Windows 7: Parents act as if they own my new computer

Hey there. I am Sean, I just had a new computer delivered yesterday. My situation deals with my overprotective parents who I still live with. I want to remove the preinstalled commercial virus scan trial Norton but I can't because they tell me. I can but what am I going to say that they won't jump to conclusions which they claim not to? I can't perform any major changes to my own machine even though I'm freaking 21. She still gives me this "computer viruses are bad" crap that I know already.

Hello Sean and welcome to Seven Forums.

If you paid for the computer with your own money, and if you're paying for your own internet connection, then I don't think your parents should have any say in what anti-virus suite you want to install. But if your computer is part of a home network paid for by your parents, then they might have a legitimate concern about malware. So perhaps a better solution is to provide your parents with some recent anti-virus test results and show them that Norton isn't the only AV company in town; that there are other free and paid companies like Avast, Avira, BitDefender, Comodo, Kaspersky, MSE, ESET, Vipre, etc that may be better than Norton. As far as making "major changes" I would again have to ask who paid for the machine.

Sean, you're conducting a one-sided "fight" with your parents in a public forum while you're asking them to give you responsibility over "your" computer. Maybe if you present their reason(s) besides the "because I say so".

This might not be the type of forum used for work out such problems.

+1 to that! If you're 21 go out and live on your own.

Emerging adulthood and early adulthood - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have at least one family connection who hasn't "emerged" at 26.

I lived at my parents house till I was 21 and had to follow their rules, once I moved out I live by my rules (which wasn't always the best )

I lived off and on at my folks till about a month ago. I'm 21 now and it's nice to be able to be out past dark.

Just let them know it's yours. Hell i'm 19 and got my own pc I use for gaming and I can do what ever I want to it. IMO it sounds like you do too much they say :P . Just remove the anti virus pre-installed and replace with what ever anti virus you want. Tell them how much better it is and how it benefits and make the other one sound like it's crappy. hehe or just do it and I doubt they notice and if they do just do what I said earlier.

Use another anti-virus you want but rename it Norton.