Hi. I have Norton Anti Virus but it is not detecting a recent virus that has got on my computer.

Antimalware have put a shortcut on the bottom of my screen and keep popping up worrying warnings that my credit card details etc are at risk.

I'm not going on any websites containing my personal information. But does anyone know how to remove this?? I have tried everything I can think of.

:help: :help:

This is going to sound really tedious because it's been said so many times before.....

Get rid of Norton ~ it's crap and hugs resources.

Download AVG (free) and run that.

Also, download a free firewall, such as Zone Alarm (free), and an antispyware such as Spybot Search and Destroy.

You need to install adaware and or spybot and run it, you might need to them in safe mode, they will sort it.

Avg found about 20 viruses that Nortons had missed so its good stuff...
Heres the web page:
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1
Go to AVG products, then AVG Free edition and download it from there, Update it then run it...

Why do people go for Norton? What's the hook? Does it come pre-installed on new PCs and people take the easy option and register it? NAV is 45 quid out of the box, and constantly gets slated; AVG is free and constantly gets praised. I must be missing something...

What's the hook? Does it come pre-installed on new PCs and people take the easy option and register it?

Often it is pre-installed (with the first year of updates free).

Often it is pre-installed (with the first year of updates free).
Thanks for confirming my suspicion :) I had a new laptop at work recently, and that had a NAV trial on it. First thing I did was remove it! So how have Norton got to the state where they can have it distributed on new PCs?

This is going to sound really tedious because it's been said so many times before.....

Get rid of Norton ~ it's crap and hugs resources.

Download AVG (free) and run that.

Also, download a free firewall, such as Zone Alarm (free), and an antispyware such as Spybot Search and Destroy.

hugs resources?

awww how nice

:P

hugs resources?

awww how nice

:P
Yeah - holds on to them and refuses to let go!

Yeah - holds on to them and refuses to let go!

The thing is... Until last year, we were using Norton and never had any problems with it (especially resource wise).

What did make us change to AVG was when AVG free (installed on a laptop) found 2 virii on a CD I had burned that Norton hadn't picked up on.

Since then I've got the network licence for AVG (though still run the free version on the LAN server).

So how have Norton got to the state where they can have it distributed on new PCs?

By being there at the very start of the PC revolution (and a very good piece of software it was).

By being there at the very start of the PC revolution (and a very good piece of software it was).
When was that? 1983?! Norton had a good name at the time of MS-DOS/PC-DOS, but since then? As soon as Windows appeared and Norton hooked into it, they went into serious decline IMO! Norton Disk Doctor was very good, but since then I can't think of anything respectable they have produced. And I have never seen NAV pre-installed on a PC/laptop till I got a new laptop a few months ago. Maybe it was a year... time is passing fast :) ANd maybe I have been lucky :)

the only thing i'd say is to get rid of norton and go with avg as there are no problems with their resources, i have a laptop and the 2004 edition of norton is preinstalled (fools) it makes mistakes all the time and never does what is suppose to do.....no the pain wont let me uninstall it so i now have a conflict on my system.....norton

Why do people go for Norton? What's the hook? Does it come pre-installed on new PCs and people take the easy option and register it? NAV is 45 quid out of the box, and constantly gets slated; AVG is free and constantly gets praised. I must be missing something...

One of the reasons is a non-technical person can walk into a shop, ask for anti-virus and come out with a solid box in their hands. They see it as being worth their money and having backup. Free stuff doesn't have boxes and isn't usually seen to support.

Dont be too quick to slate norton,norton is more geared up for the proper computer killing viruses as apposed to pigley spyware etc.A lot of these lesser free and purchaseable virus scanners dont pick up on these like norton does.Ive been using norton anitivirus for years along with their firewall and never had any problems.Pigley stuff can be removed using adaware.If norton hogs your resources get rid of your zx81 and buy a modern PC.

If norton hogs your resources get rid of your zx81 and buy a modern PC.

You are an idiot. If Norton takes over your PC and slows it down to a crawl when just about every other, paid for and free, antivirus solution don't then why buy a new PC.

