55 Minute Uninstall
Wow, it would have almost been faster to backup the data, reformat the hard drive, and reinstall everything from scratch. The long install was of the grossly over programmed Norton Internet Security Suite. Here's the breakdown of my appointment:
8:26am | Arrive at customer's house. He tells me that his computer is running extremely slow. |
8:32am | I sit down and hit the power button on the computer. |
8:36am |
Still staring at the Windows XP startup logo, I ask the customer to bring in the laptop since he wants me to look at it also. |
8:40am |
The laptop is booted up and I'm already looking it over. |
8:41am |
Desktop is finally up…9 minutes!! Yikes! |
8:46am |
Add/Remove programs is finally up and the list populated. I find Norton Internet Security and click the Remove button. |
9:41am |
55 minutes later, I can finally work on the computer. The actual uninstall procedure took about 50 minutes and then another five for it to reboot after removal of Norton. |
10:07am |
I installed and updated both AVG Anti-virus and anti-spyware, tested the Internet connect, tested MS Word (which wasn't working at all an hour earlier) and started the AVG scans all in this past half hour. |
The moral of the story is that Norton products slow down even the fastest computers significantly more than any other security product. The installs are long, the updates are long, the uninstalls are long, and the protection is mediocre. Please, save yourself money, time and grief and don't buy or install Norton products on yours or other people's computers.