Norton Rescue Tools,free

[davidh]

Fix even the most severely infected PCs with Norton Rescue Tools
Sometimes PCs become infected with difficult to remove "scareware" programs or they get so infected by threats that are deeply buried in the PC’s operating system that special tools are required to remove them. That’s where Norton Rescue Tools can help. The Norton Bootable Recovery Tool and Norton Power Eraser are designed to target and eliminate these hard to remove threats and unique types of crimeware that according to the FBI are costing unsuspecting consumers more than $150 million per year1. Read more below to see which Rescue Tool provides the best solution to restore your PC's health, and get you back up and running quickly.
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Norton Power Eraser

Eliminates deeply embedded and difficult to remove crimeware that traditional virus scanning doesn't always detect.
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YYou should use Power Eraser only when nothing else will remove the threat and you are willing to accept the risk that the scanner may quarantine a legitimate program.
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Norton Bootable Recovery Tool

Gets you back up and running if your PC becomes so infected that it won't work properly or even boot up.
http://security.symantec.com/nbrt/overview.asp?lcid=1033&origin=default
:)

[Dan in Saint Louis]

:)
My concern is that Symantec Norton does not score too well on tests like those performed for "Virus Bulletin."

[davidh]

My concern is that Symantec Norton does not score too well on tests like those performed for "Virus Bulletin."
I really don't have a good idea on how to rate anti-malware software. Perhaps this RAP test is a very good way. I don't know.

Since I have only used freeware anti-malware for the most part, I personally don't pay a whole lot of attention to the ratings of the "pay-for" products.

Note that the two Norton products mentioned are both free (permanently, I think) AND currently BETA.

I tried the 'eraser' and it came up with a number of false positives. So I would not recommend using it. OTOH it's BETA.

The 'recovery' tool might be worth looking at. I don't know. Certainly if one can't even boot from safe mode or can't do a system restore, then in such a dire situation it might be worthwhile having the Norton 'recovery' CD available.

Maybe there are other mfg's who provide similar stuff for free??

I think it may also be important to consider whether the products in the RAP test were full Internet security suites or not. The typical non-techie user probably should opt for a full security suite from a mfg. who will offer telephone support incl. in the price. Support and user friendliness of the UI are important.

Probably a good suite should provide MANY forms/layers of protection. Some forms of protection that might not be provided might be web site vetting (e.g. SiteAdvisor), vulnerability scanning (ala Secunia PSI), real-time web site scanning (e.g. AVG Link Scanner).

Also you don't want the product to clobber your system. Such happened recently with a BitDefender signature release just one time, but to those who were hit, I'm sure that one time was one too many. OTOH I'm pretty sure Norton has had embarrassing 'false positives'.