Norton AV 2006?

Ive read about how bad Norton is on system resource usage, but is it the case with the 2006 Norton AV? I am looking for a decent AV for my computer. I am looking at NOD32, KAV or Norton 06. What are the pros and cons (ability, resource usage, reliability) between these choices? Any other suggestions are welcome!

 

The resource issue has been improved every version of NAV 2004, 2005 and 2006.
So the days of calling NAV bloatware are over.
KAV, NOD32 and NAV 2006 are three top-notch AV scanners, so it doesn't really matter what you choose.

If you believe in numbers and results, read the "Comparatives" of august and november 2005 :
http://www.av-comparatives.org/
The very best tests, available on the internet.

The best way to find out if your system can handle these three scanners, is using them one by one.

 

I've run all three on my computer. IMO, NAV 2006, and NOD32 run lighter than KAV 5. I'm running NAV 2006 again on this computer. I don't think it is bloated software like some people say. It runs a lot lighter than some of the others I've tried, and I can't tell the difference in performance between it and NOD32. That's on my computer, YMMD.

 

Creatures Erik... and Gray...
Fair enough on the later versions being lighter. But what about uninstall does it still leave behind so much and is it hard to uninstall.

Thanks.

 

According my reading uninstalling NAV is also improved, but since I know that so many softwares uninstall themselves incompletely, I'm planning to use "Total Uninstaller", that will do the uninstalling of EACH software properly. At least I hope that Total Uninstaller will take care of that. You can't even trust to good softwares nowadays.

Maybe Gray knows more about that or another NAV user.

 

it's true that symantec has started improving in resource usage for norton and isn't really considered bloatware anymore--but it still does use up quite a bit (at least around the same as other popular ones now). also, from my experience and recent news, all norton products are still hard to completely remove. it's true that they've improved but they still haven't perfected it. however, i think there's a tool they posted on their website that helps you to clean up just about everything leftover. despite all this, after using nav 2003, 2004, 2005 before, i still don't like norton stuff for several reasons but anyway, that's just from my experience. btw, i hate how they manage pricing for norton products, etc. they seem to always make it so that you lose more money (i.e from 2004 version, to 2005 version, then to 2006 version etc.) ...i'd rather prefer other good AV's for great prices and good deals.

P.S if you want a good overview on what people say, have a look at my poll: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=115747

 

Hi Mercurie.

I know a lot of people complain that NAV is difficult to remove, so I thought I would go through what I do when ever I unistall software.

When I uninstall any software, I run RegSeeker and RegCleaner. Maybe I go a little overboard with my cleaning, but that's the way I do it. I know a lot of software leaves stuff behind after an uninstall. I'm not sure if any software uninstall tool cleans up everything completey. That's why I use those registry cleaners. I've run and uninstalled NAV 2004 and NAV 2006, and used the same routine.

After uninstalling NAV 2004, and running the registry cleaners, I ran the Symanatec cleanup tool just to see if anything was left behind. It didn't find anything. With NAV 2006, I didn't bother with the Symantec cleanup tool. Not sure if there is one for NAV 2006. I just did my usual. I've never had any problems with a NAV uninstall doing it this way.

To finally answer your question:
No, I didn't find NAV 2006 hard to uninstall and it didn't leave a lot of stuff behind. Hope that helps.

 

All Norton products use the MS Installer for Windows:

for 9X: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=CEBBACD8-C094-4255-B702-DE3BB768148F
for 2K/XP: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...f9-2d36-4977-8fa1-6f8a0f5dca8f&DisplayLang=en

Which installer is designed to make it easy to maintain, repair, etc. installations of the product. And many products, not just Norton's, use the built-in MS Windows Installer. You will see *.msi files which are the packages for such MS Windows installations.

The problem is that there a lot of registry entries, and integration with other products such as email, etc. Thus although the uninstall has improved, it is difficult to get rid of all of it. BTW, I don't think Norton's is the only products with uninstall issues, IMHO. Forex, ZoneAlarm used to be awful with its uninstall although it has greatly improved.

This is mainly a problem when you CHANGE VENDORS. If you are just doing a corrective uninstall-reinstall of a Norton product, for example, it isn't critical to get rid of every last vestige of Norton during the process, you can usually just Add-Remove from Control Panel for that.

But when you want to go from Norton to McAfee, forex, they are incompatible: Norton hates McAfee, and vice versa; and they won't install, or at the least will issue a warning, if they see vestiges of the other vendor's product upon installation.

As others have posted, Symantec now has an array of "cleanup" tools available from their WebSite. Again, these are necessary mainly when you are making transition from Norton to another vendor's product, and need to remove every last vestige of Norton from your system.

There is also the tried-and-true manual method {which I have used myself}:

1. Uninstall ALL Symantec/Norton products using Add-Remove from Control Panel {this includes LiveReg, LiveUpdate etc}.
2. Do a Search for all files/folders with "Norton" or "Symantec" in the name and delete them. Cleanout the recycle bin and tempfiles.
3. Use a regcleaner {such as RegSeeker} and remove every instance {Key, Data, Value} containing "Norton" or "Symantec" from the registry, then reboot.

