Wednesday, May 21, 2008

beware of Defender Pro 15-in-1

I was really in need of a good virus protection tool. I was at Walmart a few days ago and decided to check and see what they had. I was going to buy the Norton but then I saw a program that was cheaper and seemed to offer more in utilities. I held the Norton Internet Security 2008 box next to the Defender Pro 15-In-1 box. Yep, Defender seemed to have it all together and had all these Kudos from various tech publications and the like. I unfortunately, decided to give this product a try.

It was trouble from the get go. Anything that could go wrong (short of the hard drive crashing) did go wrong. The computer locked up several times after installing it. Desktop applications wouldn't open upoon clicking. The virus program would freeze up after hours of attempted scans. I had to power up and power down I don't know how many times. I had to slowly advance forward in safe mode, write in (E-mail) for tech support (during the install process for goodness sakes). The program is full of bugs. It was a nightmare. I was instructed to uninstall the program and then reinstall online. More of the same malfunctions. It was as if I had paid for and installed a virus program rather than an anti-virus program. AHHHHH!

Finally I had decided to uninstall the program for good and get it the hell off my hard drive. Guess what, it refused to do so the second time. It refused to do so the third and fourth time. Fortunately, Defender Pro had a website where I could read a fix to get me out of the Code #1921. I also got some nice long tech instructions telling me what I should do to fix the install. I did everything I was told to a T on the first tech support letter. The second long tech support letter, I didn't read. I told them to save their breath - that I was packing it up and taking their wonderful program back to Wally World!

Today I went back to Walmart with the evil program and the receipt. The lady in Customer Service asked if the program had been opened and that they didn't give refunds. I told her that I wanted to TRADE UP to something that would work. She said I could do that. This fat boy ran back to the software section and picked up NORTON!!!! Yes, I had to pay more but it was worth every penny. It loaded quickly and scanned in minutes...minutes I say! It took over twelve hours for Defender Pro to scan my system...and failed at that. So let this be a lesson to you. Just go for the tried and true when it comes to your security and well being of your computer...the tried and true. Defender Pro could have very well messed me up big time. After I had pulled the program from my computer I decided to go to a few consumer review sites. Guess what, other people, the same program, the same problems. NORTON FOLKS! NORTON!

20 comments:

A.J. said...

Next time, might I suggest a Mac? Once you go Mac...you'll never go back =) In Mac world there is no such thing as a virus...let alone an ANTI-Virus program lol. Our world is much safer and stable =).

Hehe, glad you got it fixed! I hate those stupid programs...I know exactly what you mean....they are worse than the virus itself haha.

David Finlayson said...

I wish I had a MAC. I feel like I am married to the PC because all my design programs are PC. If I go MAC - I would have to put out for PhotoShop, InDesign (or QuarkXpress), CorelDraw (or Illustrator. I don't have that kind of money and I can get the work done with the ever flawed PC.

Rub it in AJ!

Anonymous said...

Actually, any program that runs on Windows can be run on a Mac computer. Especially Photoshop, since it was originally made for Mac users.

Anonymous said...

Give it some time, MAC's will have just as many virus attacks

Anonymous said...

To quote the uninformed: "In Mac world there is no such thing as a virus...let alone an ANTI-Virus program lol. Our world is much safer and stable =)" Just in case you dont know, APPLE HAS TOLD MAC USERS....GET ANTI VIRUS SOFTWARE. Google it. I'm betting Apple knows something about their product you dont know. So take off the rose colored glasses, and give some honest advice to folks. Peace.

TheOnlyCure said...

My name is Lancelot and I represent Defender Pro software. We stand behind our product wholeheartedly and I would like to offer any help I can provide to you and any others who read this post. Please do not hesitate to e mail me if you are still having some trouble shooting issues.

Service Technician said...

