Entered CNET Catalog: 08/16/2004
SKU: 10280931
Manufacturer: Symantec Corporation
Manufacturer description
Symantec's Norton AntiVirus 2005 is the world's most trusted antivirus solution. It removes viruses, worms, and Trojan horses automatically - without interrupting your work. New Norton Internet Worm Protection blocks certain more sophisticated worms (such as Blaster and Sasser) before they enter your computer. Norton AntiVirus can also detect spyware and other non-virus threats.CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 10/05/2004
After the quick presetup scan, Norton installs itself, automatically downloads the latest virus definitions and program files, and runs a mandatory, comprehensive post-setup scan. Our initial setup took just less than 45 minutes; plan to step away from the PC and brew some tea in that time, though, as Norton is a major resource hog during its system scan, essentially rendering your PC useless for other tasks. For instance, in our informal tests, Microsoft Word took 35 seconds to load during a system scan. With no scan running, it took just 6 seconds on our 2GHz Celeron with 512MB of RAM. For more on system performance, see our performance results.
Norton's clean, well-organized interface remains one of the best in the antivirus biz, and we're pleased to see it's mostly unchanged. One noteworthy upgrade is the Protection Alert screen; it allows you to specify a period of inactivity when disabling Norton's real-time virus scanner--a necessary evil when installing some programs. Simply right-click the Norton icon in the Windows Taskbar, click Disable Auto-Protect, and select a period of shutdown time--15 minutes, 1 hour, 5 hours, or until the system restarts. This is important because many users forget to turn the scanner back on.
Like its competitors, Norton AntiVirus 2005 scans and cleans instant-messenger attachments, as well as inbound and outbound e-mail. However, all of Norton's best features are carryovers from 2004. This year's version adds Norton Internet Worm Protection, a lightweight firewall feature that blocks unsolicited inbound traffic, including nasty troublemakers such as the Blaster and Sasser worms. Unlike a full-on firewall, however, Worm Protection won't block outbound traffic, making it no more effective than the free Microsoft firewall included in Windows XP SP2.
We ran Norton Worm Protection against Steve Gibson's ShieldsUp security checker, which reported that our test PC successfully blocked most of the test Internet packets. Unfortunately, our test PC replied to the ShieldsUp Ping requests, meaning our computer was visible to the Internet--not good. Typically, a computer running a full-on firewall won't respond to pings. Even with Worm Protection, Norton users will still need a firewall.
Like its predecessor, Norton AntiVirus 2005 scans for hidden spyware threats, including adware, dialers, and keystroke loggers that record every key you tap. Unfortunately, its real-time scanner doesn't detect spyware; rather, Norton spots these menaces during only a full system scan or a Quick Scan, the latter of which runs immediately after virus-definition downloads. Overall scanning speed was respectable. In our informal tests, Norton took 37 minutes to scan a 12GB partition.
Version 2005's list price remains unchanged at $49.95 and is comparable to the cost of Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2004, which includes a full firewall and antispam tools not found in Norton AntiVirus 2005.
In CNET Labs tests, running Norton AntiVirus 2005 results in the same amount of drag on system performance as running McAfee and Trend Micro PC-cillin. The lightest hit on system resources comes from Computer Associates' EZ Antivirus. Norton took longer to scan our 1.3GB hard drive than either PC-cillin or EZ Antivirus.To measure Norton AntiVirus 2005's impact on system performance, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's SysMark 2002, an industry-standard benchmark. The Internet-content-creation portion of SysMark measures desktop performance running off-the-shelf applications, such as Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder, and Macromedia Dreamweaver. (We did not run the office productivity portion of the benchmark because it incorporates McAfee VirusScan 5.13.)
Our test system was a Dell Dimension 8200 running Windows XP Professional, with an Intel Pentium 4 1.9GHz processor and 256MB of RDRAM. With Norton AntiVirus running, our test system scored 94 percent--meaning a 6 percent reduction in overall system speed. By comparison, McAfee also scored a 94. (An Internet-content-creation score of 100 represents the performance of our test system without any extraneous software running.) In a test of scanning speed, Norton AntiVirus took an average of 6.1 minutes to scan a 1.3GB directory, which wasn't as slow as McAfee, which averaged 6.68 minutes.
