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Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

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I brought my work PC home with me to use since I moved far enough away not to walk into that forsakken place. Anyway, I am trying to remove the old Symantec Corporate Anti Virus program that was installed via the network. I can not uninstall it because it is asking for an uninstall password. The network administrator who set this up is long gone. No one knows what the password is. THIS PC IS NO LONGER ON THAT NETWORK! I have tried deleting registry entires that say “Symantec” but I still can not get rid of it. Also, because of my cleaning attemps, ANYTHING I do on that PC, like open up Explorer, it keeps wanting to reinstall itself and I have to cancel the dialog box that keeps coming up.
How can I rid this program once and for all on XP SP2 without reloading the drive?
Thank you.

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Reply To: Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

In reply to Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

did you try the default password: ‘symantec’
what version please?
this issue is covered on their website…

Reply To: Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

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The password has been changed and the ex-network amdin forgot what it is.
Could not find diddly (sp?) on their site about this.
To finish off what I did above in my initial entry, I used a Microsoft Windows Installer Clean Up utility. I removed the Symantec AV Corp entry and now I do not get that stubborn AV trying to install itself anymore. YAY!
So now, since I could not properly uninstall it with any uninstalling program (and I tried 3), I just removed any traces of files with “Symantec” and any registry entries with “Symantec” or “virus” just to remove it. What I had to do to finish it off was that utility.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301

Reply To: Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

In reply to Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

well your sorta out of luck. Short of reformatting the entire machine there’s really no way to uninstall Symantec Corporate AV on a managed PC that the admin required a password to uninstall. Deleting the registry entries won’t do it.

you might look at the symantec FAQ for manually uninstalling AV.

Reply To: Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

In reply to Reply To: Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

To finish off what I did above in my initial entry, I used a Microsoft Windows Installer Clean Up utility. I removed the Symantec AV Corp entry and now I do not get that stubborn AV trying to install itself anymore. YAY!
So now, since I could not properly uninstall it with any uninstalling program (and I tried 3), I just removed any traces of files with “Symantec” and any registry entries with “Symantec” or “virus” just to remove it. What I had to do to finish it off was that utility.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301

Reply To: Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

In reply to Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

haha, you just had to put that last sentence in there. First thing I thought of was, reformat. However if that is something you dont want to do, have you tried working in safe mode? many times that allows you to circumvent passwords. Also, maybe you can simply turn it off of the startup and just let it sit idle on your harddrive. Try msconfig in the run box and see if you can handle the problem by not necessarily uninstalling, just avoiding.

I still say reformat though 😉

Reply To: Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

In reply to Reply To: Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

To finish off what I did above in my initial entry, I used a Microsoft Windows Installer Clean Up utility. I removed the Symantec AV Corp entry and now I do not get that stubborn AV trying to install itself anymore. YAY!
So now, since I could not properly uninstall it with any uninstalling program (and I tried 3), I just removed any traces of files with “Symantec” and any registry entries with “Symantec” or “virus” just to remove it. What I had to do to finish it off was that utility.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301

Reply To: Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

In reply to Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

This may not be a lot of help but we had a similar problem getting a new version of Symantec installed. The old version would not go away. We search http://www.sarc.com for Problem Installing and in one of the documents was a method for removing the old software prior to installing new. There were several ClassRoot keys we had missed and when we got rid of the right one the install went smootly. You might even search for Problem Removing the append your software name and version number. Good luck

Reply To: Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

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Sorry.

Reply To: Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

In reply to Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition or Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition prompts for password when uninstalling clients

Situation:
When you attempt to uninstall one or more managed clients, you are prompted to enter a password. When you enter the server group password, you see a message indicating that the password is invalid.

Solution:
The client uninstallation password is independent of the server group and can be set by the administrator through the Symantec System Center if the client is managed. If the client uninstallation password has not been set specifically, it will still be the default password. The default password for the uninstalling clients is symantec

To specify or change the client uninstallation password

Start the Symantec System Center, and unlock the server group.
Right-click a server, server group, or client group, and then click All Tasks > Norton AntiVirus or Symantec AntiVirus > Client Administrator Only Options.
On the Security tab, check Ask for password to allow uninstall of Norton AntiVirus or Symantec AntiVirus client.
Click Change.
In the Configure Password dialog box, type a new password, and then confirm by typing the password again.
Click OK until you return to the main Symantec System Center console window.

Reply To: Removing Stubborn AV Asking for Password

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No idea what that center looked liked considering I removed everything I could find to get rid of it when the uninstalls did not work.
Sorry.

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