AV program that doesn't annoy user?

[ringo]

My new Dell(2 weeks old) came w/ NAV, I know most don't like it as I am
quickly joining that club.

My old PC had NAV too but since it was 6 y/o I had to uncheck all the NAV
startup files in MSCONFIG b/c it would consume to much resources. So when
I wanted to do a scan I would recheck those items, reboot, scan, uncheck
those items, reboot.

With this new machine it's so fast it's not an issue...so far.

But NAV is annoying the crap out of me. I turned off Windows Automatic
Updates and it keeps warning me about that. I also get a ccApp.exe
Application Error when I shut down, which I knew was a NAV item as that
was one of the items I unchecked in MSCONFIG. I see from a Google search
I'm not alone.

The thing is I don't want whatever A/V product I go with to automatically
download anything (new definitions etc), warn me about turning off the
Win Automatic Update feature or generally tell me what to do.

I like being in charge instead of the PC being in charge!!! Which becomes
more of a problem with each new PC I buy.

I do like the feature of NAV that blocked popups(I use Firefox which
blocks most but not all) but NAV also blocked lots of banner ad's and
ad's in the middle of articles(which was new for me).

So in summary:
Simple user interface(I don't need all the bells and whistles...KISS)
Popup / Banner ad blocker
Scans files downloaded from newsgroups, emails, Excel files
Downloads new virus definitions when I choose
Is easy to uninstall
And saving the best for last...isn't annoying or obnoxious

Thanks!

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per (e-mail address removed):

But NAV is annoying the crap out of me. I turned off Windows Automatic
Updates and it keeps warning me about that. I also get a ccApp.exe
Application Error when I shut down, which I knew was a NAV item as that
was one of the items I unchecked in MSCONFIG. I see from a Google search
I'm not alone.

I've been through a few annoying - and sometimes dysfunctional - AV programs.

I've settled into the freebie version of Avast.

I'm probably more irritable than most UI-wise and Avast seems to me tb very well
behaved.

 

[kurt wismer]

My old PC had NAV too but since it was 6 y/o I had to uncheck all the NAV
startup files in MSCONFIG b/c it would consume to much resources. So when
I wanted to do a scan I would recheck those items, reboot, scan, uncheck
those items, reboot.

that seems like a lot to go through just to get it to scan... why not
simply launch the scanner and tell it to scan...

[snip]

But NAV is annoying the crap out of me. I turned off Windows Automatic
Updates and it keeps warning me about that.

the anti-virus is not warning you about that - *windows* is warning you
about that...

[snip]

The thing is I don't want whatever A/V product I go with to automatically
download anything (new definitions etc),

that's something that should be configurable so long as you're willing
to actually configure it...

warn me about turning off the
Win Automatic Update feature

that's a feature of windows itself... and turning off the warnings
should also be something you can configure...

or generally tell me what to do.

usually the problem is that they're forever *asking* you what to do, not
telling you what to do... unfortunately the asking part is
non-negotiable unless you want to configure it to act automatically and
risk it doing something wrong and/or breaking something when it false
alarms (which all products do from time to time)...

I like being in charge instead of the PC being in charge!!! Which becomes
more of a problem with each new PC I buy.

to me it sounds a little more like you expect your pc and/or software to
come pre-set with your specific preferences... being in charge is easy
if you're willing to put in the work at the beginning... if you're
looking to just install and go, well sorry but there are too many people
with too many diverging preferences for you to reasonably expect your
preferences to be the defaults...

I do like the feature of NAV that blocked popups(I use Firefox which
blocks most but not all) but NAV also blocked lots of banner ad's and
ad's in the middle of articles(which was new for me).

complement your firefox install with noscript (java/javascript/flash
whitelisting) and adblock (i think the name says it all) extensions... i
think you'll find they take care of most of the things norton is doing
for you there...

 

[Todd H.]

My new Dell(2 weeks old) came w/ NAV, I know most don't like it as I am
quickly joining that club.

I hate the NAV stuff they push on consumers as much as anyone.

But I quite recently had a client machine that had a corporate version
of Symantec Antivirus 9.0 on it that I had to 2 months, and I have to
say that AV was as quiet as a mouse. In fact, I don't think it's
every prompted me for anything. Very quiet, and every time i checked
its signatures were up to date, quietly doing all its stuff in the
background, and the machine at least was fast enough that i never
thought about it.

 

[Wilf]

My new Dell(2 weeks old) came w/ NAV, I know most don't like it as I am
quickly joining that club.

You couldn't do much better than Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) which
has a small footprint and does everything you would want including popup
and ad blocking. It's ot that simple to use, though, but the forum is
amazingly helpful and resposive.
It's not cheap but you get what you pay for, in my view.

HTH

 

[RH710]

You couldn't do much better than Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) which
has a small footprint and does everything you would want including popup
and ad blocking. It's ot that simple to use, though, but the forum is
amazingly helpful and resposive.
It's not cheap but you get what you pay for, in my view.

HTH

Second the motion for Kaspersky.The best.RH710

 

[gr]

My new Dell(2 weeks old) came w/ NAV, I know most don't like it as I am
quickly joining that club.

My old PC had NAV too but since it was 6 y/o I had to uncheck all the NAV
startup files in MSCONFIG b/c it would consume to much resources. So when
I wanted to do a scan I would recheck those items, reboot, scan, uncheck
those items, reboot.

