The salesman who sold me my XF235 told me it came with Norton Antivirus. I guess these days that means you get if for a couple of months and then have to pay for a subscription. Oh well. My problem is that every single day I get a popup reminding me that I have to subscribe. I can't figure out how to disable it. Just an annoyance. Suggestions? Thanks.
Peter
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You can configure Norton Antivirus Auto-Protect program not to load at start up (right click Norton Icon\Configure Norton Antivirus). Remove check mark by Enable Auto Protect. If this does not work, you can also remove the program via Add/Remove. Personally, I wouldn't be without an antivirus program. The newer McAfee antivirus program is quite good and is cheaper then Norton. Plus it has a much faster scan engine.
Retail versions of NAV come with a 1 year subscription, but versions like yours which come preinstalled on a system usually have a 90 day subscription. All this means is you won't beable to use live update anymore to download updates and virus definitions with an expired subscription, but you can download the virus definitions manually at www.symantec.com/avcenter regardless of the subscription status. In the program itself, there should be an option to turn off the reminders. If your using NAV 2002 or 2003, click on the options button, and in the window that comes up, there should be a button on the sidebar that says live update. Click on it and uncheck the box for automatic live update, and this should stop the reminders, also under the miscellaneous button, uncheck the box that says alert me if my virus definitions are out of date, and you shouldn't get anymore reminder popups.
Thanks to both of you. Before I fiddle around with uninstalling NAV, I thought I'd check more into the possibility of manually downloading the virus definitions. As far as I can tell Norton no longer allows that. Seems like you can only download the definitions through LiveUpdate or something called Intelligent Updater -- both of which require a subscription (I tried the download).
I almost never use my laptop online, so I didn't want to waste money on a subscription (which is why I wanted to disable the annoying daily notices). My desktop computer (Windows 98) runs an older version of NAV that I bought off the shelf. It does not require a subscription. I thought about grabbing the definitions from the desktop, but I couldn't figure out a simple way of doing so, especially since the two computers are running different OS's and different versions of NAV.
Anyway, you're right, it wouldn't hurt to have a virus checker on my notebook, but I just don't know if it's worth spending money on it.
Here is your answer. While Norton and McAfee are the Cadillacs of anti-virus there is a pretty good antivirus program available for free. It is called AVG antivirus. Here is the link to download it:
I originally found this when I had an xf145 with the infamous lockup and I at first blamed Norton. I removed Norton and installed this and never looked back. It has caught several viruses and seems to impose the smallest system hit of any antivirus I have used. It has an email checker, auto updates, etc. Good luck.
People like you kill me! Actually I should thank you though. Since you want to pinch pennies and not buy a quality anti-virus (as if you'd bother keeping it up to date anyway). When you call to complain your system is locking up or you can't get into windows and have lost all your data. I'll be glad to come out and charge you $99.00 an hour to tell you you have KLEZ (again probably!). I'll do my part and lecture you about the importance of anti-virus and that if you ever put a disk in your system or even get one email your system is at risk. Ah, but your type never listens and I'll be back. Also on the freebie/el cheapo anti-virus progs...You get what you pay for. The little guys aren't near as good as the pros and will drop off the face of the Earth one day and leave you vulnerable (if you're not paying attention) when they go out of business. If you take nothing from my sarcastic joke here please take this to heart: ANTI-VIRUS IS NOT THE PLACE TO CUT CORNERS OR SAVE MONEY!!! Seriously, I only recommend Norton's or McAfee's (Norton's pref) and yes I make big $$$ removing virus after virus from peoples systems that will never listen.
John I think the folks at Norton's are calling you back to work. Seriously, the best antivirus is just never open an email from someone you do not know. My problem with the "good" antivirus apps is that they all impose a big boat anchor weight on the system. I have seen some pretty tough benchmarks in computer magazines and such and the Grisoft AVG program is near the middle of the pack compared to stuff you pay for. It is not some fly by night outfit. If they ever go out of business (and I will know because the update will not run), I will go out and get NAV right away. I can certainly afford it and the only reason I do not have it is so I can have a computer that does not run like is on Quaaludes.
Running NAV in the background will reduce the performance of my HD by 20 to 50%, depending on the type of data. I do not load NAV during boot. It is active only with Outlook Express. I also use ZoneAlarm. It's pretty difficult to pick-up a virus if you practice PC commonsense.
If you are running windows xp go to yout start then run then type msconfig....go to the startup tab on the top of the window and uncheck anything with Nav in it...that will stop the nag from showing up..and if you go online and want it back on just go to Start/All Programs/Norton/ and turn it on...easy huh...Enjoy..i can not tell you wher i work but i work with Laptops all day :)
PeAcE
Sorry I've taken awhile to thank you fine folks for your replies. I've been down with a virus. Just kidding. Actually, for some reason I was being taken to the Europe login screen and it's taken me awhile to realize that's why I couldn't log in.
I had success changing the startup config, but found with XP if everything's not set to load I get messages saying I'm running in a non-fully functioning mode -- which I guess creeped me out. But I'll go back to that solution because it makes sense for my notebook needs.
For what it's worth I'll try again to assign points for your feedback, but they've never stuck in the past, even though IT thanks me for participating. Oh well.
RE: You shouldn't receive any warning message if you disable the auto load feature of Norton Auto-Protect. You will see a red X across the Norton icon (at least for version 2002 and WXP Pro) upon reboot. Perhaps version 2003 adds a new twist. The bottom line is that your e-mails will still be scanned for virus. If you insert an unknown floppy or CD-R/RW, then launch Norton and scan it first before use. Also note that you will need to manually launch the LiveUpdate program to update your virus definition file. This is a minor inconvenience for users who want to get the most performance from their PCs.
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