3-year old Norton AV finds virus after IE critical update

[marvellis]

I recently downloaded avast and have been pleased. Norton AV came pre-loaded w/ my system; purchased 3 years ago. I never updated Norton. After installing MS IE critical updates and rebooting my system, I get a pop-up screen that Norton found the following virus: C:\Windows\Java\classes\xmldso.cab. It seems suspicious that Norton would find this and not avast. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

Marv

[Walker]

Hi Marvellis,

I'll take a stab in the dark   ..

It's never a good idea to have two A-V programs loaded they can be conter produtive and work against each other and even mask a problem.

Many guys on here will tell you to completly remove Norton prior to installing Avast or any other A-V. That means remove, not just not running.

Welcome to the forum,
Walker

[Lisandro]

As Walker said, you do not have avast properly installed in your computer because of the presence of Norton. If you need help to remove Norton, just let me know... It will be a big but happy journey  

[raman]

Possibly false alarm from Norton, which Virus is reported?

[Lisandro]

I get a pop-up screen that Norton found the following virus: C:\Windows\Java\classes\xmldso.cab.
Possibly false alarm from Norton, which Virus is reported?

I agree with raman, this is what seems to be happening...  

[.: Mac :.]

I also agree. it might be good to check here http://housecall.trendmicro.com

[Vlk]

MacLover, I'm just curious - what Internet browser do you use on your Mac? And does the Trend Micro Housecall thing work in it or is it Windows-only?

Thanks
Vlk

[.: Mac :.]

mozilla for OS X mostly but IE for mac is installed. Housecall only works when im working in Virtual PC 6.1 in IE. So yes windows only.
Housecall scans entire Hard drive even files that are used by the Mac OS

[.: Mac :.]

technical how powerful is the "Bloodhound" technology in norton AV? the thingy that finds new viruses. three year old .DAT files could not have found that virus.

[Lisandro]

technical how powerful is the "Bloodhound" technology in norton AV? the thingy that finds new viruses. three year old .DAT files could not have found that virus.

I do not answer Symantec questions  
I only uninstall NAV like nobody else!
Found a virus? You must say: found a false alarm  

[.: Mac :.]

you do know the most anyway F-Secure has the best unknown virus detection rate to my knowledge

[marvellis]

As Walker said, you do not have avast properly installed in your computer because of the presence of Norton. If you need help to remove Norton, just let me know... It will be a big but happy journey  

Sure, how do we get started. I tried to uninstall Norton and got the Uninstall Shield pop-up. Where do we go from here?

[marvellis]

Hi Marvellis,

I'll take a stab in the dark   ..

It's never a good idea to have two A-V programs loaded they can be conter produtive and work against each other and even mask a problem.

Many guys on here will tell you to completly remove Norton prior to installing Avast or any other A-V. That means remove, not just not running.

Welcome to the forum,
Walker

Thanks for the welcome! I did not even think to remove the old AV. I have been extremely careful of the places I surf and took a chance with not updating the AV, but realize that is still too dangerous. I'm kinda new to Internet security issues. Thanks for the help.

Marv

[marvellis]

Possibly false alarm from Norton, which Virus is reported?

That's the suspicious thing. There was no name or info for the virus, and it took up zero KB.

[Lisandro]

The main reason installation fails or systems freeze when using new AV programs is the inablility of the old ones to uninstall properly. I have had to dig up removal tools for Norton before anything would operate properly. This is not an avast issue, Kaspersky, McAfee and even Grisoft (e-mail plugin) have their own unique uninstall issues as well.

Norton SystemWorks (or NAV) messed your registry for sure. Take a deep breath

1. Use the Control Panel > Install/Uninstall Applications applet to remove Norton Antivirus (NAV) (it´s not necessary to remove other applications from the Norton SystemWorks not even LiveUpdate or LiveRegistration). Uninstallation routine by Control Panel is not sufficient enough to remove NAV 2000/2001/2002/2003 (and probably 2004, which I never tested and will not! I have been running Norton's antivirus 4 years and no more!). For some reason that does not remove the program software completely, they recommend the download of a special program (see third step). In any case, it would probably be best to recommend that former NAV users consider uninstalling that software before installing avast! (see sixth step).

2. Boot.

3. Use RNAV2003 or this link to download and then remove traces of NAV into your registry: for removing the most fastidious at clearing out the vestiges of the software and sparing users' headaches. Download and run the application. If you have already done the first step, choose 'No' to continue.

4. Boot.

5. Do not remove manually or using another software the Registry keys, it´s not necessary (by now) and may be dangerous. But, if you want and do not fell unconfortable walking through windows registry and deleating the many left behind entries, there is some good registry cleaners available to aid in complete removal of these. Reg Cleaner is a good one but it is a Shareware (you can run once to do its job). Another links and applications could be found here at the section Registry Tools. For Windows 98, I recommend RegClean.
If you have time, you can read more at this Windows Registry Guide.

6. Install avast! (answer 'Yes' for the presence of another av, in this case traces of NAV). Starting with version 4.0.172, there is a functionality in avast! Setup to detect and warn the presence of Norton Antivirus installed on the target machine.

7. Boot.

8. I'll post more if you need to correct some Registry "corrupted" keys by NAV. Good luck and keep in contact.