Registry key flooded with Symantec data

[Migration User]

I run into this when I was trying to uninstall Endpoint Protection client. The uninstall process was running for ages and it seemed to be frozen. The progress bar did not move a bit over an hour. It turned out the reason was that the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Common Client\ccService\Channels registry key had more than 260,000 values and the uninstall process tried to read up all of them. I contacted Symantec support and their answer was that this registry key is not related to Endpoint Protection therefore they cannot comment on this issue. I have to figure out myself which Symantec product is related to these registry entries and contact the support department affiliated with that particular product.

The registry values look like this:

  Name:          {E2FA6B71-75D0-4F22-AE8C-32CD6F2B8527}
  Type:            REG_SZ
  Data:            {6B5B7BB1-D422-4C03-896F-D454E36B24AD}

The names are different for each value, however the data is exact same for each of them. Does anyone know what those registry values are for? Is it normal having hundreds of thousands of them? Is this something by design, or is this a result of malfunction?
 

[Thomas K]

Was the a Norton product installed on this system at one time? If so, try the Norton Removal tool.

http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

Cheers,
Thomas

[Migration User]

Thanks for the advice, but the Norton Removal tool is a kind of “mean” tool that removes all Symantec products from the system. Why do I need to remove all the products are working fine, if I want to get rid of only one broken one? I have been working for years with Symantec products and it always caused headaches to uninstall them. In my opinion, whenever Symantec releases a new build for a product then a decent product specific removal tool should be released as well.

 

We have Mail Security for Exchange and Backup Exec installed on this machine. Unfortunately I cannot use the Norton Removal tool.

[Rafeeq]

Follow this document to remove SEP client, if will just remove SEP, even cleanwipe removes other associated symantec products.

I know it will take some time to look in registry and delete but this is the best you can try as u have multiple symantec products installed

These are the values associated with Registry nothinig more than that

How to manually uninstall Symantec Endpoint Protection client from Windows 2000, XP and 2003, 32-bit Editions

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security.nsf/docid/2007073018014248

[Ramji Iyyer]

You can also use   "No NAV"  to uninstall Norton as well as SEP clients.

URL :- http://downloads.jmlamb.net/symantec/NoNav2.49.exe


Some times Cleanwipe does not uninstall properly.


Regards...
Ramji Iyyer

[Migration User]

Thank you for the comments. However there was no need for using the tools recommended above. I was able to remove SEP with the normal “Add or Remove Programs” feature of Control Panel. I just let it running for hours. The task manager reported the uninstall process as “not responding”, but at the end it did the job. I’m not sure how long it took, but it was definitely longer than three hours. The registry keys are gone, and all the rest looks fine. However I still don’t know what those registry keys are for, and how I ended up with hundreds of thousands of them.