How do I remove Norton Anti Virus from my PC ?

[dmh79 10]

Hi swarfendor, your method is still valid, although for the novice & experienced user alike CC Cleaner and Easy Cleaner make cleaning up remnants of uninstalled program a breeze.

 

I would recommend everyone to intstall both CC Cleaner and Easy Cleaner, the proof that they both do their job is when unistalling a program, both CCCleaner and Easy cleaner will usually pick up on some file or other that the uninstalled program has left behind.

 

For some reason whenever I get a Windows update installed, it usually slows my PC to a crawl, I run both CC Cleaner and Easy Cleaner and voila! back to normal speed again!

 

CC Cleaner, or CCleaner? I've heard that one of them is actually malware...

[kenthack 10]

http://www.ccleaner.com/

[Kingmaker2 10]

CC Cleaner, or CCleaner? I've heard that one of them is actually malware...

 

Opps sorry CCleaner is the one you want. (It was a typo by me...but well spotted!)

Edited December 13, 2009 by Kingmaker2

[dmh79 10]

Opps sorry CCleaner is the one you want. (It was a typo by me...but well spotted!)

 

So do you think it could help out with the problem I have? This is a link to my post about it

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=532395

 

I'm tempted to give it a look, but I'm also a bit wary because I think it may have been a duff registry cleaner that caused the problem in the first place Its made me cautious of all registry cleaners.

If not do you know of anything that could fix it?

(sorry for hijacking this thread!)

[Kingmaker2 10]

So do you think it could help out with the problem I have? This is a link to my post about it

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=532395

 

I'm tempted to give it a look, but I'm also a bit wary because I think it may have been a duff registry cleaner that caused the problem in the first place Its made me cautious of all registry cleaners.

If not do you know of anything that could fix it?

(sorry for hijacking this thread!)

 

dmh79, I've just read your problem with your Acer.

 

I do own a Acer Laptop although the XP version.

It doesn't come with an installation disc but instead has 2 drives on the hard disk (or more accurately one drive with a partition)

 

If you look under the My Computer you might see what is on my Acer, a "C" drive & a "D" drive.

 

Take a look to see if you have the "D" drive ......If it is then that is where you can acess the reinstallation mode.(note they put it in the "D" drive so that you can acess it even if your "C " drive is infected.

 

As for reg cleaners causing problems, I can only speak for my experiences and neither CCleaner or Easy Cleaner have ever caused me any problems.( I've used both for years)

 

You could no harm in trying both these cleaners, since you are thinking of reinstalling your operating system anyway.

Edited December 13, 2009 by Kingmaker2

[waddler8 10]

...I think it may have been a duff registry cleaner that caused the problem in the first place Its made me cautious of all registry cleaners.

 

I wouldn't use them at all. They offer little benefit to your system but have the potential to really mess things up from programs failing to start to the point that your comp won't boot up at all.

 

Same with Revo uninstaller that was mentioned earlier in the thread, the potential for a novice using the advanced uninstall feature to either remove for example the entire HKLM software subkey or even an entire hive is to great. (Select all button )

 

From Mark Russinovic, a man who knows a thing or two about the Windows Registry ->

 

Registry Junk: A Windows Fact of Life

 

Hi Mark, do you really think that Registry junk left by uninstalled programs could severely slow down the computer? I would like to 'hear' your opinion.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

No, even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive searches.

http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2005/10/02/registry-junk-a-windows-fact-of-life.aspx

Edited December 13, 2009 by waddler8

[Kingmaker2 10]

I wouldn't use them at all. They offer little benefit to your system but have the potential to really mess things up from programs failing to start to the point that your comp won't boot up at all.

 

Well I can only speak from my experiences, with regard to the safety aspects

 

I have installed both CCleaner and Easy cleaner on 4 different set ups for 4 different people (incuding myself).

None of the 4 have experienced any problems with booting up after running these cleaners, but they have managed to sort out various problems, not just speeding up the PC.

 

As for the Windows expert Russinovich that speaks on behalf of Microsoft, well you would kinda expect him to say something along those lines because Microsoft hasn't developed its own cleaner, If he recommended people to use a reg cleaner then that would beg the question "Why haven't Micosoft developed one. Also by not recommending any reg cleaners the guy is playing safe in that he can't be held to account should someone have any problems.

If Russinovich was also asked which browser is the best for security he would say Microsoft.

If Russinovich was asked which firewall was best he would say Microsoft.

 

In any case if Microsoft have so many great experts like Russinovich on their team then how come the Windows product constantly needs updating with critical security patches?

 

Again let me just reiterate, Windows updates give me plenty of headaches......and if I relied on advice from Microsofts@ Windows experts, I would have probably ended up reinstalling my whole operating system everytime their update caused a problem......thankfully I had CCleaner and Easy Cleaner to sort out the misery left by Microsoft!

Edited December 14, 2009 by Kingmaker2

[waddler8 10]

As for the Windows expert Russinovich that speaks on behalf of Microsoft, well you would kinda expect him to say something along those lines because Microsoft hasn't developed its own cleaner, If he recommended people to use a reg cleaner then that would beg the question "Why haven't Micosoft developed one."

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/cleanup.htm

 

 

They might have their place in the hands of someone that knows what they are doing - point is, most people who use one to try and "speed up a slow computer" or whatever - don't.

 

The use of CCleaner's cleaner function may well help speed up a PC to a certain degree, that's not in question. It's the registry function that is.

Edited December 14, 2009 by waddler8

[zongamin 10]

I too have never had a single issue with CCleaner, having run it on old and new computers for years.

 

Unwarranted scare-mongering.

[waddler8 10]

The issue isn't with CCleaner. I also use it myself and can testify to it's usefulness.

 

The issue is with registry cleaners in general and whether the benefits (if there are any) outweigh the potential hazards.

 

http://www.macecraft.com/news/187/

 

Unwarranted scare-mongering?

[Kingmaker2 10]

The issue isn't with CCleaner. I also use it myself and can testify to it's usefulness.

 

The issue is with registry cleaners in general and whether the benefits (if there are any) outweigh the potential hazards.

 

http://www.macecraft.com/news/187/

 

Unwarranted scare-mongering?

 

But I don't think we were discussing registry cleaners "in general", I specifically named 2 of the best free, tried and tested cleaners CCleaner and Easy Cleaner (Both applications incidentally allow the user to reverse their actions should any deletions cause problems, although I have never experienced the need to reverse anything CCleaner or Easy Cleaner have found and deleted)

[dmh79 10]

As I said in my other post, I think it may have been a registry cleaner that caused some of the problems I'm having. I can no longer use windows media centre or windows media player. If I click on the shortcut, it just shows the little 'loading' circle on the cursor for a fraction of a second then just stops. Also I always get "not responding" on pretty much everything I run, especially if I try to run more than one program.

Now if this was caused by using a dodgy registry cleaner or just by my inexperience in using one I coudln't say, but its made me wary of trying again.

Is there any way of just replacing registry files that are missing from programs that I want to use or are essential for my PC to run properly? Like something that scans your registry to see whats missing?