My friend's free subscription for Norton Antivirus 2003 ran out so we installed the 2004 version. After rebooting, we encountered some problems connecting to his high speed connection so we decided to try AVG. Seemed like everything was working fine until it detected a virus a few days later. AVG decided to exit windows and show the virus alert on the log in screen of Windows XP. Instead of attempting to quarantine or delete the virus, it told us to run the program from within windows. So we did ... only to find that after 26 mins. of hdd crunching, it couldn't find it. Nice. This went on for a few days after which we were thoroughly disgusted with AVG. We deleted it and decided to give NAV 2004 another chance. Fortunately everything worked fine this time and the viruses (not virus!) were taken care of. So I just wanted to warn all of you AVG users out there that you might have a latent virus hanging around on the hdd waiting to wake up and attack.
Maybe the professional version is better, but the free version certainly wasn't much help in our case. True, NAV 2004 is intrusive and takes up a lot of system resources, but in my mind it's worth it.
Posts: 287 | Location: North America | Registered: Mon 31 July 2000
A small but dangerous piece of software that is written to attck the largest number of computers. Invariably this is Windows/PC based because no one can be bothered writing one to attack the very small minority of Mac users unless it's to wipe that smug grin of their faces
The virus that AVG detected was probably lurking in your system restore. When you subsequently ran AVG it couldn't remove it as windows prevents access to the system restore files. Try turning off system restore, running AVG again, and then turning system restore back on. AVG is an excellent product that doesn't f*** up your other software (DVD writing for example) like Norton can.
"Be my lover, don't cause me pain, just play me John Coltrane"
Posts: 1524 | Location: Yorkshire, UK | Registered: Tue 19 September 2000
Count, I've always been a Norton AV fan. It's just that everybody here kept singing the praises of AVG so I thought I would give it a whirl. As you can see, I won't be trying that again.
Jez, do I detect some hostility there We've been burning like madman without any problems so I guess we had an isolated AVG incident and you had a Norton incident. Whatever works I suppose. But having to go through all the steps you mentioned just to get rid of ONE virus ... can't be bothered.
Garyi, perhaps I can get a friend of mine to write a virus or worm for you so you can appreciate what the fuss is about
Posts: 287 | Location: North America | Registered: Mon 31 July 2000
Once a virus is 'helpfully' backed up by Windows restore I think you'll find most virus killers need it switched off in order to do their stuff. It's no effort - just a few clicks My Computer>properties>system restore
"Be my lover, don't cause me pain, just play me John Coltrane"
Posts: 1524 | Location: Yorkshire, UK | Registered: Tue 19 September 2000
The other thought is I've heard that unless Anti Virus software is TOTALLY removed including all the bits that a normal uninstall doesn't remove, installing anohter AV software can lead to problems including false detections. Having said that, the system restore feature on XP sounds more likely!
Computers are supposed to work on 1's and 0's - in other words "Yes" or "No" - why does mine frequently say "Maybe"?......
Posts: 942 | Location: Birmingham England | Registered: Fri 04 October 2002
My copy of Spybot Search & Destroy often informs me that I have a copy of LavaSoft Ad-Ware on my machine and then Ad-Ware tells me that Search & destroy is installed. It pays to keep both of them them on their toes!
Roy
Posts: 1992 | Location: UK | Registered: Sat 05 October 2002
Why bother paying for anti-virus software, when you can get perfectly good anti-virus software for free.
Try Avast anti-virus. It is free, and all updates to the software are free. The virus database is updated regularly, with a new version available on at least a weekly basis. You can configure it to update itself automatically in the background.
Of course, all of this wouldn't really be necessary if Microsoft had bothered to design their operating system properly in the first place...
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We've been burning like madman without any problems so I guess we had an isolated AVG incident and you had a Norton incident. Whatever works I suppose. But having to go through all the steps you mentioned just to get rid of ONE virus ... can't be bothered. 
