Uninstalling Norton Internet Security or Personal Firewall using the RnisUPG.exe removal utility

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Uninstalling Norton Internet Security or Personal Firewall using the RnisUPG.exe removal utility

Situation:
When you uninstalled Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall through Windows Programs list or Add/Remove Programs, the process failed. You want to use the Symantec RnisUPG removal tool to uninstall Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall versions 2003 and earlier.

Solution:
This document provides the latest version of the RnisUPG.exe file and the instructions for using it. RnisUPG.exe is a utility that removes the program files and registry entries installed by Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall, for versions 2003 and earlier.

Notes:

Use this utility only if you cannot uninstall through Windows Add/Remove Programs or the Uninstall option from the Start Menu.
RnisUPG will not uninstall Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall 2004 and will cause errors if it is used for this purpose. If you want to uninstall Norton Internet Security 2004, read the document Uninstalling and reinstalling Norton Internet Security 2004.

Before you begin:

Log on to the computer. If you have Windows NT, 2000, or XP, use the Administrator account or a user account that is member of the Administrator's security group.
If you have Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security, uninstall Norton AntiVirus from Add/Remove Programs. If you have Norton Personal Firewall rather than Norton Internet Security , it is not necessary to uninstall Norton AntiVirus .
If the Norton AntiVirus uninstall fails use the Rnav2003.exe utility to remove Norton AntiVirus, then restart the computer. To obtain and use the Rnav2003 utility, see the document How to uninstall Norton AntiVirus using the Rnav2003.exe removal utility.

WARNING: RnisUPG should NEVER be used on an install of Norton Internet Security 2004 and will most likely break installs of any other Symantec products that are currently resident on your computer, as well as causing possible reinstall issues. You should remove all 2004 Symantec products from your computer before using RnisUPG.

To obtain and use the RnisUPG.exe utility

Right-click the RnisUPG.exe file below:
Click Save Target As.
In the Save As screen, navigate to a folder on your hard drive where you can save the file. For example, you can save the file to the Desktop folder.
Click Save.
Locate the RnisUPG.exe file on the Desktop or where you saved the file in step 3.
Double-click RnisUPG.exe to run the file. This file removes Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall from your computer.
Restart the computer when prompted.

Once you have run RnisUPG.exe and restarted the computer, you can reinstall Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall. When you uninstall because of a problem with the program, it is important that when you reinstall you follow the steps in the document Reinstalling your Symantec program after a failed installation or after you see error messages.

References:
Uninstalling and reinstalling Norton Internet Security 2004

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Document ID: 2001081527580666
Last Modified: 05/25/2004
Date Created: 09/05/2001
Operating System(s): Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Home Edition
Product(s): Norton Internet Security 2002 4.0, Norton Internet Security Professional Edition 2002, Norton Personal Firewall 2002 4.0