IE7 vs. Norton

Dear Norton AntiVirus and Norton Symantecs,
I hate you.
Love, Internet Explorer 7.

Do you use Norton AntiVirus AND Internet Explorer 7? If your answer is yes then you're wrong because guess what . . . Internet Explorer 7 isn't compatible with Norton AntiVirus, something neither Norton or Microsoft tell you unless you spend 3 hours on tech support bouncing from India to China and back again. What is one to do?!

Ok, ignoring the entire crowd that's going to say "Psh, Firefox, duh" I'll give you my advice. I recently cleaned up some computers for some people and this is what I did:

1) Uninstall Norton Antivirus. That's right, get rid of it. Norton is a pain in the butt, I hate it. That and it costs $$$



2) Uninstall any anti-spyware program you have that isn't working. If your Spyware detector works then don't worry about uninstalling it, but if you are paying or have doubts then dump it.

3) Restart your computer once or twice. This is good just to cleanse it and let it adjust itself.

4) Go to the website for avast! AntiVirus. Download their free home edition (or click THIS link). Why is it free? Here's how they put it:

Our company offers the Home Edition free of charge, since, in our opinion, it is possible to avoid global virus spreading by efficient prevention; however, many users are not able to or do not want to pay for antivirus software.

It's only for individual use (no businesses or corporations) and it's completely free. Rated 5-stars on CNET, it's worth it, very reliable.

5) Once avast! is installed go here and fill out the form to get your free registration number. They'll e-mail you the number. When your run avast! for the first time you'll see a little button on the screen that pops up that says "Registration." Click it. This is what you should then see:



Just take the number they e-mail you and plug it in here. That's it, you're good for a year and a half. In a year and a half you'll have to re-register the software by doing exactly what you just did.

Run avast! and you'll see something like this, minus the little thing on top:



See the red dot? Click that button and that little box will pop out of the top. Drag it over to "Thorough Scan" and check the "Scan Archive Files" Box.

6) Push the play button. This will start a virus scan of yoru computer that can take anywhere from an hour to 4 hours. Let it happen, go read a book or something.

7) Ok, your computer is now virus protected. It will update the virus database by itself and will let you know whenever it does by popping a blue square up in the lower right of the screen and saying "Virus Database Has Been Updated." Just run a scan every week or two and you should be fine. If it finds a virus just do what it suggests, it's very user friendly.

8) If you kept your original spyware detector then ignore from here out. If you need the software (if you don't know, then you do) the run this file: CLICK

Follow the instructions to install "Spybot Search and Destroy."

9) Once it is installed just reset your computer and run Spybot Search and Destroy by double-clicking the icon on your desktop.

10) Click "Search for Updates" in order to make sure you're all updated. Once updated, click "Check for Problems" and let it do its thing.

11) When it's done just take its recommended actions. Run this program every couple of weeks or so and you'll keep spyware and adware off of your computer.

There you have it, you are now protected from spyware, adware, and viruses using free software and you can run whatever web browser you want. I hope this helped, I do the best I can. I'm not a computer "expert" so there are tons of methods to go about accomplishing the same thing I just suggested, this is just one.

And to the people I know who will complain, yes, Firefox would fix this, but if they want IE7 and not Firefox then Norton has to go. Like it or not.

Happy New Year all, I'll be on the MIT admissions blogs shortly, I'm looking forward to it!