Norton & XP

[Me/PDX]

I take it that NSW Premier 2007 is compatible with Windows XP MEDIA
CENTER??...a new computer is on its way to me so it will be the latest
version.
Thanks,

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I take it that NSW Premier 2007 is compatible with Windows XP MEDIA
CENTER??...a new computer is on its way to me so it will be the latest
version.

I'm not aware of any particular incompatibilities with MCE, but as far as
I'm concerned, NSW, or anything else Norton, is the worst possible choice of
security or utility software, and I wouldn't allow any of it near any of my
machines.

 

[Me/PDX]

Ken,
What products and programs would you use rather than Norton?

Thanks for your assistance and consideration,

 

[Ron Hardin]

Ken,
What products and programs would you use rather than Norton?

Thanks for your assistance and consideration,

I just uninstalled Norton (it takes a of provocation to get me to make a move)
which was taking over my new Inspiron 6400 for up to ten minutes at startup,
unable to open any window, even the task manager, and put in ZoneLabs
firewall and AVG7.5 anti-virus, both free by the way, though you have to
look carefully for the free versions.

Norton uninstalled itself cleanly, without the dregs and remnants I expected,
which I guess is the only positive in the brief and ugly experience with it.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken,
What products and programs would you use rather than Norton?

I use the follwing security products, all freeware:

Firewall: ZoneAlarm

AntiVirus: Avast

Anti-spyware: Adaware, Spybot Search & Destroy, Spyware Blaster, and Windows
Defender

 

[Enkidu]

Firewall: ZoneAlarm

I would not let this piece of garbage anywhere near one of my machines
if I could help it. Unfortunately there isn't much else around. The
things that I've seen with it are false positives, an inclination to
reset itself to factory defaults, an ability to bring a machine to a
crawl, and an inability to retain any settings. I also don't believe its
logs having compared them to a packet capture. I think it seems to just
make things up! Also it has the ability to cause machines to crash.

I worked in an organisation that encouraged users to use Zone Alarm. I'd
say that it was rare to go the whole week without ZA screwing up
someone's machine.

I used to use Sygate but that's been absorbed by the Symantec leviathan.

It's funny the way we grow to love/hate particular software packages,
isn't it?

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Zilbandy]

I would not let this piece of garbage anywhere near one of my machines
if I could help it. Unfortunately there isn't much else around. The
things that I've seen with it are false positives, an inclination to
reset itself to factory defaults, an ability to bring a machine to a
crawl, and an inability to retain any settings. I also don't believe its
logs having compared them to a packet capture. I think it seems to just
make things up! Also it has the ability to cause machines to crash.

I worked in an organisation that encouraged users to use Zone Alarm. I'd
say that it was rare to go the whole week without ZA screwing up
someone's machine.

This is completely opposite to my experiences with ZoneAlarm. I'm
using it on three machines, two with WinXP and one Win98SE with none
of the problems you've described. I've turned off the Alerts and just
let it do its thing. I experience no slowdowns nor have I had it
'reset' itself. I'm only using the free version. I do remember some
complaints about one the recent updates, but the most current version
seems to be fine here.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I would not let this piece of garbage anywhere near one of my machines
if I could help it. Unfortunately there isn't much else around. The
things that I've seen with it are false positives, an inclination to
reset itself to factory defaults, an ability to bring a machine to a
crawl, and an inability to retain any settings. I also don't believe
its logs having compared them to a packet capture. I think it seems
to just make things up! Also it has the ability to cause machines to
crash.
I worked in an organisation that encouraged users to use Zone Alarm.
I'd say that it was rare to go the whole week without ZA screwing up
someone's machine.

Each to his own. My experience is the opposite of yours. I ran it on three
machines here for a long time (now on just two--not the Vista system) and
also installed it on the systems of several other people--all without
problems.