Antivirus

Originally posted 2004-09-30 08:20:33

My Panda antivirus software informs me that my antivirus updates subscription approaches its end, and urges me to renew. In fact, the warning defaults to one visible option: Renew Now. Clicking a \”show more\” button reveals one more option: Remind Me Later. What happened to Shut Up and Go Away?

Antivirus renewal time always brings me angst–should I embrace the ease of electronic renewal? Or, for about the same price, should I just go buy a new \”tools\” suite? Despite my annual wavering, I always go for the new tools suite. For the price of a year’s antivirus subscription renewal, I get the latest versions of some new tool suite. Seems a no-brainer. The suites I’ve gone through, in various versions:

• Symantec’s suite
• SystemSuite (was Ontrack, now V-Com)
• System Mechanic (iolo)
• McAfee (yes, this was just the antivirus tool–I was young and naive)

These suites usually include a defragger, disk scanner, registry fixer, firewall, and sundry other tools in addition to antivirus. I’m currently using System Mechanic, which came with Panda antivirus, on my laptop, and SystemSuite on my wife’s desktop. Last year, when I was standing in my local CompUSA trying to determine what to do, I naturally looked at all the Symantec offerings–\”all\” being the operative word. The panoply of arrangements (Norton Internet Security with Norton SystemWorks, Norton Internet Security Professional with Norton GoBack, Norton Systemworks with Norton Antivirus, ad nauseum) exceeded my decision-making ability, however, and I shied away. Focus, people!

So, I’ll probably mosey into CompUSA next week and buy some more software. Any recommendations?