Users with a recent Symantec product faced several problems after updating their computer from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to the latest version, among them removed network connections, an empty device manager, unusable wireless connections and thousands of bogus Registry entries. This was apparently caused by the toolsymprotect, a part of many Symantec applications, that is protecting those applications against malware. It did that so well that it prevented the Windows XP installation routine from deleting temporary Registry keys which in turn caused the problems for the users.
Initially Symantec blaimed Microsoft solely but admitted that symprotect was involved as well. The tool SymRegFix.exe has been designed by Symantec to remove the bogus Registry entries and correct the errors that have been caused by them on the user’s system. The software has to be downloaded to the local computer and executed from there, it will fix the Registry automatically.
Symantec users who have not updated to Windows XP Service Pack 3 yet will be delighted to hear that Symantec added a solution to prevent the situation to live updates of their products. If the Symantec product is fully updated the problems will not arise and symprotect does not have to be disabled during Service Pack 3 installation.
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