Only you can decide if Norton is worth paying for. If it is-and you don't mind putting all your eggs in one basket-then go for it. On the other hand, you can get good-to-great protection for free...which might involve downloading a free antivirus, a free firewall, and one or two antimalware programs. For A-V, check out Avast, Avira Antivir. For anti-malware, check out A-Squared, Superantispyware, Malwarebytes. For a convenient place to find such programs, check out the download center at CNET.com There are many others-do a little research. Google is your friend.

As it has been reported here numerous times, if you decide to uninstall Norton be sure to use the appropriate product removal tool. It is quite configured into your system and the traditional uninstall utility will not do an adequate job.

Another respected portal for the applications you seek is Filehippo.com. As previously suggested your Goggle research will allow you to make an informed decision.

DA

You might also like to check into Microsoft's Windows Security Essentials which is anti-virus and anti-malware. If you have Windows 7 or Vista, the Windows firewall is okay, too. Just make sure it is activated.

It's been quite some time since I have bothered to even mention the "L" word here at GW

Apparently it's not a very popular suggestion here amongst the GardenWeb'ers, but none the less, the most reasonable, safe, secure, oh yeah,and free too answer to:

>>> Should I renew my membership or should I use something else. I would like good protection without having to download 5 different things. Is to get yourself a good user friendly, and after personally installing and trialing over 30 something versions of the Linux OS, I think it safe to say that they're just about all a much smoother and easier and quicker install than any MS OS......And I have been connected to "the web" for as long as 8 months continuously 24/7 and have NEVER had any security/crack/intrusion ever

I would suggest Vector or SimplyMepis or Mint or Pardus for
newbies....but then again there are lots more to choose from....

Feel free however to follow the rest of the herd. Using and understanding Linux OS's is certainly no harder, and IMHO based on what friends and associates are always saying about how much better MSWin OS's are while they spend lots of time and money and goodwill attempting to fix issues and stay "secure",much easier and simple to have around....

And while you might be inclined to yada yada yada on about how wonderful MSwin OS's are, run 5 browsers 21 windows 123 tabs and 19 programs all at the same time for days on end, stay online 24/7 for 8 months and run the same didtro for 1.5 years w.o. ever an issue/reboot/registry-error/intrusion/anything under any MSWin OS and then I'll listen to whatever yada yada yada you might have to say.....Until then.... I remain absolutely correct

Here is a link that might be useful: the

It just a fact of life that most of the users who come to this forum with problems/questions have as yet only limited knowledge of how their computer works or how it should/should not be used. The "L" word gets little use here (and rightly so, I think) because it's usually better to try and help these folks with the problem they have rather than recommend an entirely new direction that they might not be equipped to handle. They would also have a hard time understanding why anyone would have a use for running 5 browsers 21 windows 123 tabs and 19 programs all at the same time for days on end-that level of use is just not on their radar screen.

Hello Spunbond, long time no see. Azinoh has it right for this forum, these are mostly folk who bought a factory built computer that comes with an operating system already installed. Why on earth would anyone trying to understand the computer they bought then remove the operating system just to try something different? Yes, I understand dual/triple boot, been there myself, but most have no interest in such stuff they just want to surf the net for their own particular interests.