OT: Norton, the Evil Empire

Spot|DSE wrote on 12/20/2004, 10:26 PM

I chose today to do the upgrade work on my new K37 VAIO.
Normally, I simply format the drive and install XP over top, and then download and install drivers for the hotkeys and powersuite. However, with this one, I didn't feel I wanted to mess with downloads, etc, and decided to live with XP Home until returning from my vacation. What a stupid mistake.
I decided to uninstall Norton. Of course, it wouldn't uninstall from the Start/Programs/Norton/uninstall, so I went to Control Panel. Nope, wouldn't uninstall there, either.
Went to Norton's website. Apparently this happens a lot. So, downloaded all sorts of stupid stuff, then had to reinstall more microsoft software due to Synantec blowing away Microsoft stuff. Then you have to manually edit the registry in just the right order, rebooting each time.
How is it that this company hasn't been charged with a criminal act? Even on their website, it says that it can take 30 mins to an hour to uninstall this software.
I should have just reformatted.

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Comments

vitamin_D wrote on 12/21/2004, 10:23 AM

Norton and MacAfee don't even rate the highest where AV software is concerned -- why people insist on using them is beyond me. Get F-Secure or Kaspersky and be done with it -- they both jockey for the top two spots in many of the online tests I've seen, where Norton, Symantec, MacAfee and AVG rate much lower.

I have F-Secure and Tiny Personal Firewall on my XP SP1 machine and everything runs smooth -- nothing about either is too invasive. I set my AV software to scan all incoming emails, and do a deep scan of all my drives once weekly when I'm out at work or sleeping. Otherwise, I disable all the other "pro-active" functions and just manually scan files I d/l from questionable sources.

- jim

Lili wrote on 12/21/2004, 10:30 AM

vitamen D -

I'm beginning to think ALL virus programs suck one way or another. Check this site and read about Kapersky problems:

www.annoyances.com

Lili wrote on 12/21/2004, 10:32 AM

oops - that should be

www.annoyances.org

boomhower wrote on 12/21/2004, 10:35 AM

I just tried Defender Pro for my antivirus....it comes as the dreaded suite but you choose which parts go in (spam, firewall etc). It takes very little room on the hd and uses the Kaspersky engine. I also use Zone Alarm for my firewall and it works great.