Norton Anti-virus

[GuitarJonz]

PC seems sluggish. Have latest Norton AV with auto-protect. Did a full scan, nothing there. Then did an Ad-Aware scan for spyware, and it found 24 critical items so far. If Norton is supposed to pro-actively take care of spyware, why is Ad-Aware finding so many critical items, when I just did a complete Norton scan? Are Norton's claims of spyware detection/removal bogus??

[Spenceh]

Ad-aware tends to consider cookies as 'critical' ...could just be that

[sudancat]

Never liked Norton. Had so many problems with that. I like AVG.

Another thing that will make your PC sluggish is all the temporary web sites it saves automatically. Go to Control panel,then Performance maint.,free up space on Hard disk. This will remove alot of temp web site material.Any web site you have ever been to,any picture you have ever viewed is stored on your PC so that if you ever go to it again or view it again it loads faster, but after awhile so much builds up it begins to slow your computer down.

Then go to rearrange items on hard disk to run faster.This defrags the disk.
You will not loose anything.It just cleans everything up.

[Telenator]

I would do "Disk Clean-up" over "Defrag."

Also try clicking on "Tools" - Internet Options - and then, under the Browsing History tab click "Delete." You will lose all of your automatic login passwords on all the websites you visit regularly but you will get rid of thousands of cookies and other crap that can slow down your system if you haven't done this before.

[jlrich]

As mentioned before, cookies can cause problems too. It could be just Norton trying to battle and block all the cookies.

Whatever you do, STAY AWAY FROM McAfee. If you think your system is slow now it will really slow down if you install that mess.

[J-man]

Get AVG free edition, it's better than Norton, Mcaffee and the others, which is crazy as you pay to use them.

[GuitarJonz]

Originally Posted by sudancat

Go to Control panel,then Performance maint.,free up space on Hard disk. This will remove alot of temp web site material.Any web site you have ever been to,any picture you have ever viewed is stored on your PC so that if you ever go to it again or view it again it loads faster, but after awhile so much builds up it begins to slow your computer down.

Then go to rearrange items on hard disk to run faster.This defrags the disk.
You will not loose anything.It just cleans everything up.

Thanks, I cleaned up the temp files and cookies, seems to have helped, I'll have to do that on a regular basis, in addition to NAV and Ad-Aware. Re the de-frag, under my control panel, I dont have an icon that says Performance Maint, where can I find that?

[Mr. Sparkle]

I've run Norton on my laptop for two years now and I find it odd that in all the scans I've run--every single one--Norton has never come up with a single, solitary infraction, problem, or bug. I use a couple of anti-spyware programs and I also de-frag and flush the cache regularly. These things keep my unit in decent running condition. But Norton...seems dubious to me.

[Home Grown Tele]

Norton is crap! I 've been using Avast for the last 2 years and when I initially installed it the first scan caught a number of problems that Norton and McAfee had missed. It will quarantine and alert you the instant you get something suspicious on your computer and it updates automatically. It's also free! Do yourself a favor and get rid of Norton!

I generally run Ad-Aware and Spy Bot every two weeks or so and then do a defrag and it seems to help. Unfortunately, I'm being forced to use Norton on my laptop at a clients site due to their network regs and it is slowing my computer down ridiculously! I'll be glad when I can dump this and get it running right again.

[straightface]

I've been using Norton for years and never had a problem with it. If you are just using the antivirus and not the internet security program you can't expect it to pick up spyware, they are two different animals. You should always run two different spyware programs because none of them seem to pick up everything.

Another thing to try is this: go to Start-Run, type in "msconfig", go the startup tab and look at the list of programs that run at startup. That could be causing the sluggishness of your pc. There could be spyware or a bunch of unnecessary programs running whenever the pc boots up.

Or, you could just buy a mac!

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by jlrich

Whatever you do, STAY AWAY FROM McAfee. If you think your system is slow now it will really slow down if you install that mess.

I have had the exact opposite experience. Was running Norton 2006 and it slowed my PC dramatically. I switched to McAfee -- mainly because Comcast gives it to you free -- and my computer runs at normal speed.

Jim

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by J-man

Get AVG free edition, it's better than Norton, Mcaffee and the others, which is crazy as you pay to use them.

If you have COmcast Internet, McAfee is free.

Jim

[J-man]

Originally Posted by jwsamuel

I have had the exact opposite experience. Was running Norton 2006 and it slowed my PC dramatically. I switched to McAfee -- mainly because Comcast gives it to you free -- and my computer runs at normal speed.

Jim

Mcafee is by far the worst anti virus program I have ever used! It came pre installed on my system and immediately decided msn messenger was a virus, and wouldn't let me do pretty much anything net wise, and I had it on regular settings! I don't know what was wrong with it.

[jlrich]

Originally Posted by jwsamuel

I have had the exact opposite experience. Was running Norton 2006 and it slowed my PC dramatically. I switched to McAfee -- mainly because Comcast gives it to you free -- and my computer runs at normal speed.

Jim

It is effective but almost too much. It makes your pc very sluggish because it thinks that everything is spy ware.

[jlrich]

AVG and Avast have been mentioned but what are some more of the better anti-virus and spyware programs?

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by jlrich

It is effective but almost too much. It makes your pc very sluggish because it thinks that everything is spy ware.