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Norton AntiVirus has been tested on Windows desktop systems 10 times since November 2000 by the independent testing organization VirusBulletin and earned its coveted VB 100 Percent title each time. Norton AntiVirus is one of the few products tested to consistently win the VB 100 Percent award. By comparison, McAfee's VirusScan was tested only once, at which time it earned the VB 100 Percent title . Previous versions of Norton AntiVirus have also been certified by the independent antivirus-testing laboratories at West Coast Checkmark, ICSA Labs, and Checkvir.com.
For more details on how we test antivirus apps, see the CNET Labs site.
The good news is that Symantec finally upgraded its customer telephone support to 24/7. Previously, phone hours were limited to Monday through Friday, from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT. The bad news is, phone support still costs plenty, either $29.95 per incident or $2.95 per minute. By comparison, Trend Micro PC-cillin offers free 24/7 phone help for one year.
Symantec's help site also includes the Automated Support Assistant, a downloadable utility that scans Norton AntiVirus for known problems. However, the assistant needs more tooling. For example, when we disabled Auto-Protect, Norton's real-time virus scanner, the Automated Support Assistant reported no irregularities on our system--oops. Symantec also offers e-mail support, but you'll need to run the Automated Support Assistant before firing off a query.
User opinions
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User Rating: 
4/10
Not worth the price
Pros: Does what it's desisgned to do perfectly
Cons: Very heavy on using resources
A definite NO!
User Rating: 
1/10
Really Sucks
Pros: None that I can come up with
Cons: Price, Customer support, Can get better for free on net
User Rating: 
7/10
Although it has a slow detection system it generaly performs well
Pros: friendly user interface, low system usage
Cons: slow live update and scanner
User Rating: 1/10
It SUCKS!!!!
Pros: There are no Pros!!1
Cons: How many should I count???
I wonder & pity those who recommend this product & more so onits developers that claim it to be as "Best Antivirus"!!!!
Freewares like AVG are 1000 times better than this crap!!!AVG is resource friendly.it just takes only 18 minutes to scan my entire system in contrary to Norton that used to take not less than 45 minutes or more even!!!
For me it is the "WORST PRODUCT"!!!
User Rating: 1/10
I'll never buy another product from Symantec
Pros: The Norton name, mediocre usability
Cons: Unreilable updates and miserable tech support
The first update went ok, but then, corrupt LiveUpdate files essentially ruined the usefulness of the product. I could no longer update. When I attempted to contact tech support, I was faced with the chose of a) waiting in line for a chat with someone in India b) trying an email and c) paying 30 dollars to speak to a person.
I chose b)--at first. They never responded to my email. It's been five days. Today, I tried option a). Also a mistake. The wait was about 30 minutes each time you needed to chat (and what happens when you need to reboot...that's right wait again). So, after one person in tech support clearly had no idea what was going on and would not even listen to what I said, a second person finally diagnosed the issue properly, and sent me to a help file. And, oh wait that's it. That's all he did.
The help file, btw, seemed to be outdated and simply did not correspond with what was happening on my screen. Oh, and it's in broken English.
My solution? Deleting Norton and installing eTrust from CA. Why purchase a program were this could be the best solution to a problem that their files would cause?
User Rating: 
9/10
I tried the rest and came back to Norton's
Pros: Easy install, easy updates, worry free
Cons: Price ,slow
User Rating: 
2/10
Fast but thats it.
Pros: Runs faster then most Anti-virus
Cons: Cannot find most viruses/spyware, no firewall in this packege
User Rating: 2/10
Not what I expected from such a well known name
Pros: None really
Cons: Just about everything
In my trial version of Norton everything seemed to work fine. I had a brand new computer that was extremely fast and didn't seem to have any problems with Norton. So I decided when it was time to renew that I would upgrade my version so I would have more features. This was the biggest waste of money I have ever put into a computer.
