All for Vista 64-bit Ultimate:

1.) I've had a third falling out over 25 or so years with Symantec/Norton
and am looking for a Registry search tool where you can search for a
particular 'word' much as you do now but where it will list all the finds,
review ones you want to delete, uncheck ones you want to keep and finally
make it so (delete them). Doing this one at at time is such a waste of
time--hundreds of occurrences of 'Symantec' and I still have 'Norton',
'Ghost', and '360' to purge out of the Registry. (BTW, Norton's removal
tool hardly touched Registry entries, left empty Windows Explorer folders,
and was not product selective--did they even think of the Registry?) This
time around I would rather find a manual way to scrubbing the Registry but
also a tool that will seek out orphaned key remnants too!

2.) Also the Registry... Why doesn't the Registry tree close up
automagically? Is there any easy way of doing this?

3.) Also the Registry... Might the tool(s) you recommend up above also
include compacting (getting rid of) the Registry free space?

4.) Under Services I have Disabled and Stopped the Windows Search and
Superfetch services. However I'm pretty sure the main hog all along was
Norton 360. It doesn't matter though since I don't find any loss not having
Indexing and/or Superfetch. Indexing I also turned off first in both my C:\
and D:\ drives. I also turned off Windows Defender from its own window. I
don't think I found it listed as a service or as an add/remove program or
Windows feature? Are there any other useless services out of the huge list
of services you might recommend me to Disable if they aren't?



5.) I'm currently using Webroot which I used and liked in the past with
Windows XP. When I switched to Vista 64-bit they hadn't quite released
their new version that seems to work just fine and doesn't offer the
intrusive atmosphere Norton 360 had. I added their Securities Suit though
and now have a minor problem/concern. I seem to be double-firewalling. If
I turn off Vista's firewall it thinks I'm unprotected? I'll be checking
with Webroot Monday about this but thought one of you might know something
about this (a simple fix) over the weekend.

The main thing are finding tools that work best with the Vista 64-bit
Ultimate Registry. Thank you.

"Susan" <UCE@xxxxxx> wrote:

> 1.) I've had a third falling out over 25 or so years with
> Symantec/Norton and am looking for a Registry search tool where
> you can search for a particular 'word' much as you do now but
> where it will list all the finds, review ones you want to delete,
> uncheck ones you want to keep and finally make it so (delete
> them).

The built-in registry editor in Windows allows you to search for strings.
Run it as administrator, type "regedit" in your start menu search box, then
right click > Run as Administrator.

Also, you could download a tool like CCleaner. It will probably make the job
easier for your. NB: Do *not* use the automatic registry cleanup feature,
and do *not* delete registry entries unless you are 100% sure of what you
are doing.

> (BTW, Norton's removal tool hardly touched Registry entries, left
> empty Windows Explorer folders, and was not product selective-
> -did they even think of the Registry?)

Sadly, even Symantec's own tool will not rid a computer completely of their
products. However, you should run the tool two or three times with reboots
in between. This way, the removal tool is able to delete more Symantec
residue.

<snip>

> 3.) Also the Registry... Might the tool(s) you recommend up
> above also include compacting (getting rid of) the Registry free
> space?

CCleaner will not, and might I add: why should it? I doubt you will notice
any performance increase at all by compacting the Windows registry. Leave it
to Windows to maintain the registry, doing it yourself really has not been
necessary for almost a decade of Windows versions.

> 4.) Under Services I have Disabled and Stopped the Windows
> Search and Superfetch services. However I'm pretty sure the
> main hog all along was Norton 360. It doesn't matter though since
> I don't find any loss not having Indexing and/or Superfetch. Indexing I
> also turned off first in both my C:\ and D:\ drives. I also
> turned off Windows Defender from its own window. I
> don't think I found it listed as a service or as an add/remove
> program or Windows feature? Are there any other useless
> services out of the huge list of services you might recommend me
> to Disable if they aren't?

Like you say, Norton is the major culprit. I would recommend you just leave
other services for now, at least until you can assess what performance your
computer has gained from uninstalling Norton.

