Comments on: Fighting an Anti-Virus Program

By: Mary

Mary — Mon, 24 Nov 2003 15:31:13 +0000

I recently needed to upgrade my Norton virus signatures and made the same mistake of many of you - I upgraded to Norton AntiVirus 2004. I've been working in the computer field for over 15 years so I am pretty good at troubleshooting problems, but this program has me stumped. I contacted Symantec support and received a response with detailed instructions. Now instead of just closing after it starts, I get an error message telling me that Norton has caused an internal error.

I'm still waiting for a response from Symantec. So much for their 24-48 hr response. Trying to find any troubleshooting information on their website is time-consuming. I have spent five or six hours trying to troubleshoot this on my own. If they don't respond soon I'm going to just request a refund.

I've heard that Computer Associates is giving away their antivirus FREE to home users. Check out techbargains.com for info.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 04 Nov 2003 14:27:09 +0000

Hello Meryl,
So here it is, November 4, and I’ve been using Grisoft’s AVG free version with no problems.
I’ve tried everything I can find information on, to remove Norton Anti-Virus/Internet Security on my system, and my Add/Remove Programs window now stands with two Norton Anti-Spam, one Norton Anti-Virus, and EIGHT Norton Internet Security program entries I can’t seem to get rid of.
I had originally installed the 2004 Norton Internet Security software on my home system, to upgrade from the 2003 version, and everything ran and continues to run flawlessly, on WinXP.
The trouble was/is with my work computer which I had decided to upgrade also. My entry on October 8 reflects my initial experience, and Norton has never helped me with the problem. I’ve received two e-mail replies from them, both stating for me to use their uninstall program available at their website, which may remove some stuff, but I have Norton crap all over this system now.
My boss does not pay me to spend company time trying to fix problems on my computer caused by flawed software. I have real work to do, not fool with this stupid arcane junk.
So, for the meantime, I leave the system as it is, because it’s working with Grisoft’s AVG (thanks to people like that!).
I suppose when the boss isn’t around and I have time, I’ll gather up all my program installation cd’s for the work I do here, back up all my data, and re-format the hard drive and start fresh.
It’s getting where almost every program I see coming out these days is a fat bloated resource hog. Amazing.
Love your work Meryl, keep it up!

Greg

By: Deborah O.

Deborah O. — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 22:44:29 +0000

Hi, I have not had such problems as you describe with updating and upgrading Norton anti-virus. Everything is smooth sailing. I’m glad I found out about the McAfee problems.

By: J. Mirsky

J. Mirsky — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 17:05:14 +0000

I gave up on McAfee three years ago when I tried to renew.

I spent a half day's worth of valuable time trying to do a "simple" renewal which turned out to be an exercise in futility. I just blew it off and told everyone I know about my McAfee experience. I finally called their corporate office and gave them a "what for"..

By: John O.

John O. — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 03:00:13 +0000

OK, McAfee and Symantec is/are crap. I knew that years ago, don't all Lockergnomies know yet?

(Have you ever seen the McAfee Help Desk program for corporate? Pure shit. I think McAfee himself, long gone from the company, actually told them to take his name off it, so they renamed it "Magic Help Desk" or something.)

Why don't you or some Lockergnomie create some registry patch files which will remove all traces of Symantec or McAfee or hell, both in one file. To use: delete Symantec and/or McAfee directories, then double-click the patch .REG file, presto, it's or they're gone.

Symantec somewhere on their website has a page of detailed step-by-step registry editing steps to remove every junk Symantec entry that SystemWorks puts in. I've done this a few times and I will never install anything Symantec again. Symantec creates several "illegal" registry entries, ya know, which can jam some simple free registry tools and/or are ignored by better ones, but Easy Desk Software tools find them.

Someone above notes that McAfee sent him five pages of similar instructions to get McAfee out of his registry. Someone Could put the two into one .REG file to delete all the crap from both companies at once automatically.

I use AVG Free Personal Anti-Virus too and it works and updates perfectly. AVG is a treasure. I set it up to update automatically EVERY DAY, and I have found using the manula update that sometimes the company has updates twice or more in one day.

Disk Defragment: Diskeeper has a free LITE version, which must be started manually, it works well enough. It does not "defragment" free space into one continuous space, and as it turns out, that is not really needed.

I like VCOM's SystemSuite also but I use AVG instead of the antivirus that VCOM bundles.

I'm sorry to see that Symantec is going to ruin the PowerQuest line, but PQ was aproaching the same registry and system mucking level as Symantec anyway.

