Hi

I'm at my wit's end regarding difficulties I'm having installing Norton AntiVirus 2005. Here's my situation:

1. I purchased a used computer that already had Norton Internet Security Professional and AntiVirus 2003 installed about 18 months ago. I did not receive the original installation disks.

2. Everything was working fine until a couple of weeks ago when I got hit with CoolWebSearch and VX2 malware that, among other nasty things, somehow destroyed AntiVirus2003 and Security Professional.

3. Without the original disks I had no choice but to buy a copy of AntiVirus 2005. I figured I'd have to anyway, and I'd have to live without the other program for now.

4. Since I was concerned about having no virus protection at a time when malware was doing unpredictable things to my machine, I installed AntiVirus 2005 before resolving the malware problem. Probably not a good idea. But Norton seemed to be working fine and it even restored Security Professional to working order, somehow.

5. I resolved the malware issue, but I found that I was not able to activate Norton AntiVirus 2005. Symantec's online support is the worst I have ever encountered, and when I eventually found a phone number to call for manual program activation, it told me I had to give some sort of code number that should have appeared on screen when I installed -- but did not. (This was some sort of product number but NOT the Product Key number which I have on the CDROM envelope.

6. I left it for a few days but remembered my 15 days were running out. It was suggested to me that I reinstall Norton Antivirus since it's possible the malware had corrupted its installation. So I uninstalled it first, of course.

7. Reboot. Norton Security Professional still worked. I went to reinstall AntiVirus but it stopped with an error message that a NEWER VERSION of AntiVirus was on my machine and it had to be removed before I installed the program.

8. I checked Add/Remove Programs and saw a listing for Norton WMI Update, which had the same logo as Norton 2005. I tried to uninstall it, but it wouldn't let me (said I needed to have the program installed in order to uninstall it :eek: ).

So where I'm sitting at right now is I have a $75 coaster and a computer that has no virus protection (though apparently it does still have some level of malware/spyware blocking since Security Professional still works).

I'm so fed up right now I'm probably going to buy Macafee's program tomorrow and write this off to experience (and, fortunately, as a business expense on my taxes later). I really am disgusted by Symantec's non-support and I resent having to pay half the purchase price to find out how to fix this problem.

Can anyone out there help me?

Thanks!

Alex

Here's a guide to manually removing Norton productsto enable you to successfuly install later versions and alternative products.

Symantec/Norton is the devil, in my view, and McAffee is not much better at all. These companies rest on the laurels of their market share, and have gained that market share purely through the bundling deals they've done with manufacturers rather than through excellence of product!

No argument that the products do the job of virus detection etc perfectly well. But the products are slow and clunky, have incompatibilities with other software, and are 'clingier' than just about anything else available. In a commercial environment you may be stuck with them, depending upon company policy, but for the private user a combination of AVG Free Edition antivirus and ZoneAlarm or Sygate Personal Firewall beats them hands down!

I agree. Nortons virus and internet security is just bad all around. There are 2 free ones I really really like. Avast and Avg. I just keep avg from loading at startup. You can google avast anti virus and avg anti virus. Or you can download them at www.zdnet.com. Side note I do use nortons ghost 9.0. I do love that program. It has forusre saved me from a reformat a few times.