Anti-Malware False Positives

[The Freezer]

We here at ssTek do not code viruses. In addition, everything here is open-source. Which means anyone can merely review the code and find out for themselves that there's no security issue and that it's perfectly safe.

Unfortunately, when working with ssTek tools, it is not uncommon to encounter false-positive problems from popular security suites. Many times the scanners will either quarantine or delete parts or whole packages -- without ever giving the user any options of over-riding or whitelisting the legitimate software.

One of the tools that is particularly most troublesome is the SetupS Sendto Suite. Almost all of which is AutoIt-compiled. From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoit#Limitations -- second bullet under "Limitations"):

AutoIt applications sometimes get a false positive report from virus scanners using heuristics, because the application is a self extracting executable.

This problem usually occurs when an attempt is made to install SetupS AFTER the Anti-virus software is already installed and running. Even temporarily turning off the anti-virus real-time protections doesn't help (and some are known to still interfere even while disabled).

So what to do?

Most of the time we've found that the AV software must be completely uninstalled before SetupS can take hold. And then later re-installing the AV software -- which should automatically whitelist SetupS. But even then, this is no guarantee and some have found that they need to choose a different malware protection plan.

Unfortunately, AV developers do not make it easy to remove their stuff. This thread will be an attempt to list recommendations and/or experiences that others have found with the various kinds of the security software available.

[The Freezer]

Norton 360
First try removal through the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel -- in many cases, you can simply remove Norton products through the Add/Remove Control Panel. [img=float-right]http://www.lastos.org/team/av-uninstallers/norton.360/nortonaddremove.jpg[/img] [img=float-right]http://www.lastos.org/team/av-uninstallers/norton.360/nortonremove.jpg[/img]

1. Click on Start, Click on Control Panel
2. Double-click on Add or Remove Programs
3. Find the Symantec or Norton product listed and click on it.
4. Click on Remove
5. Click the Remove All button to start the removal process.
6. Once the removal process completes, you'll be asked to restart the computer. Go ahead and reboot at that time.
7. After rebooting Norton should be removed from your system.

If for some reason, the normal uninstall does not remove it, I recommend following the automatic uninstall instructions below to remove any leftover Symantec or Norton security products.

Removing Norton Automatically
Norton has created an automatic removal program to remove the following software products when the normal removal methods fail. Warning: if you use ACT! or WinFAX, back up those databases and uninstall those products as well. The removal tool will remove the following software products from your computer.

• Norton AntiSpam 2004 - 2005
• Norton Antivirus 2003 - 2011
• Norton Ghost 2003, 9.0, and 10.0
• Norton GoBack 3.1 - 4.2
• Norton Internet Security 2003 - 2011
• Norton Password Manager
• Norton Personal Firewall 2003 - 2011
• Norton SystemWorks 2003 - 2011
• Norton Confidential Online 2007
• Norton Internet Security 2007 Add-on Pack
• Norton Save and Restore 1.0 - 2.0
• Norton 360

Follow these directions to download the Norton Removal Tool and run it to remove the above programs.

1. Click on the following link to download the Norton removal tool
   ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_u ... l_Tool.exe
   or, Norton Removal Tool
2. Click Save and save the file to your desktop
3. Close all Norton Application windows you may have open, and double-click on Norton_Removal_Tool.exe to start the removal tool. Windows Vista users will have to right-click on the file and select "Run as Administrator"
4. After the removal tool finishes, you should be prompted to restart your computer.
5. Once the computer restarts, your Norton product should be uninstalled.