Switch to Linux and you won’t need an antivirus at all.
Norton completely protects you from viruses by sucking up all the CPU and RAM on the machine, this preventing viruses, or anything else from running.
Just use the built in Windows Defender AV and save you some money.
W7? It was a good OS but let it go
It is a virus.
I put it on a computer, did not like it, did an uninstall and it still interferes with the computer operation, it will not uninstall completely.
It is a virus, avoid it like the plague.
I used anti-virus software back in the early days (90’s, 2000’s, and slightly beyond). But I used to do a lot of downloading from the internet as well. Now I dont download much of anything thats not like a trusted document or similar. I dont ‘surf’ anymore. I have let my anti-virus subscriptions expire many years ago by now and have not had any problems. No one has gotten past my wifi firewall and I dont go near any suspicious sites.
Norton is a virus......................
Norton is a good antivirus system, but it is definitely a resource hog.
The built-in antivirus is usually good enough these days. Stay away from shady websites and for God’s sake, don’t download files from those places.
Good common sense will account for 95% of your computer’s security. Good rule of thumb: If it seems fishy, it probably is.
Norton can’t protect themselves from hackers:
https://cybernews.com/security/hackers-compromise-norton-password-manager/
Lol.
AVG somehow ended up on my work computer two days ago.
Took me two days to put everything back together.
bottom line
never trust the Chinese
I’m also using 2009 Win-7 Pro x64 (8Gb RAM) on an old HP once-speedy machine.
I still also use Norton Premium AV, 360, Utilities Ultimate since the mid-90s, when it all was Peter Norton Utilities, long before Symanntec took it over. Still use it, and it does suck-up all the memory. It’s caught numerous viruses and malware — also use MalwareBytes Premium — to protect me.
It works.
Stay away from Norton 360. That program is a virus itself! I use Comodo Internet Security on my Windows 7 device.
I still use Webroot SecureAnywhere (Plus or Complete), though it no longer receives the absolute top reviews. Not too expensive, very quick installation and scanning. Unlike Norton, it does not break other programs.
Yes. Switch to Mac.
I switched to Mac in 2010 after getting fed up reinstalling Windows to remove every last traces of virus. Never looked back. Best decision I made.
Kaspersky got a bad rap and was called Russian spyware when it caught documents that two different NSA contractors illegally took home and put on their home computers. The NSA puts a little piece of code into their electronic documents to identify the documents, and Kaspersky's heuristic analyzer found this and reported it as potential spyware.
Because the heuristic analyzer sends bits of code to their home servers for deep analysis, the NSA initially tried to cover up the crimes of their contractors by calling Kaspersky Russian spyware. Eventually, the FBI worked with Kaspersky to catch the NSA thieves, and Kaspersky ultimately moved their servers out of Russia to avoid the appearance of working with Russian intelligence.
-PJ
I default back to what Microsoft comes with and haven't had issues. It is commonsense on the rest, don't open the wrong emails, don't go to the wrong sites, don't download suspicious content.
I've used Norton several times, including past year, and have removed it after a while. I've tries numerous others. I don't have one running on my computer and unsure how much extra protection for viruses, malware, and other malicious stuff I need. No urgency because I don't have a problem.
I use this, paired with TorGuard’s VPN.
Like most antirus software, it can be a resource hog on old computers.
Yeah, it matters. Windows 7 no longer gets security (or any other) updates from Microsoft. Using Win7 to surf the internet, especially anything important (e.g. banking) or dodgy (pr0n, gambling) is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.
My personal assessment is that Norton, McAfee, and others of that ilk aren't worth the powder to blow them to bits. They hog resources like mad, and overall they don't do any better than Windows Defender (built-in).
I have a Win7 virtual machine (VM) that I use to run some old legacy programs, but I never surf the internet with it. Never. I have an up-to-date Win10 VM for that. And mostly I use MacOS or Linux anyway.
The built-in Windows Defender is probably as good as you can get for Win7. I do recommend adding MalwareBytes (free version) for occasional scanning. It's real good and doesn't hog resources. You can get the paid version (not too expensive) and it will do checking in the background, also pretty light on resources.
Good luck, practice safe surfing, always wear a write-protect tab. :-)