anti virus programs-a discussion

[ViralSquisher]

Hi guys im currently using Spybot of course Norton and adware se personal. My Norton's year subscription is nearly up. I was thinking should i buy another year of it or try another AV. Preferably one i have to pay for. Ive heard that uninstalling Norton can seriously stuff up your computer. Any help apreciated

[daniele]

i got norton too.

wso i would have the same proble if it really is one.

unfortunately i cant reach the snapfiles sites.

i just see the top of the page, the reast wont load.

any thoughts?

im using firefoc. flash and cookies allowed.

thanks!

[Scotts]

Hi guys im currently using Spybot of course Norton and adware se personal. My Norton's year subscription is nearly up. I was thinking should i buy another year of it or try another AV. Preferably one i have to pay for. Ive heard that uninstalling Norton can seriously stuff up your computer. Any help apreciated

I have uninstalled Norton twice on two different computers. Including the free version on my new computer. (Can you tell I hate Norton) I did not have any problems with the uninstall. If you are worried about it, create a system restore point before you unistall it. Also if there are any problems caused by uninstalling Norton, you can reinstall it and this should get rid of any problems. That is assuming you have the discs.

[ME_2&]

Not like Big Yellow? There was a time (before I had to 'activate' the newer NAV as part of a custom install and things went terribly sideways after the actvation and a few updates - one of the joys of having so many things interconnected on so many levels in a duo-suite, not to mention some of the little things Symantec does marketing-wise..) when I really liked some of their products, notably the older versions and was totally trustful of their previously seamless updating (although I do prefer manual updating to anything 'auto'-initiated). Over the years from Norton to Symantec, it has seemed to become much more bloated and less under the casual user's control. Ah well, all part of being 'unsupported' perhaps, in my particular case.

Yes, to return to AV.. Clam has a few products out, but as I recall ClamWin may not be a resident app (strictly scan-on-demand) - NOD32 seems to be well thought of among many I know (as well as Kaspersky). 'Best' is always how it fits your particuar habits and needs.

[kailasa108]

I used to use AVG Free, but stopped after my wife's computer got a virus anyway. ( I hate rebuilds!) So, I took a little while and tested the other respected AVs. I agree with the others' thoughts on Kaspersky - for anyone other than a novice user. It gives the most secure feeling of any AV software I tried - other than NOD32. Kaspersky is VERY user adjustable (though sometimes it requires a learning process to find all of the settings areas!) and it updates itself several times a day. Just be sure to use the version 6 or the last upgrade of version 5 as the earlier versions of 5 tended to wipe out Windows Restore points. However, I did find that the version 6 firewall was a little involved to use - when in training mode it asks for a lot of attention.

Norton offers online tools to throughly remove all of their software products. I've used them with good results when I've had problems removing Norton software with just the normal uninstallers. Here's the starting link: (http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...&src=symsug_us)

I had a problem a while back that required my getting the best registry cleaner I could find. I took over a week and tested everything I could get my hands on. CCleaner's is good, but I stumbled across a program written by this guy that blew everything else away (it fixed my problem) - RegVac. It's not free, but it's worth it and you get lifetime updates.
Edit
Registry Cleaners, not recommended

While I'm at it - Raxco's PerfectDisk is THE disk defragmenter to use. It's certified by Windows and actually optimizes your files as well. Everyone hears about Diskeeper - but during my trial of it, it actually destroyed my system. I had to reboot from my system disk! (Right now, I'm doing a beta test of this new/developing defragger called SmartDefrag from Iobit that does on the fly defrag of frequently used files/directories!)

[tashi]

Norton offers online tools to throughly remove all of their software products.

There was a reported problem with Norton uninstaller, v2007.2.07.4. Microsoft's Tunnel Interface Driver (tunmp.sys) was damaged/removed after using the tool on a Vista Operating System.

[thefourthson]

What is the opinion on Blink personal?

[FAUST]

the subscription for my current AV (F-Prot) runs out next month and I'm looking to replace it with a free one, was thinking about Comodo AntiVirus. Has anyone else used it and if so is it any good?

[kailasa108]

the subscription for my current AV (F-Prot) runs out next month and I'm looking to replace it with a free one, was thinking about Comodo AntiVirus. Has anyone else used it and if so is it any good?

While COMODO's firewall is one of the best (free or purchased), the same is NOT true of their AV. If you look at the professional AV testing websites, you'll usually find that Avira's Antivir is the top AV (free or paid) that does not require hardware. It also includes rootkit detection.

AVG Free is usually rated poor.

[FAUST]

the same is NOT true of their AV. If you look at the professional AV testing websites, you'll usually find that Avira's Antivir is the top AV...

Thanks I'll take a look around at some more reivews, I had read some but they seem to conflict each other, no hurry I've got a month to decide.