You are an idiot.

Just in case you missed it.

Welcome btw. :)

the only thing i'd say is to get rid of norton and go with avg as there are no problems with their resources, i have a laptop and the 2004 edition of norton is preinstalled (fools) it makes mistakes all the time and never does what is suppose to do.....no the pain wont let me uninstall it so i now have a conflict on my system.....norton

You might want to download the Norton Removal Tool, linked from this (http://www.mrtech.com/news/messages/4767.html) page. It will do the trick :thumbsup:

Anyone know how to uninstall Norton 2006 ?

Anyone know how to uninstall Norton 2006 ?

Update on above post of mine - try here (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/58280). Does 2006 as well :)

Thanks Markwit, I thought it only did up to 2005.

Thanks Markwit, I thought it only did up to 2005.

To be honest, so did I, but must have just been updated.

Says something when Symantec themselves have to produce a removal tool for their own software :loopy:

all avg does is scan your cookies folder,its bobare.You can bin these manually anyway in control panel as you will already know.norton doesnt slow my computer down in anyway shape or form.If it does on yours try upgrading the memory from 16mb to about 1 to 2gb.

all avg does is scan your cookies folder,its bobare.You can bin these manually anyway in control panel as you will already know.norton doesnt slow my computer down in anyway shape or form.If it does on yours try upgrading the memory from 16mb to about 1 to 2gb.

AVG may be basic, but it does quite a bit more than just scan your cookies. As for Norton, it is a horrendous piece of software, and has been for a long time. Ask anyone in the industry - and I don't mean the spotty herberts down at PC World - and they will tell you to bin it. The same goes for McAffee. I personally recommend, and supply, Bullguard. That doesn't slow down PC's, so why should Norton?

Why should anyone have to upgrade their PC from 256MB, or even 512MB just to run Anti Virus software? Agreed, if your PC is several years old, but any decent PC running XP with at least 256MB should be able to have decent anti-virus protection withouth the hassle of slowing down to unuseable speeds.

I don't want to be told I have to buy a new car if I want to fit an alarm.

Totally agree with what your saying on the memory front but xp is a very demanding operating system on its own and 256mb ram is an absolute minimum.As an amateur system builder my experience is they run xp and other apps with 512mb a lot better.The unfortunate thing is a lot of professional system builders go for the cheaper 256mb option but dont advise their buyers that it will run a lot better with 512mb.

all avg does is scan your cookies folder,its bobare.You can bin these manually anyway in control panel as you will already know.norton doesnt slow my computer down in anyway shape or form.If it does on yours try upgrading the memory from 16mb to about 1 to 2gb.
I have AVG free, and it does a hell of a lot more than just scan cookies. I have mine to do a full system scan, as well as everything else, which could account for the fact that it takes well over an hour to do its daily scan, when I'm only using 18GB of my 120GB hard drive.

AVG (free) is usually one of the AVs (there are others) first recommended by users of SF, when an enquiry is made about what AV to use, and the usual advice is to bin Norton. We can't all be wrong, can we?

You are an idiot. If Norton takes over your PC and slows it down to a crawl when just about every other, paid for and free, antivirus solution don't then why buy a new PC.



Just in case you missed it.

Welcome btw. :)
MOD: Please refrain from name calling. Thanks.

Theres no such thing as a free lunch..

Theres no such thing as a free lunch..

I don't know....I've used the free version of AVG for several years and have no problems and remain (touch wood) virus and trojan free.

Norton IS a pig for resources, and certainly several colleagues just refuse to use it any more because of it's resource stealing capabilities and it's desire to not be uninstalled. It also gets in the way of other packages - in general, it's more intrusive than it needs to be.

