question about antivirus scanning and downgrading antivirus software

donnajunkie

when i do a scan for virus's and spyware there is a slot that says what it is currently scanning on the pc and that of course changes quite quickly as it goes through the process. now i always thought it simply scanned everything on the pc. so my question is does it look for things as well as scan actual programmes etc? i ask because i noticed that during a scan it says checking w32, checking trojan horse etc. there are various w32's and named trojan horses that it says it is checking. so is it just checking to see if any of them are on the pc or is it simply checking these things because they are already there?

my second question is i currently have norton 360 and when the subscription runs out i want to downgrade to norton internet security 2008. can i do that? it seems the only thing i get that is extra from 360 is backup and disk optimization. how important is the disk optimization? is there something else i could use to do that?

Conor_3

It's checking to see if they are on the PC.
Regarding Norton. Just remove the thing. It's rubbish. Use the Norton Removal Tool from symantec.com to get rid. Replace with:
Eset NOD32 for Antivirus
Iobit Smartdefrag (free) for the disk optimisation.
Fileback-PC (free) for backup or Windows Backup if you have Vista.

donnajunkie

thanks.
i am thinking of getting kaspersky. i do have vista, i didnt know there was a backup facility.