Worldwide there is a tendency in anti-virus forums and anti-spyware forums to complain about the anti-virus products from McAfee, Symantec and Norton.

Why is that, you may ask? Yes, they are bloated, they take almost half a millennium to scan your system and they were about the last products that could flawlessly work with Vista. But then, there are hundreds of crappy or sub-standard products available on the internet and a program like RogueRemover will take on but a few of the worst offenders. So, why do we care?

The root of this problem lies with the fact that these companies have brilliant sales departments. We all know that a good salesman can sell anything to an unwary customer. And there are hardly any more customers unaware than those who reside in the computer procurement departments of large companies and schools. McAfee, Symantec and Norton are pre-installed in virtually every computer that finds its way into your company or school. No problem, no hassle to search and find the best possible anti-virus scanner. No, that problem has already been conveniently solved for them by the seller.

We, the real experts, know better. We like lightning quick scans, as less false positives as possible, an appealing GUI and a responsive staff that will take all our problems seriously.

So, why do we care? We care because we have the best possible anti-virus programs running on our own computers but we have to live daily with these programs that can't meet our own high standards.

It can be regarded as a form of mental torture that, in the end, makes us more mature and resilient. Regard it as a test and also as an ongoing incentive for other companies to keep developing even better anti-virus programs and anti-spyware programs.

And in the end who really cares? It's not our own money that is wasted on these programs.

edit by DjLizard: I'm filing this under Incompetence also :D

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Comments

7 Responses to “Why are McAfee, Symantec and Norton vilified?”

  1. # mike on March 5th, 2007 9:38 PM

    I read your note article 'McAfee, Symantic, and Norton'. Boy how right you are, I won't touch them. McAfee was my first, they sent me sheets of instruction, and patches, I got some good instructions on how to run 'regedit'. They, it appears wanted me to change the workings of my pc so their software would work.
    Norton and Symantic ( did Norton change its name?) were very 'clunky'. In fact one of them acted like a giant virus and I was told my disk was full, I believe it was the virus software as it was starting to act up strangely, in fact I lost control of it.
    I have been using "Vet/CA since then never been whacked never a problem, it's fast and not at all 'clunky'.
    Regards,
    Mike

  2. # Tarun on March 7th, 2007 11:10 AM

    RogueRemover is not very good, in my honest opinion. It just rips out what it finds, instead of telling you what it finds and allowing you to choose what to remove.

  3. # fredvries on March 8th, 2007 8:33 AM

    Uhmm…

    Tarun, that’s exactly what it already does. RogueRemover scans, presents you a list of options and then let you decide if you want to remove the items detected.

    Fred

  4. # Tarun on March 8th, 2007 1:20 PM

    Last time it found anything, it just told me it completely removed it. No choices or anything.

  5. # DjLizard on March 8th, 2007 9:12 PM

    I stopped using About:Buster for the same reason. That, and it deleting all of System32 without asking me.

  6. # Tarun on March 9th, 2007 10:10 AM

    It's said to be fixed and no more updates.

  7. # valentine on March 21st, 2007 5:26 AM

    Use SPYBOT it,s a dream and quick. Have also used Ad-Aware & CA Anti virus all without any problems. Not so with McAfee, Norton and Symantec. Although Partrition Magic (now unfortunately bought out by Symantec is a brilliant and amazing programme for partitioning your disk thus safeguarding and minimizing reboots of everything you have. Try it. Valentine.

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