My PC is not sluggish at all with McAffee. In fact, it sped up significantly after I removed Norton and replaced it with McAffee. Perhaps each program is very dependent on he PC configuration? That's all I can think of that would explain our different experiences.

Jim

[jlrich]

Originally Posted by jwsamuel

My PC is not sluggish at all with McAffee. In fact, it sped up significantly after I removed Norton and replaced it with McAffee. Perhaps each program is very dependent on he PC configuration? That's all I can think of that would explain our different experiences.

Jim

Could be. In the last year, maybe two, when I first got McAfee it almost completely stopped the tdpri but I think Paul changed software or something and McAfee didn't cause the same problems after that. It had something to do with "php" and all that....way above my head.

[johnreardon]

Software such as Norton and Mcafee are not crap. They will all do, fairly effectively, what they are supposed to do. Half of the problems that people get are caused by incorrect setup/configuration by the user installing. Can't really blame the supplier for user error.

I have used Norton for quite a few years and never have any problems. It has found and protected me from numerous intrusion attempts.

Yes there are cheaper and even free utilities out there, but people, remember you get what you pay for. After purchasing Norton, it costs me approx £15 per year for live updates. Mcafee will be a similar price. Not too much to pay to protect you from the criminal element out there.

[Mark Davis]

Originally Posted by J-man

Get AVG free edition, it's better than Norton, Mcaffee and the others, which is crazy as you pay to use them.

AVG dosnt take over your system like Norton does its by far the best anti virus there is. I use AVG and Windows defender zero probs zero spyware adware gets in.

[Dillon]

I removed all Norton products from three computers and replaced them with AVG, Ad-Aware, and Spybot about a year ago. I have been very happy with the improved performance.

I still run three Norton utilities from the CD--Fast & Safe, WinDoc, and DiskDoc--but no Norton programs are installed. It seems like the best of both worlds...Knock wood.

[popthree]

if you have even mildly outdated hardware, and the latest Norton, you're PC is doomed to slowness. Remove NAV and you'll likely find that you're old PC ain't so dang slow after all.

[neocaster]

I'm having no problems with Norton 2007. I am having "convenience issues" though. It picks up cookies as threats, but gives me no means of deleting them. I would need to do this manually. Beyond that, I am still a believer. I *have* used AVG free, though, and highly recommend it to anyone having issues with Norton. I've heard a lot of people say that AVG Free is better than Norton, but I have never read of anyone qualifying that statement by saying what makes it better. AVG Free is a solid program that works, and at its price, it's a stellar value.

Other great values are SpyBot Search and Destroy (which is financed by donations, like the TDPRI) and AdAware SE, which is free. I use them both, and regularly.

[Rick S]

Originally Posted by popthree

if you have even mildly outdated hardware, and the latest Norton, you're PC is doomed to slowness. Remove NAV and you'll likely find that you're old PC ain't so dang slow after all.

That's been my experience as well. XP and Norton are both resource hogs and it takes a pretty substantial system to run it all smoothly.

[ClearwaterMike]

Originally Posted by johnreardon

Half of the problems that people get are caused by incorrect setup/configuration by the user installing. Can't really blame the supplier for user error.

John makes a good point here. For instance, one of the major performance hogs under Windows is that stupid "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching" -- it should be titled "Allow Indexing Service to slow your hard disk to a crawl every time you change, delete, or add a file".

I turn ALL that stuff off, including the Microsoft Office "Startup" junk, the customized menus, etc. None of that stuff is worthwhile and it all penalizes the user.

What is Microsoft thinking? Obviously, they're not thinking, and that's the problem.

[GlennLewis]

First, go into control panel and remove any software that may have been added to your computer against your wishes.

Next, download ccleaner @ www.ccleaner.com, and use it to scrub out your internet left-overs. Then do the usual AdAware SE, Spybot S&D, XClean (at spywareinfo.com), clean up efforts. Then run a registry cleaner product like registry mechanic to clean up unused .dlls, extensions, etc. Do these on a regular basis. Run spywareblaster in the background. Set your browser settings against re-directs, auto launches, autodownloads, etc without explicit permission.

Then run whatever anti-virus you want, because you just cut 90% of it's workload out by sensible surfing and prevention measures.

And +3 on NAV is crap, but that's just my opinion.

[teerjerker]

Originally Posted by sudancat

Never liked Norton. Had so many problems with that. I like AVG.

I have to agree with sudancat. Norton has always seemed like a system hog to me. AVG is well written software that plays nice.

Try downloading their trial version and do a scan. Don't forget to disable Norton while you're using AVG, or your PC might slow to a crawl.

AVG trial

BTW, CounterSpy is a great anti-spyware program

[xStonr]

I use AVG, AdAware, and Spybot. All are free programs and all do a great job. I do also run Norton System Works to help clean up the other odds and ends in my computer.

[tazzboy]

Originally Posted by GuitarJonz

PC seems sluggish. Have latest Norton AV with auto-protect. Did a full scan, nothing there. Then did an Ad-Aware scan for spyware, and it found 24 critical items so far. If Norton is supposed to pro-actively take care of spyware, why is Ad-Aware finding so many critical items, when I just did a complete Norton scan? Are Norton's claims of spyware detection/removal bogus??

have you done a Disk Defragment and Scan which is locate when do the following

Click on start
Programs......Accesories......System Tools.....