Annoying Norton Subscription

Happyras

Happyras

Full time employment: Posting here.
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I am looking for an opinion on use of MS Defender or paying for Norton 360 subscription. I have been using Norton for so long, I am not up to date on whether its worth the cost or whether to cheat their system again and buy a new discounted license.

Norton has gotten so pushy with all sorts of "upgrade" utilities, which in the old days one could fix in DOS code to clean up registry etc.

What do most use today for anti-virus and is it worth paying for Norton over some other not so pushy companies?

Auto-renew time, they are trying to bill me $119 for a year, but I could buy a new copy on Amazon for $29, but still, MS Defender is free......

Maybe there is a combo of utilities I have not considered, but I used to use Sophos for work, and had bad/slow performance with Kaspersky, and others in the past.:popcorn:
 
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You can cancel the auto renewal anytime you want. I payed for 2 years then cancelled auto renewal. $52.99
From Norton
Your subscription will continue through the end of your already paid subscription term, after which it will end and not automatically renew
 
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I also noticed how all the continual popups on Norton exponentially increased this year. I usually buy a new Norton subscription every year (obviously due to the price difference).

I just looked up the recommended Microsoft Defender and you can only add it if you subscribe to Msoft 365. I do not have the subscription because I bought Microsoft Office Pro from Microsoft for maybe $250 a few years ago. It good enough for home use and it is a one time price instead of a monthly subscription.

It does not look like there is a solution in my case. I was hoping someone knew how to get Norton to stop nagging me so much. I guess I will figure that out. It's like a constant Norton ad campaign.
 
I gave up on my McAfee subscription when it expired last year. I too was so sick of the constant pop-ups and advertising and auto-renewal tactics. I was going to go with just Microsoft Defender. I would have been happy with that. Then I got a free subscription to BitDefender with my new home WiFi Mesh Router, so I installed that for at least this year.
 
Wile E. Coyote said:
I also noticed how all the continual popups on Norton exponentially increased this year. I usually buy a new Norton subscription every year (obviously due to the price difference).

I just looked up the recommended Microsoft Defender and you can only add it if you subscribe to Msoft 365. I do not have the subscription because I bought Microsoft Office Pro from Microsoft for maybe $250 a few years ago. It good enough for home use and it is a one time price instead of a monthly subscription.

It does not look like there is a solution in my case. I was hoping someone knew how to get Norton to stop nagging me so much. I guess I will figure that out. It's like a constant Norton ad campaign.
Click to expand...

From what I have seen, there seems to be some questions about whether Microsoft Defender is still free or needs a subscription? Apparently Defender still comes as part of the usual security features but there is also Microsoft Defender for Individuals as a subscription with Microsoft 365? Apparently this latter (which is a paid subscription) also covers cross-platform situations such as MacOS, Android, and iOS. It would make sense for them to still have the "free" version for computers since it protects right out of the box. Anyone know more specifics about these?
 
You will have fun cleaning Norton from you computer, it is like a virus, it lurks around and reinstalls itself when you are not looking. You have to clean every registry entry as well as uninstalling it and removing all the files with Mcafee or Norton in their descriptions. I took me forever to clean mine to where it never came back, and I was once an IT guy and like to think I know something about this stuff.

I use Defender too.
 
I have a lifetime subscription to Malwarebytes Premium. They haven't sold lifetime licenses since 2014. I've had it since 2010 for one device.

It can run alongside Defender or standalone by selecting an option within the app.
 
GenXguy said:
I have a lifetime subscription to Malwarebytes Premium. They haven't sold lifetime licenses since 2014. I've had it since 2010 for one device.

It can run alongside Defender or standalone by selecting an option within the app.
Click to expand...

Do you use it as standalone or with Defender as primary, and why?
 
zl55lz said:
From what I have seen, there seems to be some questions about whether Microsoft Defender is still free or needs a subscription? Apparently Defender still comes as part of the usual security features but there is also Microsoft Defender for Individuals as a subscription with Microsoft 365? Apparently this latter (which is a paid subscription) also covers cross-platform situations such as MacOS, Android, and iOS. It would make sense for them to still have the "free" version for computers since it protects right out of the box. Anyone know more specifics about these?
Click to expand...

I do not have 365 because I hate subscriptions or bills of any kind.

I remember when we waited it seems like five years for an update to Office Pro and my employers always seemed to get us free copies of that for our home computers. Even after that stopped I went to Fryes and Bought Office Professional for a fixed sum of money. Now that the software is beyond what any of our imaginations ever thought we needed why do you need to pay a subscription for an up to the minute version of the software. No, I paid $250 about 5 years ago for Office Pro and I run Norton Anti-Virus.

If the price of admission to a 'free' Defender is a subscription to 365 then it's way more than I want to pay Or, I guess I need to revisit the price structure on all that I have not looked at for several years.

