New E-Machine - Norton

[Vanessa]

Yesterday I went out and bought my son a low-end E-Machine (512MB RAM, 100GB
HD, Celeron D Processor, etc.). Unfortunately, it came preloaded with a
bunch of trial software, including both McAfee and Norton Internet Security.
I spent the entire afternoon tweaking the machine. I also had to make my
own recovery CDs as they are not included. I did all the updates for Norton
and all the Windows updates have been applied. I installed Spyware Blaster
and AdAware. I turned off IE's pop-up blocker in favor of Google's.

The machine seems to be running much slower than I expected and I am
suspicious of the Norton software. (There may have been some network issues
last night as our other computers seemed slower than usual as well). I have
uninstalled the McAfee as the trial had to be activated and I saw no reason
to have both McAfee and Norton (and I thought they might conflict with one
another). The Norton software is a 90-day trial. I think I will remove it
and put on either Norton AV 2005 or Avast! as well as ZoneAlarm free
version. Does anyone see a problem with this? Anything I should know about
uninstalling the current Norton software?

Anything else I should be doing to this computer? I assume I should
disconnect it from the internet when I uninstall and install the new AV
software?

Vanessa

 

[Malke]

Yesterday I went out and bought my son a low-end E-Machine (512MB RAM,
100GB HD, Celeron D Processor, etc.). Unfortunately, it came preloaded
with a bunch of trial software, including both McAfee and Norton
Internet Security.
I spent the entire afternoon tweaking the machine. I also had to make
my
own recovery CDs as they are not included. I did all the updates for
Norton
and all the Windows updates have been applied. I installed Spyware
Blaster
and AdAware. I turned off IE's pop-up blocker in favor of Google's.

The machine seems to be running much slower than I expected and I am
suspicious of the Norton software. (There may have been some network
issues
last night as our other computers seemed slower than usual as well).
I have uninstalled the McAfee as the trial had to be activated and I
saw no reason to have both McAfee and Norton (and I thought they might
conflict with one
another). The Norton software is a 90-day trial. I think I will
remove it and put on either Norton AV 2005 or Avast! as well as
ZoneAlarm free
version. Does anyone see a problem with this? Anything I should know
about uninstalling the current Norton software?

Anything else I should be doing to this computer? I assume I should
disconnect it from the internet when I uninstall and install the new
AV software?

Vanessa

You will have a hard time finding any techs who recommend Norton
products, including me. Bloated, poorly coded, put hooks into the
system that never come out, miserable if it breaks, heavy on system
resources... Etc. Etc. Hate Norton. Hate, hate, hate.

I don't like McAfee much better.

I use F-Prot on my Windows machines, but that is a personal preference.
I've not tried the paid-for Avast, but I do put the free version on
clients' machines if they don't want to pay for AV (not my
recommendation, but the customer's wishes come first naturally). Avast
has a really dreadful UI, but it seems to do a good job.

Just do a search on Google Groups for "best antivirus" and you'll get
lots of opinions.

Malke

 

[History Fan]

My mother purchased a low-end eMachine desktop PC for her
computer-illiterate brother earlier this year. I set it up for him. I
couldn't believe all the junk software that was preinstalled. I spent about
30 minutes just uninstalling it. Like yours, there was no recovery CD
included. I quickly got rid of McAfee and Norton, and installed Avast Home
Edition (free.)

 

[History Fan]

I assume I should

disconnect it from the internet when I uninstall and install the new AV
software?

Leave your Internet connection running if you are installing Avast AV.
After installing the software, you have to reboot your PC. Afterwards Avast
immediately looks for updates, which will probably be available. Give Avast
about 2-3 minutes to find and download the updates. Once this is completed,
XP SP2's Security Center will stop nagging you to update your AV, and the
red warning icon will disappear from your systray.

You will notice that Avast has very interesting sound schemes for its
various functions.

 

[GregRo]

r. I set it up for him. I
couldn't believe all the junk software that was preinstalled. I spent about
30 minutes just uninstalling it. Like yours, there was no recovery CD
included. I quickly got rid of McAfee and Norton, and installed Avast Home
Edition (free.)

You mean emachine no longer has recovery cds? I must of got the last
machine that had one.


I may get a dell if I get vista and insist on me getting vista
operating system I can install.

Greg Ro

 

[Dave Cohen]

Leave your Internet connection running if you are installing Avast AV.
After installing the software, you have to reboot your PC. Afterwards
Avast
immediately looks for updates, which will probably be available. Give
Avast
about 2-3 minutes to find and download the updates. Once this is
completed,
XP SP2's Security Center will stop nagging you to update your AV, and the
red warning icon will disappear from your systray.

