My brother has had Norton AV for years and has now decided to remove it from his desktop.
He used Ashampoo Uninstaller to remove it but it has left behind over 180 items when searched with Everything ! (see screenshot below)
Some he can delete and others come up with the second screenshot below.
How can I change permission to all Norton folders and files to be able to delete them?
Hi, as ever when removing complex AV programs, first look for the manual uninstall tool provided by the company and use that.
Trying to do it manually will be extremely tiresome, error prone, likely to be incomplete etc...
Found for you using Google thus:
norton uninstall tool
Download and run the Norton Remove and Reinstall tool for Windows
I reinstalled Norton and then run the Norton Removal Tool to test if all Norton files would be removed but it did not!
I run Everything and searched for Norton files and found around 80 files for Norton, I was able to delete some of them but 52 files in C:\program Files\Windows Apps, System32, Program Data etc. cannot be deleted (see screenshot below) these files range in size from 1kb to 10 kb in size.
So I guess once Norton is installed in a pc some of its files will remain till Windows is reinstalled again for whatever reason.
Norton files that cannot be deleted.
You can delete them too. This tutorial will show you how to add "Take Ownership" to all right click context menus.
Add Take Ownership to Context Menu in Windows 10
Once you do that, then go back and any Symantec or Norton file you can't delete... just right click it and "Take Ownership".
Now... you can delete it.
WARNING... do NOT delete anything in theC:\Windows\WinSxS....ever.
And DON'T do things like Take Ownership of the whole Program Data folder, for example.
Just Take Ownership of any Symantec or Norton folders (as long as they aren't in the WinSxS folder... and delete them.
Here's another tutorial for cleaning the WinSxS folder (Component Store)...
Clean Up Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10
Last edited by Ghot; 20 Dec 2022 at 15:25.
After having used the removal tools,does running ---dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth ---have any effect?
Now all Anti Virus companies have there removal tools for the ease of customers. They don't want to bring down their reputation down.
Thanks
TechOffice Inc.
Tech Office
@dalchina Thanks for your post you have always been very helpful and I respect and value your knowhow but like I said in answer to Ghot I did reinstall Norton and then run the removal tool but all the files in C:\program Files\Windows Apps, System32, Program Data etc. were not removed and the are in the range of 1 to 10 kb in size so I will let them be.
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