Download Norton Remove Tool
Nugroho Salem
The Norton Anti-Virus Removal Tool will allow you to remove a damaged installation of a Norton or Symantec product that will not uninstall properly through the Windows control panel. In the event that Norton becomes damaged by a bad install or due to a virus, it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to uninstall it normally. In situations like this you can use the Norton Removal Tool to scan your computer for all Norton products and completely remove them.
I used to run BitDefenderFree for my A/V, but it interfered with Windows System Restore. A/V programs worm their way pretty deeply into the OS, and it turned out that BDF required its own uninstaller to remove enough of the software to allow System Restore to work properly. Not acceptable.
Norton products have high-quality standards, but sometimes they can be a bit stubborn to uninstall, especially if the database is corrupted. This is why the Norton company itself has developed a free and easy-to-use tool that enables you to uninstall Norton products without getting a serious headache. Norton Removal Tool works as a step-by-step wizard, guiding you through the uninstalling process. You don't have to look for the specific folder where the Norton product is installed as the tool will automatically detect it.
Norton Removal Tool, which is widely known as the Norton Remove and Reinstall Tool, is a powerful utility tool that provides you the capability to remove various Norton programs that specifically includes Norton Internet Security, Norton SystemWorks 12.0, Norton AntiVirus, Norton 360, and Norton Security. Actually, there's a possibility that the removal tools offered can vary from different users depending on which program they have.
This slick utility is only designed to remove damaged Norton products or failed installations. It gives a guarantee to never delete or affect any other programs or downloads. If by chance an issue is encountered, you are advised to simply download and run the program to allow the reinstallation of the Norton product. The recovery process will occur via Norton Management.
If you wish to reinstall the Norton product you recently removed, but this time with an upgrade version, just follow the on-screen instructions shown after the system restart. In case you have more than one Norton product you want to uninstall, you can easily select those you desire to remove, so that the chosen apps can be processed just in one go. Take note that if you have Norton Family or Norton Secure VPN installed, you must uninstall them first before you run the Norton Remove and Reinstall tool.
Norton Removal Tool, now revamped as the Norton Remove and Reinstall Tool, is a handy utility tool that will save you from the hassle of manually uninstalling and reinstalling Norton products. This is an essential program to have especially since, more often than not, it is quite a handful to process a Norton product. This software solution will make the process easier.
Running Win 11 Home (21H2 OS build 22000.675) on dell Laptop.
For various reasons, I decided to not renew my Norton 360 Premiere subscription. I used the Norton supplied NRnR.exe program to remove Norton from my computer. Since then, I still get alerts from Norton that it doesn't like one thing or another that I might be doing. An example would be connecting to an Arduino Uno running WiFi and a server. It will pop-up to tell me that it is an unsecured device.
Task Manager will show NortonBridge and Norton Security Background Task Host running.
Revo Uninstaller is the best remover I've ever used since it starts by running the removal tool of the application you want to remove and then gives you several choices of how severely you want it to dig to find remains. At each stage it lists what it finds and makes you choose what to delete (I trust it and check All)
I use the free version but the Pro version does have one advantage that I know about but have not used is that it does not have to have to application still installed that you want to remove and can just look for left overs. I don't know how this feature works but it might make it worth downloading the Pro version as a trial and then uninstalling it before you have to buy it and then use the free version in future.
I used CCleaner and it did remove the Norton Security Background Task Host, but it wouldn't remove Norton Security. While there is nothing shown in Task Manager or the Windows (Control Panel) Program Uninstall for Norton, CCleaner still shows an odd entry as shown in the attached image. I also deleted everything/anything I could find in Explorer with Norton in it.
Only time will prove whether it is truly removed, but your suggestion got me started on the right track.
@huwyngr To answer your last question, there is nothing in the Downloads folder. I tried your suggestion of Revo Uninstaller ( I did the test version of Pro) so that I did not have to install Norton again. It found a bunch of stuff to delete in folders that Explorer did not find and some registry entries of which I deleted all of them.
No change, the entry is still in the CCleaner list when you select Tools.
I'm starting to believe this is a Win10->Win11 upgrade side effect on this particular computer. On my always been a Win10 computer, the Windows un-install removed everything but the Norton Security entry, but CCleaner was able to remove it, so that computer is "clean".
Here is my speccy report.
My issue is that speccy is detecting norton security (as disabled) and malwarebytes (as enabled) in the report even though I have already used the respective software removal tools for each of the antiviruses. Is there some sort of file that remains anyways even after uninstallation and gives a false negative to speccy? How can I remove it?
I'd try using Revo Uninstaller which can find and remove such leftovers.
As you have already removed Norton and Malwarebytes you will probably need the 'Forced Uninstall' option in Revo.
See the link below for how to use it.
'Forced Uninstall' is a Pro option so it needs to be the Revo Pro version - but if you don't want to purchase Revo there is a 30 day trial of Pro which should be plenty of time to do this job.
Sometimes it's because Windows registered it as an antivirus that could be used as real-time protection which sometimes the antivirus/antimalware built in uninstaller won't or can't remove and the same goes for their removal tools that are supposed to remove all of the files and registry settings. Even Revo may not be able to remove them from where Windows registers them.
... My issue is that speccy is detecting norton security (as disabled) and malwarebytes (as enabled) in the report even though I have already used the respective software removal tools for each of the antiviruses ...
....I'd try using Revo Uninstaller which can find and remove such leftovers.As you have already removed Norton and Malwarebytes you will probably need the 'Forced Uninstall' option in Revo ...'Forced Uninstall' is a Pro option so it needs to be the Revo Pro version - but if you don't want to purchase Revo there is a 30 day trial of Pro which should be plenty of time to do this job ...
If the "Forced Uninstall" option of the trial version of Revo Uninstaller Pro can't remove the last traces of Norton then be sure you run the Norton Remove and Reinstall (NRnR) Tool in advanced "Remove Only" mode as instructed in the Norton support article Download and Run the Norton Remove and Reinstall Tool for Windows. "Remove Only" mode does a deeper wipe of orphaned files and registry entries, although it (deliberately) leaves behind a few traces that can be removed manually.
I used Norton for several years on a Vista SP2 computer and found that a "Remove Only" wipe with the NRnR tool did not do a great job of removing remnants of previous Control Panel Programs and Features uninstalls, especially for my older Norton products. I contacted Norton customer support via Live Chat at and gave them my Windows OS and Norton product names (past and current) and they were able to provide a list of possible registry entries and files/folders left behind by the NRnR tool that I could manually delete. If you post in the Norton forum at -360-windows one of the Norton Gurus monitoring that forum might be able to help as well.
I'll assume the Malwarebytes removal tool you used was the removal tool built in to the Malwarebytes Support Tool (Advanced Clean) .
-----------
64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H2 build 19044.1466 * Firefox v96.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2111.5-1.1.18800.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.2.157-1.0.1562
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620
I uninstalled Norton the other day and I started getting this every time I boot up. I found that Norton Download Manager was listed in start-up apps, I disabled it. It's no longer listed in control panel, but I finally found it in Public Downloads. Before I completely remove it I'm just wondering what anti-virus software people might recommend because I've heard some mixed things about Norton in the past, mostly negative. Do more tech-savvy users like people on this reddit use anti-virus at all?
Worst part is, I contacted Norton Live Support, their IT technician connected through LogmeIn, remote controlled that PC, installed some removal tools, clean the pc and he confirmed, that everything related to Norton has been removed and it not come back.
This is where the Norton Removal tool comes in handy.
It is a small, easy to use executable that removes Norton products completely and isnt limited to just Norton Antivirus either, it can remove their other popular programs such as: