Reader Jim Beck has asked:

Ron -
Found your site(?) while looking for a phone number to contact Norton-Symantec. N-S has caused me problems for several years and I agree with what Mr. George had to say on your site 100 %. Unfortunately, my local provider Yahoo pushed a new program at me that incorporated Symantec and I took the bait thinking that if Yahoo was down with it, N-S had cleaned up it’s act — NOT SO ! I’m about about use N-S’s removal program to remove as much as I can of N-S’s existence on my desk top and lap top and I’ hoping that since you are an “MVP” you could recommend some good replacements. Something that wouldn’t slow my browser speed down. It’s understood that I would not hold you liable for any subsequent failures.

So I responded to Jim’s request with this:

Hello Jim,
Below is a link for the 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities, many of which I personally use and have recommended to family, friends, and clients:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

On ALL of my personal systems I use AVG freebie and have for the past 4 years. No critters have made it to my systems, though your mileage may vary.

For spyware I use Windows Defender. But there are others you may wish to try like Spyware Doctor Starter Edition from Google.

But what I am going to do is post your comments and see what others may recommend.

Regards, Ron

So what do you think? Give Jim some recommendations s well.

Comments welcome.

Tags: anti virus, protections, avg, spyware, best, help,