Microsoft YAY!, Symantic NAY!

Instead of paying Norton Anti-Virus the yearly subscription fee I deleted it and installed AVG antivirus (free). OMG my boot up speed is so fast now I can't believe it! Norton Antivirus has been slowing down my computer so much and not only the boot up speed. Man I'm glad its gone. I hope AVG is an effective Antivrus though.

With the good results from deleting Nortan I also decided to install the Opera web browser after hearing all the rave reviews. To me its all hype. The Opera web browser is nothing special. In fact it has so many customizations etc I'm sure either me or my teenage daughter will have it messed up in no time! I find it doesn't load any faster and in fact some web pages don't display properly soo I decided to then install the new Internet Explorer 7 release candidate 1. Pretay pretay good! Fast sleek and now has many of the wanted features of Opera. For the life of me I can not see why people are crapping over Microsoft! I like their web browser, I like MS Word, I like MS Outlook and I like MS Powerpoint. and now I can't wait for Vista!

HighLight said:

With the good results from deleting Nortan I also decided to install the Opera web browser after hearing all the rave reviews. To me its all hype. The Opera web browser is nothing special. In fact it has so many customizations etc I'm sure either me or my teenage daughter will have it messed up in no time! I find it doesn't load any faster and in fact some web pages don't display properly soo I decided to then install the new Internet Explorer 7 release candidate 1. Pretay pretay good! Fast sleek and now has many of the wanted features of Opera.

Click to expand...

Give Firefox a try too

Good for you. I hope you remain happy with it.

You might wonder why you are looking forward to the next version of the OS if the one you have makes you so happy.

I've added Grisoft's AVG to my systems after getting too fed-up with Mcaffee's support and policies. I have it running on my Unix systems as well as my Winblows systems. Works pretty well so far. 5 system license for 2 years for what? $100 or so? Not too bad.

The AVG found an infected file that Mcafee did not notice. Hmmmmm.

You can try Vista for Free!!

http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/rc1/en/download.htm

It is a 2+ Gigabyte download, though!

It will take some time, even on broadband!

Bill

Running AVG Free on m ynew machine, too, and had Norton before.
I will never go back.

Use ZoneAlarm Firewall, too, and I am satisfied. And it is free.

Browsers ... Netscape. I LOVE the tapped browsing these alternate browsers offer, but it is a PITA that some sites won't work properly there and you'll have to use IE then ...

bernie

Yeah, I hated the slow boot time caused by Norton as well. I don't miss it either.

I use Spybot S&D pretty much exclusively. I find that it works pretty well. I've noticed at work that Norton takes a lot longer but doesn't find all the malware that Spybot does.

If I were you, I would beware of IE7: I tried it for a few weeks, and found that it has a nasty habit of closing randomly. At first I thought it was just clicking the "new tab" button that did it, but once, it disappeared when I pressed the Windows key on my keyboard. I uninstalled it through the Control Panel, restarted, and IE6 came back. If you really want tabbed browsing in IE, I would suggest the newest version of the Yahoo! toolbar. It allows for tabbed browsing in IE6.

I've got one computer running AVG and another running Norton Corp. ED. 10. Never had a problem with Norton slowing a computer down since Corp. ED. 7. Picks things up pretty well too, but as always, one program will pick up things another won't, and vice versa.

On the other hand, the Norton/Symantec personal suite stuff that is found preinstalled on most computers nowadays is horribly slow and I suggest uninstalling it immediately.

Sygate firewall pro is nice also, but I think I remember reading something that they were going to stop supporting it.

FireFox > IE any day.

Using iE7 beta here, and it is most impressive. The tabbed browsing and everything feels more elegant than Firefox Beta 2.

