Norton AntiVirus 2010 review (1 User, 1 PC)

When you click the Scan Now button, three scan options will appear in a new window: quick scan, full system scan, and a custom scan. You can access the scheduler from the custom scan, but Norton defaults to running a scan when your computer is idle.

You can also get to your scan history and quarantine from links on the main window, although the font choice and size make it a bit hard to read. The history window opens independently of the main window, and offers a deep level of information. The default setting is to show your recent history only, but you can change that through the drop-down menu to show your full history, scan results, resolved and unresolved security risks, the quarantine, firewall and download activities, Web sites reported to Symantec, and more. Each citation in the log can be clicked to reveal more information, the data can be exported, and you can even import an older security log.

Under the computer heading in the main window is also where you can force a virus definition file update.

The next heading down, Network, is where you would access firewall management from. Click the settings link to open the settings window, where you can configure the firewall along with e-mail protections and intrusion prevention that protects your system against holes in other programs, such as Adobe Flash. A network security map available in the main window reveals the state of protection for other computers in your network.

Norton AntiVirus lacks certain key features than its heftier sibling provides. The more expensive Norton Internet Security offers enterprise-grade antispam defenses incorporated from Brightmail, parental controls, expanded network protection, identity theft prevention tools, Web site evaluation, and search result ratings, all of which Norton AntiVirus lacks.

Performance
Along with the fast installation, you can expect commensurate improvements in Norton's scan times. Most of the major progress was made last year, but Symantec claims that last year's scan speeds are comparable with this year's. Our hands-on test of the Quick Scan found that it completed in 1 minute and 3 seconds for its first run, and 16 seconds for its second run. Like some of its competitors, Norton won't rescan files that it detects haven't changed during a Quick Scan. The Full Scan took 2 hours and 5 minutes, which is much longer than competitors' Full Scans did.

CNET Labs' benchmarks largely support the empirical data, although Norton Internet Security 2010 generally benchmarked faster than NAV, its lighter sibling. Boot-time was 6 seconds slower than an unprotected PC, and more than 5 seconds slower than NIS. Shutting down was nearly as fast as NIS, slower but only by 0.43 second. Norton AntiVirus notched a Quick Scan slower than Norton Internet Security by 1 minute and 16 seconds, as well as a slower MS Office test, and a slower Cinebench test. NAV was marginally faster for the iTunes decoding test, and was 13 seconds faster than NIS during the media multitasking test.

We were a bit surprised to find that Norton AntiVirus, with fewer features, was generally slower than Norton Internet Security. On three tests--start-up time, Quick Scan time, and the MS Office test--NIS was markedly faster than NAV.

Full virus and malicious software efficacy scores for Norton's 2010 products were not available at the time of writing, and will be updated here as they are announced. However, last year's Norton 2009 scored average or better in all areas of detection according to virus and malware detection results at AV-Test.org and AV-Comparatives.org. AV-Test noted that it detected more than 98.7 percent of malware on demand, and 95.4 percent of spyware on demand, with no false positives.

AV-Comparitives.org awarded Norton 2009 an "Advanced" rating in the retrospective/proactive test from May 2009, while this year's Norton 2010 earned an "Advanced+" rating in August 2009's on-demand comparative test, noting a 98.4 percent detection rate slightly behind McAfee, Avira, and G Data, but with fewer false positives than those that achieved a higher detection rate. Norton 2009 actually scored slightly better: a 98.7 percent detection rate on the same test. However, Norton's overall rating of Advanced+ and placement in the detection rankings did not change. The upshot of these independent test results is that Norton 2010 remains an incredibly effective tool for detecting viruses and malware, but on pure detection benchmarks it's not the best.

Support
Links at the top of the window, above all the other features, make leaving feedback, accessing your Norton account online, or checking out the help menu easy to see and do. However, the Help menu could be laid out better. It's not clear that clicking the "Help" link will open up on the localized help, or that hitting "get support" will launch the one-click support option. While "Tutorials" is self-explanatory, there's no easy way to get to the Norton knowledge base or to the Norton forums. Telephone support is free, but it remains easier to discover on the Symantec Web site than through the Norton program itself.

Conclusion
User support could do with an overhaul focused on accessibility, and until independent testers develop a method for evaluating behavioral detection engines, it's hard to determine how much safer Quorum truly makes you. Nevertheless, Norton AntiVirus 2010 is worth checking out for its emphasis on speed and its small performance footprint, and the transparent exposure of performance and detection data are impressive for what's otherwise a basic model. If you've got basic security needs to fill and you don't trust the free antivirus solutions that are available, Norton AntiVirus 2010 is a worthwhile program.