Buy this product at your peril

The first thing that is worth noting is that it will not work on Vista 64 even though it states it does. The other thing you need to know is that should your one vital piece of protection go wrong, you can get it fixed, and oh dear have Norton got it wrong. And when it comes to customer service it gets even worse. They must have the worst customer service in the world. They offer to call you if you fill in a form, you cannot complete the form as a UK telephone number will not fit in the box; as it converts it to a foreign number and there is not enough space. You can obtail a number but you have to fill in the form again first which you cannot complete. On emailing customer support they give you a number which guess what, is foreign and will not work. When you eventually get a number for them it is an offshore call centre who speak very slowly and grasp what you say once they put it through a translator. Be warned.

Norten

I have used norton for the past 4 years. I think this securty is the best.

Look Elsewhere This is a Disaster

Used the three licence version for a year OK, but when the time came to extend the period it trashed my laptop. Searched for solutions on the web but none were effective. I would not recommend this piece of software to my worst enemy.
Spent many hours returning my laptop to day one and then re-installing my software and the last backup. I will never even consider Norton again.

Good Product

Having used Norton Internet Security for years and whilst it's a very good and thorough internet protection software which has never let me down, it slows your machine down terribly. So coming up for a subscription renewal I thought I'd have a change. Checking out magazines and Amazon reviews pointed me in the direction of Kaspersky Internet Security. However, it's important if you are replacing Norton with any other internet protection to remove all traces of Norton. If you don't it can cause all sorts of conflicts with your new protection software. Add/remove doesn't remove all of Norton, so you need to download the special Norton removal tool from the Symantec website.
There are two install options for Kasperky, custom and default.
Custom is useful for people with a reasonable knowledge of computers; novices should use the default option which installs the essential stuff. You can change this later if you wish. Kasperksy installs quickly and effortlessly, then you get the updates online to complete your protection.
The first thing I noticed was that my computer responds much quicker, everything loading and opening much faster. Especially internet browsing.
The Kaspersky interface is simplicity itself, very user friendly. The protection runs in the background, unobtrusively giving you protection against a multitude of horrors, and updates itself with new signatures hourly. Because these updates are hourly they are only small files measured in Kb's rather than Mb's and as such have virtually no slowdown effect on your machine, plus the protection is right bang up to date.

Simple and Effective

I've been a loyal Norton user since I bought my first PC eight years ago, but I was getting increasingly frustrated with the ever-slower start-up times and found my 'trusted' security package to blame. I found Norton got slower and slower the nearer I got to the renewal date of my subscription. In previous years this has been a niggle, but this year my relatively new PC took a full 12 minutes from start-up to actually getting to my homepage.
After looking at various reviews online I went for Kaspersky 7. I'm no techie so some of the reviews were off-putting, especially the issues with customer services at Kaspersky when things went wrong. However, the price and the positive reviews by respectable web sites and magazines persuaded me to take the chance. I'm so glad I did! Installation was simple and although the initial scan took some hours, I simply ticked the box to switch off the PC when it had finished and went to bed. Job done! Updates have been discrete and well-managed, and the scans have picked up a few nasties Norton had happily left alone. I can't recommend this highly enough

Both Good and Bad

This seems to work okay with my brand new desktop Windows Vista Computer, I say seems because it tells you very little so you have to trust Microsoft. It was a different matter with the Windows XP(2) Laptop which it slowed down to a ridiculous amount. 40 minutes to switch off, 9 minutes to connect to web, continual freezes, so I had to uninstall and it is too expensive for only one computer.

BitDefender Internet

In a nutshell, my laptop was contantly choking before I had this software but now it breathes and lives like a G. It's outstanding.

The pooch's privates

Norton has it's quirks. The most annoying being that it's so difficult to REALLY uninstall any Norton product. Go to the Symantec site, download the Norton uninstall utility and do a complete uninstall of any previous versions and you'll be fine. I would also recommend downloading the latest Norton 360 from the Symantec site, even if you do have a CD as you'll be installing the very latest version. I've installed on my desktop, my wife's desktop and my laptop and I'm very impressed. The trusted network is a lot easier to set up too.