I tried the Microsoft OneCare Live antivirus (because it was $9.99 at Circuit City for three annual licenses) and have to report it sucks as much as everything else programmed using MS dot NET. At least a slow boot does not leave your system unprotected... OneCare takes so long to load up after Windows that SP2 warns you are not protected by any antivirus... on EVERY boot, though eventually it does start working. Considering all the protection-disabling spyware and viruses around, that's just too fragile to be useful. I now refuse to use anything .NET including HP printer drivers (use the corporate ones) or ATI Catalyst Control Center (Control Panel and ATI Tool works fine) for production systems.

BTW Windows Vista RC1 does not require using a CD-Key for install if you'd just like to try it out for 14 days. Vista has .NET 3.0 as standard so good luck!

And also the top three commercial antivirus software packages (Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro) are known to miss eighty percent of malware in the real world because people write malware specifically to avoid them. So if you'd actually like some protection, using one of the smaller manufacturers' products would be preferable.

I'm going to say it once more:

IE7 IS UNSTABLE.

It closes itself randomly, for no apparent reason. There's a reason it's still a beta. Beware.

I don't think IE7 has closed itself unexpectedly on my pc but I'll keep a watch out for it.

iE7 works beautifully here. May be an incompatibility problem because it is known to have problems with antispyware suites except Windows Defender.

When I have to clean spyware from infected computers and can't wipe them, I use AdAware, Spybot S&D, AND Windows Defender. Each finds something the others missed, and while I wouldn't trust the results 100%, I figure those people will just download new spyware soon anyway.

I also use multiple virus scanners installed in on-demand mode only. Much like CD-burning programs, they'll coexist without a problem if you don't load the TSR (directCD, etc) parts.

Firefox + AVG + Adaware = Great free Stuff

Been running AVG for some time now, and haven't noticed any problems. Detects trouble well and doesn't bog down the computer. Also try Avira Antivir...another fine free antivirus app. Although it's gotten larger and slower these past few revisions.

Norton AV IMO, is a resource hog, just like most MS software. Expected better from Symantec.

Zonealarm is effective, but I find its GUI to be confusing and hard to customize.
Sygate Personal Firewall has been good, and I like its more informative GUI. Easy to set up and use with a computer that has Internet Sharing turned on.
It's also free, and I believe it's now a Symantec owned product.

As for the rest of MS's offerings, they are hit and miss. For better or worst, they've become accepted standards. But they are not the best of breed. And you'll discover this after sampling and using alternatives.

Outlook blows...worst email/organizer app I've ever used. Word can still be counter-intuitive to use when tackling big documents. Excel is very good.
IE just plain sucks. Look how many vulnerabilities and bugs related to it! So many versions to get working.
Firefox's features simply work better as a browser.

Why even beta test IE7? FireFox is the way to go.

As for Norton. I cry a little inside when I need to fix someones PC and they have Norton installed. I also dislike McAfee and other "commercial" Anti-Virus solutions.

Norton and McAfee are just so bloated, I really hate commercialised stuff, sorry to rant. It's just if you are going to pay for a product it's best to pay for something that is going to work.

I highly recommend using NOD32 if you are going to pay for AV.

I use NOD as well. Very unobtrusive. I assume it works as I've never (knowingly) gotten a virus. I also use Zone Alarm and Webroot Spysweeper. I did a lot of research before purchasing each of them. On my second PC, I just have AVG installed and free version of zone alarm and that has remained infection free. I think having a router with built in firewall makes a huge difference as a first layer defense.

I've been using AGV for a couple of years now. It works great.

Consequently, I ditched Norton when it gave me problems when I started using XP.

I'm glad I made the right choice going with AVG then. IE 7 is still running fine on my system but I can easily see how it can be buggy on some computer configurations. Guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I was going to switch to Vista when the release version comes out but I think I'll leave XP SP2 running on this computer and get Vista when I obtain a new computer. It's just way too risky swapping the OS unless You do a clean install which I wouldn't do on my current computer.

I used to use AVG ..... now I use Avast Home Edition ..... completely free and blows AVG out the water !!

http://www.avast.com/i_kat_207.php?lang=ENG