Norton sucks too, I wouldn't put it on any machine. As an IT person I've seen plenty of Norton "protected" computers with viruses and spyware galore. There is plenty of free software out there that works better, why spend money on products that don't do the job half as well. Check out techsupportalert.com and see the vast array of free software that you can use rather than continue to pay for software that doesn't do its job.

elChapin said...

Maybe it wasn`t compatible with you OS. IMHO.
I had used Defender pro 5 in 1 before, and didn`t had a problem with it, last year I bought McAfee.. maybe is a good program, but it slows down my PC as a turtle.. so now im going back to Defender... I hope it works as last time I used it.

Anonymous said...

I haven't had any problems either. I used Defender pro 15 in 1 for the past two years; just got the 2010 version recently, and it works well with my computer. I agree, many other programs slow down my computer but I haven't had that problem with this one. Follow directions and you should be fine.

Anonymous said...

What I heard was people were forgetting to uninstall their other antivirus which was not allowing defender pro to work properly. I haven't had any problems. Are there specifics on what is going on?

Anonymous said...

Ijust tried to install it and my computer tells me it is unable to install it. I fixed some settings and now it installed. I guess you have to get the settings and unistall any preexisting antivirus if you want to get it running.

Anonymous said...

Yes I had pre existing anti virus so that is what messed up my installation.

Unknown said...

I agree!!! This product SUCKS!!! my in-laws bought it about six months ago and I've had to go and remove viruses about 10 times since then!! I have Trend Micro Titanium!! AWESOME!! Highly recommended!

Anonymous said...

HAHA i get paid 160 per hour to remove viruses off macs ;) the defender pro thing is junk .. but u needed to run the norton removal tool to actually rid yourself of that horrible program .... then u might have had a chance with defender .. maybe u should do that now .. and the get avast free antivirus and stop using internet explorer .. anything else is better that IE for saftey :)

Unknown said...

My room mate brought this garbage home trying to make my life easier since I fix computers for low income and elderly free of charge. He made the mistake of putting it on his computer without my knowing and finally after it blocked his internet access for 2 days and then he told me about it - I have been trying for 5hrs now to get it to work etc - it's total garbage!!! You should not have to work around your OS to get virus protection! Even their website help is useless... Telling people to uninstall Windows Security Essentials etc???? Really? I told my room mate to never buy a program that has bad reviews online and next time please realize that waiting a whole 24hrs before buying a product that you see on the shelf isn't going to kill him...

Anonymous said...

OMG IM HAVING THE SAME PROBLEMS!!! MY COMPUTERS ARE 100 TIMES WORST SINCE I PUT THIS STUPID DEFENDER PRO ON MY KIDS COMPUTERS!!! I AM SO UPSET!!!!

David Finlayson said...

Upset...yes I remember the feeling...the frustration and burn of having loaded Defender Pro on my computer.

If you got it from Walmart and still have the receipt, take it back and trade up. Anti-virus programs should solve problems, not create more problems. Don't want to go Norton? Go online and purchase a download of AVG or Avast! I also recommend downloading Malwarebytes.

Anonymous said...

I have use defender pro 15-1 for 5 years and never had 1 problem with virus' or install issues, if you actually READ the install info and SET UP the firewall and active antivirus correctly it works wonders. Avast has let through more virus' than i can count especially the free version, Norton is junk and you can't remove it fully once installed. Defender pros customer service is great and they will do whatever it takes to help or satisfy, try that with avast or norton fools.

David Finlayson said...

I'm glad Walmart let me return it even though the package had already been open. I never had trouble with Norton, and so I went back to it.

Defender might have improved their product since I had my bad experience with it and posted about it here on my blog. It might be a product that works fine on some computers and crappy on others. Who knows?

Nevertheless, I'll go with the old adage, "fool me once ~ shame on you, fool me twice ~ shame on me".
When it comes to Defender Pro...I won't be fooled again.

Anonymous said...

norton is only a spywere and can never be remove once in a computer and if anyone try to go to anyother anti-virus program norton will lock up the pc upon install