Review of Norton Antivirus 2005 and Software Specifications

Publisher:	Symantec
Lowest Price:	$46.99
Operating System:	Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
Program Version:	v2005

Review of Norton Antivirus 2005 by Anti-Virus-Review.Net:

Norton, like McAfee, also overloads this software with features at the cost of speed and some virus protection. Norton provided signifigant loads on our systems as we tested this software producing a notable lag on systems loaded with norton. Some of the features were a mixed bag, with the anti-spyware features being mediocre. The virus removal also had gaps in it to. With the degrade in Norton over the years, this software comes as a disappointment.

We were able to detect most all the trojans and nasty viruses we loaded on our machines. But the problems with Norton came during the removal when we noticed that the removal had left behind some traces of viruses. While these traces were more of a nusance, they did clutter up out system after awhile. Norton had ISCA certs and VB100% that the top softwares had but at the price of long scan times and slow system performance. We noticed that signifigant lags on all but the highest end systems when Norton was loaded on them. The scan times were also quite long for some of the larger files we put it up again, nowhere near the performance of Kaspersky with lesser scan results.

The user interface is good, it does provide easy access to all the options a power user desires and does simplify things for novices. The interface was also quite sluggish at times, due to the general increase in system load.

Installation took awhile and the challenge response was pain but the pre-scan that Norton performed was handy.

Help was also disappointing for such an established company as Symantech. We had trouble getting questions about upgrades answered and they tried to sell us software that we didn't need, instead of what we asked for. Email appeared to more automated responses and we had getting non-template answers.

Product Specifications:

• Good scanning and decent removal of all types of viruses
• Quarantine or deletion features
• Scan scheduling
• Instant messaging virus scans
• Automated virus definition updates via the internet
• Heuristic scanning
• ISCA Certification and VB100% Awards for all platforms
• Email protection

Requirements:

• Windows 98, Me, NT, 2000 or XP
• 90 MB of HD space for 98, 128 MB for higher windows versions
• 133 MHz machine for Windows 98, 2000
• 150 MHz machine for Windows ME
• 300 Mhz machine for Windows XP
• 64 Megs of ram before Windows XP
• At least 128meg memory for XP

Extras:

This software includes Anti-Spyware features.

Summary:

Norton comes off bloated and large, with a hit and miss feature set.