Norton Antivirus, an excellent way to mess up your computer... :eek:

[aczlan]

So, a little background, I am an IT guy and I am pretty good at what I do. One of the mechanics at work asked me to take a look at his wife's laptop to see if I could get it workable as a "kids laptop" (his wife was assigned a laptop from work and hasn't used it in a couple of years).
I took a look at it and it had a expired version of Norton 360 on it. I said "ok, I will just uninstall it and install the free version of Avira"
Not a big deal, EXCEPT that uninstalling Norton completely messed up Windows Update (to the point where a reinstall would have been needed if I hadn't gotten very lucky).
Apparently, if Norton 360 has expired, the ONLY way to get it off without hosing the computer is to run the "Norton removal tool"... :confused2:

AVOID, AVOID, AVOID NORTON!!!

Aaron Z

 

[deerseeker001]

I learned my lesson with Norton,had it for 10-15 years and when Norton 360 came out I had nothing but trouble,was install a week went down and bought Kaspersky havent had a problem in about 5 yrs.

So, a little background, I am an IT guy and I am pretty good at what I do. One of the mechanics at work asked me to take a look at his wife's laptop to see if I could get it workable as a "kids laptop" (his wife was assigned a laptop from work and hasn't used it in a couple of years).
I took a look at it and it had a expired version of Norton 360 on it. I said "ok, I will just uninstall it and install the free version of Avira"
Not a big deal, EXCEPT that uninstalling Norton completely messed up Windows Update (to the point where a reinstall would have been needed if I hadn't gotten very lucky).
Apparently, if Norton 360 has expired, the ONLY way to get it off without hosing the computer is to run the "Norton removal tool"... :confused2:

AVOID, AVOID, AVOID NORTON!!!

Aaron Z

 

[aczlan]

I learned my lesson with Norton,had it for 10-15 years and when Norton 360 came out I had nothing but trouble,was install a week went down and bought Kaspersky havent had a problem in about 5 yrs.

I have had excellent luck with Kaspersky as well (albeit their business antivirus). For free AV though, I really like Avira or Microsoft Security Essentials.

Aaron Z

 

[rekees4300]

Over the years I've tried them all. Generally speaking, they cause more problems than they solve.

 

[MikePA]

Over the years I've tried them all. Generally speaking, they cause more problems than they solve.

I've never had a problem with Microsofts Security Essentials at home, where I run it on the Windows virtual machines I run under OS X. Also never had a problem with McAfee at work.

 

[jix]

I have used both Norton and Kaspersky..And a few others. None have been effective againt the RCMP virus..and Norton is a bummer. It caused me two drive wipes running W7.
Now I Use Antimalwarebytes Premuim. It has been very effective and it was free.

 

[deerseeker001]

I noticed Norton really slowed the Computer down.

 

[mddorange]

I had a problem with McAfee slowing down my computers. It was especially bad when going into Outlook.

 

[woodchipper]

I also had several freeware antivirus, as well as McAfee. This thing would start running on the back ground and simply annoy me. They seem to always find something bad...or infected... You run the program right after a full sweep, and guess what? More to clean! Removed them, got more space on the hard drive and no more buging me. Don't download anything you could put hour hands down for free, and be carefull about unknown e-mails. Spams are good virus propagators. I also find a good thing to clean the Cooke file from time to time. When internet browsing, when you click on some pages, info for publicity (unsollicited) gets stored on your computer via the back door. Good personal management is to my opinion the best "free" way to keep your computer healthy, and your files safe.

 

[Mace Canute]

I haven't used an anti virus program for several years now; I use Sandboxie - Download Sandboxie instead. I do use AdwCleaner, CCleaner and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.