help a clueless person

[sophiarosehips]

Hi,
My Norton Anti-Virus is up for renewal, and before taking that step, I decided to do a little search on ccapp.exe to see if it was normal that it seems to take all of my pc's resources to run... only to find forum after forum saying how terrible Norton is. And here I thought I was the only one who noticed.
Okay, so I'm pretty close to computer illiterate, and I need help here. First of all, what security programs are good?
Second, how on earth am I going to dig all of Norton's tangled roots out of my pc?
Thanks for any and all advice!
- Sophia

 

[ScottFern]

Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0 is pretty damn nice. I just bought it and love it. Has a small footprint and its not very invasive.

 

[bsobel]

What version are you running? The 2007 versions do take signifigantly LESS resources than the 2006 and prior versions....

 

[Schadenfroh]

Kaspersky is currently FREE after MiR, you can evaluate it's minimal impact on system resources by downloading their free trial. (when you get the shipment in from amazon, all you have to do is enter the key in and you will be good to go, no reinstall)


To see detection rate tests, check out the antivirus detection rate thread.

Kaspersky offers one if the highest (if not the highest) detection rate in the antivirus industry. Combine that with a minimal impact on system performance / resources and hourly updates (the fastest threat response time in the industry) and you have a very competitive combination:thumbsup:

Second, how on earth am I going to dig all of Norton's tangled roots out of my pc?

Norton Removal Tool

 

[Lemon law]

To Sophia,

You are some what flying under false colors here when you say help a clueless person. Because you have done the work and the research showing you are anything but clueless.

You have some great links to follow up.

 

[sophiarosehips]

Hey, thanks all. And sorry to misrepresent myself, Lemon... I just get that glazed look in my eye if people start using "techie" words, you know...

 

[sophiarosehips]

Schaden,
A review on the Amazon page says that there are sometimes software conflicts. Should I worry about this?
I'm running XP Home, 2002 edition. As I said, I have Norton, although I'll be killing as much of that as possible soon. Norton has a firewall... the reviewer mentioned a problem with the firewall. I also have an expired version of Spy Sweeper--haven't gotten around to dl'ing adaware and spybot.
I'm poised to dl the free trial of Kaspersky. Please advise me on the possible software conflict as soon as you can.
Thanks again,
Sophia

 

[Schadenfroh]

A review on the Amazon page says that there are sometimes software conflicts. Should I worry about this?

Be sure to fully remove Norton before installing Kaspersky's trial. (use add/remove programs and remove the symantec / norton antivirus components, then run the tool to fully purge it).

After restarting, make sure Windows Firewall is running (preferably you have a router sitting between you and your cable modem).

I have never had any trouble with Kaspersky, but use the trial to verify that it works fine on your system before purchasing. Like I said, the trial should hold you over till it comes in and once it is in, all you have to do is enter the license key and you will be good to go, no need to reinstall... as a matter of fact, installing the trial is preferable because you get a newer revision than what is on the disc (saves you some update time).

Also, check out mechBgon's webpage, excellent info there:
http://www.mechbgon.com/build/security2.html

 

[sophiarosehips]

Thanks again, Schaden!

 

[aCynic2]

I got Kavpersky's AV as recommended here. I like it, it caught one already. It also shows a lot of diff PIDs attempting to access it (but not to worry because it was denied), but when I look in the task list, I can't find those PIDs.

 

[Noema]

I personally like Avir, but Kavpersky is great too.

 

[Lemon law]

Its probably worth pointing out that right now, nod32, Kaspersky, and avirus are all top tier active AV products. And rather than ignite a debate on which is the best its better to say that its a very hard call to make. But there is the sad reality that one can basically have one and only one of them running on your PC at a time in active mode.

But there is a way to have your cake and eat it too---which is take advantage of the opportunity to use free on line scans which I know at least Kaspersky offers. Rather time consuming on dial up but far quicker on broadband. And because these are passive--you can use any number of these scans without chucking the active anti-virus you have.