Symantec Thursday released a free tool that wipes spurious entries from Windows' registry that had crippled some PCs running the company's security software after they were upgraded to Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) or Vista SP1. The tool, SymRegFix, had been promised by Symantec two weeks ago when users reported that upgrading to XP SP3 emptied Windows' Device Manager, deleted network connections and packed the registry with thousands of bogus entries.

Symantec initially blamed Microsoft for the snafu, but later accepted some responsibility. Last week, the company said the combination of a Microsoft process and the SymProtect feature of its Norton-branded consumer security software had added the errant registry entries, and it told users to turn off that feature before upgrading. Symantec's SymRegFix clean-up tool can be downloaded from the company's site.

News Source: InfoWorld



There are 17 additional comments
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(4 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #1 Posted by MioTheGreat on 09 Jun 2008 - 11:47
Symantec Tool....Cleans up registry corruption?

Yeah. Right.
Quote this comment #1.1 Posted by gaurav on 09 Jun 2008 - 12:35
Cut them some slack mate
Quote this comment #1.2 Posted by Kushan on 09 Jun 2008 - 16:49
(gaurav said @ #1.1)
Cut them some slack mate


Except according to the article, the tool fixed a problem they caused themselves.
Quote this comment #1.3 Posted by shinji257 on 09 Jun 2008 - 16:52
(Kushan said @ #1.2)
(gaurav said @ #1.1)
Cut them some slack mate


Except according to the article, the tool fixed a problem they caused themselves.


I don't think they necessarily caused the issue. It was an interoperability issue between a microsoft program and a symantec program. These things happen and neither party is directly responsible in whole. At least one party has to step up to the plate and provide a fix however. Kudos to Symantec for doing this regardless of how bad their programs really are.

P.S. - Their removal tool does wonders.
Quote this comment #1.4 Posted by toadeater on 09 Jun 2008 - 20:25
(gaurav said @ #1.1)
Cut them some slack mate


They've been doing this for years and they still haven't fixed it. Their products are probably the worst bloatware you can buy right now. Even Microsoft isn't this bad. They deserve no slack.
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #2 Posted by Jugalator on 09 Jun 2008 - 12:32
I honestly think Symantec tools often cause more problems than they solve.
Quote this comment #2.1 Posted by thenonhacker on 10 Jun 2008 - 01:51
I'd rather: http://www.ccleaner.com/
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #3 Posted by PrEzi on 09 Jun 2008 - 12:34
Symantec tool cleans Symantec's own mess.
Get a real Antivirus sollution.
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #4 Posted by Airlink on 09 Jun 2008 - 13:31
Dear god, why do people still buy Norton crap?
Quote this comment #4.1 Posted by Danielx714 on 09 Jun 2008 - 20:28
(Airlink said @ #4)
Dear god, why do people still buy Norton crap?


same reason people still open .exe attachments from people they don't know, they are morons. And with McAfee and Norton saturating the market with their 'easy to use/all in one' crap, its like a moth to a light, "there's a lot of boxes at best buy, it says its good, it must be good"

short answer: because people are ignorant
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #5 Posted by fuzi0719 on 09 Jun 2008 - 13:32
I used to swear by Symantec AV, especially the corporate version. That is until it allowed a trojan to install itself on my computer AND said trojan actually used the Symantec email proxy to attempt sending thousands upon thousands of emails from my computer. I was finally able to get rid of it only by downloading the free AVG which found the trojan during the install and deleted it. I sent a copy of the trojan to Symantec and their tech people informed me that there was no such trojan and their product was completely safe and that I must be mistaken or did not install it correctly, etc. About a month later, Symantec released a patch for their corporate AV which enabled detection of that trojan.

I'll never trust Symantec again.
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #6 Posted by ajua on 09 Jun 2008 - 13:51
Companies should be responsible and accept their mistakes when they are spotted. Many blame Microsoft at first place, then they acknowledge the situation and take proper actions, but why?

Symantec is being known as a really bad company when it comes to their products uninstall routines. They are really a PITA to get rid of. As if they never thought people will need to uninstall their products for whatever reason.

Other security companies release "remover" tools for their products but just for ensuring the user can install newer versions without any hassle. Symantec release their tool just to uninstall properly their products. And this has been happening for ages.

