Norton Quick Stats:

Pricing:	1 Year:  $39.99 per Computer
Free Trial	Yes – you can Try it NOW for 15 Days Try NOW for 15 Days Free!
Virus Definition Updates:	Every 5-15 minutes
Proactive Detection Effectiveness:	Excellent
On Demand Detection Effectiveness:	Excellent
Over-all System Performance:	Excellent
Customer Service:	E-mail and Free but limited phone support and expensive paid tech support
More Info:	Make Sure to Compare Anti-Virus Software Providers for Additional Plan Statistics

Detailed Norton Review:

Symantec developed Norton AntiVirus to provide real-time protection from viruses, spyware, worms, keyloggers, rootkits and many other forms of malware. Norton AntiVirus was completely revamaped for 2009 which now make it an excellent choice for anti-virus protection.

Norton Likes:

Better installation process: Symantec’s Norton 2009 has a streamlined and improved the installation process. We all had a terrible time installing the previous versions which required us to reboot several times and it took the process more than twenty minutes to finish. The all new Norton Antivirus 2009 installed in a minute, didn’t need a system reboot, and the computer was immediately ready for use.

Symantec’s Improved Norton LiveUpdates: Norton AntiVirus 2009 now has pulse update which updates your virus definitions every 5-15 minutes unlike the previous versions which updated virus definitions on a weekly basis. This current rate of virus definition update is on the top of our list of AntiVirus softwares. In the corporate edition of the Norton AntiVirus, there is a client/server strategy in updating virus definitions were the different workstations will not have to update separately, but will be linked to the server that will actually update itself and distribute the updates to the managed workstations.

New “Insight” feature: This new feature of the Norton 2009 allows the software to recognize and remember safe and trusted files on your computer that will not require scanning which greatly decreases the amount of time needed to perform your computer scans. The only downside of this feature is that you will have to perform an initial, thorough, and lengthy scan for the software to perform its whitelisting process. After this, you will experience around 85% reduction in scanning duration. This is such a great improvement over the previous versions.

User-friendly interface: Norton’s new AntiVirus interface is much more instinctive, spontaneous, simplified, pro-looking, and easy to use. For instance, version 2009 is much easier to turn components on and off directly from the general screen.

Better performance: The previous versions of Norton were know to be computer resource hogs but in the new Norton 2009, tasks like downloading new virus definitions or scanning for malware are performed only when the system has been idle for a while with a default of ten minutes. People also used to complain about slow boot processes but the new Norton will just add a piddling 15 seconds to your boot process.

Norton DisLikes:

Incompatibility issues: During installation, the purchaser receives warnings that ZoneAlarm and Spy Sweeper and other AntiVirus software are incompatible, and should be uninstalled from the system before continuing the installation. Since the purchaser is also advised to uninstall other antivirus programs, this would leave very little security for anyone connected directly to the internet during installation. Another problem stemming form incompatibility issues is that Norton AntiVirus has on occasion identified other software incorrectly as “viruses” or “trojans” and deleted them.

Customer Support: Customers have long complained about the lack of acceptable support from Symantec. Norton is only offering one year of free phone support to their customers. They are still pushing paid support on people when the first line of their customer support representatives does not have the answer. While their website maintains a decent knowledge base, most antivirus companies offer free and extensive support at no extra charge.

Relatively high system requirements: Norton AntiVirus requires 256MB of random access memory(RAM) and 150 MB of available hard disk space. These requirements are high compared to the requirements of the other antivirus softwares available in the market.

Norton Bottom Line:

The most important thing Norton consistently does right is effective antivirus detection, removal, and prevention. The revamped Norton Antivirus 2009 is easier to install, and does a good job at attacking viruses and other malicious software. Their new interface is also much more intuitive, profesional looking, and easy to use. The one lacking feature is Norton’s customer support.

Buy Norton Antivirus for only $39.99!
Buy Norton AntiVirus for the Mac for only $49.95!
Buy Norton Internet Security for only $59.99!
Buy Norton Internet Security for the Mac for only $79.99!
Save 20% when you bundle 2 or more Norton products!