Losing confidence In Norton

Several people have asked why Norton does not block Babylon Toolbar - no one from norton has responded although the problem has persisted for years.

 

My PC was infected with Babylon - once it had downloaded itself - Norton was not able to detect or recognise it as malware.

 

In the end I downloaded two free pieces of software (10bit uninstaller and spybot search and destroy) these both recognised Babylon as malware and between the two of them successfully removed Babylon.

 

In addition ccleaner removes deleted files and registry entries that norton does not see.

 

Defraggler defragments the disk far more effectively than norton.

 

Why is my paid for (for many years) Norton service outperformed by free to download software?

I do not have an answer but I do use Spybot S&D and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware because I know Norton can not do it all. I also use CCleaner and I do not even bother with the Idle Time Optimizer, I just leave it off and use Defraggler.

 

CCleaner is a medium level cleaner which makes it good and relatively safe for anyone to use. If you want a deep cleaner try AML Registry Cleaner and/or Wise Registry Cleaner.


gkdiamond wrote:

I do not have an answer but I do use Spybot S&D and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware because I know Norton can not do it all. I also use CCleaner and I do not even bother with the Idle Time Optimizer, I just leave it off and use Defraggler.

 

CCleaner is a medium level cleaner which makes it good and relatively safe for anyone to use. If you want a deep cleaner try AML Registry Cleaner and/or Wise Registry Cleaner.


I recommend not using a Registry Cleaner at all unless

 

 1 -- it tells you what it is planning to do before it does it and lets you edit the list

 

 2 -- you already know enough about the registry (who does? <g>) to know whether it is safe to make the changes ....

 

CCleaner certainly meets #1 and if uninstalling and cleaning up Revo Uninstaller meets that also since it lists what it finds after having run the usual Windows UnInstaller and makes you check those you want removed, down to individual left over files.

It's recommended to backup the registry before cleaning. While most registry cleaning tools offer to backup the data that is deleted, it's not a bad idea to make a separate backup of the entire registry using a program like ERUNT before cleaning. (BTW, for ERUNT to run correctly you'll need to right click the shortcut and click "Run as administrator".)

 

Personally, I use JV16 PowerTools to clean my registry and occasionally use CCleaner.

 

The problem with registry cleaners is that they can sometimes be too aggressive and remove entries that are legitimate (false positives). With that said, there is a lot of data left behind in the registry that is not needed and sometimes problems can be fixed by cleaning or fixing these errors.

 

Another recommendation would be to only clean the registry by increments. For example, with CCleaner you can have it scan and clean only one section at a time. What can be done is to clean one section, use the computer for a while to make sure everything is working correctly, then clean the next section, and so on. Or, in the case with JV16PT, it has different levels of aggressiveness. So starting on the lowest (safest) level before moving up to a more aggressive level would be best (and never use the most aggressive level unless you know what you are doing).

Here is a link to Bleeping Computer in regards to registry cleaning that I have used as a reference/guide in the past:

 

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic373006.html/page__view__findpost__p__2091100

 

There are two more links at the end of it with addititonal information.

 

SPC,

 

<<  It's recommended to backup the registry before cleaning. >>

 

I should have included that in my #1 <s> and again it's a plus factor that CCleaner does ask if you want to back up (maybe one of the option settings).

Reference the original post, unless I'm mistaken Babylon is not considered malware and best I can tell none of the major AV companies block it.  If it's on the system, it's because the user wanted it - more likely in order to use the Babylon Translator for schoolwork or other translation needs.  There's an option for downloading the toolbar when downloading and installing Babylon, but one has to "uncheck" the box to keep from adding it in with the bundle.  Like about all freeware these days, it thinks it needs or is entitled to a place in one's startup.  From what I've experienced with family machines (belonging to college students), Malwarebytes (as an on-demand scanner) doesn't pick it up.  Adwcleaner, which targets PUPs, does pick it up and remove it (assuming there's no other badware associated with it).  I think with the millions, if not billions, of true malicious items out there to worry about I don't think any AV company is going to put it at the top of the worry list.  It would definitely be nice if sometime down the road Symantec/Norton would include an elective PUP/Adware detection and blocking feature in its products.  But unless there's other malware associated with it, detection and removal of Babylon is an easy task from what I've experienced.

 

I don't know how one goes about measuring whether one defrag utility (Windows, Norton Utilities/defrag feature in N360, Defraggler) is better than the other.  Frankly, I don't see anything wrong with what's built into Windows.

 

I'm with the rest on registry cleaners.  I don't use them unless I back up the registry first.

 

Regards,

Kelly

 

 

not always u can easily delete toolbars that are accitendently dowlouded i use a free tool for that and i never had problems after using it but u have to know what u want to delete http://download.cnet.com/Toolbar-Cleaner/3000-2094_4-75439821.html

Several people have asked why Norton does not block Babylon Toolbar - no one from norton has responded although the problem has persisted for years.

 

My PC was infected with Babylon - once it had downloaded itself - Norton was not able to detect or recognise it as malware.

 

In the end I downloaded two free pieces of software (10bit uninstaller and spybot search and destroy) these both recognised Babylon as malware and between the two of them successfully removed Babylon.

 

In addition ccleaner removes deleted files and registry entries that norton does not see.

 

Defraggler defragments the disk far more effectively than norton.

 

Why is my paid for (for many years) Norton service outperformed by free to download software?