With this new machine it's so fast it's not an issue...so far.

But NAV is annoying the crap out of me. I turned off Windows Automatic
Updates and it keeps warning me about that. I also get a ccApp.exe
Application Error when I shut down, which I knew was a NAV item as that
was one of the items I unchecked in MSCONFIG. I see from a Google search
I'm not alone.

The thing is I don't want whatever A/V product I go with to automatically
download anything (new definitions etc), warn me about turning off the
Win Automatic Update feature or generally tell me what to do.

I like being in charge instead of the PC being in charge!!! Which becomes
more of a problem with each new PC I buy.

I do like the feature of NAV that blocked popups(I use Firefox which
blocks most but not all) but NAV also blocked lots of banner ad's and
ad's in the middle of articles(which was new for me).

So in summary:
Simple user interface(I don't need all the bells and whistles...KISS)
Popup / Banner ad blocker
Scans files downloaded from newsgroups, emails, Excel files
Downloads new virus definitions when I choose
Is easy to uninstall
And saving the best for last...isn't annoying or obnoxious

Thanks!

I have been happy with either Avast or AVG. Was a former mcafee user.
gr

 

[ringo]

that seems like a lot to go through just to get it to scan... why not
simply launch the scanner and tell it to scan...

I think, though I'm not sure anymore, it was b/c NAV wouldn't work
otherwise. I didn't scan very often so it wasn't that big a deal.

[snip]

But NAV is annoying the crap out of me. I turned off Windows
Automatic Updates and it keeps warning me about that.

the anti-virus is not warning you about that - *windows* is warning
you about that...

No it's part of the NAV little window that pops up above the system tray.
For example now that I turned NAV off I am not getting any warnings about
turning off automatic updates.

[snip]

or generally tell me what to do.

usually the problem is that they're forever *asking* you what to do,
not telling you what to do... unfortunately the asking part is
non-negotiable unless you want to configure it to act automatically
and risk it doing something wrong and/or breaking something when it
false alarms (which all products do from time to time)...

I like being in charge instead of the PC being in charge!!! Which
becomes more of a problem with each new PC I buy.

to me it sounds a little more like you expect your pc and/or software
to come pre-set with your specific preferences... being in charge is
easy if you're willing to put in the work at the beginning... if
you're looking to just install and go, well sorry but there are too
many people with too many diverging preferences for you to reasonably
expect your preferences to be the defaults...

I here u but for example when I turned on my new PC for the first time it
had me create a User (which I used my initials), I could not skip this
part, it wouldn't let me. I don't want or need different users as I am
the only one using this PC. Years ago with a Compaq running Win 95 it had
a Compaq user shell also which was such a pain and only caused me
problems. In that case when I upgraded to Win 98SE it got rid of it.

Now with this new PC when I look in the c:\Documents and Settings dir I
have 3 subdirectiories: Administrator, All Users, xxx(the one with my
initials). Since I'm all three it's not needed. It hasn't caused me any
problems but I'm anal, I like my directories as clean as possible.

 

[kurt wismer]

I think, though I'm not sure anymore, it was b/c NAV wouldn't work
otherwise. I didn't scan very often so it wasn't that big a deal.

that suggests a broken installation... if such a basic part of the
anti-virus product isn't behaving the way it's supposed to, who knows
what else it might do wrong...

[snip]

But NAV is annoying the crap out of me. I turned off Windows
Automatic Updates and it keeps warning me about that.

the anti-virus is not warning you about that - *windows* is warning
you about that...

No it's part of the NAV little window that pops up above the system tray.
For example now that I turned NAV off I am not getting any warnings about
turning off automatic updates.

??? i'm not a symantec customer myself so i'll have to defer to your
experience, but it seems remarkably odd that symantec would *duplicate*
functionality that is in the OS itself (in the form of the windows
security center)...

[snip]

or generally tell me what to do.

usually the problem is that they're forever *asking* you what to do,
not telling you what to do... unfortunately the asking part is
non-negotiable unless you want to configure it to act automatically
and risk it doing something wrong and/or breaking something when it
false alarms (which all products do from time to time)...

I like being in charge instead of the PC being in charge!!! Which
becomes more of a problem with each new PC I buy.

to me it sounds a little more like you expect your pc and/or software
to come pre-set with your specific preferences... being in charge is
easy if you're willing to put in the work at the beginning... if
you're looking to just install and go, well sorry but there are too
many people with too many diverging preferences for you to reasonably
expect your preferences to be the defaults...

I here u but for example when I turned on my new PC for the first time it
had me create a User (which I used my initials), I could not skip this
part, it wouldn't let me. I don't want or need different users as I am
the only one using this PC.

that's to be expected - modern versions of windows are designed to be
used for multiple users and every user needs a user account to be
specifically created...

Years ago with a Compaq running Win 95 it had
a Compaq user shell also which was such a pain and only caused me
problems. In that case when I upgraded to Win 98SE it got rid of it.

Now with this new PC when I look in the c:\Documents and Settings dir I
have 3 subdirectiories: Administrator, All Users, xxx(the one with my
initials). Since I'm all three it's not needed. It hasn't caused me any
problems but I'm anal, I like my directories as clean as possible.

technically, you're only one of them... the account with your initials
and the administrator account are separate accounts (that's why they
have separate directories), even if the one with your initials has
administrative access... and the 'all users' one isn't even an account,
it's a directory for account settings that are global to all users...