How did it end: Norton > KAV > Norton > ??

I pray that it is finally over. You may recall, at least those of you who were following or participating in my previous "Horrified, back to Norton" thread, that at the end of January I had finally decided to uninstall NAV from my system and go with KAV 5.0, only to find that KAV was horribly incompatible with my "goback" type program from Raxco named FirstDefense.

KAV’s use of the Alternate Data Streams had hosed the FirstDefense file that is used to control the boot process, the file that controls all of the FD Snapshots, a major crippling; minor panic set in. So I uninstalled KAV only to find that FD was still crippled. Evidently when you uninstall KAV it does not undo any of the changes or additions that it makes to the ADS; you are stuck with the changes/additions. Major panic set in since I now realized that even "going back in time" would not save me and off went emails to Kaspersky and Raxco tech support.

Many of you posted suggesting various ADS removal tools and I would like to thank you all for that, but I wanted to wait and hear from the two companies’ tech supports. Well, I’m still waiting to hear from KAV; Raxco, while answering me within 24 hours, did little more than confirm what I was beginning to figure out, though several days later they did recommend a particular site that had an ADS removal tool but only after I had mentioned to them that I knew about the existence of such tools.

Many folks must have complained to KAV about the ADS that a KAV removal leaves behind (and indeed the KAV forum has many threads relating to this) because KAV created its own ADS removal tool which anyone can download from Kaspersky and try to clean up their system from a KAV uninstall. Since it was the KAV program that did not uninstall cleanly in the first place, it made sense to me to try their tool first, after all, it was especially made for this situation, in theory anyway. Well, the KAV tool did not work, my FD was still crippled. So off I went to the web site that Raxco had mentioned to download that tool only to find in dismay that the tool was no longer being offered.

Now enters the true hero of this saga, Wilder’s very own BigC. In my earlier "Horrified, back to Norton" thread BigC had posted that he had this particular ADS removal tool and that he was willing to email it to me. Somehow I managed to remember BigC’s post, so I contacted BigC and within hours, or was it even minutes, I had my old system back good as new. THANK YOU BIGC!!

So what did I finally end up with for an anti-virus? I decided to go with my second choice McAfee. Why? Because it also does very well with Trojans which is what drove me to try KAV in the first place. The moral of this story? Hmmm, let me see ...
1. KAV tech support sucks, so does their ADS removal tool (a couple of folks either here or the KAV forum warned me about the ineffectiveness of their tool).
2. Raxco tech support, while answering immediately, sort of let me down a little by dragging their feet and that really surprised me. Up till now they have always been there for me but I have always just had "How do I do this" sort of questions; this was the first real problem that I ever had and I felt abandoned (unless they’re still working on it and just haven’t got back to me yet with their final solution).
3. You’ve always got friends at Wilders!

Enjoy your weekend,
Acadia

 

One thing is for sure. Kaspersky ADS remover sux big time and they are hidding it like biggest secret right after Roswell alien ship...

 

Good thing I'm using eScan and McAfee...both have excellent tech support! OF course we've got friends at Wilders', what did you expect?

Acadia, you made a good choice by taking McAfee. Its OK, their product is improving. Can you keep me updated on how McAfee is working out (if you're using the home version that is)?

And you have a great weekend too!

 

Acadia. Good to see that you are up & running again ( fingers crossed ).

Your experience with Raxco support essencially reflects mine, ultrafast initial response then.......silence , love their products though.

You have a great weekend too.

 

Russians sure have lots of pride...