Removing C:\RECYCLER\NPROTECT

Abstract

This document describes how to remove the files under C:\RECYCLER\NPROTECT, which are left over after an uninstallation of any Norton Internet Security (Symantec) product.

Introduction

If you follow the official procedures to uninstall Norton Internet Security Suite 2002, 2003, 2004 or 2005, you will still be left over with many files inside c:\recycler\nprotect which are impossible to delete from Windows.

This directory is a Norton-protected recycle bin. The "real" recycle bin is located at c:\recycled. Norton, when installed, intercepts all calls to empty the recycle bin and stores copies of the files in c:\recycler\nprotect. It is unclear when Norton deletes files from its protected recycle bin clone; many users report several megabytes of data still being present in those files even a long time after uninstalling Norton. To recover this otherwise lost disk space, users have tried to delete the files manually, without much success (Windows gives an error about not being able to find the files). This article provides a command for deleting those files. It is the result of the author's research for a solution to this very problem, the original article is at [1].

Method

Open a DOS prompt. Type the following command:

del \\?\c:\recycler\nprotect\*.*

The troublesome files should now be gone, and you should be able to delete c:\recycler\nprotect and c:\recycler from Explorer. The magic appears to be in the "\\?" which precedes the path. Why you are able to delete the files this way and not by any other method is currently unclear; comments are gratefully received.

References

[1] http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/94102.html

Here finishes the article.