Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[davidm71]

Was wondering since when does an AV software include a defragger?

Thanks.

[Tech83 Super Phishing Phryer]

Hi! Davidm71,

I personally think the inclusion of the defragger as you put it is a very nice touch.  Most people do not think a defragmentation program as a security tool but as a maintenance tool.  In my opinion it is both.  If a system is well defragmenter then a user is more likely to notice the slow downs caused by a malware infection; plus users a more apt to run the security scanner/AV scanner more frequently to keep their system clean.  Besides speeding things up it makes it easier for security updates to be installed and utilized.  This offers you the user the best protection available.

[davidm71]

It may be a nice touch but to me its sneaky. Its not on the product discription and IMO should not be in the package. What does an optimizer have to do with an antivirus? Nothing. I already have an optimizer. Symantec you should remove it from the software. This is wrong. Its off focus to main function the software is suppose to provide. NAV already has a rep for being bloated and I feel this is a bad move!

[mdturner]

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davidm71 wrote:
Its not on the product discription and IMO should not be in the package.

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Please see the following web page and look at PC Tune up near the bottom of each product.

http://www.symantec.com/norton/antivirus

You can turn off the optimise feature so that it does not do a full defrag but it will still defrag applications when they are installed.

[davidm71]

Thats still a sneak. If not they should change the name to Norton Internet Security and Optimizer 2010 on the box cover. That feature doesn't have anything to do with the price of beans...

[jwc93061]

Good Morning

I did some research, checking to see if there is a possible conflict with my Diskeeper installation. What I found is that the optimizer is not a defragmentation program. It monitors the system folder or drive ( depends on which o/s your using ) and when defragmentation exceeds 10% or a preset value, it calls the system degragmantation program - what ever the registry show as available. and runs it on the system folder or drive ( o/s determined). Mine runs occasionally and is not causing any problems. Hope this helps.

jwc93061

[metalhead82]

Personally, I hold the opinion that this 'feature' shouldn't be in NIS or NAV either. There was a big debate about this in the Beta forums when 2010 was in beta.

Recent Windows operating systems, such as Vista and Windows 7, have automatic scheduled defragmentation which runs at a regular enough interval to keep the majority of systems happily fragmentation free and the disk performing at it's best.

I don't believe that an Antivirus program should be defragmenting my system everytime I install something. The name 'Optimiser' is stretching the truth a little too, all it does is calls 'defrag.exe c:', it doesn't do anything special, it runs a defrag....wow!

Yes, it can be disabled, but why on earth is it there in the first place in an Antivirus program? It's a feature which increases the cost of the product as someone has to spend time developing it and it's superfluous to users of Vista and Windows 7.

Remove it I say.

[metalhead82]

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jwc93061 wrote:

Good Morning

I did some research, checking to see if there is a possible conflict with my Diskeeper installation. What I found is that the optimizer is not a defragmentation program. It monitors the system folder or drive ( depends on which o/s your using ) and when defragmentation exceeds 10% or a preset value, it calls the system degragmantation program - what ever the registry show as available. and runs it on the system folder or drive ( o/s determined). Mine runs occasionally and is not causing any problems. Hope this helps.

jwc93061

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It doesn't, it runs when the system is idle after an install is detected by NIS/NAV and it does a defrag of the C: drive by calling defrag.exe (I'm not sure if Diskeeper replaces that file with it's own launcher though, as I haven't used it for ages.)

[dbrisendine Norton Fighter]

It does call the system defrag utility, WHATEVER software that is.  If a third party defrag program has registered itself as the system defrag utility (Diskeeper is one that will do this) then this is what gets called to run.

[Plankton]

Hi:

Just my two cents...

The Optimize funtion (or function call) shouldn't be in an Internet Security Suite - period.

It is just extra and perhaps confusing eye-candy to an already great product.

All IMHO.

Message Edited by Plankton on 10-20-2009 09:56 AM