Security → Norton disabled me, I disabled Norton

Yeah...I seem to have GData on the brain...it uses both Bit Defender and Avast engines...sorry and thanks for the correction.

I don't worry about FP's. My main AV on my PC's can be set to ask what action to take when it finds anything. And to be honest I'm not sure if Avast can be set up to ask first since it's being used on my kids netbooks. And if it hosed anything I would image back to before hosing.

This is how I proceed when any of my AV solutions finds anything during a scan. I've been doing this for eons. And it has never bitten me in the butt, yet.

If during a scan my AV finds anything suspicious, and the PC is working well and not showing any signs of infestation. I assume it's a false positive for the time, and tell it to take no actions. I then recheck my PC with Malwarebytes, and submit the file to sites like Jotti or Virus Total. If it passes all those test I assume it's a false positive. The only time I will delete something right away is if the suspected malware was found in a temp folder.

I have never ever have any issues following these steps.
Knocking on wood.

You way is how I have always done it (except I have never had success is restoring an image other than using System Restore which has generally worked fine and I exclude system volume information from scanning by my AV (in particular the real time scanner).

But what happened with Avast was overwhelming. I had Avast set to block access and then ask me what further to do (if anything) when the realtime scanner found malware. One evening, I noticed Avast updating. Fine. But about a minute after it finished, I got a popup that some system file was infected with a trojan. It was a system file, there had just been a update, and my computer had no strange symptoms, so I figured it was an FP. I told Avast to ignore (I didn't want to tell it to block because it was a system file...how critical I wasn't sure but I have Process Guard if there really was a trojan and it tried to start then PG would block it cold). I started to submit the file to Virus Total but before I could do that, I got THREE MORE popups one right after the other all indicating infected system files and asking what to do. As I tried to deal with the popups for those three, to my horror, I saw at least 20 more popups behind the first three! They were all supposedly infected system files! I frantically tried to clear all of them only to have another 20 or so popup and one of them was for explorer.exe and some other rather critical system files.

I knew, at that point, that something terrible had gone wrong with that latest Avast update that had just taken place. My goal was to clear the popups and not allow Avast to send any of the files to quarantine and then to disable Avast for the time being. But the popups would not stop .... they kept coming very, very rapidly. My hand on the mouse started to cramp and Avast was getting insistent about wanting to send them all to quarantine...I clicked faster and faster on the popups and lost count when had I clicked on more than 100 popups. Finally, they stopped long enough for me to be able to disable Avast.

I went immediately to the Avast forum but it wouldn't load at first which told me I was not the only one experiencing this mess. Later, I was so glad that I had been able to stop Avast from quarantining the files which, had I not EXPLICITLY clicked on EACH popup to tell it to not quarantine, it would have done that. Over 1000 files were alerted on and Avast's quarantine could not begin to hold all those files. Hence, an unbootable machine for many because Avast just automatically deleted all files it thought were "infected" once quarantine reached capacity limits. The scariest thing to me was that I had Avast set up to NEVER quarantine or delete files without my express approval each time. Avast tried to ignore those settings!

Most Avast users who got that tainted set of definitions, had Avast set up to automatically quarantine, and it did that, and then deleted all "infected" files that were still left once quarantine was full. Depending on the version of Windows (I think I recall that was the reason for the differences but am not certain without going and checking at Avast forum), some users did not have thousands of files alerted on but just a few hundred and quarantine was able to hold all of them. Even then, some of those users couldn't get quarantine to properly restore all the files. I was especially scared of allowing files into quarantine because Avira's real time scanner had decided the contents of MyPrivate Folder were trojans and it moved all the files to quarantine. I had excluded that folder from the on demand scanner but didn't for the real time scanner. I had Avira set to never quarantine but it did anyway because I wasn't there to tell it what to do and it got tired of waiting and took action on its own just like Avast would have done if I had not been able to act on each popup. I could not restore them...they "restored" but were scrambled and worthless.

If all you have experienced are a few files alerted on during an routine on demand scan (I had Avira alert on 40 files when I first got it and did the first full on demand scan...they were all FP's) you cannot compare that to what happened on THREE occasions in past few years with Avast.

As I'm sure it has probably all ready been either pointed out or alluded to I apologize if this redundant.