As for upgrading from a 'zx81' - I still use a number of PCs that are over 5 years old because I dislike pouring money down the maws of Intel and Microsoft more than I have to. If softwrae manufacturers insist on writing software that is so resource greedy that it won't work on machines more than a couple of years old, then we SHOULD boycott those companies due to their contribution to wasting resources by forcing repeated and pointless upgrades. :)

Theres no such thing as a free lunch..
There is such a thing as expensive junk food... I've used NAV, I've used AVG, I've used Kaspersky. NAV is a nightmare, as most savvy people will tell you. Kaspersky was excellent but not free. AVG is free and does a great job - not 100% perfect, but more trustworthy than NAV! If you're happy with NAV, then fine - but others' mileage may vary :)

Its called technology and it moves on.Also ask yourself one question if avg is such a fantastic scanner why is it free? If you was a developer writing fantastic software apps would you give it away for free? or would you have it on the shelf of every major computer store making you an instant overnight billionare...

ihatecars, I have 1Gig of RAM in my machine, and would have to restore the image every few months due to the updates Norton installed, and it forever caused problems with outlook. My ISP actually advised me that it was a well known problem with it timing out with email.

I have avast on mine now and i barely see any slowdowns, except when I haven't checked my email for a week and my mailbox is full of virii.

In my opinion, even with 1Gig RAM, it slowed down my machine.

9 times out of 10, an upgrade ain't the answer (and I tried).

It doesn't matter if/how much you pay for it, it's all about it doing the job (efficently)

[edited spelling mistakes]

Its called technology and it moves on.Also ask yourself one question if avg is such a fantastic scanner why is it free? If you was a developer writing fantastic software apps would you give it away for free? or would you have it on the shelf of every major computer store making you an instant overnight billionare...
You really have a problem with this, don't you.

AVG free (and Avast, and several other free AVs) works. If it didn't work, people wouldn't use it. Several people have said, either on this thread or on other threads (all you have to do is a search) that Norton misses virii that AVG seems to find. Have you actually tried any of the free AVs for a reasonable amount of time to see what they actually do?

Btw, Norton is being pre-installed FREE, albeit for a year only, on most new pcs bought from PC World, and it's usually those pcs that have all the problems.

If you're happy with Norton, so be it, but don't try to preach about how it is better than everything else, when it clearly isn't.

Its called technology and it moves on.Also ask yourself one question if avg is such a fantastic scanner why is it free? If you was a developer writing fantastic software apps would you give it away for free? or would you have it on the shelf of every major computer store making you an instant overnight billionare...

lol a hell of a lot of good apps are free

i use winzip and winrar.....have done for years, well you are supposed to pay for em if you like em but they still work fine free :P

openoffice has always been free its the best alternative to M$ office

firefox / opera are free alternatives to IE

theres a thread on here somewhere with loads of free stuff


Linux OS's are mostly free and are very fine alternatives to windows..........if your better than me with computers :P

No,I dont have a problem with people using a virus scanner of thier choice thats up to them.But I just think norton gets a raw deal when it is a good scanner.Like I said before i've been using it for years and never had a problem.I have used a free one (NOT GOING TO MENTION ITS NAME) before just to see what it was like.The very scary thing about it was the first virus scan it did it found a few alleged virusus that were actually microsoft operating system files.Now you dont need me to tell you this but microsoft dont write malicious code,so it was uninstalled and I put back on the good old faithfull that doesnt make microsoft look like virus writers.

No,I dont have a problem with people using a virus scanner of thier choice thats up to them.But I just think norton gets a raw deal when it is a good scanner.Like I said before i've been using it for years and never had a problem.I have used a free one (NOT GOING TO MENTION ITS NAME) before just to see what it was like.The very scary thing about it was the first virus scan it did it found a few alleged virusus that were actually microsoft operating system files.Now you dont need me to tell you this but microsoft dont write malicious code,so it was uninstalled and I put back on the good old faithfull that doesnt make microsoft look like virus writers.

goinf from personal experience......i used norton back in the early days of my computer use (1999 on) then about 3 years ago i got rid of norton and started using avg, avg found a virus on a downloaded games cd that norton hadnt told me about(everything i download is scanned with an uptodate virus scanner)

thats not to mention all the scare stories people have long said about norton products......resource hogs, not being able to easily get rid etc

MOD: Please refrain from name calling. Thanks.

