Re: XP, Norton, AVG
Norton/Symantec products have become so bloated in recent years that you can't use them without taking a significant performance hit. It's also not uncommon for the uninstaller to fail leaving you with the option of using their removal tool (rnav.exe) or following the lengthy manual removal instructions.
Like others have said, I no longer recommend Symantec Antivirus products though I am a big fan of Symantec Backup Exec (formerly Veritas Backup Exec). Symantec bought them out. I really hope they don't screw up Backup Exec.
For the home user, I recommend AVG or AVG free. I haven't tried Avast, but I hear lots of good things about it. Another one I've been hearing about is
Kaspersky. I've heard in independent tests it has the best detection. I haven't tried it yet.
For business use, I used to recommend and install Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition. From the Symantec System Center Console you could manage all your clients. You can also "push" the client out to workstations without having to visit each one to install it.
Now I'm using AVG Network Edition. The interface isn't quite as polished as Symantec's but it's much simpler and it does the same thing. It costs about 1/2 as much as Symantec too if you get the 2 year license. If something goes wrong with it, it's easy to remove, unlike Symantec's products.
) I decided to purchase AVG with the goodies and a 2 year subscription. I use a free copy at work.
