " file


Thanks for your patience with this. 

Thanks Erik!

 

I will try these suggestions and let you know how it worked out.  I have a question though.  Will NU v. 14.5 be updated for IE 9 & Firefox 5?  I still have a laptop that is still on NU 14.5 and im not sure when i will upgrade that to v. 15.

I'm not sure if 14.5 will be updated or not.  If I were a betting man, my money would be that it won't.  Of course, plans could always change.

 

I just wanted to follow up.  Did the suggestion work or does NU still think you have Chrome installed?

It did not unfortunately.  I did email you the log file from the NU 15 program files folder.  Thanks!

Thanks for the log.  I'll pass it along to see what we can find out.

 

We're one step closer to identifying why.  It looks like there might be an entry in the registry that we're triggering off of incorrectly.  Could you do an export of the following registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\

and

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\

 

Export them as .reg files, zip them up, and make sure you password protect the zip or the attachment will be stripped when you send it to me.  Make sure you let me know the password as well.  :smileywink:

I will get the registry keys prepared and get them sent to you.  Thanks for looking into this Erik!

Got them.  Thanks again Jeff.

 

So, the root cause appears to be a left behind registry key:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Google Chrome

Please do the following...

1.  Open RegEdit
2.  Navigate to the following location (It's a good idea to backup the registry before making modifications)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\

3.  Delete the "Google Chrome" entry
4.  Close Regedit
5.  Shut down Norton Utilities
6.  Navigate to the following location within Windows

C:\Program Files\Norton Utilities 15\

7.  Delete the "Cache.db" file
8.  Restart your computer
9.  Restart Norton Utilities and see if "Google Chrome" shows as being installed

 

Please let me know if that resolves things for you.

 

Thanks a lot!  I deleted the google chrome registry key and then NU no longer sees it as being installed.  I just don't know how its registry key got on my system without ever installing it myself.  I'll have to do this to my other system with NU 15 installed.  Thanks again!

My pleasure.  No idea either how it got there.  Maybe it was bundled somehow.  Just not sure.

 

It is possible that Chrome could have been installed along with another application because there are a lot of other small apps that have "Install Googles Chrome" as a default option. I know that I have come across this on several occasions and have had to untick the default "ticked" option to install Chrome.

 

 

 

UK Bob