I presume u are running windos vista, like all with problems will say is worse than XP.. I noticed u have Norton running, Get rid!, there are know issues with That software, the old one's even had spam built in. Of course there could be loads of other issues, like pagefile size, disc defrag, updates and reg issues. The best thing to do is clean clean clean, Check all the above and pray.

interesting topic, thanks. will definately read this, since my laptop, which is only 2 months old, is slow as **** (2x 2GHz + 3GB RAM)

MS drastically changed the graphical interface in Vista with deep rooted DRM. Windows 7 will be no different. XP will probably be the last real OS MS puts out. Vista is nothing less then satisfying the needs of Hollywood and content providers which compromises windows leanness and compatibility strengths. If you really want to keep Vista then you must either to some serious tweaking or a clean install. Either way, one needs to dive into the services.msc and msconfig and disable tons of bloated services that most don't need or want. Even if you do that its still going to be a bloated pig next to XP. And no matter what you do it won't game like XP.

Basically, if you buy a home system with a oem copy of vista its going to be bloated from the factory. As for those defending Norton, all I can say is you can use better AV apps that have higher detection rates that use far less resources. Just go into the task manager and look and the CPU spikes that Norton uses.. its nothing less then insane. And like I said, Norton's detection rates are far from being on top of class. Anything that symantec is crap anyway. They completely broke drive image with ghost and partition magic. The only thing that symantec does right is their symantec removal tool which will clean out any symantec program off your system. I admit, they did a good job with that one.. thank god.

Thanks alot ))

Cool, Thanks

iv noticed my new hp dv9000 comes filllllllllllllled with junk!! does anyone kno why! hp does thisss! im thinking on getting the new alien wear lappy any sugestions

Just trying that today after AVG leaving in two infections...no need for mass exodus lol they are now gone.

AVG is heavy on slowing things down, Photoshop the same along with Dreamweaver8 not sure about DWCS3.

Certainly Iwill look at the article so thankyou for the links.

i have avg proffessional it doesnt seem like my computer slows down.

Avg free,

Uses a lot of resources and others have said the same, professional people who design for a living. Some are trying different AV to see which is best but lots are rejecting AVG.

I used to like the old version but AVG8 is different.

Im in, LAN it is. I hate norton!

I've found Avanquest System Suite has worked well for me for firewall, anti virus and registry cleanup.

will down the windows

I've used almost every virus scanner and spyware program made.

- Norton should be added to the signature list of other virus scanners. It's that bad.

- McCrappy is well....crappy.

- AVG is pretty good but I had many problems with it crashing. It's also very annoying with many warning popups. Plus a few things got through.

- Avast. Hands down, the best AV package I've used. I recommend it to everyone. It uses very little resources, 100% free, and highly effective. I play modern games with it running! No slowdown!

- NOD32 is a fantastic product but it's commercial.

- AdAware. Love it.

- Spybot S&D - Great product but be careful with it. One wrong move and you could fry your OS.


Overall, AVAST has a full range of abilities and it's easy to use. That's what I run on every computer I own. I have ZERO problems. I catches everything and stops malware dead in its tracks. If you haven't tried it, give it a shot, you won't dissapointed.

i have some of the things that are there and my systems boots up as fast as a clean install of win xp sp 2 (wich i use)
Of course i tweaked registry and settings to give some performance but not max and still boots up really fast. also tweaked and defrag both registry and drives
I use a old nod32 as av because it's fast. maybe... tommorow i'll open a new post to see what speeds you have on your systems

I guess I should post a warning here concerning Norton Symantec products. I don't recommend anyone installing or using Norton Symantec products (unless you know what you're doing). It's not so much of speed issue that concerns me, but:

1. Norton/Symantec software conflicts with any other software that is similiar to the one being installed. ie. If you install Norton AV (any) it will conflict with other AV softwares. If you install Norton Firewall (any) it will conflict with other firewalls. Etcetera. The conflict may crash or hang the applications involved and/or computer, in addition to possible data corruptions, or other effect such as damage to the softwares, in which case: un-installation and re-installation of the softwares are unavoidable.

*I've run into this with thousands of computers, and inevitably made recommendations to several companies to completely remove all Symantec products from their computers (eg. Realty Groups, Military Academies, etc.), And Voila!! No more problems, and some problems miraculously disappeared.

