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How Norton's AV made my wife's computer secure

My primary OS for the past few years has been Linux; Ubuntu Linux to be precise.

It's a simple install and the distro comes with 90% of the software I ever use for most online tasks.

Of course I still use good old Windows (albeit only Win XP) on my video editing/rendering box because there are still some things that Linux just can't deliver on -- such as professional quality, well supported, widely used production software.

Last night however, I was reminded why Windows can be a bit of a nightmare.

My wife managed to get her hands on an Acer e-machines notebook computer and it needed some significant software attention.

It appears that this was one of the units which were given to Wananga students, many of who simply took the computer and ran, never bothering to actually attend the courses.

It was sold to a licensed second-hand dealer who then found that they couldn't resell it for any reasonable amount because there was no Windows or BIOS password -- hence it was effectively "locked".

After a little work I disabled the Windows password and got to the Windows 7 desktop.

Of course there was a raft of "crap" installed on this machine. Limewire, a dozen IM programs, etc. There were also a couple of files that obviously related to the Wananga.

I did some uninstalling and tidying up to the point where the machine was finally usable.

At this stage, an annoying Norton AV software kept popping up telling me that the subscription had expired and, if I didn't renew it, the world as I knew it would end. I'm pretty sure I also saw reference to babies being killed in my name and virgins being sacrificed for the lack of this subscription renewal.

Well I'm no fan of any software that nags like this so the next step was to install MS Security Essentials -- which (IMHO) is a much better AV option than Norton's anyway.

I started downloading MSSE but could go no further when it told me I had to uninstall Norton's first.

No worries -- I canceled the MSSE install and set about running the uninstall for Norton's.

After an inordinately long period of time the Norton's uninstaller told me it would now restart the computer. No worries -- I said "go ahead".

That's when the wheels fell off this wagon.

The notebook would no longer boot.

It would get part way through the boot process then crash -- kicking up an exception that wasn't there before Norton uninstall did its damage.

What the? Was Norton's so pissed off that I would dare to uninstall rather than renew my subscription that it decided to knee-cap Windows? It sure seems that way.

At that stage I thought "bugger it" and did a totally clean Ubuntu install -- removing all traces of Windows 7 from the drive.

Woohooo... the laptop now boots in a fraction of the time, is secure, doesn't bitch about a misbehaving WiFi driver (as it did under Windows) and everything just works like it should.

Now I don't have to worry about the wife getting hit by driveby downloads as she stumbles around the web and all those Windows viruses, trojans and other malware will simply bounce off her Ubuntu-powered notebook.

Thanks Norton's -- your software is naggy, mean and vindictive but in a strange way, it did ensure that my wife's computer is now very secure.

Do readers have any similar tales?

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