Since I’ve been low on funds (which has been a loooong time), I couldn’t afford to renew my anti-virus subscription with Webroot. The only option I had was to start using Norton since Comcast provides it for free to all of its subscribers.
I installed it on both my PC and laptop and did notice that it kinda lagged on my systems. UGH. Well, anything is better than nothing…right? Oh, and please don’t tell me to go download the free version of AVG. I need something more comprehensive than the free version.
So, things were fine on both my systems TILL I get this stupid notice flash on my screens that I needed to reboot the computer so Norton could install the latest update. Hmm. Weird. But, it’s legit from Nortons.
I didn’t reboot my PC for a week. LOL! When I finally did reboot, I found out what the hell Norton installed.
Can you believe, it went and installed 2 extensions on Firefox WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!! WTF! Worse, both extensions slowed down my browsing! One extension is a stupid Norton search box which just eats up valuable space on the toobar area. The other extension, I didn’t know what it was as it was called “Norton IPS”. Turns out, it’s some anti-phishing thing/safe web crap. When I would do a search on google, I noticed that EVERY search result had this shopping cart with a green check mark next to it. If I hovered over it, it would show a popup telling me if the site was safe or whatnot.
Goddamn, I don’t want either of these extensions! So, I went to the Firefox Add-on window and discovered that you can ONLY DISABLE the extentions but NOT remove them. ??????? Not remove them??? This is the first time I’ve seen this happen with Firefox!
So, I disabled both of them and thought, should not be a problem now. NO. THERE’S MORE. When I rebooted my PC after removing a program, those 2 fucking extensions were turned back on! Norton’s apparently turns them back on without your consent!
ARGH!
I did some searching online and found this: http://support.mozilla.com/nl/forum/1/595171
Apparently, I’m not the only one having this problem. I also went to the Norton’s community support forum and there were threads there from people complaining about the same thing and getting no help officially from Norton.
So, I’m basically stuck with using crappy Norton until I can buy a different antivirus/spyware program. It’s just going to be damn annoying to have to disable those 2 extensions each time I reboot my PC and laptop.