I intensely dislike programs like Norton and McAffee. Tonight I discovered Norton Security, which I did not download or install, running a scan for viruses. It was tricky to get rid of. The button I needed to click on to uninstall it kept hiding under the add/remove programs window and slipped away when I tried to click on it. I don't know where it came from for sure. Possibly when I tried to download Age of Empires demo. I've always believed that Norton is a virus and this little experience proves it.

While I don't care for Norton (symantic) or McAffie either. neither one are viruses or worms or anything other than proprietary applications that have gotten good reviews through millions of dollars worth of advertising, that cover up the bad reviews.

Both software applications have been recognized as leaders in the fight against malware/spyware/viruses. In doing so, (my opinion) they became so aggressive that they forgot who owns the computer they are being installed on. In this respect they have been known to actually cause computer issues with conflicts with other software and even some latency hardware that is used on some computers.

They have become so aggressive that at 1 time I had 22 pages of scripting to perform in order to remove Norton from my computer. I have never allowed it back on. I highly reccommend that owners of new computers that come with Norton security suite to never use it or activate it but to remove it and install other non intrusive software to replace it.

The anti-virus apps only have a 20% catch rate so most of what is out there still finds it's way in. I used McAffee Utilities once. What a mistake! My computer wouldn't finish defragmenting. After 2 1/2 hours it was still only 45% complete. I gave up. I had to reformat my hard drive to get rid of it. I use Spybot and Avast now.