The problems started immediately after purchasing. I downloaded the program and suddenly my computer crashes. Everything I had setup was gone. Luckily I saved my files prior to downloading. But all the settings I had configured in programs I use every day were missing. Plus, Norton completely wiped out the system restore back to a date when it was still working good. I had to do a complete system restore. It took me approximately a day to get my computer back up and running. It took me another day to get everything back to the way it was. Then another day to get norton setup and working, after putting $80 into the program I wanted to be able to use it.
Ever since this happened with norton, my computer never acted the same again. It is constantly having problems and performs slower than ever. Norton usually takes 2 hours to run, so I have it scheduled to run when I won't be using it. When it runs it will tell me I have this many viruses, etc. so I say to delete it and it doesn't do it. It leaves them there, making the program virtually useless. Plus, everytime I try to go to the program to make changes or something it tells me that there was a program and I should trying closing the program and opening it again, if that does work to reinstall. After trying this several times, it still doesn't work. So I have to deal with this error message every time I go into Norton. Plus, some features are not available because of the problem.
On top of all this the program does not scan for adware, or spyware. So, it really doesn't search for all the threats available to the PC. The firewall will bring up a message asking if I want to block, or accept something. With many things I can select always block or allways allow a hundred times and it will keep asking me. This is not only annoying, but another sign that the program is worthless.
The only thing I have noticed is that it seems to be pretty effective scanning emails. But then I don't know that for sure.
I am researching new programs for antivirus and I already am using two free programs to erase spyware and adware. I am completely satisfied with both and they both seem to do a very complete job of their designated task.
This is very dissapointing to report. I always thought Norton was a name to be trusted. I don't mind paying $80 a year to protect my PC. I use it everyday and I know this is something I have to have. But I feel that the money used to buy this program is a complete waste and could be utilized much better in another program.
User Rating: 1/10
Does not scan very well
Pros: Great marketing
Cons: Very slow when scanning
In my opinion not only is Symantec's antivirus software to slow but it doesn't do a good job when scanning/detecting viruses.
Getting support for Symantec's antivirus software is a challenge. You spend a large amount of money to purchase the software only to find out when you need help with it there is a possibility of you having to pay for support.
For the amount of money that Symantec is asking I don't think that it is worth the money. There are other antivirus software packages out there that will perform as well if not better than Symantec's solution.
At the end of my Symantec subscription I will seriously be looking at other antivirus solutions.
User Rating: 4/10
Working fine until...
Pros: Nice graphic icon, Less "pop-up" messages
Cons: No delete option for "threat" files at the end of scan, Product key is suddenly "invalid."
And despite the absence of the delete option to erase all "threat" files at the end of scan, it was able to detect a few viruses and worms which is what any antivirus is supposed to do.
However what prevents me from giving the software higher than a 4 is when my software mysteriously reverts back into a "Trialware" and the Symantec server no longer accepts my product key due a "problem" with it. Their online leads to tech support are virtually useless when I all I'm left with are dead links, which sends me scrambling all over their website for tech support info.
At the end of this fiasco, I reinstall all software, which still doesn't fix my problem with 2005.
Conclusion: I'm currently using AntiVirus 2004 now.
User Rating: 
3/10
Finished with Norton!
Pros: Interface is simple to use.
Cons: The program hogs system resources.
User Rating: 2/10
No Block, No Remove, No Quarantine
Pros: 95% Accurate
Cons: the 5% it misses
I have the software set to automatically update with latest virus definitions, but for the second time now find myself infected with a virus which this software has been able to identify (after it got by their blocking) but can neither remove or quarantine it.
My only options are to delve into the bowels of my computer's registry...an area I am not comfortable with tweaking and one I should not have to enter if this software did its job, call Symantec's tech support and pay a fee larger than the cost of the software for the privilege, or, as i have done once, take the computer to a tech shop and have it removed at an even larger cost.
Worse yet is my ongoing experience with Symantech as far as being able to get in touch with them. You have two choices....call them and pay a fee larger than the cost of the software to try and solve problems their software should have never allowed to happen, OR send them an e-mail message (and finding the address to reach the right person can take lots of searching on their website since there is nothing intuitive about the process, They are absolutely the worst in terms of shielding themselves from customer contact.)