No, I informed the poster they were an idiot.

No,I dont have a problem with people using a virus scanner of thier choice thats up to them.But I just think norton gets a raw deal when it is a good scanner.Like I said before i've been using it for years and never had a problem.I have used a free one (NOT GOING TO MENTION ITS NAME) before just to see what it was like.The very scary thing about it was the first virus scan it did it found a few alleged virusus that were actually microsoft operating system files.Now you dont need me to tell you this but microsoft dont write malicious code,so it was uninstalled and I put back on the good old faithfull that doesnt make microsoft look like virus writers.

You are clearly clueless.

No,I dont have a problem with people using a virus scanner of thier choice thats up to them.But I just think norton gets a raw deal when it is a good scanner.Like I said before i've been using it for years and never had a problem.I have used a free one (NOT GOING TO MENTION ITS NAME) before just to see what it was like.The very scary thing about it was the first virus scan it did it found a few alleged virusus that were actually microsoft operating system files.Now you dont need me to tell you this but microsoft dont write malicious code,so it was uninstalled and I put back on the good old faithfull that doesnt make microsoft look like virus writers.
Are you sure that it was actually the OS files that were showing up as virii, and not that the virii were contained within those system files?

Why the need to shout "(NOT GOING TO MENTION ITS NAME)"?

Go ahead with your mistaken belief that Norton is a good scanner. Evidence from many other posters says it isn't, but I don't think there will be any way that we will be able to get you to admit that you're wrong.:roll:

This is going to be a first, and I'm going to publicly agree with the last sentence of Lurch's last post.:D

But I just think norton gets a raw deal when it is a good scanner.Like I said before i've been using it for years and never had a problem.

Norton is not a good AV package. I (misguidedly) used to think Norton was good. Until AVG picked up some virii that Norton (Corporate Edition) had missed:(. Needless to say Norton got the order of the boot. AVG is now on all machines here.


The very scary thing about it was the first virus scan it did it found a few alleged virusus that were actually microsoft operating system files.

Virus writers make virii with very similar names (replacing a I for an l, O for a 0 etc). How can you be sure these were MS files?


Now you dont need me to tell you this but microsoft dont write malicious code

OK I won't. Just be aware that the alexia toolbar (recognised spy/mal/scumware) is installed with IE6 and above:(.

Just out of interest, how many people in this debate regularly get viruses and need to have them detected and cleaned? I've worked in plenty of offices full of Windows based PCs and I've rarely heard people complain about actually catching viruses. Loads come through as email attachments but all it takes is the simple rule of not opening attachments which you don't 100% trust and they are taken care of.

I'm a linux user but have to dual boot into windows for some projects and I've only had one virus in my 16 years of using PCs, that was tequilla back in the early 90's!

lol a hell of a lot of good apps are free

i use winzip and winrar.....have done for years, well you are supposed to pay for em if you like em but they still work fine free :P


Yer I use winzip you just click use evaluation version

if avg is such a fantastic scanner why is it free?

Because many people will buy the full version (more scanning option etc).

Look on it as an advertisement:):thumbsup:

This thread could go on and on .
If you are happy with your f/w and a/v, great.
I use central commands Vexira which costs me £23/year, it updates every day as soon as I log on and I'm very happy with it.
I use spy bot, ad aware and ZA and they all give regular updates and touch wood I'm free of viruses etc and I don't worry.
I have taken advice on this forum and delete all e-mails from persons unknown.
My daughters laptop installation cd had N/V on it and it took loads of space on the HD so I deleted it and put AVG ZA spybot adaware on it and she has had no problems

just for info I use AVG and spybot, I'm behind a hardware firewall so I don't bother with Zonealarm and I've never had a virus and I have looked for them using tools that I use to fix infected machines.

I have disinfected several machines that are using Norton that have somehow become infected with a virus that Norton can't shift

but if you like and want to use Norton then thats your choice and I'm not going to tell you it's wrong, it's better than not having one at all