Fuck Norton

I hate Norton too - installing anything Norton is like getting a control freak roomate.

At work we are using Symantec - it seems pretty clean - might be related to Norton though. Not sure.

Kaspersky! Go Kaspersky!

I personally set a box of Lucky Charms next to my computer; change it up about every half year so the Shui doesn't go to shit. I rarely have problems.

I hate fucking Norton, but I hate it professionally. It's usually what people want though or McAfee which sucks about equally. Certain people love Norton Corporate Edition, but it's a fucking pain in the ass, every year they change the fucking admin interface, and something always gets fucked during the upgrade.

I had the same problem with Norton 2007, but it wasn't on my computer, some Norton process was eating up 99% CPU after install. I had to uninstall and reinstall it to fix the problem, fucking waste of time. The only reason I used it in the first place was that I was upgrading over an existing Norton that had expired.

Kaspersky is the most thorough, but I found it to be a little too anal.

For home use, I recommend [URL=http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html]Avast Home Edition[/URL], it is free for personal use, but only the virus definitions update automatically, you have to download and install new software versions separately. I went ahead and got Avast Professional for the Windows computer that I have at home. They seem to update the virus signatures more frequently than Norton or McAfee. The part that I like most about it is that it doesn't bog down the computer, it seems very light.

For spyware, I use Spybot Search & Destroy and Windows Defender. SS&D doesn't monitor continuously but is very thorough. Windows Defender monitors continuously, but isn't as thorough. A lot of people love Spy Sweeper, but I find it to be extremely bloated and have had problems where it made a computer very slow.

If you are an adventurous cheapskate, you might try [URL=http://www.clamwin.com/]ClamWin[/URL] which is free and open source, it seems pretty good, but it's probably not 100% bug free and might not come out with a patch quick enough if there is some new major virus. I use the portable version of ClamWin a bit to "confirm" the lack or presence of a virus if the installed antivirus software got whacked somehow or has been expired for a long time.

[QUOTE=Dr.Jekyll&Mr.Hyde;902587]Not the anthology or elephant.[/QUOTE]

PS the elephant is called Horton, not Norton, as in [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horton_Hears_a_Who!]Horton Hears a Who![/URL] But my first thought until I read the thread is this was going to be about Ed Norton.

Thank you. I tried the uninstall/reinstall but still get the same errors. The only other option "support" gave me was to run a clean boot. I know if i do that i'll irrevocably fuck up my computer.

I've considered Kaspersky, but I've read a lot reviews saying it caused Windows XP (sp2) to crash. If i use Avast I need one of those separate spyware programs--right?

I was thinking about Norton: my old but still potent imaginary elephant, forgot all about Horton.

If all fails Lucky charms sounds good.

(Thag, Symantec is Norton.)

I thought this thread was going to be all about Edward Norton.

And I was going to be all like, "Yeah! And fuck Brad Pitt, too!"

First off, to clarify for Thag, Symantec is the Enterprise version of Norton Antivirus, but the engine and look and feel of the software is getting really dated, but at least it's not as bloated as the regular consumer version.

For sure Norton sucks dick, and I don't mean Ed. I have seen, and read lots of reports of, problems with Norton 2007 e.g. computer thrashing after installing or upgrading to 2007, had to uninstall completely then reinstall. I have a customer who has Norton 2007 on his laptop and it still got infected with a virus the other day. I was talking to my boss about these problems and even he said, "Symantec sure screwed the pooch on this one."

Anyway, someone recommended Trend Micro Internet Security 2007 and I have been testing it out, that includes Trend Micro AntiSpyware, which is also pretty good. I have even run this on shit computers with Windows 2000 and it doesn't cause any problems with performance vs. Norton is so fucking bloated I can't stand it. Another nice thing is that the license covers up to 3 "home PCs" which is nice if you have say a laptop and a couple desktops. You can download and install a 30-day trial version for free.

[url]http://www.trendmicro.com/en/products/desktop/pc-cillin/evaluate/overview.htm[/url]

Good Dr., sorry not to see this thread sooner. You've probably already solved you anti-virus issues by now. If not, I recommend [URL=http://free.grisoft.com/]AVG from Grisoft[/URL]. 7.1 has done right by me since recommended by a computer technician over two years ago; and now 7.5 is out. I can't be 100% sure that it catches absolutely everything, because I've had a vestigal version of Norton on this machine that kicks up once in a while, too. Think I'll dump the Norton off though, and take my chances.

I'm loving TrendMicro, just installed it on 3 more laptops today. One feature that's really cool is if you use MS Outlook, it adds some extra buttons for reporting spam or phishing, haven't investigated if it traces headers properly though. Also looks like it takes a little bit to "train" their "spytrap" heuristic software, but hopefully that will catch new stuff there aren't definitions for yet.