Dump Norton and McAfee Anti-Virus? - Comments Page 1

Stopped using both a long time ago. There are so many free ones to choose from. I use Microsoft Security Essentials for my main protection. Also Malwarebytes,Spybot,Spyware Terminator and SUPERantispyware; plus a few others.I

Norton and McAfee are two "solutions" that I immediately remove from my customers' computers whether they like it or not! As I only charge $40 per computer, regardless of the complexities involved, I take that liberty to many customers' dismay. Of course I explain the reason in a note on their desktop. I do this as a hobby and am very good at what I do, and hope that eventually the user will see it my way by the performance gain they experience.

There are 3 top picks for free antivirus solutions on the market today and maybe people will awaken to find that they are just as good as the "big" guys without straining precious resources.

I have intended to dump McAfee when my 15 month freebie expires. Now two months from expiration I get a pop-up reminding me that is about to expire. This pop-up cones about six or more times a day. I may not even wait for the expiration to dump the program. McAfee tech support says only way to deactivate pop-up is to renew.

I dumped both Norton & McAfee years ago. I found McAfee in particular to be an annoying resource hog. I read PC World & PC Magazine regularly and both have a yearly review of both paid & free anti-virus programs. Usually either AVG or Avast! is the recommended free solution. I use Avast! now & it works fine.

The Norton of old WAS bloated ..... it took forever just to load the stupid program ( especially on start-up) But the 2011 version of Norton is slick, a true set and forget program ..... ( Your mileage might differ from mine ) I've tried just about every AV out there. AND of course every tech person on the planet has a story to tell about AVG, Avira Avast , " never had a virus etc ... Blah blah ..... But for me and my house ???? Norton Anti Virus.

Hi Bob, I have had great luck with VIPRE, but haven't seen you mention it. Any opinions?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Have not tried it, others?

I used AVG Free for many years, until after an update it started causing my computer to reboot when I tried to shut it down. I switched to Avira AntiVir Personal (free) about 3 years ago and like it better. It's easy on system resources and updates are free and frequent. I'm not sure why, but I very rarely get their nag screen (to upgrade to a paid version) with the updates. My only criticism is that the interface isn't always intuitive, but it doesn't take much right-clicking about to figure out what to do.

I also use SUPERAntiSpyware (the paid version) for real-time protection, along with SpywareBlaster, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Malwarebytes' AntiMalware. That may be overkill, but I'd rather try to be safe than sorry.

i never liked mcafee and dumped norton after the first time i installed it...i swear by avg free, install it on every machine i build/repair, only got hit by a terminal malware once, and that was my fault,gotta be careful surfing pirates cove, you might hit a reef!

Bob - Which free anti-virus program do you use? Thank you!

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm currently using AVG, Avira and MSE on three different computers in my home. All of them work great.

I deleted McAfee because it really slowed down my computer. I went with Kapersky because of positive comments I read on the web, but soon found that it wasn't noticably better, and in some instances was worse than McAfee. After my Kaspersky license expired, I switched to Trend Microsystems PC-Cillin. I've upgraded that to Titanium.
While Titanium is faster than the two I've mentioned, there are times where opening a web page seems to take too much time and on occassion, I find myself hitting "refresh" in the middle of the process.
I've tweeked the security settings to speed things up, and it has gotten better without putting my computer at risk. Even with the security-induced lag, I think the computer is faster than the McAfee program it came with.
I suppose the bottom line is that there is a trade-off between speed and security that we have to acknowledge and accept, and tehn find the balance between the two that we can live with. Not all software will allow the user to achieve that balance, but for me, Titanium seems to be doing it.

I am using PCTools' SpywareDoctor and Registry Mechanic. I undestand I am well protected. Can you comment?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Neither seems to have anti-virus protection, so I would recommend one for you.

I'm a contract tech writer who depends absolutely on my computers to be clean and virus-free. I moved from Norton to McAfee more than ten years ago, and then to the free AVG anti-virus software. None of my computers has had a virus problem since using the freeware. I am now using Avast, simply because a benchmarking test said it might have a slight edge over AVG.

