Unable to cleanly uninstall norton antivirus that comes pre-installed :(

I realize this is an old comment, however I thought I'd leave some info for anyone who might be able to use it in the future.

Regarding Norton, McAfee, and bloatware in general on your new laptop. The best thing you can do is just make a clean installation of your OS. You won't be able to do that with your "Recover" partition unortunately, because that just restores you to how the computer was when you first brought it home - ie., full of crapware. Keep in mind also that, depending on the laptop mfg, you will have a varying amount of proprietary junk that you need to get rid of as well. Dell is notorious for this - with 2 dozen or so of proprietary "Dell" branded utilities that are a bunch of bloat. Lenovos have done a total 180 and include almost no bloat at all - not even an anti-virus, because although some gaming laptops advertise "no bloatware", they might have a low amount, but almost all of them include the BS nagware that is Norton Antivirus\Internet Security\etc.

Bottom line, save up a couple of bucks and go buy an OEM copy of Windows 10. Before wiping your drive and installing fresh, be sure to visit your mfg's driver page and download only the essential drivers. Format your disk and install new. I swear my computers are almost twice as fast as other people who have the same machine, but also have all the ***** leeching their system resources.

Next, to keep a tight ship, forget about the Start Up tab in Task Manager. Go to Microsoft and download "SysInternals Autoruns", or find it on Google. It is the single most comprehensive listing of every single solitary item that runs when your computer starts. It is discontinued Microsoft freeware and still works on Windows 10. In fact, their is an entire suite of tools called "SysInternals" - and I would highly suggest "SysInternals Process Explorer and Process Manager". It is such an incredibly detailed piece of software it is amazing that it was never a commercial piece of software. I've been using it for years to make sure that bloatware, trial versions, software, or even Windows Update doesn't install some rogue service or place itself in Run key of your registry.

Last. Go download "Winaero Tweaker" and "O&O Shut Up 10". They are free and both have several tools that allow you to disable all of the circus ***** that comes with windows - ie., disable telemetry, data collection, ads, windows store, windows update, useless apps that you don't need like stock tickers, etc etc etc.

I have been using these for years and I kid you not, my computer is just as fast as the day I bought it, whereas 99% of the people who's computers I will inevitably end up fixing, especially laptops, after about 6 months seem to be about half as fast as they were on day one.

Also, as others mentioned, Windows built in virus protection is sufficient if you are not a complete ***** who clicks on weird little executables that come from people you don't know through an email. The actual threat of getting a computer virus is basically zero, depite the hype sold by McAfee and Norton and PC Magazine. Same with your browser - all you really need is Firefox and/or Chrome and Adblock. No virus or internet security bs that are supposedly anti-virus programs that actually act like a virus themselves, making them impossible to remove, attaching themselves to every single process your computer executes, including nagware when you don't pay with pop-ups to remind you to subscribe, and in general being a drain on system resources. All the major anti-virus programs are so sloppily written it's ridiculous. Avoid them like the plague. And if your computer has been infected by some trialware that came on your new laptop? Format the hard drive!