I have a low opinion of Norton Antivirus (NAV) and the family of products that Symantec produces. Time and time I do service calls and find this insidious software residing when it is APPARENTLY removed…

Today I was at a client site installing Avast 4.x and before I ever do an install of antivirus software I make sure it the computer has no existing antivirus software. I checked the programs and no NAV. I checked the Add and Remove Programs section of the Control Panel and no NAV. So good…or so I thought.

I install Avast on a computer with Vista running. Now before this I had just configured a secure wireless connection and verified its operation. So everything should work but upon installation and reboot Avast would not update. I right-click and force an update and in the applet box it indicates that NAV is still installed and is not currently updated. In addition, the wireless connection will not work. I recheck for the existence of NAV and no, it is not installed but it really must be because Vista Security Centre says it needs an update. I run the applet Symantec provided to remove it and then reboot and then I have to reconfigure the wireless connection from scratch.

The computer is now running fine but how is a normal client to know if NAV is completely removed if they check the standard places one uses to verify if a program is installed or not?

I am not alone is this opinion…

Norton Antivirus
It’s a little unfair to pick on Norton Antivirus and make it carry the sins of half the desktop malware industry — but only a little unfair. If ever a class of software deserved to be cast into the lower reaches of Hell and run on Satan’s own desktop, it is this. Performance- sapping, space-hogging, noisy, irritating and prone to inducing just as many problems as they purport to solve, these horrible, ineffective, expensive lumps of digital thuggery keep entire platoons of support engineers in business and home users in tears. We know. We get the phone calls.

Could not say it better myself. You will notice that the poster considers NAV malware. I consider it malware of the worst sort. The type perpetrated by a legitimate company that uses it presence in the industry to make it almost a defacto “standard” installed or used by major computer vendors and ISPs. Boo on Rogers, Bell, and others for making my client’s computer experiences less than stellar.