I doubt that this is a virus or spyware related but I decided to post this problem here since this site deals with antivirus programs and things.

I used add/remove program to get rid of my paid version of Norton Antivirus 2004. Everything went fine, no problems at all.

I am now using ZoneAlarm Pro Security Suite. I updated and enabled and have ran the antivirus and the spyware programs and all is going well.

But I discovered that when I shut down my computer while I have items inside of my Windows recycle bin and when I restart my computer these files are deleted automatically.

I have went into the recycle bin properties and saw that it was not checked to do the deleting automatically.

I am afraid that one of my children might delete something of value accidentally without me knowing about it and shut down the computer. Cause when I restart then it will for sure delete whatever is in there. I am really worried.

I do not really want to do a system restore cause I don't want Norton's back on and it expires on the 10th "tomorrow".

I also went into my ZoneAlarm Program Control and deleted some entries that had no properties that were related to Norton and Symantec. As far as I know the only other Norton or Symantec items on this computer was the free trial version which expired a year ago. Plus Live Update, which I just realized I need to delete it also, but I will wait till I get a response here first.

The recycle bin deletes anything in it on each restart. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it.

I'm not ignorant, I just need more learning!

first start by uninstalling live update.Do this through add/remove programs.
Now,Norton leaves many registry entries in the registry even after an uninstall.But I don't see how its possible for it to keep a part of the program intact while the rest is uninstalled.
You can start by running regedit in the run command and delete all "Norton" and "Symantec" entries. Be advised that the registry uninstaller they offer at the Symantec site does not work.So just be safe when you delete the entries.You may also need to do it in safe mode.
I cant recall all folders but make sure "Symantec common files" "Symantec" any "Norton" folder in your Program files and Document and settings folders are deleted before you delete the registry keys.
Did anyone install any programs which may have options to delete items in the recycle bin on boot?

Asus A8V Deluxe Rev.2
AMD Athlon 64 3800+/Newcastle
1 Gig Corsair PC3200
ATI Radeon 9800Pro/ATI Silencer 1Rev2
catalyst 5.6
Sound blaster audigy gamer
Antec430
Via 4.55 Drivers

Thanks for the response Chunko,

A couple of nights before I did this uninstall, my teenage grandchild was doing schoolwork using the internet and managed to try to set up an account for their self, but ended up messing up my administrative account and I had no ad-aware, spywareblaster or spybot programs among personal programs.

I had no idea what was done and the only way I got out of the mess was to do a system restore back to when I downloaded and installed the second MS Security updated. Everything was back to normal then.

No one but me has been on this computer since then. I have not used their uninstaller.

Last night I did install the new Corel Paint Shop Pro X. It was an upgrade to the 9.0 I have. But I am pretty sure it was doing this before. I can try uninstalling this program if there is a chance it might have caused this problem.

Also just for the record, The new Paint Shop Pro X didn't uninstall the older Paint Shop Pro 9.0. I was expecting it to do that or give me a hint that I should uninstall it before proceeding, but that didn't happen.

When I had an old version of Norton Antivirus on my old windows ME computer and when I had uninstalled Norton and I had went into the registry and deleted some things that Symantec suggested to do manually. But I am kind of remembering for that old version, Symantec or someone had said something about empting the recycle bin before uninstalling. This time with the 2004 version I didn't see any mention of this so I didn't touch it.

I really don't know a whole lot about these computer and I am quite afraid of the registry because I don't know about files and their extensions, what is safe and what is not to delete. I did see a list from Symantec on manual deleting if the uninstall didn't work in the Add/Remove program and there were some regedit items mentioned there. But I forgot how to do a delete in the regedit. It's been a while.

This is all I can think of as far as the history of this computer for the last few days.

I am going to uninstall the live update tonight.

I'm not ignorant, I just need more learning!

