Windows Vista help?

[Hawkmoon]

My wife is currently traveling with our granddaughter, and she asked that while she's gone I clean up her computer and remove any viruses and such that the kids may be "installed." It's a Toshiba Satellite notebook running Windows Vista. I figured while I'm in there I'd uninstall some programs we don't use, to clean things up, and then install the upgrade to Windows 7.

I've encountered two programs I can't uninstall. One is Norton Security Scan, the other is Verizon V Cast Media Manager. When I try to uninstall through Control Panel, it tells me they are running and I have to end them before I can uninstall. But when I go into Task Manager to terminate them, they aren't there.

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of these so I can proceed with the plan?

TIA

[Ben]

When in task manager, are you looking under applications, or processes? A lot of time auto-starting programs will only show up in processes, and the name may not be something recognizable. Otherwise you can start in safe mode and uninstall from there and see what happens. Also look to see if either of the programs have their own uninstall option. If they do, use that instead of add/remove programs and it should remove everything (you will be asked to restart your computer).

[Hawkmoon]

I looked in both Applications and Processes. If they're running under "assumed names," they are very cryptic.

I thought about safe mode. How do I restart into safe mode in Vista?

[Brad Johnson]

If you're going to install 7 anyway, stop bashing your head agains the wall trying to clean up Vista first.  Dump all your info - docs, pics, music, the works - to two different places (redundant backup, don'cha know). Format the drive, and do a fresh install of 7.  It'll be faster, cleaner, and faster. Did I mention faster?

Edit to add: I forgot you were installing the 7 upgrade, not a full product.  So scratch what I just said.... maybe.  Might still be faster and cleaner to back up your data, wipe the drive, do a clean install of Vista, then do the 7 upgrade.  Maybe the upgrade-o-philes can shed more info on this.

Brad

[Ben]

I looked in both Applications and Processes. If they're running under "assumed names," they are very cryptic.

I thought about safe mode. How do I restart into safe mode in Vista?

Hit F8 while the computer is starting up.

I did not catch that you are upgrading to Win7. I am not a big fan of upgrading over a pre-existing OS. Some people seem to have good luck with it, but I look at OS upgrade time as a good time to "tune up" my computer. Save your important files, wipe the system, and do a fresh install of Win7. It's a little extra work having to reinstall programs and drivers, but it's nice to have a snappy and responsive fresh install.

[lee n. field]

My wife is currently traveling with our granddaughter, and she asked that while she's gone I clean up her computer and remove any viruses and such that the kids may be "installed." It's a Toshiba Satellite notebook running Windows Vista. I figured while I'm in there I'd uninstall some programs we don't use, to clean things up, and then install the upgrade to Windows 7.

I've encountered two programs I can't uninstall. One is Norton Security Scan, the other is Verizon V Cast Media Manager. When I try to uninstall through Control Panel, it tells me they are running and I have to end them before I can uninstall. But when I go into Task Manager to terminate them, they aren't there.

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of these so I can proceed with the plan?

TIA

Start, search, type "msconfig".  Run msconfig.  Use it to turn off autostarting programs and autostarting services that aren't the standard Microsoft stuff (uncheck "show microsoft services" or some such).  Reboot and try your uninstalls again.

I wouldn't worry about Norton Security Scan.  it's a freebie of little consequence.

Better bet is (as someone else noted) to wipe and install Win7 from scratch.  Get online to toshiba and download drivers and such to a usb flash drive first.

Yes, you can do a full install from a win7 upgrade disk.  You have to, to upgrade from XP.

[RocketMan]

I did the Win7 upgrade from Vista on this laptop.  It went well, no problems encountered at all.
I had that Verizon app running on this machine.  Could not find the process as it had no obvious name.  To finally kill it I had to stop it by right clicking on the icon in the system tray on the bottom right.  Selected 'stop' or 'exit' (don't remember which it actually had, but it was obvious) to kill the app, the icon disappeared.
Then went to the Program Files folder on the C: drive and deleted a folder labeled 'HTC' (mine was installed by an HTC phone, YMMV).  Then I ran CCleaner registry cleaner to delete the program's reference in the startup run section of the registry.  (You can also do this manually if you are comfortable rooting around the in the registry.)
Problem solved.

Symantec has some tools available on their website to completely remove their apps from PCs, but you have to dig to find them.

[Cliffh]

Does your wife's laptop have enough RAM for Win7?  My Tosh Satellite is only upgradeable to 2GB, which is marginal for Vista - and I don't do anything that's RAM intensive.  If Win7 follows MS's historical tendencies, it'll need bigger/better/faster hardware than Vista, just to run as fast as Vista did.

[Gewehr98]

If it ran Vista, Windows 7 should be a cakewalk.

Windows 7 was promoted as using fewer hardware resources than Vista, because so many users were disappointed in the slowness of the latter.

The code was also cleaned up for better efficiency - I've upgraded several Vista laptops to Windows 7, and they all ran significantly faster.

Now, Windows 8, that's a different story.

[Cliffh]

If it ran Vista, Windows 7 should be a cakewalk.

Windows 7 was promoted as using fewer hardware resources than Vista, because so many users were disappointed in the slowness of the latter.

The code was also cleaned up for better efficiency - I've upgraded several Vista laptops to Windows 7, and they all ran significantly faster.

Now, Windows 8, that's a different story.

Aww, I really wish you hadn't said that!  I've been disappointed with the speed of this POS and the OS itself since buying it years ago.  Now you've got me thinking about upgrading to Win7! 

[Hawkmoon]

If it ran Vista, Windows 7 should be a cakewalk.

Windows 7 was promoted as using fewer hardware resources than Vista, because so many users were disappointed in the slowness of the latter.

The code was also cleaned up for better efficiency - I've upgraded several Vista laptops to Windows 7, and they all ran significantly faster.

This is a major reason for the "upgrade." In this case, it may actually BE an upgrade.

Cliff, her notebook has 4GB of RAM and plenty of free hard disk space. FWIW, the Acer Aspire One netbook I had came with Windows 7 Starter Edition on it, and that ran acceptably on just 1GB of RAM. Obviously, I wasn't trying to run a gazillion programs and background utilities simultaneously, but my wife doesn't do so, either. In fact, I don't think she ever uses anything other than Internet Explorer. Win7 should be an improvement. (Heck, compared to Vista anything would be an improvement.)

[Cliffh]

This is a major reason for the "upgrade." In this case, it may actually BE an upgrade.

(Heck, compared to Vista anything would be an improvement.)

Ain't that the truth.

[RevDisk]

If you're going to install 7 anyway, stop bashing your head agains the wall trying to clean up Vista first.  Dump all your info - docs, pics, music, the works - to two different places (redundant backup, don'cha know). Format the drive, and do a fresh install of 7.  It'll be faster, cleaner, and faster. Did I mention faster?

Edit to add: I forgot you were installing the 7 upgrade, not a full product.  So scratch what I just said.... maybe.  Might still be faster and cleaner to back up your data, wipe the drive, do a clean install of Vista, then do the 7 upgrade.  Maybe the upgrade-o-philes can shed more info on this.

Brad

Ignore the Edit part. The first paragraph is what you want to do. It's Vista. Only thing you can do is kill it with fire. Get your files off it, nuke it from orbit, and install Windows 7 cleanly.