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How to get missing file and popup message

Posted By : Eramilde of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on February 7, 2005

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I actually have two questions

1st question is as follows- Could you please let me know how i can get a file i am missing it is the instopts.dat file is it possible to get this sent to my email.

2nd question is i keep getting a popup message from Norton's saying security alert your firewall protection is turned of then it read to prevent duplicate security status alerts, use my existing Norton product alerts and turn of reduntant windows security centre alerts (recommended) why is this i have unistalled Norton's plus i have Windows service pack 2 which has firewall any ways whatcan i do to stop this very annoying thanks heaps look forward to your response hopefully.

This question was answered on February 7, 2005. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.


Answer #1

Error: "Instopts.dat is missing ." when installing or uninstalling Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall

Situation:

While installing or uninstalling Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall, you see the error message "Instopts.dat is missing" and the installation stops.

Solution:

This error can occur when a registry key for the Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall uninstaller remains after the rest of the product has been uninstalled It can also happen if there is a problem with the Microsoft Windows Installer To fix this problem, start with the first section, "Deleting a registry key," and follow the instructions from there.

Deleting a registry key

In many cases, simply deleting a registry key will fix this problem Follow the steps in this section.

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WARNING: In the following procedure, you will edit the Windows registry We strongly recommend that you back up the registry before you make any changes to it Incorrect changes to the registry can result in permanent data loss or corrupted files Modify only the keys that are specified Read the document How to back up the Windows registry for instructions.

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To delete a registry key and reinstall Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall

On the Windows taskbar, click Start > Run

In the Run dialog box, type

regedit

Click OK

In the Registry Editor, go to and select the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Uninstall\Symsetup

Press Delete, and then click Yes to confirm the deletion

Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Symsetup

On the Registry menu, click Exit

Reinstall Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall.

If this does not fix the problem, then go on to the next section.

Using the Windows Installer CleanUp utility

Read the Microsoft article Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility - Article 290301 This article gives instructions on how to download and run the Microsoft Windows Installer CleanUp Utility For your convenience, here are the steps to follow while you are reading the above document.

To run the Windows Installer CleanUp utility

Click the Microsoft Download Center link

Download the Msicuu2.exe file, and save it to your desktop

Double-click the file to install the utility

On the Windows taskbar, click Start > Programs > Windows Installer CleanUp Utility to run the utility.

The following graphic is for Norton AntiVirus 2004 on a computer that is running Windows 98/Me The list of programs may vary slightly depending on your operating system and the version of your Symantec program You will not have a problem if you remove for all entries that are described in the next step.

For each entry that begins with "CC," "cc," "Norton," "Symantec," "Sym," or "MSRedist," click the entry, and then click Remove

Restart the computer

Reinstall Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall

If this does not fix the problem, then go to the next section.

Reinstalling the Microsoft Windows Installer and then reinstall Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall

Follow the steps in each section in the order listed.

To download the latest version of the Microsoft Windows Installer

Click the link for your version of Windows and follow the instructions to download the latest version of the Windows Installer:

For Windows 98/Me, go to Windows Installer 2.0 Redistributable for Windows 95, 98, and Me

For Windows 2000/XP, go to Windows Installer 2.0 Redistributable for Windows NT 4.0 and 2000

Answer #2

You may be unable to log on after you install Norton Personal Firewall or Norton Internet Security on your Windows XP-based computer

Article ID : 308324

Last Review : November 9, 2004

Revision : 2.0

This article was previously published under Q308324

On this page

SYMPTOMS

CAUSE

RESOLUTION

MORE INFORMATION

SYMPTOMS

After you install any of the following programs on your computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, you may not be able to log on after you restart: • Norton Personal Firewall 2000 2.5

• Norton Personal Firewall 2001 3.0

• Norton Internet Security 2000 2.5

• Norton Internet Security 2001 3.0

When this occurs, no error message may be displayed

CAUSE

The products described in the "Symptoms" section of this article use filter drivers that are not compatible with Windows XP

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, uninstall the product in Safe mode You can start your computer in Safe mode by pressing the F8 key at the start of the Windows boot process, and then choosing Safe Mode After the computer starts in Safe mode, click Start, click Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs, click the appropriate product, and then click Remove After you remove the program, restart your computer

After you resolve the issue, you can install another product that is compatible with Windows XP (such as Norton Personal Firewall 2002 or Norton Internet Security 2002), or use the built-in Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) in Windows XP, or use the built-in Windows Firewall (WF) in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

283673 How to enable or disable Internet Connection Firewall in Windows XP

If uninstalling the product does not resolve the issue you can also try to use System Restore to roll your computer back to a point before you installed the program For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

306084 How to restore the operating system to a previous state in Windows XP

About the author

Posted by Eramilde of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on February 7, 2005

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