For those that are having problems with Norton Internet Security or Norton Antivirus, Symantec has a universal removal tool available.

Removal Tool

Follow the instructions at the Symantec Site.

Don't know why I had to search Google for Norton forums to get the solution
to why (after 4 tries at reinstalling, 2 times on the phone with their help staff in India) I could not get my Norton renewal to install. This type of "help" is so frustrating (the help I didn't get from Symantec). I tried uninstalling Norton myself, including deleting all mentions from the registry. Anyway thanks for your help!

Norton can be quite a pain. You still need an antivirus online. If you're like me, and want one with minimum hassle then get AVG-Free: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

Does what you need it to do and doesn't invade nor screw up your system.

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Microsoft MVP Consumer Security 2006, 2007 & 2008

I've seen both the update part of Norton AND now "Confidence Online" (June 2007) show up on my windows box that has never had Norton! Occasionally I check the processes running and when I see something new I Google it. Well... BOTH programs (the updater was last summer, this "confidence online" crap was within the last few days) were on this windows box which has never had ANY Symantec product ever loaded on it!

The updater (sorry I forget the name of that part of one or perhaps several of their programs) was verified by a number of websites such as this one that yep! They had a problem on their hands that was opening file sharing, ports, and this latest thing seems to have added all sorts of propagation goodies, you cannot delete it (without prolly going into a DOS prompt?)

TO me it's a bit of a bother, but what really gets me is those who are new to computers (young kids and those who are older) that don't even know where to being looking for this stuff, or even to look for it! It turns a lot of very intelligent (but not necessarily the most computer-savvy) people off to computers all together!) It not only harms the companies they copy the names from for their malware/spyware, etc. but it also has people loosing confidence in the computer age, some who have incredible potential to use computers for really important stuff (not just email and shopping or chatting online, I'm talking disaster services - some that tie into local EMS & police, government agencies and even provide communications through radio interfaces when say we have a huge flood, fire or earthquake OR those that are reporting to us extremely important research info re: medications space exploration, etc.) thus it hurts everyone!

My solution is to eventually go to everything LINUX, which seems to have very little of this kind of activity, the security is MUCH better, and the programs available for free are nearly limitless (there are a bunch that are not to my knowledge even available on Windows, but are on LINUX & others that are simply cost prohibitive for most young families, but equivalents or better are free in open-source format for LINUX.) I too believe that having open source code programs allows those who aren't computer savvy to be able to use what's free,a dn those that are (and kids growing up can learn how to) make & edit their own software, making it work how they want it to...

ANYHOW.. good luck with the mess... I too am having problems getting rid of this new thing & again I've never had anything Norton touch this machine, so it's not a fragment from an old install!

Any ideas (or links for tools that get this crap off my & everyone else's hard drives) would be welcome!

Thanks in advance!

Hope veryone had a great week-end!