Best Alternative to Norton 360 ?

deejaybee

I have been using Norton 360 for a few years now without too much fuss..

But it has thrown a wobbly now ( we are unable to verify your subscription due to an internal error... )  I have uninstalled and reinstalled a couple of times now as per advice of what passes for "support" on there, but still no good. Rapidly losing patience with it...

Whats recommended these days ?  I dont mind paying for something, as i have been shelling out for Norton already.

Ta

Neil_Jones

Windows Defender.  Part of Windows 10 already.  You need nothing else.

pbartlett

norton 360 is a total waste of money use the built in windows 10 antivirus. 

deejaybee

hmmm small problem with that.... Win 7

deejaybee

Ive uninstalled Norton , and activated firewall etc ( norton was controlling that previously )

Neil_Jones

deejaybee said:

hmmm small problem with that.... Win 7

Windows 7 has Defender built-in too.

(or upgrade it to 10, as 7 is now discontinued - upgrade is still free never mind what the blurb says)

[Deleted User]

deejaybee said:

hmmm small problem with that.... Win 7

I'd be more worried about using Win 7 than what anti virus package you use, your best and cheapest way to a more secure system is upgrade to Win 10 and follow the resounding advice above.

Every time a vulnerability patch comes out for Win 8 / Win 10 then Win 7 gets left behind and the whole world knows that the vulnerability patched in later versions is an available exploit for the unsupported Win 7.

There are now about 500+ vulnerabilities identified in Win 7 since it went out of support and none of them have been patched. Most of them also affect the newer Win 8/10 but patches are available for them

https://www.cvedetails.com/product/17153/Microsoft-Windows-7.html?vendor_id=26

See this recent one for example - we shut down a lot of system at work immediately for patching when this one came up:

https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2021-31956/

deejaybee

I have still been getting updates come through for Win 7 ??

[Deleted User]

deejaybee said:

I have still been getting updates come through for Win 7 ??

Not for the core system and not security updates.

Shared components such as drivers, .net framework and other extras which are common across all Win OS will still get updates, but these are not the core Win 7 system itself and not patching security exploits within the core system.

For example this update came out today for Window 7 machines:

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/ScopedViewInline.aspx?updateid=3f8f828a-3ce5-430e-beee-84d0045db934

It is a common update to all .net frameworks.

Microsoft are crystal clear in their statement - no further security updates for Win 7 after Jan 2020 unless you are an enterprise customer and paying an arm and a leg for extended support.

deejaybee

Ah i see what you mean... a lot of the updates i received after the deadline were "security updates"  but for things like Microsoft Office etc, not the core system as you say.

OnlyTheBestWillDo

[Deleted User] said:

deejaybee said:

I have still been getting updates come through for Win 7 ??

Not for the core system and not security updates.

Shared components such as drivers, .net framework and other extras which are common across all Win OS will still get updates, but these are not the core Win 7 system itself and not patching security exploits within the core system.

For example this update came out today for Window 7 machines:

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/ScopedViewInline.aspx?updateid=3f8f828a-3ce5-430e-beee-84d0045db934

It is a common update to all .net frameworks.

Microsoft are crystal clear in their statement - no further security updates for Win 7 after Jan 2020 unless you are an enterprise customer and paying an arm and a leg for extended support.

You can, of course, obtain the updates until 2023 even if you are not an Enterprise customer. You can find a guide on YouTube if you have an interest in such things. Of course it's not just a single click method; but if you are a dedicated Windows 7 user; you might not mind jumping through a few hoops. Of course I don't mean you.personally.