I definately recommend you reenable Windows Defender. Running without it
exposes your computer to malware, even if you have other security programs
in place. It is generally adviced to run multiple anti-spyware scanners.

> 5.) I'm currently using Webroot which I used and liked in the past
> with Windows XP. When I switched to Vista 64-bit they hadn't
> quite released their new version that seems to work just fine and
> doesn't offer the intrusive atmosphere Norton 360 had. I added
> their Securities Suit though and now have a minor
> problem/concern. I seem to be double-firewalling. If I turn off
> Vista's firewall it thinks I'm unprotected? I'll be checking with Webroot
> Monday about this but thought one of you might
> know something about this (a simple fix) over the weekend.

Do not run multiple firewalls, they may conflict and cause connection
problems.

Security software that do not integrate properly with Windows is not
something I would use. Search this newsgroup for "best security", "best anti
virus" and so on. You will find a heap of advice on better programs to
obtain.

Charlie42

Originally Posted by Charlie42

CCleaner will not, and might I add: why should it? I doubt you will notice
any performance increase at all by compacting the Windows registry. Leave it
to Windows to maintain the registry, doing it yourself really has not been
necessary for almost a decade of Windows versions.

Not always- sometimes especially if you many times install and uninstall programs compacting registry are recomended and really increase performance.

I recomend:
freeware:Quicksys RegDefrag - Defrag, Optimize and Compact Windows Registry

commercial:TuneUp America - TuneUp Utilities 2009
of course it is tweaker but it have excellent registry cleaner and registry defragger

On Sun, 11 Jan 2009 05:15:45 -0600, Flavius <guest@xxxxxx-email.com>
wrote:

>
>Charlie42 Wrote:

>>
>> CCleaner will not, and might I add: why should it? I doubt you will
>> notice
>> any performance increase at all by compacting the Windows registry.
>> Leave it
>> to Windows to maintain the registry, doing it yourself really has not
>> been
>> necessary for almost a decade of Windows versions.
>>

>Not always- sometimes especially if you many times install and
>uninstall programs compacting registry are recomended and really
>increase performance.

Cite please. It's in your head, not anywhere on paper.

>I recomend:
>freeware:'Quicksys RegDefrag - Defrag, Optimize and Compact Windows
>Registry' (http://www.regdefrag.com/)
>
>commercial:'TuneUp America - TuneUp Utilities 2009'
>(http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/)
>of course it is tweaker but it have excellent registry cleaner and
>registry defragger

On Sun, 11 Jan 2009 09:53:46 -0700, Bruce Chambers
<bchambers@xxxxxx> wrote:

>Susan wrote:

>> All for Vista 64-bit Ultimate:
>>
>> 1.) I've had a third falling out over 25 or so years with
>> Symantec/Norton and am looking for a Registry search tool where you can
>> search for a particular 'word' much as you do now but where it will list
>> all the finds, review ones you want to delete, uncheck ones you want to
>> keep and finally make it so (delete them). Doing this one at at time is
>> such a waste of time--hundreds of occurrences of 'Symantec' and I still
>> have 'Norton', 'Ghost', and '360' to purge out of the Registry. (BTW,
>> Norton's removal tool hardly touched Registry entries, left empty
>> Windows Explorer folders, and was not product selective--did they even
>> think of the Registry?) This time around I would rather find a manual
>> way to scrubbing the Registry but also a tool that will seek out
>> orphaned key remnants too!
>>

> This is not a snake-oil cleaner, but a scanner that's more powerful
>than Regedit's built-in search toll:
>
>RegScanner v1.51
>Copyright (c) 2004 - 2007 Nir Sofer
>Web Site: http://www.nirsoft.net

Thank you Bruce. I actually used the program to remove three or
four-hundred separate string entries in the Registry. My searches
were 'Symantec', 'Norton 360', and 'Norton Ghost'. That still leave
around one-hundred entries that kept spawning back...some returning
even after a reboot. This morning I looked through the Taskbar and
Start Menu Properties | Notification Area and checked the Hide
inactive icons to see what was there. I found 'Symantec Email
Scanner', 'Norton Ghost Status: Backed Up', and 'Norton 360 is
protecting you.'