Now, at least it is good that their users can solve that particular problem with SP3, but is bad rep (more?) for them.
Quote this comment #6.1 Posted by shinji257 on 09 Jun 2008 - 17:02
(ajua said @ #6)
Companies should be responsible and accept their mistakes when they are spotted. Many blame Microsoft at first place, then they acknowledge the situation and take proper actions, but why?

Symantec is being known as a really bad company when it comes to their products uninstall routines. They are really a PITA to get rid of. As if they never thought people will need to uninstall their products for whatever reason.

Other security companies release "remover" tools for their products but just for ensuring the user can install newer versions without any hassle. Symantec release their tool just to uninstall properly their products. And this has been happening for ages.

Now, at least it is good that their users can solve that particular problem with SP3, but is bad rep (more?) for them.


Ok. I'll take that. Panda Security however is another one that is a PITA to remove. The last time that program was removed from someone's computer they could no longer boot normally without getting a blue screen. I had to go into safe mode, get online, hunt and find Panda's removal tool (it is a pain to find), and pray it works.

It was bad enough that I had a hard time finding it. What was worse was that they have a different version of their uninstaller for each version of their program. PIS 2007 has a different manual uninstaller than PIS 2008. At least Symantec has one that encompasses all of their products.

Also Symantec isn't known to false positives. The last time I personally installed PIS they detected my perfectly legit FTP server as a trojan and proceeded to remove without prompting me. Now granted upon further research the ftp server was known to package with a certain trojan that communicated to a user via irc but still make sure that other part exists before removing and even then it should of prompted me.
(2 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #7 Posted by C_Guy on 09 Jun 2008 - 15:04
"Symantec initially blamed Microsoft for the snafu, but later accepted some responsibility"

How embarrassing...even for a company as low as Symantec.

"...the SymProtect feature of its Norton-branded consumer security software had added the errant registry entries"

Shocking. Blame Microsoft first, build a fix second. Class act, Symantec, class act.
Quote this comment #7.1 Posted by shinji257 on 09 Jun 2008 - 16:56
(C_Guy said @ #7)
"Symantec initially blamed Microsoft for the snafu, but later accepted some responsibility"

How embarrassing...even for a company as low as Symantec.

"...the SymProtect feature of its Norton-branded consumer security software had added the errant registry entries"

Shocking. Blame Microsoft first, build a fix second. Class act, Symantec, class act.


Please quote the entire sentence and not just part of it.

"... the combination of a Microsoft process and the SymProtect feature of its Norton-branded consumer security software had added the errant registry entries..."

Meaning it was an interoperability issue between two programs that neither party was immediately aware of. Some of these things come up once it hits the public. I think the SymProtect program monitors the registry and was probably flagging the Microsoft process by mistake. Crap like this happens. I think this is why you should be disabling security software when installing a Service Pack. Kudos to Symantec on stepping up to the plate and releasing a fix.
Quote this comment #7.2 Posted by PrEzi on 09 Jun 2008 - 20:18
(shinji257 said @ #7.1)
(C_Guy said @ #7)
"Symantec initially blamed Microsoft for the snafu, but later accepted some responsibility"

How embarrassing...even for a company as low as Symantec.

"...the SymProtect feature of its Norton-branded consumer security software had added the errant registry entries"

Shocking. Blame Microsoft first, build a fix second. Class act, Symantec, class act.


Please quote the entire sentence and not just part of it.

"... the combination of a Microsoft process and the SymProtect feature of its Norton-branded consumer security software had added the errant registry entries..."

"Meaning it was an interoperability issue between two programs that neither party was immediately aware of. "

Yeah sure... How come that I use NOD and NEVER have had ANY registry-related problems ? Sure - drop some blame to Microsoft. They are always good to bash...

"Some of these things come up once it hits the public. I think the SymProtect program monitors the registry and was probably flagging the Microsoft process by mistake. Crap like this happens. "

Again - they were several betast of SP to test their product with, stop with crap like this, like they never knew...

"I think this is why you should be disabling security software when installing a Service Pack. Kudos to Symantec on stepping up to the plate and releasing a fix."

And I give a sh*t. I never disabled my AV when installing SP. A good AV should be fool-proof (in the means of Microsoft processes as they are all good documented and well-known).


Quote this comment Reply to this comment #8 Posted by sLm4ever on 09 Jun 2008 - 22:12
Symantec == corruption
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