Norton

[Paul]

I ended up downloading Norton's adware (the thing that tells you your computer is "at risk" but refuses to tell you what these "risks" are and tries to sell you their anti-virus software instead) with the last update of Adobe Player. I just uninstalled it, and during the uninstall process it popped up a survey of the "sorry you are leaving, please tell us why variety". Although they stated that they would not reply to my feedback, they insisted I gave them my email address (presumably so that they could try to sell me their software at a later date). All this is basic business Practise. A little underhand perhaps, but many companies have similar practises, so you cannot really complain.

However, in their T&C I found this little gem:

Your Feedback, together with your name and any contact information provided by You, will be held as confidential by Symantec, and may be transferred to the Symantec group in the United States or other countries that may have less protective data protection laws than the region in which You are situated (including the European Union)

In other words, "not only do we intend to spam you, we intend to transfer your data to another country so that we can use it for purposes that are ILLEGAL in your own country"!

Grr, and WTF!

 

[Harrison]

I've never touched anything Norton has released ever. It's all bloated junk that consumers system resources. Same with McAfee these days, although I did used to use that in the 90's.

The problem is that no security software seems to stay ahead of the game. You find a really good one, but a new version comes out and it completely destroys your faith in the company. So annoying. Outpost was brilliant for a long time, but a new version causes so many issues it had to be removed.. then Kaspersky was really good, again until a new version then it caused loads of issues. Comodo is still really good for a free security software for general home use, but not good enough for anything more.

I'm currently struggling to find a really good lightweight replacement at the member, and sticking with M$ Security Essentials on most systems.

Never install the rubbish they try to make you during software installers. It is so annoying they are allowed to do this, having a screen with the option box already ticked to catch many people out whom don't read everything and just skip through the installation. I accidentally did this myself with the Flash installer some time ago with McAfee installing itself a 30 day trial. That was a bugger to fully remove again. Had to manually remove it from the registry in the end!

It should be illegal for companies to push additional software onto you during an installer.

 

[Monkeh]

MS SE and Malwarebytes free version is a good combo to run, although I'm giving AVG Free another go - used to sub to it until the program started interfering with running games etc ~2010, on a 30 day premium trial atm and its doing ok atm.

Saying that I actually run Malwarebytes Premium - cos it was ~£15 for a lifetime licence, they've now changed to an annual licence fee with v2.0, also when it updated my install to v2.0 the program decided all the internet was malicious and blocked it, which was nice of it.

 

[johnim]

Try ccleaner too.

I use mse and malware also

 

[DBloke]

As mentioned MS SE has given me no problems,
I also run a Spybot and Malware bytes scan every month.

Also disabling Java helps a great deal to stop Scamware viruses, after doing so ive had none,

I have also had the old "Installing software you dont want" thing.
Also some download sites trying to push there own downloaders on you
Also Ilivd with its "Thefilenameyouwant.exe" bloody thing, damn lame download sites with all there download buttons

 

[Paul]

It is so annoying they are allowed to do this, .......It should be illegal for companies to push additional software onto you during an installer.

I agree it is bloody annoying, as my original post will show. And at one point I had a little (expletive deleted) that kept itself hidden but re-installed Better Surf (ad popper on browsers) every time I deleted it. Not entirely certain I have got completely rid of it, even now.

However this stuff pays for the free software and updates. Without it we would have to pay for everything (literally everything) and I'd have no money left to spend on Whiskey and women of questionable moral turpitude!

 

[Monkeh]

Asktoolbar, what an utter PoS and complete pita to remove that is - of course the wife happily running through her Java updates just hitting ok, confirm to everything and installs it - then leaves me the task of cleaning it from her system for her... :double

 

[Paul]

of course the wife happily running through her Java updates just hitting ok, confirm to everything and installs it - then leaves me the task of cleaning it from her system for her.

You see, that is why computer geeks have a reputation for not being married. Most of us have got more sense.

 

[Nobby_UK]

I used to run AVG but it became bloated and in the end useless (it did not detect SUS mail)
also I blame it for the daily unexpected shut down (bloat or planned ?)
Contacted their support --- No Help :roll:

I now use AVAST (which did try and install Chrome ) which is a lot lighter and any mails that
go undetected can be sent to them for inclusion in the next Definitions Update.
Also No more daily unexpected shut downs

 

[Harrison]

of course the wife happily running through her Java updates just hitting ok, confirm to everything and installs it - then leaves me the task of cleaning it from her system for her.

