Newbie Questions

[Voltaire]

Hi, I'm an Avast newbie so please forgive me if I'm not posting these questions 100% correctly my first time.

I took Norton off my laptop (Dell Inspiron 1501 running Vista) because it seemed to be causing glitches. I would regularly get gray box alerts about the Symantec framework not coming up or something like that. So, after I have gotten rid of Norton 360 2.0 and have installed Avast, I have a few questions related to the problem and being new to Avast:

• My laptop is still slow starting up. Sometimes it will stall out at the start-up screen after I click the log on icon and I have to do Control plus Alt and Delete several times to get it to start up. Also, sometimes I could not burn CDs and the CD burning software would not recongize any CDs put into the tray even though it would burn DVDs fine repeatedly. Now that Norton and Symantec is gone, any ideas on what could be causing this?
  
  
• The next question is, in using Avast, is there a way to delete or clean out caches or temporary memory, such as all the websites looked at through different browsers and documents worked on and so forth? Sometimes when I was burning DVDs I found that some files would be stored in temporary folders and cleaning out caches could help speed up the laptop overall performance.
  
  
  • My final question: Can you please give a list of programs that can work as back-ups with Avast, or work as supplements, that won't interfere with its performance or be seen as malware by it? I've heard some people on listservs say that after dumping Norton and using the free version of Avast, I should have something else like Threatfire to make sure I'm covered completely until I can purchase the fuller version of Avast. Can you please clarify this as well?

[Tarq57]

Hi Voltaire, welcome to the forum.
Please download and run the Norton Removal Tool (from MajorGeeks) which should fix a lot of the problems, maybe all of them.
Norton can leave a lot of stuff behind when uninstalled.
After the tool has run, it may be necessary to repair the Avast installation. This is done via "add/remove programs" (I think it's "programs and settings>manage programs" in Vista. Find via the control panel.) Select Avast, then Change, then repair.

Avast does not have the facility to delete your temporary files. Try Ccleaner (read the help file first; you can end up removing more than you may want removed) or ATF Cleaner (also from MajorGeeks), or use the tools available in the OS, for disk cleanup. (A defrag once a month or so is a good idea, too.)

A lot of manufactured computers (and Dell is no exception) come pre-loaded with stuff you may neither want nor need. Check out PCDecrapifier to help remove the bloat, and give yourself a bit more performance. Stuff starting with Windows when it doesn't need to is a major cause of poor performance.

A few of the programs that work well with Avast include Threatfire (behaviour blocker), MalwareBytesAntiMalware (demand scanner), Secunia PSI software inspector (Checks system for vulnerable/out of date software-Windows and 3rd party).
Actually, a lot of programs work well with Avast. It "plays" well with most other applications. (Except another Antivirus, of course.)

I'd also look at installing a Hosts file (there are others available) and something like Hostsman to easily manage it.

To improve protection, use a browser like Firefox with the NoScript add-on, or disable (or at least prompt) for scripting in all internet zones in IE. Nothing is ''totally covered". You'll be pretty good with those, though.

If the CD/DVD problems persist, please advise.

[pdelgado]

I need to set a password to apply settings on my avast home 4.8. Where do I go to create one?

[Tarq57]

pdelgado, Hi.
Would have been better to start a new topic in your own thread. This is someone else s.
Go to the "General Topics" forum and near the top right, click on "New Topic".
You don't normally need a password- it's optional. Please explain why you need it.

[Shubham]

Voltaire
You must defragment you disk.
Then delete unwanted data from it.
Make sure Norton was uninstalled properly.