And if you DO manage to find someplace to send an e-mail, be ready to wait a month or more for an answer.
My solution....thank god for my Mac....two years of experience with a Powerbook G4 and not ONE problem with viruses.
User Rating: 1/10
Waste of time and money
Pros: None at all; Worse than any virus it purports to eliminate
Cons: Slows dows Windows to unuseable speed
When I turned on my laptop this morning, it took 10 minutes to fully boot-up. It then took an additional 3 minutes to acces MS Word.
I tried to turn it off by going into MSCONFIG and turning off all the services and my problems got worse. Word would no longer open.
Plain and simple, Norton's damages your system far worse than any virus can by making it virtually unuseable. Absolutely worthless software, and I'm sad my parents wasted their money on it as a gift to me.
User Rating: 1/10
IDIOTIC SOFTWARE
Pros: ARE YOU JOKING?
Cons: THE BRAND AND COMPANY
! I had used Norton since the late 90's and enjoyed it, then like a major landslide, it started going downhill and even faster! I will give my money to a qualified company and Norton has lost that respect.
User Rating: 
8/10
Works great, but ...
Pros: Reliable year in and year out
Cons: Not an all-in-one solution
User Rating: 8/10
Good all-round, user friendly protection
Pros: Regularly updated, easy to use, good scanning technologies
Cons: Can be a bit verbose, not the cheapest AV
Installing Norton onto a clean system is effortless, however if the system is already infected it can make things worse...once its in and setup, you can configure it to hide the majority of pop up notifications - and it will run happilly in the backgorund.
Again, I'd recommend NAV over any other AV software.
User Rating: 
6/10
normal antivirus
Pros: absolutely awesome virus scan
Cons: sometimes doesn't delete virus's
User Rating: 3/10
Software too slow on start up and scanning
Pros: reliable on virus detection
Cons: Slow, trouble when updating every once in a while
User Rating: 9/10
this software is the best that my family has tried
Pros: Trustworthy
Cons: didn't find any
User Rating: 3/10
disappointed
Pros: easy interface, fast installation, internet worm protection
Cons: scans take a long time, doesn't remove half of the infected or at risk files, hogs up system resources, no firewall included
User Rating: 3/10
Absolutely terrible customer service and technical support
Pros: Product is okay when it installs as it should and requires no support.
Cons: Don't bother contacting Symantec for support or assistance. If you cannot easily find an answer on their website you most likely won't get one.
User Rating: 1/10
Worst Software Ever
Pros: It screwed up my computer (thats the best "pro" I can think of)
Cons: No logical flow of screens - also, it takes over your computer and bogs it down
I bought Norton Antivirus because I did a free virus scan on my computer from the Symantec website. It said I had 2 viruses. So I went out and bought Norton Antivirus. I loaded it on my computer and did the updates. I did the update a second time because it apparently missed one.
It found those 2 "viruses" and the logic of the screens was so disjointed that it took me well over an hour just to figure out what they had programmed this software to do. It was a mess.
It caught a piece of spyware from Kazaa that was uninstalled and wasnt doing anything (not a virus). Also, it found a joke program I had from 5 years ago that wasnt a virus either, so I just spent $50 for nothing.
I set the controls so that it would not operate automatically or check anything unless I asked it to specifically. Apparently, the program does check everything anyway and doesnt pay attention to what you set it at. So I went into the computer's system and disabled everything manually. It still overrid that.
It took up so much memory monitoring everything that some of my Word docs wouldnt even open. It also prevented me from backing up my data to my Zip drive.
I uninstalled it and it took a few hours to get the computer back to the way it was before...except that I still cant get all my data stored on a Zip disk. This program has caused me more trouble that any virus ever has. DO NOT BUY IT.
A friend told me to use "Trend Anivirus" or "Panda" next time. He said Trend is very thorough and Panda is very easy to work with and non-invasive.
User Rating: 2/10
COMPLETE HEADACHE!
Pros: Pros? um Cool colors?