WARNING!!

This product has no redeeming features except the good looking box. I had a trial CA product on my computer, when I tried to order this online their ordering process tried to trick me into buying more expensive products, so I put Bullguard on my computer. Everything has all but ground to a standstill. I have torn my hair out waiting for applications to open and close, for emails to download, open or delete. NOTHING ON MY COMPUTER WORKS PROPERLY ANYMORE. I have to close the computer down using the off button several times a day, even my printer and modem have become a problem!!!!! When I turned all the Bullguard applications off everything started working perfectly. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!!!!

Outstanding

As an IT engineer, I test various security products so I can give an unbiased opinion to my customers. I have to say that this version of Zone Alarm really does shine. It offers everything you need in one package. You don't need to be very techy to understand it, although some of the menus can seem a bit confusing. Scan times are a bit longer than other products but not vastly so. It may not be the lightest on system resources so you need a PC with at least 512 MB of RAM or 1GB preferably. You can't really go wrong with this suite, its antivirus engine is from Kaspersky and its antispyware scanner really does the job well. Antispam, like most of them can be a bit of a lottery, but should do for most people. The firewall is simply the best there is, but that has always been the case with Zone Alarm. It now doesn't pop up asking you for what can and can't access the internet at every moment, a great move.

All in all for the price you pay, you get a great security product that will protect you well from all the nasties out there. Again, in my opinion, it is at the moment the best out there.

Norton Internet Security

I bought a twelve month package for £49 in October 2007 and now Norton are insisting that I renew (January 2008). They are impossible to contact and now their automated system will not update as they say my contract has run out.

A waste of money

I turned to Bitdefender as my yearly contract with ZoneAlarm was nearly at an end. My only problems with ZoneAlarm was that it slowed down my computer and made access to Windows live messanger almost impossible, so I read reviews which said Bitdefender was simple to use, effective, did not slow up your computer etc.

Positive aspects
I have given this 1 star because my computer boots up much faster now and when updates are running this does not slow my computer down. I can also use Windows live messanger with no problems. otherwise I would give it no stars whatsoever.

Negative aspects
The Bitdefender toolbar fails to materialise on my e-mail page 50% of the time which means spam mail gets into my in box. The only way I appear to be able to get the toolbar to appear and antispam to work is to keep logging onto my e-mail until it appears.

Outlook Express keeps crashing - I click on reply, create, to open an e-mail in a full page or to switch e-mail accounts and it crashes about 25% of the time. I never had this problem in the 2 years I have had my computer UNTIL I installed Bitdefender. I have tried to get help through their chat line and their forum but none is forthcoming. The only way I can get Outlook Express to function again is to reboot my computer then it is fine.

The firewall is disabled without any notification appearing on the computer. I have to regularly check manually that it is working to spot this problem. I click on fixit when it happens - nothing. The fixit buttons do not seem to work for any problem that develops. Again I have to reboot my computer and the Firewall is enabled until the next time it happens. To me one of the most essential components of a security system is the Firewall and this one appears untrustworthy. So if you keep personal information on your computer that you do not want to be accessed I suggest you avoid Bitdefender Total Security 2008.

Looking at the Bitdefender forum I am not the only one with these problems and there are several other"bugs" that people have experienced. Bitdefender do provide e-mail, phone and chat line help but I found it less than useful. The only thing they seem able to suggest is to collect information using their sysdump.exe files which I did. I sent the information to Bitdefender and 15 days later I have not even had an acknowledgement that they received it - never mind an answer to my problem. As for their help pages and their instructions on how to use the tool - you need a PhD in computer science to understand them. They constantly use what I call"computerbabble" - a made up language using big/complex words that makes the people who use it seem very knowledgeable and clever, Doctors use"medibabble", sociologists use"socibabble" etc all with the same aim. However I would be much more impressed by their intellect if they could use simple English to explain themselves especially in written instructions.

