** Bitdefender Av Free & Pc Tools Uninstall Problem **
I have been running Symantec/Norton's free version of its PC Tools 'security suite'. It was just the AV component alone. I have other defences like MBAM on my computer so didn't need Symantec bloatware.
Over time, the Symantec offering has deteriorated and having seen the most recent AV comparative test report, I decided to switch to Bitdefender Free seeing as Bitdefender's technology is evidently superior to Symantec / Norton.
I'm well aware of the difficulties many PC Tools users have had with the product, and the way it's so badly coded that uninstallation can be a nightmare. I had, therefore, intended to Revo it out after installing Bitdefender Free. So I shut it down completely, began the Bitdefender installation -- at which point, Bitdefender said it had identified another AV on my system and said it could uninstall it before its own installatioin proceeded any further.
So-oo. . . I let it do its job. I figured Bitdefender's staff have far more experience than I have when it comes to writing uninstall procedures for other AVs. However:
It now looks as if all BitDefender did was to call on PC Tools' own uninstall procedure and nothing else. . . a task I could've easily done myself via Revo, which would have first used the program's uninstaller and then gone hunting for left-over registry entries, files, and other Symantec/Norton junk.
For Bitdefender to be so dependent -- or so it would seem -- on Symantec / Norton to clean up after itself, when time and again people have reported on the Net that Symantec / Norton is incapable of doing that, seems a little remiss, so I'd hope that in future Bitdefender will *stop* volunteering to do the uninstall of a pre-existing AV itself and simply ask the new Bitdefender user to take care of this task themselves.
As to my problem. . . Bitdefender Free is installed and running happily here. But now when the computer is booted up, everything seems to run slo-ooo-oow until a warning alert appears on screen:
C:\PROGRAMFILES\PC TOOLS\PC TOOLS SECURITY\PCTSGUI.EXE
Windows cannot find C:\PROGRAMFILES\PC TOOLS\PC TOOLS SECURITY\PCTSGUI.EXE. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.
Obviously, I don't want Windows to be looking for PC Tools. At all. But some left-over or other from the original PC Tools installation is clearly triggering my Vista OS to go looking for the non-existent executable.
I've just done a regedit search and identified several PC Tools folders that simply shouldn't be there. But I've also done a msconfig check and no PC Tools-related start up service is showing. I'm reluctant to start chucking stuff out of the registry without referring to more experienced users first, so-oo. . .:
Question: what do I have to do to stop Windows from continuing to search for a program that has already been uninstalled?
Help appreciated. Thanks.
Comments
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Hello PhilT,
What OS are you running?
Can you provide us gzserv.log located where you have installed the product?0
