I got a new laptop!

[Ben...]

Merry Christmas everyone.

I received a new laptop for Christmas and so far it's great other than one thing:

Norton anti-virus is terrible. Can any of you recommend a better security thing?

Thanks in advance and Merry Christmas.

[Grandturk]

I've been using macaffee - its not a pig like norton - but I'm not a techy so I don't know what I'm missing.

Merry Christmas

[dg]

Avast or AVG antivirus. Both are free and both are better than Norton, imo. I've been using Avast on this machine since the free McAfee subscription ran out, and it's been working great.

[Newc]

Only problem is you'll have to format and reinstall first. Norton itself acts like a virus and embeds itself into the drive and will interfere with other antivirus software. Only way to get rid of it is to format.

During the reinstallation, when it asks you to install Norton, refuse it and click away the billion popups that will be generated, then download and install AVG.

[scotty]

I am not a Norton fan at all. I have had very good luck with free AVG and also Panda. I have seen that Anti-Virus 2009 (virus) get pass Norton and McAfee.

[guitarsjb]

I like Avast too. Been great for me.

[CharvelRocker]

McAfee is not the quality piece of software it once was. Now it is more annoying than helpful, and is a resource hog. It does do it's job well, but it has it's flaws. It also can have issues with dug in spyware. XoftSpy is very nice for those jobs, but it is not really for active protection and does nto offer virus protection afaik.

[Cleveland Metal]

Used to use Norton till it bloated to unusability. Went to NOD32 and it was very transparent and seemed quite effective. Used that religiously.

It did however miss some things recently that really hit my system hard, and now I've went to Kaspersky, which seems to be pretty outstanding. Lil bloated and slow compared to NOD32, but I think it's a bit better.


And congrats on the laptop man... Great present!

[phill_up]

Only problem is you'll have to format and reinstall first. Norton itself acts like a virus and embeds itself into the drive and will interfere with other antivirus software. Only way to get rid of it is to format.

During the reinstallation, when it asks you to install Norton, refuse it and click away the billion popups that will be generated, then download and install AVG.

SBC went to Norton and it was a resource hog when I tried to uninstall it it gave me hell so I reformatted. shitty but its true

[MartinBarre]

Yep, Norton is indeed a complete pile of shite, and they actually make you pay for it too!
I've been using AVG for years, it's free and I've never had a virus. Get that.

Nice present BTW, hope you're enjoying Xmas Ben!

[Carbuff]

I dont use any AV software. Not since 92 and never had a problem. I run online scans occasionally but thats about it. AV software is usually annoying. Ive tried the free avg and it seemed ok but I dumped it because I didnt see the need for it. Trendmicro housecall used to be good but now its a bloated pile of junk that never works.

[Ben...]

Thanks everyone! I had a great Christmas. I think I'm gonna look into Avast or AVG. IT wouldn't be a big deal to reformat. I haven't installed anything yet so I don't have to worry about that.

Thanks again everybody. How were your Christmases?

Oh, and sorry if I make any typos. I'm still getting used to this keyboard.

[Newc]

Mine turned out ok. My Dad gave me a $100 WalMart card, and I still had a $25 card from Halloween (won the costume contest at werk), so with those two I bought a new video card: ATI Radeon HD3650 1GB PCIE. Reviews looked good, so hopefully I won't have to return it

I cooked a ham, instant potato salad (tater salad using instant potatoes - came out great), some peas and butter beans, small pan of cornbread, and a banana pudding. Nothing overly heavy like at Thanksgiving. New Year's is right around the corner and I didn't want a ton of leftovers carrying us until then like we used to have


Didn't get anything for my brother and sis-in-law and their kids. They spent the day down at the in-laws, so I'm sure they loaded the kids up with stuff. My bro will probably call begging money again, so that'll be their present.

Property taxes are going to be about $800 so I'll help my Dad with that.

[VitaminG]

congrats on the new laptop. Now you'll be able to take some photos!

[Strangletooth]

I've been using Trend Micro for a while now with zero problems. The online house call is difficult to use and takes a long time only because of the size of today's drives, other than that, it's ok.

With Tm, you won't have any problems, just enable what you want and disable the rest.