Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 12/29/2006

Question
Hi Carolyn,
My trial version of NOD32 AV has run out, and in the meantime I purchased, online, a 2-year period of the same program. When trying to uninstall the trial version I keep getting this pop-up, which stops everything: (114) "Setup.xml file is damaged or missing." Needless to say to you, I can't proceed until the uninstall is accomplished, and nor can I load the new paid-for program. My computer is therefore open to attack until I get this done, so I turn it on with great trepidation every time!
My OS is Windows XP SP2, IE6, a privately-built computer.
Thanks very much for any help you can offer!

Answer
Your best bet is to contact technical support at http://www.eset.com/ as they are the people who are the most familiar with this software. If they can't or won't help you, if you used a credit card to buy it, then you can get a refund from the credit card company on the basis of them committing fraud by selling a non-working product.

Also, you could use System Restore to take your computer back to before you installed the old version of NOD32 AV. This will remove all your other more recent software, but it is easier than the alternative of completely rebuilding your system.

In the meantime you can protect your computer with the free trial version of F-Secure Internet security, which you can download from http://www.f-secure.com/home_user/support_and_downloads/evaluations/

I've never heard a complaint about them. Worldwide they are the top antivirus provider and one of the oldest, but little known in the U.S.