Norton 2007, and McAfee

Without discussing why one should choose another AV, I am under the impression that Norton 2007 is not so bloated, and some are satisfied with it. It does show well on AVC.

I don't notice much traffic about McAfee. My son is using McAfee IS on one machine, and does not like it. He does not want to spend the time to fine tune it.

Would some of you who are using Norton 2007 make some comments relative satisfaction, and also McAfee.

Please don't go into why you would not put either on your computers, and one should get such and such.

Thanks,
Jerry

 

norton 2007 isnt bloated,
mcafee 2007 is bloated, BIG TIME!

norton 2007 is a set it and forget it,
mcafee 2007 has options in the plenty, but some are hard to find.

a few years ago, mcafee would be my choice, but as it stands now.... norton 2007 wins this one.

 

i think its nice that symantec finaly learnt to not make bloated suite even thou i havent used it.
its just nice for the people who use it to not have to use a bloated suite.

@jerry have you thought of reccomending bitdefender suite to your Son?
or bitdefender just av along side a good av.
i simply cant reccomend any product that i wouldnt use myself.
thats why i cant reccomend mcaffe 2007 or norton 2007.
also avast is a good choice along side a good firewall.
if its off topic to much please tell me jerry
lodore

 

I've tried Norton 2007 and it worked well on my machine. It seems to be less bloated than past versions but it's still a pretty invasive program that slows the system down a bit. It has a high detection rate and frankly, if a slower machine is the price I have to pay for a good program, then so be it. Personally, the new ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite is probably a better way to go because of Kaspersky.

I hate Mcafee and don't care if their product is on an even keel with Norton. I'll never use a Mcafee product again. I had purchased a Dell desktop for my son and during the purchase, I was asked if I wanted Mcafee. Dell would add one additional year of support if I took it. Sure, I took it. What they didn't tell me was that Mcafee installed into the operating system and any attempt to remove it would damage it. In my opinion, that's an illegal antitrust violation but again, Dell didn't tell me that this is what was going to happen. The only way to get rid of Mcafee is to reformat the drive and I'm not about to do that so fast. That's why I would never recommend this product to anyone. They will never see another dollar from me. It left such a bad taste in my mouth, I don't even look at the comparatives for Mcafee. You have to look at the integrity of the company too when searching for a security setup.

 

norton is preinstalled on dell laptops and other laptops as well and thats a pain in the ass to remove since they normally install the 2006 or even the older 2005 versions.
i hate companys that preinstall an antivirus because normally its norton or mcafee and as you said it damages the operating system just by uninstalling it. my sister's acer laptop came with a desktop icon for installing norton and a norton 2006 install cd but wasnt preinstalled so any antivirus could be installed. i dont mind them giving an antivirus program for free but i dont like the preinstalled ones.
lodore

 

Norton 2007!

 

chris did you ask for a windows cd when ordering?
because if you have a windows cd you shouyld of reinstalled without the crap and then installed the dr.
lodore

 

we will countinue this over pm to stop going off topic
Jerry im sorry for going off topic
lodore

 

No, I haven't recommended BD. Like you I would not recommend anything I wouldn't use.

Another reason for the query was a post on Scot's regarding those two.
http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.php?showtopic=17724

I don't see many posts regarding either, as they are not highly thought of among the folks here.

My son needs an "Install and forget" application, but he is not going to find that in a suite. The firewalls need training, and that is part of the problem with McAfee. I don't know why he seems not to have a problem with PCcillan.

I'd put him on Kaspersky, but I know the PDM would irritate him. He does not want to take the time to work with computer problems, but just to use it. He is an electrical engineer and has the ability to do what he would want to do, but is so busy that he does not want to spend time with AVs.

Best,
Jerry

 

Contrary to what some unknowledgable people are saying McAfee 2007and norton 2007 they are not bloated and they both work well. Neither of them seem to show a noticable system drag on my computer. The deciding factor for me would be that Nortons detection rate is better. Although McAfee has a pretty good detection rate also. Just because an antivirus has a large install size it has nothing to do with being bloated.

 

I also note that even when one takes a lot of resources, it is not necessarily heavy on my machines. I don't notice slowdowns of any consequences, and so I don't really care if it is large. I am not sure why so much is made of the size of the program when the computer has plenty of memory, and operation is not adversely affected.

The problem that my son has with McAfee is that it asks if he wants to update, and other things. I would think that he could find settings that would not do that and just use manual scanning. That is what I do with my security applications.

Thanks,
Jerry

 

He would probably be happier with norton 2007. it is more set and forget although it does still have plenty of options

 

i agree, he will be most happy with norton 2007.

 

I've been using Norton Internet Security for years, and I think 2007 is the best one yet. When I find something that works better for me, I'll switch, but until then, I'm completely satisfied that it serves my needs. Bigc73542 is right, it's got plenty of options as far as I'm concerned. But what works for me, may not meet someone elses needs.