I guess I have more questions than answers.
 
zl55lz said:
Do you use it as standalone or with Defender as primary, and why?
Click to expand...
I used MB Premium alongside Avira (free version) for years going back to Windows 7, which I later upgraded to Windows 10 and am still using.

But very recently, I uninstalled Avira and started using MB alongside Defender.

The MB experts say this should be fine, and it does provide a little extra protection using it with Defender over using MB alone, so that's why I choose to run both.

Since my MB subscription is lifetime, I'm taking advantage of that. Otherwise, I would probably dig into things a little more.
 
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Whatever you don't go with McAfee! I'd been a happy enough customer for many years but always renewing with a discounted Amazon or Newegg code. The last renewal included an extra 3 months free if you checked off for auto-renew. So I did, figuring I could just uncheck auto-renew before the renewal date. However. a month before the actual renewal date, I got notified that my renewal charge (exorbitant) had already been processed! What a pain to have to spend time getting this rectified. So, they have lost me as a customer for all time thanks to this.
 
Folks - antivirus protection is still free from Microsoft on Windows 10 and Windows 11. There's some confusion in naming here because there ARE paid versions for enterprise and personal use that go beyond just antivirus protection in Windows offers.

Windows Security includes "Microsoft Defender Antivirus" included in Windows automatically. Read more here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...security-ae70cc96-a9cd-4443-a210-e41cb973d3a6

No subscriptions needed here. Just know that having multiple antivirus solutions installed and active at the same time can cause issues so pick one and ditch the others.

More here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...security-1362f4cd-d71a-b52a-0b66-c2820032b65e
 
Yipper said:
Folks - antivirus protection is still free from Microsoft on Windows 10 and Windows 11. There's some confusion in naming here because there ARE paid versions for enterprise and personal use that go beyond just antivirus protection in Windows offers.

Windows Security includes "Microsoft Defender Antivirus" included in Windows automatically. Read more here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...security-ae70cc96-a9cd-4443-a210-e41cb973d3a6

No subscriptions needed here. Just know that having multiple antivirus solutions installed and active at the same time can cause issues so pick one and ditch the others.

More here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...security-1362f4cd-d71a-b52a-0b66-c2820032b65e
Click to expand...

Would your opinion for best then be to use:

1)Microsoft Defender only?

2)Microsoft Defender with free Malwarebytes to run when desired?

3) Microsoft Defender as primary with Malwarebytes (paid version) to run automatically in
the background?

4)Another antivirus altogether?
 
zl55lz said:
Would your opinion for best then be to use:
Click to expand...

I guess my answer would be - it's like your investment risk tolerance and thus AA... it's really based on your personal situation.

For me - and my entire family (several Windows-based computers) - we've been exclusively using the built-in Windows anti-virus software for years without having any issues. I've done a good job conditioning the family to identify and avoid phishing scams, signs and clues to sketchy websites, etc. etc. so that's likely helped a lot.

There's been a couple of times over the years that things have been identified and Defender cleaned it right up.
 
I Googled it and Norton still beats Microsoft Defender by a huge margin (because it actually works).
 
Wile E. Coyote said:
Yes, I will since I have used Norton for over 20 years and Msoft Defender for 0 years.
Click to expand...

Why pay for what you don't need to though? I know a lot of people who have been using the free built-in antivirus in Windows for years without any issues. I realize that's anecdotal but as I shared earlier, there are credible organizations testing and comparing these solutions and they indicate the FREE built-in AV in Windows is top notch.

There was a time (a long time ago) that Microsoft didn't "get it" regarding viruses and malware but that just isn't the case any longer. Their efforts in the enterprise security space are quite impressive and have partially contributed to the demise of Symantec (former owner of Norton).

Just because something has worked in the past for you doesn't mean you wouldn't benefit from a fresh look. :) A few more $$ in your pocket is always a good thing.
 
Yipper said:
Why pay for what you don't need to though? I know a lot of people who have been using the free built-in antivirus in Windows for years without any issues. I realize that's anecdotal but as I shared earlier, there are credible organizations testing and comparing these solutions and they indicate the FREE built-in AV in Windows is top notch.

There was a time (a long time ago) that Microsoft didn't "get it" regarding viruses and malware but that just isn't the case any longer. Their efforts in the enterprise security space are quite impressive and have partially contributed to the demise of Symantec (former owner of Norton).

Just because something has worked in the past for you doesn't mean you wouldn't benefit from a fresh look. :) A few more $$ in your pocket is always a good thing.
Click to expand...

I just did that as illustrated above.

I am not willing to test Defender to the point of failure and then have to deal with the outcome. I will have to rely on what the expert testers are telling me.
 
This thread reminds me of...
(Caution adult language)
John Mcaffee How To Uninstall McAfee Antivirus
 
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