Cons: not easy to use, Freezes,
User Rating: 2/10
Stay Away From This
Pros: Good Protection
Cons: Unstable, Resource Hog
User Rating: 1/10
do not buy this unusible software
Pros: dont know couldnt get it to work
Cons: could nuke your OS
I work at a computer store and I got a free copy of Norton systemworks premier. Its a good thing it was a free copy cuz if it wasn?t I would be pissed. After my installation of systemworks my computer would restart about 3 min after boot up every time and there was nothing I could do about it. So I went into safe mode and deleted the systemworks folder and after that my computer is working. I?m going to reinstall my OS to make sure all the Norton crap is out of there but I can at least use my computer till I have the time to reinstall. Norton products have been going down hill for a while. The last Norton I used was 2001 and I had some problems then too but for my operating system to be unusable after an install is inexcusable. Norton was the best back in the 80s and the 90s but now all there software is crap. You can be sure that as long as I?m working not a single copy of any Symantec products will leave my store in customer?s hands. I recommend that everyone stay way from Symantec products till they get their act together and make a working program. I think that Cnet should add one more rating to there system a 0. 0 = destructive. I Give this software a rating of 0
User Rating: 7/10
Works Great! But few problems..
Pros: Easy to use, full system scan, Offers worm protection
Cons: You must turn off your firewall to run LiveUpdate, Some programs are hard to run with certain features turned on
First off, it is easy to install and get up and running. The system scan works perfect and will pick up anything it notices. If you attempt to download a file that contains virus code, it will alert you once you downloaded it and it will delete it for you.
That is what I want in an anti-virus.
There are problems however. I had trouble running LiveUpdate, but I realized that with my firewall turned off LiveUpdate will run fine. This is a problem cause you shouldn't have to turn your firewall off. And yes, I allowed it internet access.
Another problem is that with some p2p programs, it will constantly pop up alerting you that you might download an infected file (or something like that). It gets very annoying when you want to download and you have to turn internet worm protection off to stop getting those annoying messages.
Overall, it is a great piece of software, I haven't experienced any slowdowns, shutdowns, or anything like that. However, I would only get it if you do not currently own an anti-virus software, otherwise, keep the one you have.
User Rating: 1/10
CUSTOMER SERVICE LIES DIRECT FROM INDIA
Pros: NONE - zero
Cons: buy anything but symantec
User Rating: 1/10
Complete trash
Pros: Haven't found any
Cons: Can't even activate, crashes computer, puts major drag on processor
I wish I could testify how effective Norton is at virus detection, but since this software can't even get past the ACTIVATION STAGE, I'll have to pass. I type in the 24-digit key, then get an "invalid key" message. I call one incomprehensible English-impaired Indian after another, each of whom recommends a different solution (via a standardized E-mail) that's either completely wrong and/or is about the WRONG problem.
So here I am sitting with a dead piece of software that's telling me that my trial period has expired (uh, I bought it retail yesterday), has frozen my computer on more than one occasion, and has slowed down my processor down to the speed of a Commodore 64.
What a nightmare.
[Edited by: admin]
User Rating: 8/10
WHAT??THIS THING WORKS WELL!
Pros: Detects hacking tools , viruses and spyware. Easy to use . User friendly.
Cons: Subscription expires
My dad prefers this over AVG and Avast! since this one has a more powerful realtime scanner. He likes it because he always find a virus and it warns him about it. The no delete problem is probably just a bug but I never need to worry about the virus I put it in Quarantine but if not i do it manually if needed but other than that the only thing is the subscription expires which is only good for 366 days of updates.
User Rating: 1/10
SYMC had it's time in the sun...that time has passed
Pros: It's got a neat looking box
Cons: It's got crap on the inside of the box
User Rating: 1/10
Symantec - do I need to say more?
Pros: None whatsoever
Cons: Whole product is a con
Horrendous, slow, awkward. All symantec products are destroying your registry and simulating virus/intrusion attacks.
It is a surprise that they still exist!
There is a review here addressing all negative opinions on Norton Antivirus 2005.
At this moment I am a MCSE/CCNA Network Analyst for a company spawning across 20 sites and over 100 production servers.
There is no chance ever a Symantec product is going to come within 100 mile radius of my production network.
