[SOLVED] is Norton good?

[Tac 25]

Hi, so have recently put together a new pc. This Asus Prime B560M-K motherboard comes with a cd, so I put in the cd.. and then it proceeded to install Integrated Graphics, Winrar, and some other things to help me get started. One of the thing the cd installed is Norton Antivirus.

question: is Norton good, or should I be using another antivirus?

 

[USAFRet]

Given an intelligent user, the built in Windows Defender is just fine.

With all the issues surrounding Norton, I would never have it on my systems.

Discussion - Nortons adds crypto miner to some of their applications

What I always wanted my AV program running, a crypto miner while PC is idle. It may only be in certain versions of their products, I don't have full info I wish it was a joke but hey, its on their website - https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v138388461 so its opt in...

forums.tomshardware.com

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v138388461

 

[Wolfshadw]

I'd uninstall it. It's likely a trial product that will ask you to create a paid subscription account.

-Wolf sends

 

[velocityg4]

Just use the built in Microsoft Defender. It's not necessary to use a third party product. As with any AV. The best one keeps changing with each round of AV testing.

The best defense is to keep everything up to date, follow safe browsing practices and don't install random junk.

 

[Tac 25]

After reading the replies to thread.. now I'm worried. Not using the new pc at the moment, but tomorrow I will be using it. Will take a closer look at what version of Norton got installed. And will try to uninstall it.

the pc technician who was with me said the pc would be better if I used the cd. Well, and I wanted the integrated graphics drivers that the cd has, so I let the technician install the cd. The Norton was bundled into the cd and got installed automatically when the other programs got installed.

 

[USAFRet]

After reading the replies to thread.. now I'm worried. Not using the new pc at the moment, but tomorrow I will be using it. Will take a closer look at what version of Norton got installed. And will try to uninstall it.

the pc technician who was with me said the pc would be better if I used the cd. Well, and I wanted the integrated graphics drivers that the cd has, so I let the technician install the cd. The Norton was bundled into the cd and got installed automatically when the other programs got installed.

Some of the stuff on that CD is fine.
Graphics drivers, etc.

The problem was when you let it install everything.
You need to be selective.

And it sounds like you need a better "pc technician". Anyone who lets it just install everything is pretty clueless.

 

[velocityg4]

Some of the stuff on that CD is fine.
Graphics drivers, etc.

The problem was when you let it install everything.
You need to be selective.

And it sounds like you need a better "pc technician". Anyone who lets it just install everything is pretty clueless.

I’d also add a good PC technician would check the hardware vendors website. For the latest drivers. In preference to the outdated ones on the CD.

 

[adsoyo]

I've ran Norton on and off since the 90's. Most recently I've had Norton 360 for nearly 10 years. It had low resource use and stayed out of my way in the background. Then in the last 2ish years it's been giving me pop ups even after disabling them and automatically placing an icon on my desktop. Unacceptable. They were also in the news for their greedy crypto practices. I've now canceled the subscription and am using built in windows defender.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I have an inherit distrust of practically all third party anti-malware software after reading https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/01/antivirus-is-bad/

Not only do security researchers keep finding critical vulnerabilities, and in one instance telling Mozilla to knock it off about reporting anti-malware programs interfering with Firefox, there's no real incentive for anti-virus software developers to give you anything more than lip service for protection. It's a similar issue with physical lock companies. Master Lock is the worst of them, where they produce locks with the same vulnerabilities and are easily defeated with a simple rake attack. They keep these problems hush-hush so the layman who doesn't know any better continues to buy their products under the pretense of security.

So why would I trust Windows Defender more? Because Microsoft has a reputation to uphold with security for their OS. They actually have a reason to do a good enough job and not interfere with the apps I use (though that's not to say Defender has zero issues, just likely a lot less issues).

 

[Colif]

No, not Norton... any AV that includes a Crypto miner doesn't belong on your PC

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v138388461

 

[USAFRet]

I have an inherit distrust of practically all third party anti-malware software after reading https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/01/antivirus-is-bad/

In addition, there was a recent article (can't find it right now) that shows most AV review sites are owned by.....the AV companies.

 

[Colif]

its hard to find websites that aren't trying to sell you something, though... don't come here not logged on

 

[USAFRet]

don't come here not logged on

What has been seen cannot be unseen.

 

[Tac 25]

wrong to use this site without logging in? cannot be unseen indeed, haha

sorry for late reply. Genshin Impact had a limited time event, and I played with friends for awhile, only able to turn on the new pc today.

anyway, on to business. Got rid of the Norton using it's own uninstaller.

thankfully, it seems to be gone now. I remembered a story from years ago, a cousin told me his pc crashed because Norton deleted files in windows when it detected a virus. That's more than enough reason for me to uninstall this thing.



also the pc is working fine now. Glad to finally have a 10600k pc at last, after almost half a year of saving money.