Expert: James Filmer - 12/23/2008

Question
Hi:

I use Win XP pro on that machine I am taking about.

My Norton AV never opens up. I try to uninstall and re-install, upon uninstall, the system halts, I push control-alt-delete to end. I get the 'you chose to end program that is not responsding'. I go to the 'see details' and there was a file called werbf49.dir00.

Two days ago I googled "werbf49.dir00" a found out it might be a trojan horse that logs keystrokes, but the information was very vague and confusing.

Today, I googled "werbf49.dir00" but got only 1 website, it is a list of spywares but doesn't discuss about werbf49.dir00 or how to get rid of it.

What's going on here?


Happy Holidays,

Green

Answer
Hi Green:

Since you received the error message trying to uninstall Norton, on the surface appears werbf49.dir00 is related, but have no indication at this point it's a trojan horse. Was there more preceding or following the file name (...dir00/???)

Norton AV has a removal tool: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/norton2008.nsf/docid/2007082908475279?Open
to remove it successfully.

Then, for guidance locate install instructions on the Symantec site, or do a search (found several safe educational sites) for install instructions for your specific version. Hopefully, you won't get the error message after a successful install.

About "Norton AV never opens up", do you have another anti-virus program running? If so, remove or disable it completely before installing Norton.