I don’t recommend any Norton products. I feel they are predatory. Windows antivirus is fine and it’s free.

Same. Norton generally causes PC stability issues also

@Jeruba I have a very good friend whom I’ve known for 40 years who is a computer expert. He uses the free AVG anti-virus software, so I started using that, too.

It’s a conundrum. Even with anti-virus software, it’s possible to fall victim to nefarious schemes. It’s possible to receive an email from something that looks genuine, but it is a phishing scam designed to elicit our protected data. It can be very tricky.

I have to add one thing about AVG. It is free, but it also has paid versions. The free version will send you pop-up messages that are meant to scare you and get you to buy their paid version. It can be difficult, but I have learned to ignore all messages from them.

Wasn’t AVGs owner Avast found to be selling users data a while back?

@Lightlyseared I haven’t heard that.

I discovered Norton to be worse than an actual virus, constantly using your computer to scan things, and interfering with things. While I haven’t tried Norton again in decades because of that, I imagine they haven’t changed their approach, and I haven’t heard anything but the same sort of information about them since.

I use Bitdefender @ $60 per year (they also run specials) and CCleaner (free version) – both are highly thought of and I’ve had zero problems.

Agh. Thanks very much for all responses.

When I asked a Norton-vs.-McAfee Q here a couple of years back, the sum of the answers was don’t have both because they will clash; pick one, either one, and you’re good. So I picked Norton and ditched McAfee. Things seemed to get better.

Now I see this near-consensus against Norton. And I do have something that is tying up my computer and making everything lag. Norton? Ack.

If I kill off Norton and go with, say, AVG (where do I get that? never heard of it), do I keep CCleaner or not?

Here is the AVG website.

It’s times like these I really miss John Powell. RIP

Well fuck @Hawaii_Jake. I followed your link to John Powell, then followed posts that were there to sad news about Gailcalled and Augustlan and now here I am crying…and I didn’t know them. But they sound wonderful, as do all the regulars who responded. I feel like I missed out on something… I dunno…perfect. Thanks and curses, both.

@Jeruba

Are you familiar with Task Manager?

Yes. Sort of.

Do you know how much installed memory (RAM) your PC has?

I have also used AGV for years without issue.

I use Firefox as my main browser. I added the Ghostery extension to prevent tracking. It’s free and works well.

@Brian1946, does 8 GB sound like the right answer?

Yes, it does.

If you right click on a vacant part of your task bar, you might see a menu with an option to Start Task Manager.

On the TM, you might see a tab labeled Performance.

On the lower left side of that tab, you should see a window with a vertical gauge.
That window should be labeled Memory.

Under that gauge and at the bottom of the window, you should see a number expressed as X.XX followed by GB. E.g., mine shows 1.59 GB, which means my desktop is currently using 1.59 gigs of RAM.

In order for your PC to run at a normal speed, I’d say your RAM usage should be 7.0 GB or less.

I recommend don’t using any add on antivirus software. Just use the native Windows one. You don’t have to do anything. I agree that Norton is better than Mcfee

Windows Defender is fine for normal browsing. You will need something more heavy duty if you want to go to illegal file sharing sites, etc.