2. Norton Symantec softwares are known to damage Microsoft products, such as the Microsoft Windows Operating System (all) and Microsoft Office (all). By damage, I mean permanent non-function without a clean install of the damaged OS and/or softwares.

*If you're lucky you might be able to boot into safe mode, or were smart enough to make a complete backup of your entire hard drive and lucky enough to completely restore the computer, with a backup before installing the Norton Symantec product (extremely rare case, since the average person isn't even aware that a backup utility comes with the OS and they don't even use it). Additionally, the backup can be split and burned to a CDR or DVDR which would save an even greater amount of time from re-upgrading/updating clean installs.

*I was trying to locate the Microsoft Knowledgebase to no avail for some reason (I read it a few years ago). Anyways, in the knowledge base, Microsoft offers a patch for computers that used Windows XP and Office 2003, that end-users were going to install any Symantec product onto. The Microsoft patch was meant as a possible protection against some damage the Symantec products may cause to the OS and Office. In addition, there was a disclaimer that Microsoft does not gaurantee that even with the patch, the OS and other applications would be damage free, and that use of Symantec products was at your own risk. *I'll keep trying to locate that knowledge base article number, so I can post it, if it hasn't been deleted or moved.

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Anyways, I first noticed Symantec software products doing damage to computers when Norton AV 5.0 came out (yeah that long ago). Doing a comparison between 4.0 and 5.0 the only difference was the Symantec Live Update module and I verified that damages only occured after the first use of the Symantec Live Update. Norton AV is fine so long as you don't use the Symantec Live Update. Only downside, you can't update the virus definitions.

I've even tested various versions of (Norton) System Works, Firewall, Fax Works, etc. All with the same result: damages occured upon first use of the Symantec Live Update regardless of which software was tested. The majority of the cases had damaged OSs that couldn't be repaired. Hard disk format and clean OS install was only option, except for a few that I made a complete hard disk backup of (a complete hard disk restore worked - only if I was able to boot up to safe or normal mode).

As for software conflict tests, I loaded up a few dozen fire walls Tiny Personal Firewall, Black Ice, Zone Alarm, etc. and they all worked fine together on a single system with no conflicts or problems. As soon as Norton Firewall is installed, the system crashes and some of the firewalls including Norton are damaged. Symantec Live Update was not used - hypothesis of why the OS wasn't noticeably damaged. I did a complete system restore anyways -- I wasn't going to chance miss reviewing a non-visible/non-presented damage that might crop up later.
Norton Firewall is fine so long as you do not use the Symantec Live Update or have any other firewalls installed. The downside is you are stuck with only one firewall that might not be completely reliable and has a potential possibility of conflicting with other softwares. Norton Firewall may conflict with Windows XP firewall, but is gauranteed to conflict with all other firewalls.

Norton Registry Doctor also conflicts with other Registry Fixing softwares. Some occurences included hanging and freezing by Norton Registry Doctor after fixes were done by another software such as Fix-It (Ontrack/VCom, etc.). In other instances, damaged data and corrupted data occured when Norton Registry Doctor and another Registry Fixing software are installed on the same system without doing anything other than running it for the first time.

On most of the newer Norton Symantec products, damage is unavoidable as the Symantec Live Update is automatically run after the product is installed and can't be avoided. Alright that's enough examples of these products.

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On the light side, I do like Symantec products because they have given me alot of work and I made alot of money from computers damaged by their products. I can't complain about that.
I don't like the damages and conflicts they have caused on my computer though, which ate up my time and resources. Above all, they're a perfect gift for someone you hate.

vista sucks!

Anybody know if more recent tests have been done since the original 2 years ago post that re-examines security products as they are today?

Hope these tips will fasten our computers.

Nothing can speed up your computer except for a faster CPU (and possibly more Ram)
But you can optimize Windows to run quicker
The best optimization by far, is by removing un-needed startups

Unfortunately the article doesn`t seem to have been updated since 2006. However, I`d guess that Norton is still top of the pile when it comes to slowing Windows down.

Kimsland makes a very good point about start up programmes. The more stuff you have running on start up, the slower your system will run.

Having analysed thousands of HJT logs, it never ceases to amaze me the amount of unnecessary stuff folks have running on their systems.

Gillian