"All you need is a clean PC to start with" is absolutely most ridiculous comment I ever read. The hardware description of supposedly great working system is just as appropriate as a pair of rollerblades would be to a fish.
Truth is: Any Symantec product is abysmal. End of Story.
User Rating: 1/10
Worst software I have ever used
Pros: There are no Pros for this
Cons: Nothing works correctly with this program installed
User Rating: 1/10
HORRIBLE PRODUCT
Pros: the box it came in was cute
Cons: too many to list here
User Rating: 2/10
The worst program I've ever used.
Pros: It has to work for there to be a pro.
Cons: I won't waste your time.
User Rating: 8/10
All negative reviewers...You all need a (Clean) P.C. to begin with.
Pros: Stable Steady Security System
Cons: Will remove suspect files/programmes before install. Does not auto remove previous versions will prompt you to do so manually 4 - 5 restarts needed to complete process
Dell 4550; 1.9 p4; 08 Bios; 1gig mem; sp2, dsl;
Download complete in 16 minutes; Install complete in 3mins; full system scan 15687 files in 40 minutes.
Downloaded and Installed without any problems
I guess the problems most ppl have are with copied o/s and sharewares on their systems. Before you try NAV05 backup all that did not come with the machine and remove store them for replacement sweep the P.C. then install.
Much like acquiring SP2 needs a clean background to install sucessfully
User Rating: 1/10
it's a Turd!
Pros: none.none none at all
Cons: it's a pain to install if you have prior versions-or trials-of Nav previously on there.
..bet that's the problem, eh?
User Rating: 2/10
Avoid this upgrade from older versions.
Pros: No Pros for this upgrade.
Cons: Crashes 98se leaves unstable system.
a mess. Still cannot install. $40
for software $70 for tech and hours
on the phone. Symantec blames my
Zone Alarm. Downloaded Freeware, AVAST,
installed fine, works fine but system
still unstable from attempts to install
AV 2005. I was forced to upgrade from
Symantec 2000 AV because they would no
longer support virus updates.
User Rating: 1/10
Like Food Poisoning
Pros: I am still alive
Cons: The destruction is vast and the pain goes on
I have a one-year old PC running WIN2000 Pro. I had Norton Systemworks 2004 on it and the subscription was expiring. So I bought Norton Antivirus 2005 thinking it was a good deal over just renewing my subscription.
Blue Screens of Death began as soon as I tried to reboot after it seemed to install just fine. It destroyed hundreds of files, something that I have never experienced with any crash in my life (other than an actual hard drive failure).
An hour on the phone with tech support consisted of having me remove registry keys and folders (Norton fills the registry with hundreds of keys). When that failed to repair my machine, I was told it was not their fault since everything had been removed and it was still failing.
I said this is like you ran over me with your car and then you back up and say my injuries cannot be your fault because your car is no longer on top of me. He laughed, but stuck by his story.
I ended up having to reformat my hard drive and completely reinstall everything, which of course took days.
Then, I did the most insane thing: I actually tried reinstalling it again on this clean install. I thought maybe the problem had been a conflict with the old Systemworks 2004. Well, the failure was certainly different. The result was that I could no longer boot into regular mode without getting a Blue Screen of Death.
Fortunately, Safe Mode still worked and after another two days of registry editing and more I finally purged my system of the Norton 2005 Virus. That is what it is, a virus every bit as awful as anything you can find roaming the Internet.
As an epilogue, I had to argue with Staples to take the software back, claiming it was opened and copyright law forbid its return! I compared this with getting food poisoning at a restaurant and being denied a refund on my meal... let alone the hospital bill! The manager glared at me and without comment did refund my money.
I must say that I was one of the earliest and biggest fans of Norton back in the 1980s. They were on the cutting edge then and a refreshing alternative to Microsoft. I don't know what happened to them, but I would avoid them at all costs. It is sad, but I hope someone benefits from this information.
User Rating: 3/10
NAV 2005 defective; tech support, moronic
Pros: virus definition updates good; scans well
Cons: Liveupdate is still crap; it takes NIS updates and "firewall" configurations, and I don't have a Symantec firewall!
