My computer came with McAfee and Norton preinstalled, the problem is that their subscription has run out and they don't have an uninstall option! This means i constantly get popups from them and unwanted warnings. Also, i can't turn them off and to make matters worse, Norton seems to have been corrupted because it can't repair or delete files only find them. This problem has been bothering me for some time. So if anyone and find a way to fix this please tell me.

Did you receive the McAfee install disk with your computer ? Then, try starting again the McAfee install, it should allow you the "uninstall" option.
Unfortunately, I confirm that on some computers the Symantec Norton Antinvirus is installed with the option "cannot be uninstalled".

Can you reinstall windows? If you can't, ask the person you bought the computer with to reinstall windows for you WITHOUT Norton or McAfee. It's kind of funny actually, who would want to install both Norton of McAfee as both slows down your computer alot. You can use Avast free anti-virus instead, it uses less resource on your system, you will feel speed improvement. Another method is to disable each anti-virus software (each should have an option to do so).

@pawitp : today, very often, if you buy a ready-to use computer, you receive the computer with everything pre-installed on it, in a hidden partition. And you have no install CD's (probably for anti-piracy things). In case of problem, you may re-install everyithing from this hidden partition, but there is no way of partial install. This is the way HP does, for instance.

Ah, this problem again.

Norton Anti-Virus has the tendency to act like a virus itself. Like other anti-virus software, it spreads itself into the computer to keep a check on the whole system to spot viruses and the like, but because of this, this makes it nearly impossible to get it off your computer normally.

I had this very same problem myself when I got my new computer, and when the subscription expired, I also could not uninstall it, but had to go through different directories and delete the files manually one by one. It was a pain in the butt, but it worked. Re-installing a version of Windows without it may work, but that means you'll have to back-up everything and start all over from square one. To me, going through your directories and deleting the files of Norton will take less time than that, and you'll still have your information.

Darkwolf11235: I find this very difficult to believe. No manufacturer or assembler of computers will ever have a tie-up with more than 1 security service provider (Symantec / McAfee / Trend Micro etc.). Also, no self-respecting techie worth his/her salt is ever going to counsel someone on installing and running more than one antivirus on the same machine concurrently. The old adage that If one's good, two must be better just doesn't hold up in this case !

However, to help with your problems of not being able to remove the software, download and use the Norton Uninstall Tool. A direct link is here, albeit from a non-Symantec but trusted site.

If you need further help or you don't trust this info, have a look at the Manual Download Page.

Be warned that this tool will wipe ANY AND ALL SYMANTEC PRODUCTS from your system. It will NOT however remove registration info, so don't think for a moment that by using this tool, you'll be able to re-enter a new Product Key and get a free year's worth of updates.

More info from Wikipedia SymNRT page

This post has been edited by sparx: Jun 16 2006, 05:25 AM

The official Symantec Uninstaller download page is here :
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/INTER...be?OpenDocument
You will have to download and then run three files : MSIFIX.bat, SymNRT.exe and SYMMSICLEANUP.reg and then you will be able to correctly install Norton (according to Symatec) or not install it at all.

Was just going to say that. Yes, use the SymNRT tool that was mentioned above. It should remove it successfully.

What version of McAfee do you have? Take a look here for manual uninstall instructions. It mentions using the Add/Remove Programs Panel to do this. Since it doesn't work in your case (try again to be sure), just use the registry batch file to remove all traces of it in the registry. Then look for all the McAfee related files/folders and delete all of them. That should remove them all.

Not sure if there could be any services for it running also after running that registry batch file, so go to Start->Run and type in services.msc and hit OK. Scroll down and see if you can locate any McAfee services. If found, you can double click on them and click on the Stop button. Then under Startup type, choose Disable. You may delete them also. You need to find out the service name first by double clicking on it. Look at the first field where it says Service name. Jot that information down. Then go to Start->Run and type in cmd and hit OK. You will be in the command prompt. Say the Service name was McAfeeAV. You will type something like this in the prompt:

sc stop McAfeeAV
sc delete McAfeeAV
exit

Hit enter after each of those lines. That will delete the service. Do this for any other McAfee service found...if any. You may also apply this to Norton if it still has leftovers after running SymNRT.

WeaponX: Good info on deleting services. I neglected to mention that because I haven't come across any one who's had any problems after running SymNRT yet. And in my personal experience, I know of at least 30-40 separate instances of the SymNRT being used and then having it wipe all that it's designed to wipe correctly.

Thank goodness it works the way it should. Pity we can't always say the same about the other Symantec software, eh?

I'm rather satisfied with Norton Ghost, it makes partial or full backups of my system, even if I have both Crosoft and Linux on the same system.