Why do some updates need constant reboots?

I have two laptops, one with Norton Internet Security and one with McAfee. The one with Norton never, ever requires a reboot after updating (which it seems to do very often) but McAfee has been a real pain recently, prompting me to re-boot at least four times in a week after updating. Can anyone explain this anomaly? Norton want over £50 for a renewal and I'm tempted but...... are there any free AV/security packages out there that don't ask for re-boots all the time?

Try AVAST!

It's free and updates itself automatically after booting-up. No need for a shut-down.

In reply to a post by GeoffB:

I have two laptops, one with Norton Internet Security and one with McAfee. The one with Norton never, ever requires a reboot after updating (which it seems to do very often) but McAfee has been a real pain recently, prompting me to re-boot at least four times in a week after updating. Can anyone explain this anomaly? Norton want over £50 for a renewal and I'm tempted but...... are there any free AV/security packages out there that don't ask for re-boots all the time?

It's quite unheard of for antivirus to require reboots these days - people and industry alike have realised it's simply unacceptable to be rebooting computers just for updated antivirus definitions. If it is true that McAfee is requiring many reboots when it updates, then it's nothing more than sloppy programming on their behalf.

Get GFI VIPRE, amazon have a deal on it atm, £6 for a PC lifetime or £10 for home site license for 1 year. Far superior to both Norton and McAfee.

To be fair, it wasn't the antivirus updates, rather the actual Security Center(sic) programme itself. I have a feeling that they put one out with a few bugs and then re-issued it; (there were issues brought up on the McAfee Community forum). But this programme update does seem to be getting more frequent. We also get updates to the Firewall and Parental Controls too and these have been known to require re-boots.

In reply to a post by GeoffB:

To be fair, it wasn't the antivirus updates, rather the actual Security Center(sic) programme itself. I have a feeling that they put one out with a few bugs and then re-issued it; (there were issues brought up on the McAfee Community forum). But this programme update does seem to be getting more frequent. We also get updates to the Firewall and Parental Controls too and these have been known to require re-boots.

Caution - there are lots of malware hiding as "Security Center" type windows.

The real Windows Security Center will be asking for regular updates; these are "Windows Update" patches to the operating system - nothing to do with the security product installed.

If you want less hassle, just use Microsoft Security Essentials, and keep Windows Update set to automatic.

In reply to a post by GeoffB:

I have two laptops, one with Norton Internet Security and one with McAfee. The one with Norton never, ever requires a reboot after updating (which it seems to do very often) but McAfee has been a real pain recently, prompting me to re-boot at least four times in a week after updating. Can anyone explain this anomaly? Norton want over £50 for a renewal and I'm tempted but...... are there any free AV/security packages out there that don't ask for re-boots all the time?

nod32 never asks for reboots on its automated updates.

Thanks. I'll definitely take a look at those recommended. Just remembered that I'll have to do a complete uninstall of Norton if I decide to swap. I lost the will to live the last time I tried that!

In reply to a post by GeoffB:

Just remembered that I'll have to do a complete uninstall of Norton if I decide to swap. I lost the will to live the last time I tried that!

This might help:
http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Secur...

Similar tools for McAfee too.

Probably because they are changing something in their lower layers of the software that interact with the system.

Its quite tricky to write the hooks to tap into the lower parts of the system to write anti virus software. So quite often there are bugs. Or they are slowly upgrading them to support something new.

In reply to a post by GeoffB:

Thanks. I'll definitely take a look at those recommended. Just remembered that I'll have to do a complete uninstall of Norton if I decide to swap. I lost the will to live the last time I tried that!

just run the norton uninstall tool, as more or less all av vendors have them, i use eset smart security 5 you can still buy the version 4 disk from 7dayshop and you can if you wish also download and use the latest version 5 too, it version 4 is very light on system resources and just works,unlike a lot of other av solutions out there