Avast! Won't install...

[mcphill]

I use the home version on a couple computers at home, and recommend it to friends and family.  I finally decided to dump Norton on my main computer, but have a problem.

When I install Avast!, it runs fine until it gets to the "Services" bar in the installation.  It hangs there, with the green bar complete, and won't run further.  I can go to the install directory and run the on-demand program, but the resident program never finishes its install and never runs...

Little help?

[essexboy]

AH Norton search the forum and you will find a myriad of posts about this.  It needs to be totally removed and the only way to do that is via their uninstall utility (add/remove doesn't get it all)  Ensure that you download the right tool from the Norton website.  Uninstall Avast - run the Norton uninstall utility - reboot - install avast


OOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPs and welcome

[Eddy]

Little correction. Depending on the version of NAV that was/is installed you can use a uninstall util or you have to do it manually.

How to completely remove Norton (Symantec): http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2001092114452606

[essexboy]

Close though weren't I.  Still learning 

[lakrsrool]

Just curios...

I had NAV2004 and NAV2000 before that and did an uninstall with the ADD/REMOVE in the CONTROL PANEL and had not problems (so far) with Avast.  I did not have to use any other process to uninstall Norton AV and in fact I still have 3 other Norton products on my system.

One thing I made sure of Norton AV, I turned OFF everything that had to do with NAV2004.  You actually have to turn everything ON before you are actually able to DISABLE certain functions of NAV2004 because some options are GRAYED OUT unless you TURN ON the function even if it happens to be OFF at that the time.

In other words all functions MUST BE UNCHECKED (not running).

Just curious... DID YOU DO THIS before you uninstalled with the ADD/REMOVE function of windows.

[Lisandro]

I'm almost sure that the uninstallation problem was due to NAV2003.
NAV2004 has a better unistall behavior and should not bring (the same) much problems after uninstalled.
But, after all, Symantec is Symantec... your system could be a slave of them 

[mcphill]

I was fed up with Norton, and it had become corrupted to the point that I could not run it any more.  I did run the "special" uninstall routine prior to running the Avast! install.  I also ran the other three routines Norton has to remove registry entries from the system...  At this point, maybe I should reinstall Norton and then uninstall again?  I am also having a shutdown issue that I think is Norton related.  After XP gets to "saving all settings" it locks up and won't shut down.  This might be keeping me from getting a fully successful unstall, I don't know...

[lakrsrool]

Your probably right about the problem with Shut Down (SD).  Possibly if you PC cannot save the settings it causes the problem.

I wouldn't be surprised if the SD problem is Norton related.  After I installed NAV2004 I had a problem with my Dial Up Window always launching on boot up and usually on shut down.  I contacted Norton Support but they were absolutely no help at all.  The couldn't seem to understand the problem and would give me unrelated answers which had nothing to do with my problem

I gave up on their support and disabled the Auto Update which fixed the problem on boot up.

But I continued to always have the problem on Shut Down.  As it turned out IT WAS NORTON that caused my problem on Shut Down all that time because as soon as I UNINSTALLED the  NAV2004 THE PROBLEM DISAPPEARED, just as I thought it would.

If you have no other alternatives you might try installing and then uninstalling again in the hope that the uninstall will remove whatever probable registry entry that is likely causing your problem the second time around.

If you have no other Norton programs you could search your registry for any "Norton" or "Symantic" entries and delete them.  I have an application by the name of Registry First Aid which works very well at this kind of thing, but you can simply use REGEDIT if you prefer in the Start window and search the registry for these entries that way.

In my case I do use other Norton products so I did not do this, but I was apparently fortunate enough to have been able to unistall NAV2004 successfully.  I understand that NAV2004 has a much better unistall than previous versions i. e. NAV2002 and NAV2003.

If you do end up REINSTALLING Norton be sure and "uncheck" disable all functions of NAV before you uninstall.  You will have to sometimes ENABLE some functions just to be able to UNCHECK the function as they are grayed out until you actually enable them.