Renewed Norton A/V on-line thru Norton themselves. PC now runs like its galloping thru black treacle (i.e. so slowly, it can take up to 20mins just to load my browser!!!).

Have repeatedly tried disc clean-up, and have uninstalled a couple of progs no longer used.

Any suggestions as to how I can clean up my HD even more?

Run this:

http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

Then install Avast! antivirus instead.

Job done.

Paid for Premium version of Avira is the way to go hardly slows the PC at all and has decent email and web protection . Free AV version of Avira is also good but the update server is over loaded so updates often fail or take ages.

Avoid AVG current versions reportedly as good as chocolate tea pot --- nevery liked it myself anyway.

Avast's reputation isn't what it was.

For clearing out an already infected PC MalwareBytes is the best but I wouldn't use it for everyday protection.

Ditch Norton it's crap. Get AVG free.

I used to swear by Norton then my pc turned to treacle. Switched to AVG and havn't looked back

Or switch to Linux and don't bother with anti-virus software...

(I'll get my coat...)

Word on the wire is recent editions of AVG haven't been exactly effective, My own experience with clients pc which was running AVG would back this up it had a nasty but of hostageware and a bad case of browser hijacking by hosts file poisioning as well as some minor irritant viruses.

Thanks everybody. So what is it with Norton s/ware? Used to be OK, even up to the period before the upgrade. What did they do to the new stuff?

I used to use AVG on many PCs but yes recently it had some issues. Tried a few other freebies but having seen a couple of group tests Microsoft Security Essentials is getting good feedback.

Give up with them all, get Eset Nod32. It works, full stop.

GeorgeM