AV-Test carries out tests on security programs periodically to see how well each one blocks threats that might be encountered on the Internet. To see how well your choice of program protects, go to the page linked to below and click on the appropriate operating system:

http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/home-user/

Worth mentioning is that the results of any tests like these can vary from month to month. Also, no AV program is perfect. Any can have a failure rate if you are unlucky enough to come across malware that can bypass it. Further to that, malware can trick a person into inviting it onto the computer. A security program should pick up such actions but may not always.

Wow thanks Martin that's really good. Found out that the system I use is very good.

I use Nortons.

Just like in about any other test, my free AV measures in the upper mid-range of the field, better than the average paid-license software. What I like is the consistency - AV products' test scores tend to fluctuate and even most major brands have months they do badly.

I'm using Bitdefender for Windows 8 (security suite) at present. Bitdefender often comes top of the charts and I managed to find it at a low price. It's hasn't been entirely without problems but they are only minor ones. Kaspersky sometimes tops Bitdefender and Norton is usually pretty well up there too.

Some people don't like Norton because of bad experiences with the versions prior to 2008. I used it for a few years (2009 to 2012) and found it good. It is still installed on Mrs TW's computer.

The main thing I have found about Nortons, to my cost, is NOT to click the renewal button when it is due to expires but to buy a new boxed product from Amazon or so other business, the online renewal is far more expensive.

Yes, that's the way to go Sue. Much less expensive if you shop around. No need to install the new disc either. Just enter the new number into the renewal box in the existing program.

Ah, I didn't know that. I will do that when I upgrade my spare computer, I almost never use it so it gets updated once or twice a year, when I have guests staying they use it.

Even after 2008 Norton has been garbage. A few years back, I had a PC go haywire on me. I took it in to a friend and had him look at it. You know what he found? Not just one or two random malware bits. A whole grocery list of crap that Norton refused to find. This friend told me it would be cheaper just to buy a new PC than to take it in and get fixed. This was how bad it was and how trashy Norton's so-called anti-virus was.

Avast's free version works much better than anything Norton has ever put out, and I will go to my grave cursing Norton and the scams they pulled.

The first line of defense in malware and viruses has been and always will be the users themselves. Knowing what to avoid and how to avoid it is always the best thing to start with. Anti-virus programs should be a safety net. Even the browser you use can make a huge difference (along with the add-ons available).

What do those of you with Macs use? I haven't really installed anything on this laptop yet because I wasn't sure what programs were good for Macs. I have Norton and some free version thing on my desktop (which I haven't actually turned on for about 3 years!)...

A person's opinion of a particular security product naturally depends on whether it has let them down or not. Some people experience problems with Norton and some don't but I suppose this can be said about any AV/security program. It is also the case that we'll usually only hear from those who have had problems. Not from the vast majority who haven't.

As said, no AV program is perfect. If I search the Internet using the search term 'norton sucks' (or bad - poor - infected etc) there will be many results. However, typing the same keywords along with a few other big names in the security field brings up no shortage of people unhappy with some of those products. Try this with your own choice of program. Also visit the forum dedicated to a particular program to read of problems.

I think it's true that there will be more cases of Norton being troublesome but I believe this is because new MS Windows computers come bundled with it. Hence it has more users that can potentially get trouble. If new computers came bundled with another big name, I think there would be just as many customers unhappy with that program as there are with Norton.

In a way, Norton isn't done any favours by their software being installed on new computers. Perhaps Norton should take a back seat and let new computers come bundled something else so that a different product becomes the target of high-profile dissatisfaction.

I can't see that a new computer would have been necessary because of an infection(s). A format and reinstallation of software would cure it, or using the recovery procedure if an installation disk wasn't supplied with the computer.

Have a look into using disk images for when the worst happens and sandboxing for preventing it from happening.

I have been using the free Avast for several years now. It consistently ranks well on every independent review I have checked. As far as Norton goes, I dislike it as it is a very large program. It is also very difficult to remove from your system. I actually had a computer delivered to me for repair. I was unable to solve any issues it had because whenever I attempted a repair I would get a message stating "another administrator was in use" (or something to that effect...it was a few years ago). It turned out that the other administrator was Norton. I had to restore the computer to factory defaults.