You see, that is why computer geeks have a reputation for not being married. Most of us have got more sense.

They all do it, then moan because it takes us more than 5 minutes to clean up the mess afterwards!

 

[Paul]

They all do it, then moan because it takes us more than 5 minutes to clean up the mess afterwards!

The answer to that is to be very helpful, but when they ask, smile patronisingly then make sure they think you are thinking "Of course I'll sort this for you, because I am a man and it is something a woman cannot do." It may get you punched in the face, but the upside is that they will never ask you to sort out their computer mess again!

 

[NinjaRabbit]

I sympathise, guys. Some of us gals have the same troubles with cleaning up computers for men, too...

 

[FOL]

Nothing wrong norton.

People just get sucked in and know nothing. All you want is normal Norton Antivirus, not any of the other crap, like 360 etc etc.
Been using normal Antivirus for over 10 years, never had one virus. Only time I have, I have done it myself and disabled norton.

 

[Paul]

Nothing wrong norton.

To be clear: I was not ranting about their ability to block viruses. I have never tried their service. I was ranting about their immoral business practises and the fact that they are happy to find loopholes that allow them to legally break the law.

However, since I need to be able to trust my virus protector, and so need to be able to trust the company that supplies it, I would never use a virus protector created by a company that are happy to go against the law. And I would advise other people likewise.

 

[BrooksterMax]

Your Feedback, together with your name and any contact information provided by You, will be held as confidential by Symantec, and may be transferred to the Symantec group in the United States or other countries that may have less protective data protection laws than the region in which You are situated (including the European Union)

Grr, and WTF!

Wow. The part "that may have less protective data protection laws than the region in which You are situated" is the most shocking bit for sure. I can't believe I am reading that.

 

[AndyLandy]

I've never touched anything Norton has released ever. It's all bloated junk that consumers system resources. Same with McAfee these days, although I did used to use that in the 90's.

In the 90s, we had Symantec Anti-Virus for Macintosh and Norton Utilities for Macintosh and both were quality products. Admittedly, SAM only had about two dozen viruses to concern itself with, but NUM was great for maintaining and troubleshooting misbehaving Macs. It's amazing just how far downhill that Symantec/Norton have fallen in recent times.

As for my Windows PCs, I'm cavalier and only have MSSE on there; but then I don't really use them for any risky activities, I barely even web browse with them.

 

[rootboy]

I've never touched anything Norton has released ever. It's all bloated junk that consumers system resources. Same with McAfee these days, although I did used to use that in the 90's.

In the 90s, we had Symantec Anti-Virus for Macintosh and Norton Utilities for Macintosh and both were quality products. Admittedly, SAM only had about two dozen viruses to concern itself with, but NUM was great for maintaining and troubleshooting misbehaving Macs. It's amazing just how far downhill that Symantec/Norton have fallen in recent times.

As for my Windows PCs, I'm cavalier and only have MSSE on there; but then I don't really use them for any risky activities, I barely even web browse with them.

If you are a borderline ancient like me, you will remember Peter Norton back in his "Norton Utilities" days. He had some great stuff back then, and his book on Assembly language programming is simply one of the best.

And to back up my "borderline ancient" claim, here's my first computer (well, not strictly *mine*, I was expected to share):

http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/home/projects/burroughs-b6700-mainframe

(and I still have one of my slide rules from high school).

 

[Paul]

(and I still have one of my slide rules from high school).

Me too. And I also have my Grandfather's slide rule, which, thinking about it, is probably the oldest "computer" I own!

 

[Merlin]

<---------- Major ESET fanboy

I have used ESET ever since NOD32 Antivirus came out. I'm currently on ESET System Security 5 with the heuristics turned on - I find it's pretty good at spotting anything iffy and sticks it in quarantine until you decide if it's malware or not. This and the occasional scan with Malwarebytes is all that I need.

I found from other people's machines that it's easier to format and start again than to try and remove Norton from every nook, cranny and rock that it hides under. It says something when they had to bring a 'Norton Cleaner' out to help people get rid of it!

 

[mfilos]

I also use MSSE in all my PC's (except Win8.1 where it's embedded) and registered MalwareBytes.
Never had a single issue ever!

Sadly MSSE on older XP installations has issues these days, so I tried the really lightweight BitDefender as Anti-Virus which seems rather nice.