How to Completely Uninstall Norton Antivirus Software from your Computer
March 15, 2010 | Guides and Tutorials
Antivirus applications are generally difficult to remove because they integrate so deeply with the system and Norton Antivirus applications are no exception.
So here’s your step by step guide to get rid of any Norton Antivirus application.
Recommended Solution
Download Perfect Uninstaller to safely and easily remove Norton Antivirus from your computer.
Manual Removal
Note: Removing an application manually runs the risk of causing damage to your computer should you make a mistake and delete the wrong files, always back up the system before you make any system changes.
- Navigate to the “Control Panel” and select “Add/Remove Programs”, in the list of installed applications select any Norton/Symantec product, click “change”, then Remove All.
Restart your computer.
- Click Start, My Computer, Program Files and delete any Symantec/Norton folder found.
- Return to Program Files and enter the Common Files folder and delete any Symantec/Norton folders found.
- Click Start, Search, All Files and Folders, More Advanced Options, check all options but Case Sensitive and do a search for Norton, delete any file and folder the search returns
- Restart your computer and repeat this step but search for Symantec, remember to restart again.
In the next step we will be going into the registry, use caution when making changes in the registry, if you delete the wrong files you could terminate important processes or system files which could destroy your computer, do a backup of the registry before you proceed.
- Click Start, run…, type “regedit” in the dialogue box and hit enter.
Navigate to the following entries and delete the specified folders/entries.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\
- Delete the Symantec folder found in this directory
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- Delete any entries with the name Symantec and NAV in the Run folder
- Repeat this step in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- Restart your computer.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\
- Expand the above folder and scroll down until you find the Symantec entries, then delete them.
Warning: Do not delete anything that is not specifically listed as Symantec!
There you go; Norton Antivirus should now be completely removed from your computer.
If you find the above tutorial to complex or you are not sure that you can successfully complete the steps, it is recommended to download Perfect Uninstaller to automatically remove the application.
