My new Dell also came with Norton 2006 90 day trial and deleted it a few days ago before it ran out. Before removing it, however, I did some checking around and found this
webpage from Cornell University IT Security very helpful.
However, I did download the Norton Removal Tool to clean up anything not done manually. I read (elsewhere) the Norton Removal Tool may not remove everything first time, so you might have to run it again. But, you might want to follow the Cornell University tips as well to manually remove or delete what it did not do.
These are the steps I performed.
First, I downloaded AVAST Free but did not open it yet. Two anti-virus programs running are not compatible. Then downloaded the Norton Removal Tool but did not use it yet. Went offline.
I went into "Add/Remove Programs" to manually remove Norton/Symantec/LiveUpDate programs.
Closed and rebooted.
Then ran the Norton Removal Tool...which was supposed to have deleted their files/folders in my Program Files and anything else Norton/Symantec deposited (including in the registry).
Although the Removal Tool took out the Symantec/Norton folders in Program Files. Just to make sure, I went into my Program Files to check anyway....and found these removed. BUT in Program Files/Common files the Symantec shared folder was still there. So I deleted this. I checked "My Documents" and found the Symantec folder still there and deleted it.
Closed and rebooted. While still off line, I opened the AVAST and installed it. Then followed the steps to get the key to register with.
Oh, right after reading your problem, I also checked my Security Center and it's "Virus Protection"...just in case. All that is running is my present AVAST Free anti-virus program. So apparently, every bit of Norton 2006 has been uninstalled and/or manually deleted.