I used to use Mcafee for my virus protection, I found after versions were updated that it had a negative effect on my MSFS, it slowed it down. I am currently using a free trial of Norton 2009 and I am not having any issues. Can anyone give me there feelings on Norton.Thanks

No to Norton, No to McAfee.Both are great products but way too resource intensive for FS computers.My personal recommendation is NOD32.

That's a bit of an oversimplification. I've run FS9 with and without Norton and not noticed any difference in FPS. I've seen others reporting the same thing too. I suspect thev effects depend on many other factors too.

You know whats my experience? Don't surf porn sites, don't open unknown executables, update your system, especially your email program, so that autoexecution is impossible (or don't download attachments)...and you will NEVER EVER need an AV.Been running without it for, what, 8 years or longer...never a virus.Oh btw - every AV, no matter how good, will slow down your simming experience. Some say, turning off AV prior to simming is a possibility... I guess it is.

Well, you have a point, however, every once in awhile, my wife's kids break their computer, or she screws hers up and a homework assignment, (very important in your last year of high school), has to be done . . . sooooo. I have anti virus, just in case. And, even I, ever so careful as I am have opened an e mail from a friend which had a virus in it . . . just one of those things if you use the internet at all. Now, when I run FS, I first unplug my satellite hookup, then disable my McAfee anti virus, as I always reboot after FS anyways, so I always have av the next time and then re-connect my satellite. It is a small price to pay for FS. Your mileage may differ.Best to allClayhttp://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...ers/Dopke01.jpgClayton T. Dopke (Clay)Major, USAF (retired)"Drac"

>You know whats my experience? Don't surf porn sites, don't>open unknown executables, update your system, especially your>email program, so that autoexecution is impossible (or don't>download attachments)...and you will NEVER EVER need an AV.>>Been running without it for, what, 8 years or longer...never a>virus.This has been my experience ("rule" if you call it that) as well; just use common sense. If you're lucky enough to have a dedicated FS computer (as I do), AV is a waste of resources anyways.

Hi,You know whats my experience? Don't surf porn sites, don't open unknown executables, update your system, especially your email program, so that autoexecution is impossible (or don't download attachments)...and you will NEVER EVER need an AV.I disagree .... but that's me :)Cheers.

Yeah I know about not surfing certain sites but why take the chance. I know alot of times I just look for an answer to something on google and I click a site, I have often gotten alerts from sites that dont appear suspicious as they say S--t happens. I just want to know if anybody has suffered any negative affects from Norton with MSFS. I havent yet so maybe I am ok.

Hello,I have not first hand experience of Norton on XP (I used it on Windows 95 but this a other story :) )But I read very much negatives about this antivirus.I mean .. this antivirus is not bad for make his job .. the only problem is he need great ressources for run and it's a hog.Another source of problems is the very difficult deinstallation.Myself use CA antivirus -Computer Associate .. ex EZ antivirus(complete satisfaction so far) but many are also satisfied with ESET NOD32 Antivirus.For be protected from Trojans and other indesirables vermines I use MalwarebytesCheers.

Now think carefully about that for a second. If you were a developer of software that was designed to "protect" people from the virus bogeyman, would it not be in your best interest to make said software hyper sensitive so that folks would be convinced that it was really doing some good work for them and would tell all their friends how that wonderful piece of software is constantly stopping mysterious intruders from accessing their computers and wreaking havoc? I'm going on a solid decade now without the use of a single A/V program. I have never had a virus - and that's after years of dowloading all sorts of game mods and flightsim add-ons and hour upon hour of online gaming and web-browsing. And yet people insist that I'm risking life and limb by not having some obnoxious piece of software interogating every single byte of data that is moved to or from my system. They will always tell me the tale of how they bought a new PC a couple of years ago and as soon as they installed "McKinderly Uber Anti-Viri 2006" they started getting all sorts of notifications of attempts to "hack" their systems. Hmmmm, interesting...in ten years of hardcore use, I've never had to re-install an OS and I've never had to spend hours trying to rid my system of malicious code and yet apparently my system is under constant relentless attack from all corners of the net. I've even had folks (some of them on forums like this) solemnly inform me that my system is very possibly a "zombie" that is sending out malicious data to all corners of the globe without my knowledge. hehe...Then the next thing those folks do is ask me why that game that runs like crap on their new system runs so incredibly smoothly on my similar rig...and why do I have such great, smooth online game performance while they are dealing with constant bad connections and lag... :)Don't get me wrong, there are definitely viruses out there (and I do take measures to keep the spyware and adware cleaned off my systems). But they are surprisingly easy to avoid. Be careful about where you download from, be extremely careful about what email attachments you open, and don't just glibbly click away at every pop-up that happens to appear on your screen and you'll likely be fine. Now thats no garantee of course, but then again I've had ten years without any virus and I haven't had to deal with any of the problems caused by the various A/V software that I often read about either. Otoh, if you really have no idea what you're doing, or if you are unable to excercise reasonable control over the PC (if you have kids or a wife that is not particularly PC-savvy) then by all means take precuations. I've got two boys and in a few years they'll likely be "exploring" and then I'm probably going to have to take measures...but until I absolutely have to I wont. :)

I'll second the NOD32 suggestion.No porn??? What good would the internet be without porn. It is probably what got me interested in the internet way back when. After finding this great community on the web and realizing how much FS had to offer, I got in to FS. So I guess you could say that porn is responsible for my FS addiction.Just be careful where you go and know that nothing is free in this world - except freeware, of course.

I run FS2004 with Mcafee, Webroot anti spyware and also O&O Defrag 11 in the backround on a dual core system and regularly achieve 25 FPS on most flights.Mcafee iteself cannot be causing problem must be another programme I thinkJohn

I could not agree more - using those conservative principles I have never had a virus problem. I've always used AVG free, still do, but it's never had any work to do.regards,Mark