Norton

My trial for Norton ran out and it either says "renew" or "remind me in x amount of days". So, now that the trial is up is it doing anything to protect my computer or is it just wasting space? If it's just wasting space, how to I go about removing it?

 

What happened is the subscription to the updates has expired. So you can pay to get the updates, or not. If you don't subscribe then you will not be protected from new virus definitions (generally Norton LiveUpdate will automatically download the updates once a week if you have a paid subscription), but the program will still work with the old ones. Of course, since there are constantly new types of computer viruses being created, the point of having anti-virus software is that it should be current.

My suggestion is to uninstall it in the control panel (add/remove programs) and find a free alternative, such as AVG or Avast.

 

I would recommend AVG Free also.

I wouldn't even bother renewing the Norton subscription. That software can bog down and interfere with your system more than some viruses do

 

avg is ok, avast is i think better. zone alarm free is good for firewall, and spybot is great for spyware

 

Instead of using one of the free ones, I'd suggest you use something as Nod32. It's absolutely great

 

Or... Go without any Anti-Virus protection... The safest thing to do is just practice common sense on the computer and you won't get virsus. No need to waste resources on Anti-Virus software I don't think...

A good short read though showing how much slower Anti-Virus makes any machine is on The PC Spy...

http://www.thepcspy.com/articles/other/what_really_slows_windows_down/5

 

True but I'd recommend at least some anti-virus.

Kaspersky/Nod32 are pretty light on resources

 

Common sense is one thing but should not be a complete substitute for actual virus protection, unless you keep your laptop in complete isolation from the outside world. This applies more as files are being increasingly shared between people over the net and more locally via USB sticks, DVDs and LANs.

I personally use virus protection as a last line of defence, on top of not running random executables, using a safer browser, turning AutoPlay off, etc. If I find something gets picked up, then I change my browsing and/or downloading behaviour/habits so it doesn't happen again, hence I don't rely on the scanner completely.

I read that and the only conclusion I came to was to avoid Norton, in favour of smaller, leaner resident virus scanners.

 

Any help here ? I plan to completely uninstall the whole Norton antivirus including registry , what software that able to clean it ?

 

I've reversed my trend in my own usage of using Anti-Virus as I never get anything but false positives... I've been using computers for about 10 years and I find that simple common sense will usually do the trick. The increased security offered in Windows Vista, like annoying UAC, also help to make that choice easier...

The conclusion of that article wasn't a blanket anti-Norton showcase, but more so that it is simply a trade off. If you want more protection you must forgo more resources for that protection. As the security program as to scan each file in an increasingly detailed and complex manner, thus increasing its resource usage. Otherwise the security program falls back on only being able to detect viruses that have already been reported to their labs, tested, and added to their definitions database.

Depending on the user's pattern I still recommend Anti-Virus software occasionally, but I always inform them that practicing common sense does a far better job. It also leaves you with a faster computer!

 

Ditto. Same here.

 

I'm from the same camp of using common sense as the best defense for viruses. Then again not everyone will have the same understanding of their PC and OS, and therefore may not know what can harm it or not.

Caveat : you will eventually hit some road bumps in your quest to learn about your computer, if you ever decide to take that route. If you're more of a "use and forget" kind of guy and not necessarily know much about computers, best you get the virus protection to be safe.

Possible gain : running a computer without a virus protection program will see some gains in performance compared to one without.

Good luck.

Regards,
Paolo