System restore

[oncemorealoft]

Ever wished you'd left things be?

I tried to uninstall my Norton Anti Virus software to install McAffee instead (to save on duplicate subscriptions). Howver, I'm now unable to rid myself of Norton or install McAffee.

So, I thought I'd do a System restore. However, if i try and open it the best I can get is a blank window titles System Restore. I've tried opening the application in Safe Mode and I even traced the application to the Windows/System32/Restore folder and tried running it from there. Still no joy.

Some other applications don't seem to work properly.

Is there a way of forcing System Restore to run?

As always all help and advice greatly appreciated.

[Buster Cherry]

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security.nsf/docid/2002031914291648

Unsure which version you are trying to uninstall but hope this helps.

[DBTL]

Woes with uninstalling Norton AV are a recurring situation, at least to me. The only solution that I've found guaranteed to work is to use the Registy Editor (go Start-Run-write regedit into the box) to remove the branch H_KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE [friends call him HKLM for short] -- SOFTWARE -- SYMANTEC and/or [the same] -- NORTON. In addition, references to SYMANTEC are sprinkled here and there in the Registry, these often will need to go as well. The search function of regedit will be exercised a lot and whole procedure may call for some guts.
I usually replace the bundled Norton AV with something more convenient to begin with, and my customer base usually wants the F-secure AV + firewall combo, www.f-secure.com (http://www.f-secure.com) .:ok:

A very very handy utility to back up (and restore) your Registry is ERUNT, at e.g. http://www.snapfiles.com/get/erunt.html . :ok:

[oncemorealoft]

Thanks DBTL.

I assume you can only use ERUNT if you've already backed up the required info? So if I load it now it won't help me restore the computer to it's previous state?

[oncemorealoft]

Success!

Found out with a bit of Googling what the problem was with System Restore and was able to run it. Then used Buster Cherry's advice to uninstall Norton Antivirus properly and now have McAffee software installed.

Thanks everyone for your advice.

[DBTL]

oncemorealoft, yep, that's the classical chicken-egg problem.
Pressing F8 at XP startup and choosing "use the most recent settings that worked" at the menu should work universally.