Yes I’ve searched this and yes I’ve been on techie forums, but I’m no techie and I’m a bit confused so am looking for advice from fellow STWers who can speak a similar language to me!

My Norton runs out in a fortnight on a PC I’ve had for nearly 3 years and is still fine for me needs. It has a lot of music and images on it which I definitely wouldn’t want to loose (and will back-up).

If you were in my position what would you do? Update Norton, buy a competitor or use freeware that’s out there? If you know of somewhere I can find the answer with a step by step guide I’d appreciate the link.

Thanks in anticipation.

Completely erase Norton and all of its components

Then Get AVG free anti virus and Zonealarm free firewall

Your pc will probably run a bit quicker aswell, since norton seems to use lots of system resources

.ditch norton. you may find it is difficult to remove completely – IIRC a removal tool is needed to correct registry entries. Norton is notorious for slowing down computers

AVG / Ad aware / zone alarm here. No infections in 3 yrs.

Infact, if you back up the stuff you need, you could format the hard drive, re install windows and then install the apps ive suggested. It should make your pc run alot smoother

get rid of norton as stated. i would actually recommend avast antivirus ( free for home use ) over avg, as i found last time avg did a major update my system became a lot slower, but this laptop is a bit poo mind. avast seems much less hungry. you need to register it within 60 days but it is free ( and this is easy to do – you get prompted ).
here you go:
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

Same as what everyone else has said. I’ve got 3 PC’s at home running Windows and have used free AVG for years with no issues.

Norton is pants.

DEl – I do find that AVG seems to slow the puter sometimes – never can work out why and its not consistant.

Many thanks all. I’ll follow the advice and use AVG or avast with Zonealarm. May also do what davidtaylforth suggests and back up and format the HD. Hell of a lot of unnneccesary sh!te onmy PC, like.

I’ll use the money I’ve saved to go buy an external HDD for the backups now. Any suggestions from the January sales?

Yup format the HD and reinstall windows. Makes such a difference. as for suggestions in the sales, just go for a reasonably priced one, for a reputable company (buffalo, seagate, western digital)

I’d be tempted by this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-Drivestation-500GB-External-Drive/dp/B001EKW0O4/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1231678930&sr=1-5>

no firewire though.

[cough] Buy a mac [/cough]

Sorry.

tomzo … thanks … may just order that one later today.

What do you mean no firewire? I fitted a firewire connection for the camcorder a couple for years back so I have that capability.

If your system is behind a router with its own firewall I’d ignore the firewall software, unless you’re a fan of opening suspicious emails or warez. Switch to avast. Jobs a goodun.

As in the the harddrive I linked you to, does not have a firewire connection, it uses USB. Firewire is generally quicker at data transfer,so backing up would be quicker if it had firewire. I’d recommend you get a firewire external harddrive if you have the capability.

Performance difference between recent USB & firewire is marginal. Using USB will give you extra flexibility if you want to connect your drive to other computers (how many non-apple laptops have firewire ?). If performance is an must-have, get a ESATA drive (most are now) & an ESATA card for your PC. That’ll outperform firewire & USB.