I ran into the same issue as you with a more recent version of Norton when trying to troubleshoot for my brother. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what was going on with him being locked out as an administrator (I was troubleshooting over the phone) because he never thought to mention that he had tried to remove Norton, since it's just an antivirus and should have been harmless. Once he mentioned that, I figured it out.

For that reason alone, I'll never use, nor recommend Norton to anyone.

I never experienced that problem with Norton ga_jam831. Did the difficulty arise after the customer had tried uninstalling it?

Uninstalling was one test I gave Norton before using it from 2009 to 2012. I'd heard of the difficulties people had with doing this. I had no trouble with the operation but it has to be done by first uninstalling via the Control Panel and then using the Norton Removal Tool. The tool should be run 2 or 3, rebooting each time.

Having said that, even after doing the uninstallation correctly, it will still be possible to find Norton leftovers by doing a manual search of the file system and Registry (I remove them). However, there shouldn't be anything left that would conflict with an incoming security program.

Perhaps most people wouldn't think to research how to go about uninstalling Norton properly and go no further than Add/Remove in the Control Panel. If the uninstallation is not done thoroughly, then it could lead to the system that needs some sorting out, especially if they have tried installing something else before Norton was properly gone.

We just paid for another year of Norton on Mrs TW's computer. It and the computer are running OK and there seemed no reason to change things.

I'm not sure how Norton was removed initially. Is there some sort of option when installing it with regard to allowing Norton to act as the system administrator? I thought it may have been a setting upon installation, rather than uninstallation. Maybe it's a combo. I don't recall the solution I found, but it was from a tech website with people that had the same issue he was having. After uninstalling properly he had no issue though.

Anyway, TW, it would make sense that it's about how they go about uninstalling it. Some people are just in a hurry to get things over with and jump into it without researching it properly. No doubt that's what my brother did. My argument to that, however, is that an antivirus shouldn't be so hard to remove that you have to research how to do it ahead of time or do it 2 or 3 times using the built in tool.

I completely agree with you though, it all depends on if a person has had an issue with a specific product in the past. I've had issues with Norton and AVG and won't use either. It may work perfect for other users and for years, but I'll never use them again, personally. I can say the same thing for any other number of consumer goods.

I am not sure what my daughter had done as far as trying to remove Norton. I believe she had used a third party remover such as Revo (which I really like). She called me when it locked up on her, put the laptop in a box and mailed it to me. As you stated TW, you definitely have to use Norton's removal tools. I also have yet to see the removal tool actually rid all traces of the product though. This is common with many AV programs.

Because of issues I have had on more than one occasion with Norton, I never recommend it to any of my customers. I therefore agree with you pyonir on that as well as AVG.

Nothing that I came across Pyonir. I run as Administrator all the time though and this could be the difference. I'm supposing many people would run their computer from a User Account. Computers bought with the OS and Norton pre-installed might be set up and supplied like that. I'm not sure.

I don't think the uninstallation procedure would work properly if running in a User Account. Maybe few things get tried with people not realising this and it's a slippery slope from then on.

I think the only way to remove every file or Registry reference to a security program is to format and reinstall. Not the sort of operation people want to do though and not everyone has a Microsoft OS installation disk.

I like to try out various security programs, so keep a disk image of a system which had had no security program installed (other than what comes with the installation). I can keep going back to this image each time I want to install and try a new program. It's more or less true to say that I haven't experienced major problems with any security program I've installed this way. This does make it seem as if it's the last program's leftovers that cause problems for some. The system is never truly clean of any previously installed security program.

I have installed another security suite after removing Norton in the recommended way and all was well but as an experiment, once tried really cleaning it out of the system. The main folders in the file system were removed without issue but going into the Registry and removing all Norton entries proved to be a mistake. Everything seemed fine until Windows Update time came around. They wouldn't install. I'm pretty sure this was because I'd removed something essential in the Registry.

Disk images are wonderful. It means you can try all sorts of dire things and always have a way back.

Edit: Some of the Norton Registry entries can be removed without causing a problem. I think it was giving full permissions to the protected keys and removing them that appeared to cause problems.