Meanwhile I am constantly having to reboot my computer 7-10 times/day.

A waste of money unless you have a PhD in computer science, I intend to uninstall Bitdefender and return to ZoneAlarm. Better a slow loading time than a firewall that does not work.

No activation code

Also had no activation code with the retail version. This is a good piece of software but you are better off downloading it straight from their website. It is also worth checking out their FREE security software (e.g. AntiVirus, Firewall Plus, and ThreatFire).

Norton V1 to V2 upgrade hell

Norton 360 I love this program and has proudly sat on three of my PC's for the last two years. Norton 360 V2 has brought to it the following problems on my PC's. Microsoft outlook now refuses to close correctly and leaves an Outlook.exe process running it also takes Corel Draw paint CorelPP.exe as another application that cannot be closed. Also if you are upgrading form v1 you will lose your online space as V2 does not share with previously backed up files and if you had saved 50mb you lose that when switching to v2. The most annoying part of any program is if it cannot close it self and ccSVChst.exe is an example of a program that cannot do this. The technical staff a totally bewildered as to why and have installed and reinstalled this product 11 times still it does not improve. Before you guys out there say it is a problem of the PC. When version V1 is reinstalled the problems described above do not occur. They have also finally solved the problem with"Norton Confidential Browser Helper" which used to prevent some flash and Java sites from closing correctly (This has now gone) However be careful I think this product has been developed for VISTA. Norton 360 Rocks, V2 is a serious contender for STARSHIP TROOPERS FAME for the amount of BUGS it has in it and no amount of troopers will quell this planets short comings!

cfctlcom.exe error messages crashes runs very slowly

I have been using PC-Cillin since version 2005, and have used version 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Version 2008 runs very slowly even on 750MB ram. It crashes with cfctlcom.exe error messages once two days approx.

Tech support website obviously was no help. There is no option for the above scenario at all. Email replies from trend gave standard instructions to Uninstall use their cleaners and reinstall that made no difference - Afterall I was a longstanding customer using their product to upgrade to the next version! -HUH!

I have two options go back to 2007 or try another Antivius

This is a shame.

back on form

Introduction

Those of you who use any type of Windows computer performance optimisation utility are likely to have heard of Iolo System Mechanic at some point.

Recent history

If you rated the version 6. *, as a great piece of software, but thought the version 7 was the software equivalent of an outside toilet, this is a fantastic upgrade.

First impressions

This new version (i.m.h.o) is a return to form. The whole utility has been subjected to a visual upgrade that is very well done that is more than cosmetic. It's easier to find your way around than earlier versions.

More details in the changes

The 'dashboard' is still there, and from this screen you can easily see 'problems outstanding', 'active care'. The power tools that allow an automation to a whole raft of solutions to solve problems such as 'Pc Accelerator', 'PC Repair', 'PC Clean-up, 'PC Security'. However if you value the options to select each individual parts then you can click on 'individual tools', but there are so many I am unwilling to list them.

Using `Windows Task manager', + `processes' this uses when at rest, around 38 Mg of Ram, and around 8 Mg of page memory. But when you use it it's a lot faster than version 6.*, its really quick in comparison. However please note I have also increased my systems RAM to its maximum limit, so this may have as much influence upon its speed of operation?


Summary

If I could sum up the changes in a 'physical' analogy, it's a tool that responds to use with superb 'clicking' into place as you use it. Yes you could say it's not a totally new product, but (i.m.h.o) it's enough changes and improvements in speed alone to make upgrading from 6. * worth considering and perhaps buy it. Overall I feel this software would improve security and performance for reasonable cost.

brilliant piece of software

i updated from system mechanic 6,im using windows xp and it works brilliant,im using the firewall and antivrus,which both work fine,i unistall norton and the differents is a faster computer and start up time,the only thing im missin is ad blocker and pop up blocker,which is the only bad point i can find about this software.