All my utilities are now free, every one of them software that has been highly recommended here and on my other relied-on tech letters, such as Windows Secrets. If the heavy hitters recommend them, who am I to argue? Quality of the freeware has been exceptional.

Thanks, Bob!

I dropped Norton on my PC with Window XP after it was disabled by a virus and have used PC Doctor with antivirus ever since with no problems. It is easier to use and appears to be more thorough. I had good luck with their free version, but eventually have changed to their very reasonably priced full version and highly recommend it. I also have a new Windows 7 laptop that came preinstalled with McAfee, but i also plan to change it to PC Doctor after the introductory period is up as it is very cumbersome, slow, and difficulty to decipher.

I personally, highly recommend several of the FREE Anti-Virus programs. I have used AVG and aVast! for quite a few years & am very happy with both of their FREE programs. The past 2 years though, I have been using aVast!, simply due to it using less of my PC resources, yet still does a 'bang up' job of protecting my PC.

I usually recommend to family & friends, when they purchase a brand new PC, to eliminate ALL of the 'Bloatware'. Must admit, that I have been reading several geek recommendations, that it seems that Norton Security Suite 2011 is a fairly good program. Those who have 'trial tested' it, say that it doesn't seem to be as 'bloated', as it has been in the past decade or so. Time will tell.

I still like recommending FREE programs that are reliable, safe & have a proven track record, like AVG or aVast!. Along with my standard CCleaner & Malwarebytes programs. I also, highly recommend the Glary Software programs, Glary Utilities & Disk Speed Up. Then there is the must have Revo Uninstaller, to help get rid of those programs that just seem to 'clutter up' your Registry.

No, I haven't dumped my Norton which I've had for over two years. Not being an above average computer novice, I'm nervous about switching. I've had (2) occasions to need technical help and they have performed exceptionally even to the point of giving me a free upgrade.

Yes i dumped Norton two years ago after there help service failed to HELP!, the i got a virus using a freebie, anti virus softwrae, So I now have Norton back.. I need peace of mind, and know It's a trusted product, NEVER again will i trust the freebie soft.

I dumped Norton Antivirus several years ago because it was clearly a major resource hog. I went to the free version of AVG which I found to be much less hungry. As recently as this week I helped a friend by removing McAfee antivirus from her laptop and installing Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) in its place. Overall performance of the machine seemed to improve substantially, but I made no actual measurements. MSE seems to be an excellent solution... it's unfortunate that Microsoft didn't provide it many years ago.

i used to have avg free. then some great geeks suggested i use NOD32. i tried the 30 day full free version to test it and never looked back. NOD32 took out several viruses and other crap before it even finished downloading. since that day ive never had a bug of any kind. ever. ill keep my NOD32 the the price is very very reasonable. try it u will like it

I got off the Norton/McAfee bandwagon some time ago, and have never looked back. I highly recommend ESET NOD32 antivirus. It ROCKS!

I used Norton Utilities for all things DOS for as long as DOS lasted. I stayed with it for a while after Symantec bought out Peter Norton, but stopped many years ago for all the reasons you list in your article. One CAN go to Symantec's site to get a removal tool to get rid of the bloatware, but even then, another third party tool I use, JV16 Power Tools is needed to clean the registry.

For a number of years I used independent products for anti virus, free for a while, but the last several years Eset Nod, a paid product. Zone Alarm as my software firewall, Spybot as my malware protection. I have slowly moved away this past year. I do run Malwarebytes free version periodically, use Comodo Dragon as my software firewall, dumped everything else in favor of Microsoft Essentials version 2 two months ago. For what it is worth, I have NEVER had a virus or piece of malware make it onto my personal computer. I use a hardware router for a cable modem connection - do not trust wireless and may never. MSE, Comodo, MalwareBytes, Jv16 do the job I need done, and I only pay for one of them, upgrades are cheap too. Their main feature is they work. Perfectly and all the time. :^)