Norton - still too invasive

So. Recently finished up the new system, the one that, if my old one (currently my TV) is any indication, should hold me for the next 4 years or so with upgrades. (First Intel system since the Pentium 90, first ATI card since the Radeon 7000.)

My ISP (Comcast) used to give Mcafee away free. And I generally like Mcafee as a suite - it stays out of the way, gets its job done and that's that. Recently, however, they switched to Norton. Well, free is free...

Now, I haven't liked Norton in a long time. If there was a networking problem, I used to ask if they put Norton on their system (and often the answer was yes.) Something odd, a program not running or the like? Norton. But, it's been a few years, and I'd heard the current version was pretty good - so what the heck.

Nope. Not doing that again. As an AV, it works. As a firewall, it works - too well. I wish it would stop there, though. Instead, it runs the gamut from the minor irritation (do I REALLY need a desktop widget that says "Protected" in a neon green square? That's what the notification area icons are for, guys,) to the "I'm still going to ignore what you say" (Site scans, advisors, etc. that you *just can't turn off* in Firefox - well, you CAN turn them off, but they turn themselves back on again - no, really, I know what I'm doing, I don't need Norton to second guess me) to the most recent - screwing with the OS.

I like Windows 7. Have since the beta. Pre-RC, I ran it, and would have bought it *then.* It's only gotten better. One of the nice things (admittedly a carryover from Vista, aka "The paid for Win7 beta,") is the nice, instant search from the start menu. Type in a document, program name, part of one - and stuff comes up.

Well, it does unless you install Norton, apparently. At which point typing in "Notepad" or "Openoffice" (for instance) gives a generic icon called "Program." Or maybe that and one called "Document." Clicking on this generic icon gives an error about... your security program not allowing access.

Ripped out norton, had to do a registry tweak to get functionality back. Stuff like this makes for a personal boycott (including badmouthing your product,) Symantec. It's why I completely ignored ATI, even when they were doing well with the All-in-Wonder cards (bad support experience with that Radeon 7000 - the only thing that made me give them another try was AMD buying them out) and... well, prior Norton experience.

Now to see if I can find another copy of Mcafee....