changing antivirus by a non teckie

[kenbarber]

i am thinking of changing my computers antivirus. i was going to purchase this years version of my present AV (norton) and the guy at the register says, i onced used that, pandaware is better. (he does not sell pandaware so he has nothing to gain. ihe told me how to use google to find it. i looked and it does look better. now, someone told me that if i de-install norton all the virus files in "quarantine" would be just turned loose. he says norton did not delete them but just quaranetined them. is that true? it is a bad way to be sure your customers stay with you i guess.
anyone know what i should do if i want to change? feel free to email me or post a reply.

[BrianTheGreat]

now, someone told me that if i de-install norton all the virus files in "quarantine" would be just turned loose. he says norton did not delete them but just quaranetined them. is that true?

No No! :D Mr. Burns will not release the hounds on your computer if you de-install Norton. (Simpsons Humor) That is just one of the funniest things that I have heard in a long time. I understand that you are not technical and I'm not making fun of you. If you want to install Panda software then de-install Norton and install Panda. To be honest. Norton anti-virus is a very good program. Sure it's bloatware and sure it slows down your computer. You have to understand that Norton has been in the anti-virus business ever since I can remember and there is a reason they have been in business for an extended period of time. Not to mention that these people are pretty much the industry leader.

[kenbarber]

thanks. i thought it sounded goofy, but, i did want to be sure i would not release the grimlins. i'll correct my well meaning buddy. one of the reasons to change is norton drags my machine to a near halt when email is coming in or going out. i can't even move the mouse. i need to buy a new computer with more memory capabilities.

[BrianTheGreat]

Well, if your computer is slowing down that much then you might want to try AVG. It's totally free and light weight. What ar ethe specs on your computer?

AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/)

[kenbarber]

i have a old hp 8543 pavilian. 256 meg ram. terribly old. 10 gig drive. overloaded. the only reason i hate to buy a better and newer one is that my wife does not want to lose anything out there on the disk. our didgital camera software over 4 years old, but, she knows how to use it. after a disk went bad, in the warranty period by 3 days, i had to restore it all then on the new disk. it was a royal pain. even tho i had it on cd, nothing worked becouse all the attributes were changed in the backup to cd. i had to fix individual files for weeks. an now it has years more of the crap built up.

i'll look at AVG. thanks