McAfee to Norton - How?

paulgalway

Daughter got new laptop with a 6mth free use of McAfee. This is now up and she has, as part of the laptop deal, got to change to Norton 360. How should she do this and ensure that she is not open to malware/virus attack for too long?

Note that she does not have a Disc for the norton, needs to use a product key to download it.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

• Get rid of McAfee. /edit: Instructions here
• Install Microsoft Security Essentials.
• Forget about Norton

Security Essentials is a great, free product from Microsoft.

Fanny Cradock

Interesting. I was going to go down the free route with the excellent Antivir and Comodo firewall and the not so good Ad-aware - but this is getting good reviews.

Alanstrainor

Sean_K wrote: »

• Get rid of McAfee. /edit: Instructions here
• Install Microsoft Security Essentials.
• Forget about Norton

Security Essentials is a great, free product from Microsoft.

Couldn't agree more.

meercat

Sean_K wrote: »

• Get rid of McAfee. /edit: Instructions here
• Install Microsoft Security Essentials.
• Forget about Norton

Security Essentials is a great, free product from Microsoft.

sean k

thanks very much
seen this post here and have downloaded and installed already
this is what boards is all about
helping others out with great advice and information(free is also a bonus)
thanks to alanstrainor and fanny cradock who also gave the thumbs up;)

Cork Skate

Sean_K wrote: »

• Get rid of McAfee. /edit: Instructions here
• Install Microsoft Security Essentials.
• Forget about Norton

Security Essentials is a great, free product from Microsoft.

Good post .... only because it makes complete sense.

Norton, McAfee ..... pfft :rolleyes:

norbert64

Getting back to the OPs original question, I've done this on a mates Desktop.

We just downloaded the Norton software, installed it then removed McAfee.
Surprisingly they didn't seem to conflict much with each other. Maybe that's just down to Win7 though?

Overheal

you really dont want to have a situation where your kernel/os is juggling 2 antivirus programs at the same time though. After you uninstall McAfee it will ask to reboot, just do that and then install norton/MSE. It installs in about a minute at that point.

Might as well use Norton if you have it for 6 months but frankly I'd only reccomend it for either a family PC or someone that wasn't that computer savvy, it's basically overkill if you already know better and use safe web browsing practices. Then again if you dont, Norton is nice to have. And it does have some pretty nice Home Network features now, and Facebook integration - because apparently hacking facebook accounts is really popular these days.

Fanny Cradock

BTW, for those who are interested in how Microsoft does in comparison to other products see this report (PDF) form independent testers AV-Comparatives. Avast, another free program, compares very favourably to the AVs tested.

bhickey

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

BTW, for those who are interested in how Microsoft does in comparison to other products see this report (PDF) form independent testers AV-Comparatives. Avast, another free program, compares very favourably to the AVs tested.

This test is only for on-demand scanning (i.e. one-time scans where you use the antivirus software to scan a disk or folder(s)). The best product for on-demand scanning, in my opinion, is Malwarebytes. The fact that Malwarebytes isn't even included in the test makes you wonder how serious the test is.

MSE's strength so far compared to other products seems to be in the real world realtime protection which is what counts.

maki

bhickey wrote: »

This test if only for on-demand scanning (i.e. one-time scans where you use the antivirus software to scan a disk or folder(s)). The best product for on-demand scanning, in my opinion, is Malwarebytes. The fact that Malwarebytes isn't even included in the test makes you wonder how serious the test is.

MalwareBytes isn't an antivirus, it focuses on the adware/spyware/trojan end of malware.

From their official forum:
"Our software is not anti-virus software, and is not meant to replace anti-virus software. It is meant to complement anti-virus software and cover the areas where anti-virus software is weak."

Fanny Cradock

bhickey wrote: »

MSE's strength so far compared to other products seems to be in the real world realtime protection which is what counts.

