Anti virus softare? Sick of Nortons....

[Curt Harms]

in my humlble experience most software companies bombard their customers with ads to buy the next version or an upgrade. Switch to linux for real virus protection.

Not 100% true, there certainly is malware for Linux. It's nowhere near as common as Windows malware but it exists. One big difference between Linux and Windows is that as I understand it, Linux is much quicker about fixing the vulnerability that allows the malware to do its dirty work. Windows has to be careful that their fixes don't break too many of the thousands of Windows programs. There aren't nearly as many different Linux programs to break, at least on the desktop.

[Ole Anderson]

The problen with Norton is it buries itself so deeply into your system and boot sector, the only way to get rid of it is a new hard drive.
I'm running Kaspersky. You'll get Buy me pop-ups no matter what you run.

Yep. Good luck removing it from your system. It is like it's own virus. I am running the free version of AVG. Do not react to their request for a scan of your hard drive, they just want you to buy the program.

[Tom M King]

A long time ago, I downloaded Spyhunter in Safe Mode to clean a virus that took over our computer. It worked so well that I have stuck with it. I run that on top of the standard Windows stuff, and it's caught things that Windows didn't. No complaints, and no emails unless they have an upgrade available.

We don't get popups, but I don't even know what controls them. I just don't have to think about them.

[Don Coffman]

I use Defender that comes with Windows & occasionally scan with a free version of MalwareBytes (just out of habit) it seems to catch a few missed by Defender.
Comparisons are regularly performed & published @ AV-TEST | Antivirus & Security Software & AntiMalware Reviews it shows how most perform against differing conditions.

[Ronald Blue]

I use Norton 360 and rarely get pop ups or emails. Maybe it's a setting?

[Michael Drew]

I use Norton 360 and rarely get pop ups or emails. Maybe it's a setting?

If it is a setting, then I have no idea where to find it. I too, have 360. Almost every single time I log onto my PC, I get some kind of message from the software asking me to enable some feature, and it's usually one that I elected to NOT buy. This happens on all three of my machines (one desktop, two laptops). It has become quite tiresome.

All this talk about having to replace the hard drive, or at minimum, re-format is mind numbing to me. Like I just mentioned, I have three machines this crap in loaded on. There must be a better solution, that is less costly, less intrusive - to rid myself of Nortons.

[Mike Null]

I decided 20 years ago never to use Norton or McAfee again. Instead, I've been using AVG Free and have encountered zero problems. Recently, AVG has become much more aggressive with their pop-ups to the point that they are annoying.

[Ronald Blue]

If it is a setting, then I have no idea where to find it. I too, have 360. Almost every single time I log onto my PC, I get some kind of message from the software asking me to enable some feature, and it's usually one that I elected to NOT buy. This happens on all three of my machines (one desktop, two laptops). It has become quite tiresome.

All this talk about having to replace the hard drive, or at minimum, re-format is mind numbing to me. Like I just mentioned, I have three machines this crap in loaded on. There must be a better solution, that is less costly, less intrusive - to rid myself of Nortons.

I get maybe one popup a week and I'm not sure it's that frequent. I don't bite on the times it pops up and says "see who's spying on you or whatever they ask". I use the vpn feature and the rest of the normal protection that is supplied. No paid extra's. I get from time to time the "monitor your identity spiel as well but it's infrequent". I'm going to pay attention now to see how often it happens. Maybe I just ignore it and move on.

[mike stenson]

Just double check your settings, and make sure you're not allowing them to use your processing to mine cryptocurrency.

No, I'm not kidding.

[Thomas L Carpenter]

I use Webroot from Best Buy. Never had any virus problems but lately I've been thinking it may be the cause of a weird wifi problem. My computer claims I lose my wifi connection but when I check the wifi is connected/secured yet I can't connect to anything. Lasts a few minutes then everything is back to normal.

[Dave Lehnert]

On my old computer AVG made it run very slow. Purchased a new computer, and after my research, decided to go with what Windows provided. Have not had any problems that I know of for years. My ISP provides an Anti virus for free but have not installed it.

[Frank Pratt]

My philosophy on this is that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. What comes with windows just works. So unless there is some out of the ordinary need for it, why bother with installing something that takes more work, cost money, or affects performance?

[roger wiegand]

I think Norton counts as a virus on its own. I got rid of it a long time ago (or tried to, as others have noted it's insidious-- I think burning the machine is the only thing that really works). On windows machines I've relied (successfully) on the free, included Windows software for a long time now. We went all Mac about 5 years ago now, I don't run any purchased or non- macOS included virus software on those systems, again no issues.

[Curt Harms]

Just double check your settings, and make sure you're not allowing them to use your processing to mine cryptocurrency.

No, I'm not kidding.

So that's why it's free ..... First I've heard of it but don't doubt it.

[mike stenson]

So that's why it's free ..... First I've heard of it but don't doubt it.

Norton is one of the companies that's done this.