As mentioned previously I’m moving to Panda Software Platinum Security Suite from ZoneAlarm and Norton (we have four computers.)
One reason from moving was that Norton is increasingly braindead. How brain dead? On one PC, the Norton taskbar icon said Norton Antivirus wasn’t working correctly. If you opened the program, it said it was working. Gosh, thanks for being so helpful.
But it gets worse. On another PC, Windows Update wasn’t always installing new updates. Finally, I called Microsoft. They walked me through how to boot with no non-Windows programs loaded. The update then worked. Yesterday, another Windows Update failed.
Today, I deinstalled Norton, installed Panda, and you guessed it, Windows Update worked perfectly on the precise update it failed on when Norton was installed. A ‘security’ program that blocks Windows Update is dangerous. I’m glad it’s off my system. Did I mentioned after deinstalling, it still insisted on trying to load something that locked up the entire system, requiring a cold boot?
By contrast, ZoneAlarm deinstalled quickly with no problem. While it gets high ratings, it pops up way too many warnings on things it should know better about. Yes, it once warned that Windows Update was doing something suspicious. I’m a hardened vet, I know to ignore such rubbish. But, what about Grandma who panics and then disables Windows Update because ZoneAlarm scared her?
Panda, on the other hand, just sits there quietly and gets the job done. Which is what a security program should do.