In case you didn't know, it seems that you have to pay for realtime protection. And, as maki suggested, MB isn't an AV program, and this is probably why AV-Comparatives, "independent testers of Anti-Virus software", didn't review this product.:pac:

Still, thanks for the heads up. I might give it a whirl.

bhickey

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

In case you didn't know, it seems that you have to pay for realtime protection.

I don't know what you mean, MSE is free and provides realtime protection

And, as maki suggested, MB isn't an AV program, and this is probably why AV-Comparatives, "independent testers of Anti-Virus software", didn't review this product.

Hmmm ... Okay that's twice now I've kindly been told that Malwarebytes is not an antivirus program despite the fact that I never said it was :rolleyes:

If you read the post, I simply said that Malwarebytes was "The best product for on-demand scanning". I think most people would agree.

Adyx

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

In case you didn't know, it seems that you have to pay for realtime protection. And, as maki suggested, MB isn't an AV program, and this is probably why AV-Comparatives, "independent testers of Anti-Virus software", didn't review this product.:pac:

Still, thanks for the heads up. I might give it a whirl.

Are you sure about paying for real-time protection in MSE? Every time I plug in my memory stick with Nirsoft Launcher on it, MSE flags some of the programs as viruses (they're not) without running the on-demand scanner.


Edit: Unless it automatically scans removable drives, which would make sense.

maki

bhickey wrote: »

Hmmm ... Okay that's twice now I've kindly been told that Malwarebytes is not an antivirus program despite the fact that I never said it was :rolleyes:

If you read the post, I simply said that Malwarebytes was "The best product for on-demand scanning". I think most people would agree.

You can't call a program "The best product for on-demand scanning", if it purposefully doesn't look for certain threats. For every piece of malicious software that MBAM detects, it misses plenty of others simply because it doesn't even try to detect them.

Don't get me wrong, I've a paid licence for MBAM, it's an absolutely fantastic program and I haven't found an anti-malware application to rival it. I do of course have an anti-virus program to complement it.

To ask it be included in an anti-virus comparison when it simply doesn't fall into that category is plain folly.

bhickey

maki wrote: »

You can't call a program "The best product for on-demand scanning"

That's my opinion, get over it. If you think there's a better overall product to use specifically "for on-demand scanning" then please do share.

Overheal

Meh, I just use MSE and if I ever have to I use MWB to scan for something wrong. But other than that if something ever does go wrong I just go to the Virus and Malware Removal forum. Because honestly Norton, MSE, or MWB were not going to detect the TDSS rootkit that had strapped itself to my cousin's MBR.

Not only had he not upgraded the software in 2-3 years but he must have done it himself and gave the program User Account Control because I did find a fair amount of porn on the PC also: ultimately if you Click "yes" "Install" "OK", antivirus aint worth sh*t.

On Demand scanners are fine but I much prefer process logs like HijackThis! that show you pretty plainly what is going on and can be passed on to fellow geeks that pride their expertise in malware.

RolandIRL

Common Sense > Anti-Virus Programs

People should have this requirement before being let near a computer :pac:

maki

bhickey wrote: »

That's my opinion, get over it. If you think there's a better overall product to use specifically "for on-demand scanning" then please do share.

No need to tell me to "get over it"; I'm quite willing to be corrected if my information is incorrect or out of date.

The issue is that "on-demand scanning" as a subject isn't exactly locked down to a specific task. Some suites scan for both viruses and malware (Eset Smart Security for example, or any security suite), while some scan for viruses specifically (any major AV program), and others scan for general spyware/adware/trojans (MBAM, SAS, AdAware, SpyBot, etc.)

As an "overall product" you should be using a security suite or a combination of AV, anti-malware, and firewall products (+ anti-behavioural or HIPS if you're paranoid) . Using an anti-malware alone and expecting it to fulfil the role of an overall product is certainly not recommended, even if it is just for on-demand scanning. No antivirus/antimalware product will offer you 100% protection alone.