Do you know how I can get rid of these last remnants--how to keep the
Registry entries from respawning?

It seems to me that this is extremely poor programming on Symantec's
part--crude and rude--and it leads to no wonder that XP and Vista get
toasted sooner or later via this 'untouchable' Registry. But, since I
am not a programmer although I was familiar with BASIC and Fortran
years ago, maybe you or someone can explain how writing all this code
into the Registry was the right way and the fact that Symantec's
special removal tool not removing these entries was the right way?

Another programming practice I don't understand why is making the
deletion of some files so incredibly bulletproof. A most recent
example here is Webroot's Security suite that writes 108 or so files
under the directory 'wrstemp' in the Windows\Temp directory. I've
always thought that Windows\Temp and \Tmp were _temporary_ directories
where everything in them can be deleted and the worst that can happen
is you have to reboot the computer. These particular files that
amount to some 61.5 or so MB so far can only be removed if you
uninstall Webroot Security. If they are permanent in nature even if
their contents/data varies then don't they belong elsewhere--such as a
Webroot Security program file directory?

Lastly, why is it meaningless to need to or desire to shrink up the
Registry free space, especially if you remove some 500 lines in it? Is
it possible that Vista, unlike XP, does this automatically when
RegEdit is closed? I've never looked to see--interesting. Registry
Scanner worked well. Is there a reliable Registry compaction program
to go with it?

Anyone? Thank you.

"Susan" <UCE@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:hbatm4hud2uesgql5kphc92ft6c8ac9968@xxxxxx

> Lastly, why is it meaningless to need to or desire to shrink up the
> Registry free space, especially if you remove some 500 lines in it? Is
> it possible that Vista, unlike XP, does this automatically when
> RegEdit is closed? I've never looked to see--interesting. Registry
> Scanner worked well. Is there a reliable Registry compaction program
> to go with it?
>
> Anyone? Thank you.

I've been using this (free) one for a while, it seems ok:

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software...efrag/download

On Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:10:43 -0700, Bruce Chambers
<bchambers@xxxxxx> wrote:

>Is this the toll that failed you[?]:
>
>Uninstalling your Norton products on Windows XP (Link may wrap)
>http://service1.symantec.com/Support...pkb=sharedtech

I'm very sorry to say today that I think so... Sadly I focussed and
lost focus on the wrong Goggle search findings and used this removal
tool for XP--not Vista. And far worse I thought that a special
removal tool would supercede using the normal removal in Vista's
Programs & Features. Oh, what a mess.

I've decided to try Kaspersky Internet Security next. They have a
very active forum support and I have tools and procedures that may get
rid of these Symantec remnants the hard way. It is really unknown
from my point of view now whether removing the Symantec products
properly using P&F would have removed all the remnants or not.

I'm wondering if I'm going to end up having to reinstall Norton 360
and Ghost 14 and then uninstalling them properly first before going
after any remnants will be necessary before I see light at the end of
the tunnel?

On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:41:43 -0800, Susan <UCE@xxxxxx> wrote:

>On Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:10:43 -0700, Bruce Chambers
><bchambers@xxxxxx> wrote:
>

>>Is this the toll that failed you[?]:
>>
>>Uninstalling your Norton products on Windows XP (Link may wrap)
>>http://service1.symantec.com/Support...pkb=sharedtech

>
>I'm very sorry to say today that I think so... Sadly I focussed and
>lost focus on the wrong Goggle search findings and used this removal
>tool for XP--not Vista. And far worse I thought that a special
>removal tool would supercede using the normal removal in Vista's
>Programs & Features. Oh, what a mess.
>
>I've decided to try Kaspersky Internet Security next. They have a
>very active forum support and I have tools and procedures that may get
>rid of these Symantec remnants the hard way. It is really unknown
>from my point of view now whether removing the Symantec products
>properly using P&F would have removed all the remnants or not.
>
>I'm wondering if I'm going to end up having to reinstall Norton 360
>and Ghost 14 and then uninstalling them properly first before going
>after any remnants will be necessary before I see light at the end of
>the tunnel?

