OK, as I promised initially, there would be more to the saga of Norton's Antivirus. Initially when I first blogged about it, I was finding myself removing it for something else. My choice being AVAST Pro Antivirus which has been something I personally had been trying for some time, since I moved to the 64bit Windows platform and found many Antivirus program, including Norton's, did not provide coverage. Now in no way do I want to give people the impression I do not like Norton's Antivirus program itself, on the contrary, I have found Norton's products (referring to Peter Norton, the genius in my opinion) as this man has found a perfect way to get rich off of Microsoft by simply fixing windows problems. As is the case with today's Norton Utilities, I find it to be the best in quickly determining errors and allowing you to correct them manually, or allow 'the system' to make the repair for you. There is a lot that goes on behind the program, and that is where many techies would agree that, right out of the box installations, will most definitely slow your computer's overall performance. This is why it is always key to go through the options of the program and see what truly needs to be running on start up and what needs to be monitoring 'all of the time' versus during a schedule scan.
To get to the problem at hand, it requires a little history of Norton, since I did mention it was around before Windows, this means that when it comes to security issues and/or performance issues, you would think Norton would be on top of this making sure the right out of the box experience is enjoyable, which to say seems pretty good as the user interface is friendly, much more then McAfee or other similar windows utility, all-in-one packages. The problem is more of 'who is the boss' then anything else. Since security is of utmost importance, not only from viruses but from spyware as well, it seems that Norton is not alone in attempting to cover everything, but it does seem that Norton and Windows do not see eye to eye on the security instructor. As within the Norton Systemworks and Antivirus options, you have the ability to keep it's program safe from other programs monitoring the status. This is great, but now windows operating system , since the SP2 release, can now monitor the status of your Antivirus, therefore if you are turning a feature on within one program telling it to protect it from other programs that also want to monitor its status, you are blocking windows. As with the issues if you tell the windows built in 'security center' that you have your own Antivirus monitoring system, this should be the end of the problems. Unfortunately it isn't and as a result of a simple 'live update' through the Symantec Live update button, you may find the results are telling you to reactivate. This is also not uncommon if you have installed a program that is of version 3 for example, and you have been updating as they were available, 3.5, 3.6, etc.. But now, along comes version 4 and confusion (so to speak). Therefore I have found a change was necessary, since I am constantly trying to promote to my existing clients and those using my remote services, it comes to no shock then when I am to be making certain updates or fixes to hundreds of computers. This could mean hours and hours of time spent fixing something that wouldn't have needed fixing, if certain updates were not completed. This brings up the argument then, whether you should always take the update that is available, even when your system 'appears to be running normally'. As a computer tech, it does make me wonder just how important something is or just how others may judge something as important or not, when in many ways, the way I might use the computer, the update that might be available truly has no bearing on the work that I do, but I still do the update. Why, when everything is working, would I do that? Well, in my position I do it because if problems do occur, it is me that must fix it, therefore learning what it is that I must do to fix it on my clients computer, the person that has hired me to fix their problem. So when I find a program that works great, of course I will promote it, just as my SOFTWARE/SUPPORT page is filled with little applets that will help keep your system OPTIMIZED and running as clean as possible without spyware and other malware issues that cause you to have so much hatred at times, towards your computer, when all you want is to be able to use your computer, without all the problems. This is why automizing things or scheduling tasks when your computer is not in use becomes so important, one more reason why you should leave your computer turned on, however if your utility program itself is malfunction, what are you going to do? In my case, I find alternative situations to use. Being able to connect and repair problems remotely is of great value to someone like myself, being able to repair problems without having to remove the computer from its home location becomes quite critical, however it also helps knowing that the computer(s) in question already have a number of valuable programs running that are already monitoring, cleaning and repairing issues that come up from the routine web surfing and emailing. I have to try and rely on trusted programs, therefore I use Symantec products, one of which is pcanywhere. The problem when dealing with one company for many products however, is when they integrate these together, as Symantec does with it's Systemworks packages. Problem is when you want to uninstall or make changes to one 'element' of the program, which you consider it's own program, Symantec looks at it as the one program, "systemworks".
Avast antivirus is just that.. antivirus and nothing less then that, however it is also nothing more either. It doesn't try and check your registry settings and compare it to an earlier saved one for comparisons. It just deals with Antivirus issues. Along with that is the automatic features which keeps things always active. I believe the two together will become a great asset to any computer system, just as many 'systemworks' programs of the past that may have been combined with Norton, there does come a time when you must try other programs and do the true comparison tests. In my case, this happens every day on hundreds of client computers and for me, it is a sure way to know whether the program will last or not. Since the process of uninstalling one Antivirus and installing the other, typically requires being "offline" in order to accomplish everything, it can be done online, but only up to one point, whereas any time the system requires going in to 'safe mode', that rules out any remote work since this means working offline, or without network protocols and only the basic windows device drivers.
For those of you already using my services, and have done so within the last year or so, probably have already used a service loaner in the case where I do most of my work from my bench, the service loaner (or what I like to refer to as my employee) has become a very valuable asset to me being able to be in more then one place at a time, and that being said, please be patient if I haven't reached your computer even though you have asked for some help. Typically when it is crunch time and I am being pulled in a few more directions then I have arms and legs for, I will connect and diagnose the problems and then make the necessary patches or adjustments so that you can at least continue to use your own computer. Of course at any time if you feel you would rather just get the job done I can come and swap out your computer, however as I mentioned, many items can be done remotely and if 'time isn't an issue' for you, so long as you can continue to use your computer, then remote service work is for sure the way to go, since my rates, are unbelievable for the remote work (you will have to ask me if you don't already know or haven't used them since they are far too low to advertise here). My employees are always standing by to help and now, with even greater ways to connect and clean and tweak, they seem to be getting used more and more for the 'emergency' where the system has completely crashed. It is nice to know you can pretty much be up and running again in about an hour or so.. Wouldn't you say?
So to close this ramble about Norton Antivirus issues, if you have been struck but the bug that many have, please let me know ASAP and I can and will make sure things are fixed at least so that you don't have to worry about not being protected, then we can worry any other issues that may be causing you to have troubles with your computer.
