Ok, so my free Norton 360 trial has run out on my new laptop. Obviously, I need some sort of protection. So, do I sign on for continuing support through Norton (and probably pay a bunch of money)? Or, are any of these free anti virus services worth using?
If Norton is significantly better, I don't mind spending the extra money. On the other hand, if AVG or Avast is just as effective, I don't really see the point.
Any thoughts?
I've stopped using anti-vir completely. when I need to scan a file or the system, I use f-secure's free online scanner. it's always up to date, free, and doesn't run (or pop up for updates) when you don't want it to.
the downside is of course that it'll take a minute to start up, as it has to download all definitions every single time. for scanning a single file it's quite an overhead, but for system it's naturally negligible. but it's not that often that I download something that requires scanning.
I have to agree with the Avg AV software, it is very good. I also used Nod32 at one point with no complaints. Just didn't think it was so much better that the free addition of AVG didn't make more sense for me.
As far as Norton goes, you will see a big improvement with AVG over Norton. The online Norton scan is good though but I doubt you would ever need it.
Uninstalling Norton can be tricky too. After removing it through the normal process, it leaves some stuff behind you should manually remove. Do a search for files and folders and remove anything Norton. It makes a difference. It will probably change some registry settings as well so you might want to clean that up. I wouldn't recommend leaving anything Norton on your system in the back ground with AVG.
CCleaner does a fair job with the registry clean up process.
Originally posted by rbmorrishttp://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/default.htm
Ok, so my free Norton 360 trial has run out on my new laptop. Obviously, I need some sort of protection. So, do I sign on for continuing support through Norton (and probably pay a bunch of money)? Or, are any of these free anti virus services worth using?
If Norton is significantly better, I don't mind spending the extra money. On the other hand, if AVG or Avast is just as effective, I don't really see the point.
Any thoughts?
Get 90 days free here.
Originally posted by Dr StrangeloveMy laptop came with norton, it would take 20 minutes for it to boot, and go through security checks, I got mcaphee instead, and uninstalled norton.
AVG free is good enough for me too.
If you want a better supported AV [and paid for] with more features I would go for NOD32.
Free 30 day trial here:
http://www.eset.com/download/index.php
Norton has a bad rep for slowing down your computer.