You will notice that Avast has very interesting sound schemes for its
various functions.

I have an e-machine about 2 years old. Should come with recovery cd's unless
they've changed their policy.

It's best to run a new machine for a while before you mess with it just in
case you have to take it back for any reason. I ran the Norton (2002) for a
year, then took it out in favor of Avast.
I'm a great believer in using an imaging program, my choice is bootitng.
This makes playing around a lot safer. Recovery CD's are a lot of hassle if
you've time customizing the system.
Dave Cohen

 

[RH710]

I have an e-machine about 2 years old. Should come with recovery cd's
unless they've changed their policy.

It's best to run a new machine for a while before you mess with it just in
case you have to take it back for any reason. I ran the Norton (2002) for
a year, then took it out in favor of Avast.
I'm a great believer in using an imaging program, my choice is bootitng.
This makes playing around a lot safer. Recovery CD's are a lot of hassle
if you've time customizing the system.
Dave Cohen
I have been using Avast for a little while now and I am pleasantly
surprised the way it works for me.I had AVG on for some time but Avast
seems to work better with less conflicts now and the Default skin is
horrible but you can apply some very nice ones now.It caught 2 viruses that
AVG didn't and that surprised me.I am sold on Avast now.I haven't noticed a
difference in speed either.Norton,Mcafee,Panda and a couple others slow my
pc down a good bit.I have a 3 year old Emachine that runs great btw..My
2cents worth.RH710

 

[Steve Pope]

You mean emachine no longer has recovery cds? I must of got the last
machine that had one.

They got bought out. (By Gateway.) I suspect, but am not certain,
that a new Emachine will now have a bloatware load comparable to to any
new system from Dell, HP, etc.

I recently got a low-end XP machine from centralcomputers.com,
it has nothing extraneous installed on it, and it runs really
fast. I scan it with NAV from another, older computer on the network.
That way I don't have to pollute my new computer with AV. I am
not sure if this approach makes sense, time will tell, but so
far so good.

Steve

 

[GregRo]

They got bought out. (By Gateway.) I suspect, but am not certain,
that a new Emachine will now have a bloatware load comparable to to any
new system from Dell, HP, etc.

I thought Dell bought emachine?
Does gateway own dell and emachine now?

Did gateway buy emachine from dell?

Greg R

 

[Steve Pope]

(Steve Pope) wrote:

I thought Dell bought emachine?
Does gateway own dell and emachine now?

Did gateway buy emachine from dell?

AFAIK Gateway bought Emachine, and is still independent of
Dell.

Steve

 

[RH710]

Corporate Background

eMachines, one of the world's fastest growing and most efficient PC makers,
was acquired by Gateway, Inc. in March 2004 for $262 milllion in cash and
shares. It remains a stand-alone brand that is sold through leading
retailers and catalog and online merchandisers in the U.S. and selected
markets abroad.

Since its launch in 1998, eMachines has shipped more than five million
systems. It was the second-largest vendor of desktop PCs sold through U.S.
retailers and has a rapidly growing notebook business.

Internationally, eMachines' low-cost, full-featured systems are sold in
Japan and the UK, with further expansion into Western Europe planned soon.

Wayne Inouye, who joined eMachines in 2001 and quickly turned it from a
money losing business into one of the world's fastest growing brands,
currently serves as CEO of Gateway.

Executive Management Team
Get an introduction to the management force behind Gateway, Inc.

 

[Poster 60]

Yesterday I went out and bought my son a low-end E-Machine (512MB RAM, 100GB
HD, Celeron D Processor, etc.). Unfortunately, it came preloaded with a
bunch of trial software, including both McAfee and Norton Internet Security.
I spent the entire afternoon tweaking the machine. I also had to make my
own recovery CDs as they are not included. I did all the updates for Norton
and all the Windows updates have been applied. I installed Spyware Blaster
and AdAware. I turned off IE's pop-up blocker in favor of Google's.

The machine seems to be running much slower than I expected and I am
suspicious of the Norton software.

Most NAV users just leave the program at its default scanner setting -
"Comprehensive file scanning", which means ALL files are scanned all the
time. That slows any system considerably. That's not really necessary,so
change your setup to the other setting - "Scan files using smartscan".
There is a box next to that option marked "Customize". When you click
that you can see which files are being scanned and you can modify the
list. I give a manual scan of all files only once a week.

I also use NOD32 on another system. It has always done well.

Poster 60