That should do it!

 

i used to use NAV i have used NAV 2004, 2005.

i changed after to other antivirus but i stayed with NOD32 for neally a yr or a yr and a bit.

but once i got Kaspersky i have sayed with it ever since. for me KAV is lighter than NAV but heavier than NOD32 but anyway i don't have any problem with KAV on resources. and i know that KAV gives the best protection so

 

Hmmm .. I recently got Norton SystemWorks Premier 2006 {a Suite that includes the AntiVirus, the Utilities, Norton Ghost 10.0, Norton GoBack, etc.} from Staples for ZERO dollars after rebates. There were two rebates, one for buying from Staples, the other was a competitive upgrade rebate contained in the box. The two rebates covered the cost of the purchase from Staples. There are many such deals out there {from places like Staples, OfficeMax, CompUSA, and on eBay etc.} for Norton products so I don't see that your statement is completely accurate, no offense .. take care, Warmly, Ran

 

I see norton rebates everywhere.... Never as cheap as Randy_Bell got SystemWorks for though.

 

i understand your point there but i wasn't really getting at that, so let me sorta rephrase. what i was trying to say was i didn't like norton's way of changing versions each time. seems like a ripoff for me if you just got 2005 and then poof a new version comes out and your version becomes rather obselete and missing the new options. it's like you HAVE to go and buy a complete new one just to get the new extra security...however, like you said there are a lot of deals on newer versions---and those rebates you got are crazy i've seen several but they never got that low before ..but either way i don't like norton stuff due to other reasons as well

 

The cheapest way to get Norton is BETA testing and I do not mean public beta testing. They are the only company that I know of at this time that sends you the nice boxed released version when the product goes live.


con

 

The basic principle of uninstalling is simple : remove everything as if the software wasn't there and any software should have
that principle.

A second principle : if the previous version of a software needs to be uninstalled in order to install the new version, than
the uninstaller should ask the user, if he wants to keep his settings and personal files (i.e. address book, ...).
Many uninstallers don't even ask this question. Wrong !!!

If MS Installer for Windows isn't able to uninstall the software properly, correct MS Installer for Windows OR write your own installer and uninstaller.

The bottom line is : if you create a solution, create a good solution, that doesn't create other problems and that's what happened here.
And it IS technically possible, if you really care, but I know that an uninstaller isn't exactly priority #1 for a company and therefore neglected. In case of Norton : Norton has money, so Norton is too lazy or doesn't care.

Sorry, but I can't agree with you and a company that isn't even able to uninstall its OWN software, makes itself ridiculous.

Those tools are written to fix the errors of Norton's bad uninstaller. That's not a good technical solution and in stead of putting time in those tools, Norton should have written its own uninstaller.
At work we would call this a temporary fix until the REAL program is fixed.

That's not a solution for less-knowledgeable users, the majority. That makes it unacceptable for me.

 

I checked on my XP-SP2 box and these are some of the programs which have been installed with the MS Installer:

And so on; that isn't hardly the half of it; I don't have time to type it all out, heh.

Gosh I fail to see how a little cleaning out of one's system {files, folders, registry} is that hard? Even for the average user? OH Well .. Anyway, I wasn't trying to be controversial, just suggesting that Norton's method of install-uninstall is not that different from *many* other programs .. Warmly, Ran

 

Well if all these softwares aren't properly uninstalled, than we have alot of sinners and I hope it's not true.
Even my favorite browser "Firefox" has a bad uninstaller and that should be corrected too.

And what can be done by a program properly, doesn't need to be done by a user.
Nice talking too you

 

Erik, I don't think it is so much "sinners'" as it is the nature of Security Products: firewalls and AVs in particular, are *very* sensitive to remnants {drivers, files, reg-entries, etc.} leftover from another vendor. McAfee won't install if it sees remnants of Norton, and vice versa. Thus it may be true that most uninstallers do not remove every last reg-entry but the "remnants" that they leave behind are harmless to most other programs; it is just the sensitive nature of firewalls and AVs in particular, probably because they "hook" themselves into your system at such a low level, everything has to be very clean. I didn't know about FireFox, hehe .. Take Care, Warmly, Ran

 

Well that is even another good reason, why uninstaller should work properly, because even these
remnants can cause problems in case of certain security softwares.
Uninstall is the opposite of install, so if you uninstall, everything has to be removed what was installed
otherwise you have to give these programs another name "Partial Uninstallers" or something like that.
If a problem is everywhere, people start accepting it, but that doesn't mean it is right.
And that's why you need additional tools to clean the rest, like regcleaner, special removal programs, etc.

The problem with Firefox's uninstaller is this :
If you uninstall Firefox, the uninstaller doesn't remove YOUR personal settings and it doesn't even ask to remove these settings or not.
Two errors :
1. The uninstaller doesn't ask for removing your personal settings (Y/N)
2. The uninstaller doesn't remove everything, because the answer is always "N", because the uninstaller is programmed this way.