User Rating: 1/10
Support? What support?
Pros: Reputed to work on viruses
Cons: No user support, very slow
And user support- as I said, what support? Norton will not even allow you to report a bug without the open threat of charging for "support"- at any price they choose to charge.
User Rating: 7/10
It's OK as an upgrade.
Pros: Intuitive layout and navigation
Cons: Big appetite for space and energy
User Rating: 1/10
total failure to keep trojan and worm viruses off computer systems, auto protect dosen't work
Pros: expensive, doen't work, autoprotect is a joke
Cons: dosn't work as well as some of the free antiviruses on the market
Usually have to download a verison of avast or anti-vir to get it off ....also have to use hijack this to get multiple infections and spyware cleared out.....
User Rating: 1/10
Painfully Slow!
Pros: Looks Nice
Cons: System Perfomance WILL SUFFER After Install
User Rating: 3/10
Crash, Crash, Crash
Pros: Not Many... It crashes while you're surfing and guess what!
Cons: Crash, Crash, Crash
User Rating: 3/10
Not worth the aggravation
Pros: It appears to be working, but I'm not really sure
Cons: Tech support is useless, they just repeat your words back to you with no real solutions
Tech support tells you to "feel free" to contact them with questions, but if you want answers it's going to cost you money.
Norton 2005 doesn't allow you to move its shortcut icons in the start menu. If you move the shortcuts you get an odd message telling you that the repair function is not working. Norton's fix? Put the shortcuts back where you found them.
Norton's readme file tells me that it may not work happily with ZoneAlarm. If I have a problem, I should turn off ZoneAlarm. Guess what? ZoneAlarm is here to stay. Norton will go first.
I've been a loyal, faithful user of Norton products since my Windows 3.11 days. This is the last time I will purchase this product. Maybe when I get my rebate I will purchase a different AntiVirus program.
User Rating: 2/10
Umm, no thank you
Pros: Finds viruses
Cons: Blocking communication to all-in-one printers, resource hog.
User Rating: 1/10
Horrible Don't buy
Pros: Doesn't give you adware thats about it
Cons: Doesn't work overpriced
User Rating: 1/10
Purchased 2005 System Works & Firewall as a bundled product It will not install
Pros: Not any other than Buyer Beware, not all suppliers will offer free good support when something goes wrong
Cons: No support from Norton unless you want to pay a step price for it
User Rating: 2/10
I lost money on this one
Pros: It probably works.
Cons: If you down load from their site and need to reinstall after 60 days, you are out of luck.
User Rating: 2/10
Latest Symantec Antivirus program
Pros: Finds the viruses and spyware; real time internet worm protection
Cons: Takes forever to run a full system scan and doesn't delete the viruses/spyware!!
User Rating: 1/10
100% Horrid, not ms-windows usage compliant
Pros: Absoluely Nothing
Cons: defective install and uninstall, not ms-win usage compliant, support even worse than program
2005 versions take the cake. First of all IF one moves the default shortcuts folder "Norton SystemWorks" (should be titled "Norton SystemDoesntwork") from start menu-->programs to another folder - a NORMAL and STANDARD FEATURE that ms-WINDOWS allows from every version of Windows EVER made then
version 2005 live update will fail. Moreover the anti-virus programs will fail on system start with nasty messages about needing to uninstall and reinstall.
Second, for upgraders especially from the almost equally horrid 2004 versions, The 2004 uninstall FAILS to properly and fully uninstall the product (I deliberately let my subscription run out to get full usage of it since Norton renewals take place on day of renewal thereby effectively screwing a purchaser out of remaining time for exisiting renewal period). That failure to fully uninstall leaves registry settings that indicate to live update that subscription services are expired. Upon attempting to update 2005, you get messages regarding expired subscription, yet when you verify with Norton "Doesntworks" web site, your license is current.... Until you manually remove the leftover crap the 2004 uninstall failed to, this situation will not resolve.
