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Which is the worst pain, McAfee or U3?

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    Which is the worst pain, McAfee or U3?

    I loathe both. I've seen McAfee attack and destroy an essential security tool on my USB stick when I inserted it into someone else's computer while troubleshooting their problems. It gave me no warning, no chance to defend my own software.

    Today I had a battle with the U3 demon that came close to resulting in a dirty shutdown. I couldn't believe what was happening! The utter insanity of the tedious, time-wasting, resource-hogging nonsense that went on as soon as my friend's Sandisk flash drive was inserted -- ugh. And the U3 uninstaller that I downloaded as soon as possible died trying. The combination of two idiocies, U3 and Microswat's default autoplay, had me turning the air blue.

    108MB of garbage had to be deposited on the hard drive every time the thing was inserted! Portable Apps doesn't do that. Nor does it take control of everything away from the user. U3 stores everything in humanly-unreadable directories full of mystery-meat files. No sir, I want to know what's on my drives.
    9
    McAfee
    22.22%
    2
    U3
    22.22%
    2
    Norton
    33.33%
    3
    spam
    22.22%
    2
    other
    0.00%
    0
    Its: Belongs to "It"
    It's: Shortened form of "It is"
    ---------------------
    Lose: Fail to keep
    Loose: Not tight

    ---------------------
    Plurals do not require apostrophes

    #2
    I've been a Norton user right from the good ole' DOS days and so am a bit surprised that before my vote, the Poll results said that Norton was the worst pain!

    Haven't heard of U3, but one should include a number of other Security products, for reasonable results!

    In my opinion, the following Security products too should be included in the poll:
    1. AVG AntiVirus
    2. Kaspersky
    3. Avira
    4. SpyBOT Search & Destroy
    5. Windows Defender
    6. BitDefender


    Can't think of any others rightaway, but I KNOW I've missed out half a dozen more!
    Download IrfanView Help Manual from:
    IrfanView Website - Here
    Sam_Zen's Website - Here
    Author's Website - Here

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by WellOiledPC View Post
      Haven't heard of U3, but one should include a number of other Security products, for reasonable results!
      Don't be confused WellOiledPC, U3 isn't a security product.

      Originally posted by Wikipedia.org
      U3 is a company producing a proprietary method of auto-launching applications from specially formatted USB flash drives.

      U3 Info

      Comment


        #4
        LOL. You see, it's like comparing rotten apples to rotten oranges -- only the rottenness is relevant.
        Its: Belongs to "It"
        It's: Shortened form of "It is"
        ---------------------
        Lose: Fail to keep
        Loose: Not tight

        ---------------------
        Plurals do not require apostrophes

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by matera View Post
          I loathe both. I've seen McAfee attack and destroy an essential security tool on my USB stick when I inserted it into someone else's computer while troubleshooting their problems. It gave me no warning, no chance to defend my own software.
          Today I had a battle with the U3 demon that came close to resulting in a dirty shutdown. I couldn't believe what was happening! The utter insanity of the tedious, time-wasting, resource-hogging nonsense that went on as soon as my friend's Sandisk flash drive was inserted -- ugh. And the U3 uninstaller that I downloaded as soon as possible died trying. The combination of two idiocies, U3 and Microswat's default autoplay, had me turning the air blue.
          108MB of garbage had to be deposited on the hard drive every time the thing was inserted! Portable Apps doesn't do that. Nor does it take control of everything away from the user. U3 stores everything in humanly-unreadable directories full of mystery-meat files. No sir, I want to know what's on my drives.
          We have had a lot of problem at the "Computing for beginners" class that I help with, over USB sticks that are pre-formatted with 2 partitions and so appear as 2 drives to the user. The idea is that one partition can be password protected for "security". Great forthose who know what they are doing but providing countless ways for beginners to lose their precious files.

          If only those people who think up these great ideas would make the simple option the default and let people progress to the complex one when they understand what it is about.

          Comment


            #6
            Thanks Skippybox, for the U3 link. I have a few USB Sticks, but none of them came with pre-installed apps, if you discount the Password-protecting utility that came with them. A format removed it - no skin off my nose though!

            Unfortunarely, Security software are a must in today's computing environment. Again, USB sticks are far more reliable than the Floppy Disks of yore... you can't do without them too!

            I had huge problems with USB sticks in the organization I was with earlier. Some of the users there simply refused to learn that unless they update the Security product on their Home Computers, they would end up losing time, temper and data on their office Computers, when they insert their USB drive the next morning into their office PCs! And I'm not talking of lay users, I'm talking about an organization whose core business is publishing Computer magazines!

            Too many people believe that Security products are for Office PCs alone and that whatever they do (or do not do) with their Home Computers is fine! When they work on their (unprotected/ partially protected) Home Computers, they are working hard and when they transfer the data to their Office PCs by means of their USB sticks - and end up losing data - the IT guys are at fault! I think thats most rotten!
            Download IrfanView Help Manual from:
            IrfanView Website - Here
            Sam_Zen's Website - Here
            Author's Website - Here

            Comment


              #7
              No problem.

              I think McAfee is worst. Haven't tried Norton or a U3 device, and receiving spam is pretty rare for me.

              Tried installing McAfee, which was provided as a free download from my ISP, but got nowhere with it. Despite meeting the system requirements, the thing just would not install. The diagnostic tool kept saying it was my lack of RAM, but that was just ridiculous.

              Tried to get support from McAfee, but they didn't want to give any because I wasn't a paying customer, so they pass you to the ISP. The online ISP techs aren't really great at solving problems either, and want you to either contact McAfee (Are you kidding?!), get more RAM (Throw money at the problem?!), or call their support number (Huh? Support needs support?). I already played that game once, where you get tossed back and forth between two businesses for hours with a simple e-mail account transfer, so I just gave up on McAfee. Why bother when there are so many other great products?

              Comment


                #8
                I get a feeling of Deja Vu, Skippybox... Did you know there are differences between 'existing customers' and 'new customers' too?

                Let me reproduce a conversation I've had a few times with the local Dell support guys here:

                Me: Hello, I'm calling from XYZ Company.
                Dell Person 1: One moment Sir, while we locate your Customer Identity...
                Dell Person 1: Thank You Sir, I'm transferring your call to the right people, as you are our esteemed customers (read, my company has purchased something from Dell recently - XYZ isn't a 'New Account')
                Dell Person 2: Good Morning Sir, how may I help you?
                Me: I'm from XYZ Company and want to get the CD ROM Drive checked on one of the Laptops we purchased from you last year
                Dell Person 2: One minute Sir, while I transfer you to the Laptop Department
                Dell Person 3: Good Morning Sir, how may I help you?
                Me: I'm calling from XYZ Company and would like the CD ROM Drive checked on one of the Laptops we purchased from you last year
                Dell Person 3: And which model is it, Sir?
                Me: Its a Latitude Notebook
                Dell Person 3: One moment Sir, while I put you through to the Latitude Support personnel...

                Usually, this goes on for a few more iterations, but well before that, I'm tearing my hair apart!

                And oh, its a lot easier to type it all in, thanks to Copy-Paste!
                Last edited by WellOiledPC; 13.01.2010, 01:27 PM.
                Download IrfanView Help Manual from:
                IrfanView Website - Here
                Sam_Zen's Website - Here
                Author's Website - Here

                Comment


                  #9
                  LOL. Exactly.

                  Comment

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