Compaq Presario C552US Notebook PC, 2007
Windows Vista Home Basic
The computer came with Norton 360 (N360) installed. Since it was prepaid for one year, I used it for one year, then "uninstalled" via Control Panel/Uninstall Program. A couple of months later I noticed that Windows Security Center (WSC) reported that two firewalls and two anti-malware programs were running and could conflict: Defender and N360. I also continued to get balloon reminders that N360 updates were ready to install, but nothing happened if I clicked on the balloon. N360 didn't show in uninstall programs anymore, so I searched and found a couple of Norton & Symantec files left over on my computer. I manually deleted them, and thought that was it.
WSC continued to report that both programs were on, and I assumed it was just a message glitch - that N360 wasn't really on. Recently, I ran a Belarc Advisor report which reported that N360 was "up-to-date and running normally"! However, N360 never shows as an open program or running process in Windows Task Manager, nor as a running process in Sysinternals Process Explorer.
Now N360 shows up in Control Panel/Uninstall, but it is not responsive to right-click, and the "uninstall" button at the top is disabled when I click on N360. Today I downloaded the Symantec Norton Removal Tool. It downloaded OK, but nothing happens when I run the program (as administrator).
Argh! How do I get rid of Norton 360? I suspect it might be the reason my computer has been sluggish, since I've ruled out other possible culprits. If anyone has an answer, please explain it to me in plain English, since I am an end-user, not a pro. Thanks!
(On my new HP laptop, Windows 7, I immediately uninstalled N360 when I bought it, and have not had a problem like this.)
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