Re: RE: Anti-Virus -- PCTECH

On 11 Sep 2005 at 14:27, Jon (Jon Paris <pctech@xxxxxxxxxxxx>) commented about 
[PCTECH] RE: Anti-Virus:

> My one recommendation would be to stay the hell away from the consumer
> versions of Norton.  I am currently dealing with the third machine in a row
> where that heap of junk caused problems.  It won't uninstall properly - even
> when it told you to do so.  Even when it does uninstall it often screws up 
> other
> products (Word etc.) that were working fine before.  It _never_ cleans up the
> myriad registry entries that it creates, etc. etc.  I understand that the
> Corporate version (that David is using) is much better, but don't be mislead
> into thinking that that is what you are getting when you buy the multi-license
> version that David mentioned.
> 
> The main reason I have even stuck with Norton this long is that the damn
> thing is preinstalled on every machine I have purchased in the last few
> years - so the "damage" is already done.
> 
> Thanks for posting this question Joe - I was just about to ask the same
> thing.
> 
> Jon Paris
> Partner400
> 
> www.Partner400.com
> www.RPGWorld.com

Hi Jon,

Nice hearing from you.  I haven't seen you in a long time.  

You might consider the time you have spent with Norton Antivirus in 
damage control and see if it makes sense to spend a little time 
removing it so you can use a product that doesn't cause problems.  
Yes it is possible to clean out all traces of Norton Antiviurs.  It 
doesn't take that long.  If you have called Microsoft to fix anything in 
the OS, one of the begging questions they ask is "Do you have 
either Norton or McAfee antivirus installed"  If you say yes the first 
thing they ask you to do is uninstall them.  That is their first step 
towards fixing your problem.  You might want to take a quick look in 
Google for the words Norton Problem.  It won't take you long to find  
8,910,000 hits.  Is that because it's installed on lots of new 
machines?  Partly.  When you look at the problems people have you 
will soon see people are spending a lot of time trying to fix the 
problems Norton creates.  This doesn't apply to all of Norton 
products.  I do like the old version of Ghost and the Norton Utilities.  
If you would like to remove Norton Antivirus first download which 
ever A/V you would like to use.  Then do a full and complete backup 
of your PC.  With a good program like Ghost.  With a good program 
you can start from a blank hard disk and restore everything.  (You 
should be doing that anyway)  In Add/remove programs remove 
Norton Antivirus.  Go into RegEdit and do a search for Norton.  If 
you find a child with the name of Norton remove the parent.  Do 
another search for Symantec.  Remove everything.  After you are 
done you will have to re-install any other Symantec product you had 
on the machine.  That's why it's nice to remove Norton Antivirus 
when you first get a machine so it doesn't have a chance to break 
anything else.  Sometimes a little preventive safe computing saves a 
lot of aggravation and down time latter.

I've learned a lot from you.  I hope this helps you a little.

Enjoy,

Gary Kuznitz