Norton in the beginning of the real beginning of growth and consumer use in the mid and late nineties was one of the best line of products for Windows.

Then they sold out to Symantec. Initially that was fine but over time Symantec in all areas ran the quality of products and customer support into the ground. Terrible.

Specifically their AV or Security Suites became bloatware, with no support, questionable reliability, often in conflict with other programs, and took Merlin to remove it from your system.

On or about 2009 Symantec/Norton changed their spots and put out a streamline top of the line AV and security product(s) that also were light on system resources. Top notch.

However, in 2012 the smell of a rat emerged. AV Comparatives is one of if not the leading AV testers in the world. Most of the major vendors PAY THEM MONEY to run their myriad of comprehensive tests to thoroughly evaluate all aspects of the program. Well it seems like Symantec/Norton wanted to change the rules. They were welling to have all of the tests run on the various aspects of their product except one. That one area that they wanted excluded is one of if not the most important areas to be evaluated in testing an AV or security product. They offered no reasonable explanation why they wanted the exclusion.

AV Comparatives did the reasonable and responsible thing and said we either test everything or nothing at all. No compromise. So if you want the test it is all or none. My understanding was at the time this happen Norton chose to pass. However, whether they reversed themselves or not gives any reasonable person plenty of reason to be suspicious of the whole operation of Symantec/Norton. Not a condemnation or judgement, but certainly a reason to be cautious--especially in the world of so many fine products to choose from and who all were fully tested or vetted by AV Comparatives.

Well as a Long time user of Microsoft Security Essentials, from version 1.0 to now 4.1.522, I feel MSE offers adequate protection, and MSE isn't meant to be used alone like other antivirus programs, think of it as a part of a whole army, and for maximum protection and security i make sure the following items are enabled on each PC

Windows Firewall Enabled
Windows update/Microsoft update and all patches applied
Internet Explorer latest verson + Protected Mode and Smart Screen Filter on, (Which Smart Screen has been extended to the OS as well in Windows 8)
User Account Enabled--Please pay attention to warnings, and don't always click yes
Junk filter updated in MS Email programs
Parental Control--which is very effective in latest versions of MS products
Updated 3rd party programs, (Adobe, java, Shockwave,etc)
Think of what your clicking on or doing, and Will be very hard to get infected with Microsoft Security Essentials installed

I've also used Avast in the past, and dealt with the False Positives, taken time out of a busy day to help family members deal with if it's false or not false, fixing there problems numerous times in the last few years

Tried Norton 2012--Still felt a little bloated, so came back to Microsoft Security Essentials on most of the household PC's, have we have any infections up to this point--Nope, 0, (checked with MSE, Malwarebytes, and online scan bi weekly, so far all clean on every single PC)

This Desktop PC upgrading to Windows 8 in 2 days, so definitely gonna use built in Windows Defender/MSE in Windows 8.

And would you please tell us specifically which test it is that YOU excluded from YOUR description ? Firewall ? Detections rates ? What was it ?

Some information here:

»www.av-comparatives.org/ ··· tID=3807

Thanks. Here is what it said ;

quote:

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As Symantec Norton declined to participate in the File Detection Test...

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Yes that is correct. At least once a year AV Comparatives run a a spread of standardized various tests on all the vendors that for a fee submit their products for testing. The detailed results and product ratings from those test results are published by AVC.

However, in 2012 Norton said to AV all though we want to submit our product to you for testing we want opt of one of the tests. (As clearly explained in a a post previously provided by another poster.) The test that Norton wanted a special pass on is one that AV comparatives rates as one of the most important!

AVC said, sorry, neither you nor any other vendor gets to pick what tests are run and which are not. If you want to sign up as usual to be tested and rated it is all or nothing---same for all vendors you are compared against. Equal playing field--otherwise it wouldn't be a valid or very good test and rating of the many vendors' security products.

Norton wasn't willing to face the music of the results of the one test that for some reason it desperately wanted to avoid. Consequently, Norton/Symantec chose not to be tested by AVC in 2012.

Pretty telling I would say. At the very least a very large bright yellow caution flag. And in today's world of many proved highly effective products it would be a red flag for me if I was considering buying an AV or Security Suite for my PC Windows 7.