By: Rod

Rod — Sat, 11 Oct 2003 22:46:59 +0000

Anybody who’s fed up with anti-virus software like McAfee, Norton, etc., should try a smart new program named Avast! from the Czech Republic. There’s an English version. It has a number of great features, like an email filter that checks mail before it leaves the server and VRDB (VRDB? Check it out!). Best of all, it’s FREE for home users (and not spyware like some of those you pay for): http://www.avast.cz

By: Rahul

Rahul — Sat, 11 Oct 2003 20:38:41 +0000

I Wanted to Decide between Norton AntiVirus 2003 Proffesional and McAfee 7.0 Professional.
Then i read this Forum and i made up my mind , because people seemed to like norton better than McAfee, i Choose Norton Antivirus.
And I Havent had have a problem since then.
So i Guess That makes Norton Better Than McAfee.
As for norton systemworks , I wouldnt recommend it to anybody because it messes up your computer and slows it down.
It did more loss than improving my computer`s performance
The only benifit of Norton SystemWorks is that the Disk Defragmanter is better than the one in Windows , Me,98,95. And i dont think that someone will be willing to spend so much for a Disk Defragmenter.
NORTON IS THE BEST ANTIVIRUS AROUND BUT BEWARE OF USING NORTON SYSTEMWORKS

By: paul morris

paul morris — Sat, 11 Oct 2003 11:59:10 +0000

I would like to add (as I told Meryl in my email), that a few years ago I had similar problems with mcafee and since then similar problems with norton (getting rid of norton personal firewall took three hours of manual registry seek and delete AFTER uninstalling). With mcafee and norton both, the emphasis seems to be on bloated software, that is nothing but aggravation to upgrade or uninstall. I also have found, that installation options are more limited than I would like – this applies to a lot of modern software. As a power user I like to minimize installs -especially if I already have apps that perform the same functions as some of the sub-apps in these overblown product suites, to my satisfaction. I personally love System Suite 5 by VCOM (formerly by On Track) – and I find the modules to be extremely useful, efficient, and the upgrades easy and quick. I have recommended this product to all and sundry, as I have extensively tested it and its predecessor version 4 for over two years with no problems.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 23:55:50 +0000

I strongly recommend Panda Antivirus – either the Titanium or the Platinum. Both are a great value and I have high confidence in Panda’s ability to protect my system. I am not associated with the company, hold stock etc. I am just simply a user that has gone from McAfee, Norton’s Antivirus, and now to Panda. It is easy to use and offers some nice online tools also.

By: Evanf

Evanf — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 15:08:03 +0000

After reading the article by Meryl Evans about his issues with MacAfee, I had to relate my story…
Many years ago I installed Norton AV on all my company computers. Recently my department was given money to upgrade the systems. Wanting full virus coverage and having been happy with Norton in the past, I bought copies of NAV 2003 for all our computers. I installed on 6 computers before the problem started rearing it’s head.
Initial installs on 6 computers went just fine. I allowed the program to remove the old version then install it’s self. So far sounds like Meryls story, no? it gets more so in some ways, read on… The install went fine and the systems ran great for about a week when one of them started to lockup in a black screen during startup. I deleted all the temp files, cleared caches and ran a scandisk. The system was back up and running for another week until the same thing happened. If I did a step-by-step startup and bypassed all four of the Symantec NAV entries the system would startup and run just fine. Any time the system loaded on it’s own it would lock up and this time clearing temp files and scandisking made no improvements. Checking the support knowledge base, it suggested it could be one of two things, first possibility – conflict with a previous version of NAV. Second possibility – timing conflict at startup. Trying the installation problem was my first choice. Now I would think that when an older program is removed so a newer version can be installed that the programmers can cover all those bases and have the install program remove all it is supposed to remove. Apparently not. They do however have a nifty removal utility that removes all registry entries for previous versions. So, using this removal utility and the Windows removal program, I removed all traces of NAV off my now ‘clean’ system. I then went in, checked the registry, so much for their removal tool, I removed over 40 entries that were still there as well as about 3 folders through explorer. I reinstalled NAV2003 and again it ran great… for about three weeks. The user was in an old DOS application the company still uses and his computer crashed. Upon restart he locked up in a black screen. The only way he could get out of it was to do a step by step and bypass all Symantec NAV entries… back to square one and the knowledge base. Ok, we will try the timing issue. I used msconfig and disabled all the things they suggested to disable and still the program wont work. I sent an e-mail to tech support and after about a week they responded that it was a timing issue and to try doing the things I had already done. After (again) doing what they suggested I e-mailed them with info that what they suggested did not work and a question of how a computer that has been running well for some time with no programs installed since their program could “develop” a timing problem. Their response was to ask for the NAV install log. It does not/has not existed on the system so I can’t send it to them (this time) so after (AGAIN) removing all traces of their program and reinstalling I will at least be able to develop an install log to help them with their issue… I want to call tech support but at about $30/call I think not, I think maybe I might take that money and buy some other program. I had thought MacAfee but now I am unsure. This has now dragged on for about a month and is still not resolved… And now, I have another one of the machines doing the exact same thing. This one did have a log however which I since sent to Symantec. I have gone backwards and installed NAV 2001 on both computers until they can figure this one out… so much for the money spent on the rest of the as yet uninstalled programs…
I wish Symantec had online live support…