I have come accross a virus that pretends to be norton anti-virus and personal firewall. it appears to have disabled the real thing and put a virus in its place. i tried un-installing it but it locked up and when i tried to install over the top it remained the same. so can anyone tell me all of the registry entries that anti-virus and personal firewall put in so that i can remove it completely and start again. thanx in advance djas

Well, first, I'd try posting in the correct forum. Then, I'd make sure that it's ACTUALLY a virus, and not just user-incompetence - what's the virus do to make you think that it's a virus? If it's just that it's crashing or not starting up correctly, get used to it: it is, after all, Norton. If you're sure that it's a virus, try booting up into safe-mode (hold f8 as the computer starts, then select "safe mode"), and trying to delete Norton from there. If that doesn't work, I'd try opening msconfig (start->run->msconfig) and disabling Norton (better yet, disable everything from the startup - just go to the startup tab, and uncheck everything ^_^). Restart the computer, and see if you can delete norton now. Also, check the Norton site. I remember a while back that there were one or two utilities available on their site that *completely* removed Norton - I've had to use them to corect faulty installations of Norton, and afterwards found them very helpful when trying to reinstall the trial-version ;P It would also be intelligant, whlie you're on the Norton site, to check the forums to see if anyone has had similar problems in the past - after all, powerful viruses are rarely isolated incidents :P I've got a few more ideas, but it's getting late, so if you try all that and still can't get it working, post back here and I'll see what I can do (remember to post the SPECIFICS of what the virus is doing this time). Hope that helps. AKhalifman@hotmail.com

thanx for all the help, i managed to delete it in safe mode. oh yeah i know its virus because i know who created it, he said he would make a patch to get rid of any other creations of his for me but he never made one for this. cheers djas

djas, Just my opinion, but if your friend is writing viruses, he's the scum of the earth.

true, my friend is "the scum of the earth" but he knows a lot so i look to him for advice. i tell him quite often that he should apply his knowledge to something more useful but he doesn't listen. djas

The sad truth is that a lot of intelligent (or should that be "knowledgable"?) people don't use their skills for constructive purposes. He could probably make quite a comfortable living if he channeled his efforts in the right direction.