Anybody using 2005 and willing to live with the ridiculous and non-compliant to ms-windows normal usage by not allowing any user to organize the folders in start-menu.programs is a fool for not pursuing alternative products from zone alarm, trend lines (pc-cillin), mcaffee, computer associates. The idiots at Symantec do not see this restriction as a problem and challenged me to prove to them this was not a non-compliant to ms-windows usage standard. The best result and message to send Norton is simply stop using your product and hopefully enjoy news of unemployment lines of former Norton developers and management if you already have a version and instead competitive upgrade to a ms-windows compliant product alternate.
Not to mention that other evaluations of Zone Alarm and pc-cillon have superior ratings as well. McAfee is not as bad as Norton, but their software is an unprofessional install in that a user cannot specify the destination location but they too like Norton make manual update a major pain. And I for one, do not want nor allow any software to blindly update in the background. Instead I want to manually downloaded updates, preferably an exe that can be run after the download completes. Norton in version 2005, attempts to turn on the auto-update EVERY darn time you run live-update - ANOTHER MAJOR NUISANCE -- from idiot programmers who a trying to foist their version of how you should run YOUR computer on you. McAffee requires you to manually download three or more files, manually stop the product, move files, and restart. The OLD Norton was great, download an update exe and run it - simple, effective, convenient --- and effectively GONE from version 2005.
User Rating: 2/10
Screws up your PC operations
Pros: Persistent bugger
Cons: Gets in the way of doing online tasks, slows computer down noticably.
User Rating: 1/10
NO SUPPORT... never buy again
Pros: None... never buy again
Cons: NO SUPPORT... never buy again.
I'll never buy another symantec product again.
They have also outsourced their support to another country... it makes it VERY difficult to understand and get proper support. I am extremely dissatified and I've been a customer for almost 10 years. I'll never buy another symantec product.
There has to be a better product with better customer service.
User Rating: 8/10
good not excellent
Pros: easy setup!!!
Cons: slow the system, no firewall.
cost the same.
User Rating: 1/10
Unusable software
Pros: It was free
Cons: Once I updated the virus definitions, it stopped working
AntiVirus 2005 came installed as as trial
package. The machine is running XP service
pack 2. I've always been happy with Norton
AntiVirus products in the past, despite some performance problems.
I ran the Live Update to get the latest
virus definitions, and the machine started
giving me errors on startup, and on accessing
Word, saying "Norton AntiVirus 2005 does
not support the repair feature. Please
uninstall and reinstall."
This is documented on the Norton site.
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2004090712504306?OpenDocument&src=hot&prod=Norton%20AntiVirus&ver=2005&csm=no&tpre=
I find it completely unacceptable that
running the software on an out-of-the-box
configuration breaks the software.
Per many web reports, uninstalling and
reinstalling may or may not fix the problem.
I am deeply disappointed, and angry at the
amount of time it's taken me to research and
solve this problem.
This is software manufacturer's arrogance
at its worst - How can I trust this software
to take care of my system when they can't
even upgrade their own software properly?
User Rating: 2/10
Very Disappointed
Pros: can't find any
Cons: Read Opinion
User Rating: 4/10
Slow startup (up to 3 min)
Pros: Effective virus protection
Cons: Slow startup
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sharedtech.nsf/d3c44a1678bd8f45852566aa005902cb/08e88428e4863ad188256dcd006df2bf?OpenDocument&prod=Norton%20AntiVirus&ver=2005&src=sg&pcode=nav&svy=&csm=no
User Rating: 1/10
LiveUpdate won't activate -- I miss NAV 2002!
Pros: It's probably a good anitvirus, if it will work for you
Cons: Will not work for me in Win '98, despite Symantec's claims otherwise
User Rating: 2/10
DO NOT BUY IT unless you have a Pentium 9, with 4ghz and 2gb of ram!
Pros: Good virus database
Cons: E X T R E M E L L Y S L O W !
User Rating: 
5/10
Could not activate (unlock) on my primary computer
Pros: Backgound virus update. Comrehensive virus library
Cons: Customer service (in India) difficult to work with
User Rating: 5/10
It works but slows down the computer greatly
Pros: stops the viruses and auto update keeps you up to date
Cons: Slows down the computer way too much
