BB&C Topical SIG Case Study Roger Bailey October 2006

Norton’s Ghost Not the Norton Ghost Software that duplicates all files on a drive The Ghost of Norton AntiVirus that will not die but continues to haunt the Registry

The Registry Resting place for the spirits of software A place of danger and mystery Do not enter without backup

Uninstalling Norton Anti Virus Norton Anti Virus is deliberately difficult to uninstall: Good and real reasons Case Study: Roger’s Father-in-law’s computer 2002 Uninstalled Norton AV using programs Uninstall feature Installed free AVG from disc - ok “Norton’s Ghost” appeared on startup –files missing, startup stalled –“Press any key to continue” required twice on startup

Exorcising Norton’s Ghost Control Panel: Add/Remove Programs –No luck – Norton AV had been uninstalled –Lacked discs to reinstall and re-uninstall Checked start menu – no luck Ran MSConfig – Startup Menu Tab –NAV items found and unselected –Unselected but not removed –Fixed one of the stall on startup One stall remained: NAV.VxD –ref in registry or system.ini to a deleted file

Exorcising Norton’s Ghost Norton’s Ghost remained to haunt us Googled “uninstall Norton AV” –Many references to difficulties –Registry editing required –Operating system and version specific –Beyond my technical capabilities Lived with glitch for several years

Rnav.exe Tool Noted reference to a removal tool Rnav.exe in a magazine (Smart Computing) Norton brought out this utility due to complaints from customers haunted by Norton’s Ghost Googled Rnav.exe Lots of references: Norton and others Downloaded Rnav2003.exe utilityDownloaded Limitations apply for various versions

Manually uninstalling Norton AV 2002 from Windows 98/Me Googling Rnav.exe brought me to this Norton Support Page for manual options including:Norton Support Page From the Control Panel –BSD -no luck Use the Rnav removal utility – perhaps, but… Removing Norton AV from the registry – scary! –Recommended running a MS Cleanup Utility first –Recommended backing up the registry –MS instructions were convoluted and scary!

Remove NAV from the Registry Detailed instructions for manual removal from the Registry seemed simple and straightforward The troublesome Registry entries were obvious Registry backup was simple: Run Scanreg Registry editing was as well: Run Regedit The troublemaker deleted was VxD\NAVAP HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\NAVAP Exit the Registry Editor, and then restart Norton’s Ghost Exorcised!

Exorcising Norton’s Ghost BB&C Case Study Roger Bailey October 2006