 

i just dont like symantec and dont trust them all i used to hear is unistall problems,bloat,install problems and cant remove trojans very well so i stand well clear. even thou ive heard good things about the 2007 version i still wouldnt go back to them because there are alot better options out there like
bitdefender,nod32,kav,dr web,f-prot etc.
lodore

 

@ lodore,

i dont think you can judge products poorly because they have been poor in the past, ive never done that nor will i ever, i try it... if i like it, thats that!

however, if its poor... bye bye

 

Norton ends up, if one is alert, an inexpensive suite with all the rebates.
I used Norton for several years without any problem, and did not have any difficulties uninstalling it.

I have to admit that there are programs that seem to be hated for no good reason. I probably would not go back to Norton as I am well pleased with Kaspersky and F-Secure plus NOD. However, I would not say "never."

Jerry

 

Jerry, you're right. I ended up paying about $10.00 for NIS 2007.

 

i have used norton 2003 and norton 2002 versions they both where rubbish and hard to uninstall. the 2005 version wasnt much better and people still complained about uninstall problems.
think almost same with 2006 version.
i dont think symantect could of fixed all those problems with the 2007 versions since they still have like 2 or three removal tools for it on there site.
why cant they make it easy to uninstall without those tools that a newbie wouldnt know about?
spysweeper is getting worse and the only reason my dad renewed it wss because it was only £10 for 13months.
lodore

 

@ lodore,

Since I am not well informed re computers, it is not clear to me why the "uninstall" programs of the various AVs do not uninstall.
The average person has no idea that uninstall tools exist, or where to obtain them.

I have not encountered difficulties with Norton or McAfee, but some obviously do.
I got my first computer in 1999, and it had Norton installed. I used it and renewed at least twice, and never had a problem. I did not know that it was bloated and such, so I just went merrily along without problems from it, and without infections.

Such is ignorance, I guess.

Best,
Jerry

 

My first experience with Norton was NIS ’03 when I had a Dell Dim. 4100 P3 800MHz. It stayed on my computer for about a week then I got tired of the sluggishness. I uninstalled it but something during the uninstall process went awry. Upon reboot I was getting several popup messages telling me that a certain Norton file could not be found to load. I then spent a lot of time in the registry deleting every instance of a reference to Norton as I wasn’t aware of the special uninstall programs Norton had. I vowed then to never install a Norton product again.

Then in May 2004 I bought my current computer, Dell Dim. 8300 P4 3GHz that came with NIS ’04 installed. Between the two computers I hardly felt any speed increase. When I clicked on the NIS icon in the system tray it took 15-20 seconds for the main window to come up (in contrast, FSIS’s pops up in 1-2 seconds). I felt like I was still on my old 4100. Knowing Dell’s preference of installing a lot of bloatware and problem-causing apps such as Dell Support, I reinstalled Windows. To make sure it wasn’t some other apps that were causing the sluggishness the first thing I did was to install NIS and wham! the problem was back again. I uninstalled it which worked without a hitch (whew) and installed McAfee which also came on the Dell program CD. It was even worse! I took it off, downloaded AVG and installed it. I then started enjoying my new speedy computer.

At that time I read many other horror stories about Norton’s slowing down of systems and bad uninstalls in various forums. One poor soul had to reinstall Windows because the Norton uninstall had completely hosed his system. A number of old Norton users stated that NAV ’02 was the last good version.

I will not comment much on the ’07 version since I haven’t tried it. Going by some of the things I have read about it here it seems that Norton has finally listened to their users and resource usage is down from the earlier versions. I just hope that it also does not insinuates itself into the OS like the older versions have done in the past, making someone’s life hell trying to uninstall it. Since this thread is about choosing and if that were my only two choices I would have to go with Norton as I only have had one brief experience with McAfee so I don’t know much about it.

I also don’t have any interest in trying Norton as I am quite satisfied with F-Secure as well.

 

I'm using NIS 2007 right now. Still has too many processes for my liking, but it has fewer than before. It has good and not the best detection, but I'm not a high-risk user. One problem I had was it expiring for some reason even though I had paid for it just a couple days ago. It seems to be fixed, but I will watch for re-occurence.

Reasons I might stay with NIS:

- Kaspersky just does not run well on my computer

- I didn't like the new McAfee Internet Security interface at all (have to click a million times to go where you want,) and its detection has gone down.

- AntiVir Suite had a firewall I didn't like, didn't feel comfortable with Comodo, Jetico takes too much time, Outpost causes BSOD, and NOD has no firewall.

 

@ mvdu
if it doesnt use too much ram, and doesnt slow down the system dramatically like previous versions of norton, what does it matter how many processes it uses, i will never understand this argument.

you should be fine with norton 2007 and yes your comments about the new mcafee were correct.

 

mvdu, I assume you have a hardware firewall (NAT router), and if you're a "safe surfer" why do you even need a software firewall?

NOD32 + XP (assuming you use XP) built-in Firewall should be adequate if you're behind a router. Just my .02 cents and I'm sure someone will chime in saying how important it is to filter outbound traffic.

 

I prefer a software firewall for outbound protection, even though I have a router. And the Symantec one nicely comes with the suite.

C.S.J - the number doesn't bother me much, since I have quite a bit of RAM on this computer.