P.S. The link I used for downloading the Norton Removal Tool was:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...&osv=&osv_lvl=

Note that it does not mention the OS here, but I still wish I had done
the first removal from P&F.

"Susan" <UCE@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1612n4psnu2123tu2j6rli88109klsmfv4@xxxxxx

> On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:41:43 -0800, Susan <UCE@xxxxxx> wrote:
>

>>On Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:10:43 -0700, Bruce Chambers
>><bchambers@xxxxxx> wrote:
>>

>>>Is this the toll that failed you[?]:
>>>
>>>Uninstalling your Norton products on Windows XP (Link may wrap)
>>>http://service1.symantec.com/Support...pkb=sharedtech

>>
>>I'm very sorry to say today that I think so... Sadly I focussed and
>>lost focus on the wrong Goggle search findings and used this removal
>>tool for XP--not Vista. And far worse I thought that a special
>>removal tool would supercede using the normal removal in Vista's
>>Programs & Features. Oh, what a mess.
>>
>>I've decided to try Kaspersky Internet Security next. They have a
>>very active forum support and I have tools and procedures that may get
>>rid of these Symantec remnants the hard way. It is really unknown
>>from my point of view now whether removing the Symantec products
>>properly using P&F would have removed all the remnants or not.
>>
>>I'm wondering if I'm going to end up having to reinstall Norton 360
>>and Ghost 14 and then uninstalling them properly first before going
>>after any remnants will be necessary before I see light at the end of
>>the tunnel?

>
> P.S. The link I used for downloading the Norton Removal Tool was:
> http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...&osv=&osv_lvl=
>
> Note that it does not mention the OS here, but I still wish I had done
> the first removal from P&F.

Susan-
Try Regseeker: http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm to remove *specific registry
entries related to the Norton install.

Then go to the "Find in registry" & type in "Norton" & it will come up with all the
registry items related to that.
Then you can repeat the process by typing "Symantec" in the search box & it will show
all those items that you can remove.

You can select which ones to remove by using the Ctrl & Shift keys or you can just
click on the "Select" check mark & scroll to Select All.
Then it's just a matter of hovering over those entries & click to remove the selected
items.

*Be sure that the "backup before deletion" box is checked & it will create a .reg
file that easily restored if needed.(should be already checked by default)

It also has a "Search files" feature. Just stay away from the "Clean the Registry"
feature.


~Gary

On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:33:09 -0500, "Gary Brandenburg"
<Gary@xxxxxx> wrote:

>Try Regseeker: http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm to remove *specific registry
>entries related to the Norton install.
>
>Then go to the "Find in registry" & type in "Norton" & it will come up with all the
>registry items related to that.
>Then you can repeat the process by typing "Symantec" in the search box & it will show
>all those items that you can remove.
>
>You can select which ones to remove by using the Ctrl & Shift keys or you can just
>click on the "Select" check mark & scroll to Select All.
>Then it's just a matter of hovering over those entries & click to remove the selected
>items.
>
>*Be sure that the "backup before deletion" box is checked & it will create a .reg
>file that easily restored if needed.(should be already checked by default)
>
>It also has a "Search files" feature. Just stay away from the "Clean the Registry"
>feature.
>
>~Gary

Gary & others interested. I realize now that I pretty much have the
same discussion going in two separate threads. Let's move this one
to: a7j3n41d041fqpiv6sns5dq5i3dv2be82l@xxxxxx (I think this link will
do the trick--I'll test it).

I've been using RegScanner successfully and like its intuitiveness. I
tried RegSupreme and didn't like it. I'll take a look at RegSeeker
too.

There are still two other areas editing the Vista 64-bit Registry I'd
like help with. I'll bring them up rsn in the other thread.

Thank you.
~<Susan>~

Don't worry about the world coming to
an end today. It's already tomorrow in
Australia. - Charles Schultz