You should try running a third party program that can uninstall and erase any remnants of previously uninstalled programs. A couple I like are regvac and Ashampoo winoptimizer suite.
I'm certain you're competent enough to delete the entries manually so just open regedit and under "edit" click on find and search the words.Use f8 to advance to the next entry and keep deleting the entries on the right.Be sure to make sure they are Symantec and norton origins.There should be many entries so it may take a few minutes.

Asus A8V Deluxe Rev.2
AMD Athlon 64 3800+/Newcastle
1 Gig Corsair PC3200
ATI Radeon 9800Pro/ATI Silencer 1Rev2
catalyst 5.6
Sound blaster audigy gamer
Antec430
Via 4.55 Drivers

Adding some more information

I also just remembered something.

I remember when I ran the Ad-aware scan this last week or and another time before that it had found a few of the usual cookies and I put a check next to all of them and also checked all of the MRU's and I clicked on the "Next" button.

I thought this was strange, but instead of the program sending these checked items into the quarantined bin these items just disappeared. Quarantine was totally empty. Before they would always go into the quarantine bin. I had just figured that it was something new with the last updates that I had downloaded for this program.

I now wonder if the two, the recycle bin and Ad-aware quarantine, have something going on between them?

I hadn't used the computer nor the recycle bin for a while cause I was busy with Christmas and the New Year, so I am not exactly sure when the recycle bin started doing this, but it seems to me that it was around the time when I had done my last Ad-aware update?. I won't swear to that though. But it this normal for Ad-aware to just delete the items and not quarantine them?

I'm not ignorant, I just need more learning!

I decided to play around with my ZoneAlarm Pro Security Suite and I found that this is causing my recycle bin to be emptied when I reboot my computer. I shut it completely down and the deleted item was still in my recycle bin. But as soon as I enabled it again the problem returned.

I even went through an elimination process with the spyware, antivirus, and email protection while I was disconnected from the internet and unplugged from the phone jack. That didn't make a difference.

As soon as ZoneAlarm loads, that is when I see it for a brief moment in my toolbar while it is loading, that is when I see my recycle bin get emptied.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what is causing it. Is it a bug or can a clean reinstall of my ZoneAlarm fix it?

I'm not ignorant, I just need more learning!

Hi Tammy,
I suggest you do away with zone alarm and use Outpost firewall.If you ask me its the best one out the and you get a 30 trial. It also only runs 1 processes.
I'm not sure about uninstalling ZA as I have never used it but it is responsible for the recycle bin deletions as you have just mentioned.I would just uninstall it and install Outpost,you'll probably stick with it.

Asus A8V Deluxe Rev.2
AMD Athlon 64 3800+/Newcastle
1 Gig Corsair PC3200
ATI Radeon 9800Pro/ATI Silencer 1Rev2
catalyst 5.6
Sound blaster audigy gamer
Antec430
Via 4.55 Drivers

Thanks Chunko,

I really like ZoneAlarm and I guess I will try a clean install sometime in the next few days unless someone comes by with a better suggestion before I do this.

I will keep the Outpost firewallin mind.

I'm not ignorant, I just need more learning!

Well I solved the problem. I am very happy and also feel a little stupid. But this is ZoneAlarm's fault too.

I never did get around to doing a clean install with ZoneAlarm. Things were running good except for the recycle bin being emptied on restart.

I just happened to put my cursor on top of ZoneAlarm on startup while it was still showing in my toolbar. I said something like the cache cleaner.

So I went into the Privacy tab and opened up the cache cleaner. It looked the same as it always had. So I went into the options tab. I swear I had never seen this before, but there it was! There was a box with a checkmark inside it next to "Clean Recycle Bin".

When did this option get placed inside there? I sure wished that ZomeAlarm would send us notices of these changes. Well at least I never saw it before and I never had this broblem with the recycle bin before either.

So you guessed it! I unchecked it and rebooted and made sure something was inside of the recycle bin and rebooted my computer. Finally nothing was automatically deleted then. Problem Solved!

I'm not ignorant, I just need more learning!