Surprised how snappy Norton Antivirus is!

[Berryracer]

I have been an old user of Eset NOD32 as it was the lightest when it comes to system resources and the system feels snappy as if there was no AV installed on it.

Recently, after version 4, things started changing, with each version being heavier than the other.

I recently saw this performance test where Norton performs very good

So I bought a cheap 1 year license for $15 USD at a retail store and boy was I amazed. My system feels much snappier now even though it was already fast but NOD32 seems to slow down the reboot process.

a Proof of this I experienced personally is previously, my reboot time (not boot, but a full reboot) was 26 to 2 seconds.

After restoring my system to a clean state before installing any AV on it I now get a 20 second reboot time!

I am really impressed by how Norton AV have become it was a big resource hog in the past just like McAfee

 

[blankslate]

Symantec has been paying attention to the size of the installation and the resources of the systems Norton is installed on since the 2009 version.

I've used Norton when it was slow and I didn't know any better then switched to another product known for being light on the system. I read a review about internet security 2009 and how they've slimmed it down. I gave that a try and was pleasantly surprised.

I've since went to a freeware AV that gets good ratings from the AV testing organizations. And regularly scan with on demand scanners such as Malwarebytes in as backup to the AV.

Hopefully they never allow it get bloated again. It's put on many computers through pre-installation deals so it's nice that the average computer user isn't getting utter crap for an AV trial.

 

[Berryracer]

Symantec has been paying attention to the size of the installation and the resources of the systems Norton is installed on since the 2009 version.

I've used Norton when it was slow and I didn't know any better then switched to another product known for being light on the system. I read a review about internet security 2009 and how they've slimmed it down. I gave that a try and was pleasantly surprised.

I've since went to a freeware AV that gets good ratings from the AV testing organizations. And regularly scan with on demand scanners such as Malwarebytes in as backup to the AV.

Hopefully they never allow it get bloated again. It's put on many computers through pre-installation deals so it's nice that the average computer user isn't getting utter crap for an AV trial.

I see, with free AVs, whilst they are good these days. I hate the fact that they are bloated. Take AVG for example, which gets very good test results from AV comparatives. I tried it yesterda, it includes an email scanner by default, constantly nags to have you upgrade to the Pro version and things like that

so I quickly uninstalled it. I hate the childish interface of avast and Avira, full of ad pop ups

MSE's detection rates are a nightmare. The only free AV which I think is ok is Bitdefender Antivirus Free but I stay away from Bitdefender since they products are buggy in my experience (I have a 3 year license for Bitdefender Antivirus Plus BTW)

The only un intrusive AVs I have tried that are light so far are NOD32 and Norton Antivirus

 

[Mem]

I see, with free AVs, whilst they are good these days. I hate the fact that they are bloated. Take AVG for example, which gets very good test results from AV comparatives. I tried it yesterda, it includes an email scanner by default, constantly nags to have you upgrade to the Pro version and things like that

so I quickly uninstalled it. I hate the childish interface of avast and Avira, full of ad pop ups

MSE's detection rates are a nightmare. The only free AV which I think is ok is Bitdefender Antivirus Free but I stay away from Bitdefender since they products are buggy in my experience (I have a 3 year license for Bitdefender Antivirus Plus BTW)

The only un intrusive AVs I have tried that are light so far are NOD32 and Norton Antivirus

Once you get a paid version of AVG no issues with nags etc...take me I'm using AVG 2013 IS it works quietly and is lightweight in general use and with my online gaming,very impressed with Internet Security version.

 

[Berryracer]

Once you get a paid version of AVG no issues with nags etc...take me I'm using AVG 2013 IS it works quietly and is lightweight in general use and with my online gaming,very impressed with Internet Security version.

ah I see. even the free version gets higher ratings than NOD32 bro:

http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/home-user/windows-7/novdec-2012/

 

[smakme7757]

Yea, Norton has had their act together for a while now. I've used it and found it very nice (came with a laptop), i didn't even know it was there.

It does make me chuckle when i see people in 2012 and 2013 writing "Don't buy Norton, it's a resource hog and it's crap".

Because i know for a fact, that theyt havn't tried Norton in the last 5 years.

 

[Berryracer]

Yea, Norton has had their act together for a while now. I've used it and found it very nice (came with a laptop), i didn't even know it was there.

It does make me chuckle when i see people in 2012 and 2013 writing "Don't buy Norton, it's a resource hog and it's crap".

Because i know for a fact, that theyt havn't tried Norton in the last 5 years.

exactly, they were so bad that even when I heard that their 2009 was improved and was targeted for gamers in terms of how light it is. I simply refused to use it.

But after reading the above review in the OP and I actually had slow reboot times with NOD32 as that is one of its glitches, I decided to try Norton Antivirus and bow was I blown away! it's so light exactly the same way without having the AV!

 

[smitbret]

Agreed. I used Norton for a bunch of years until sometime in the early or mid-2000s. Switched to Avast and used that until 2010 when Zone Alarm started to play badly with Avast. Gave NIS 2010 a try and haven't looked back.

 

[Albatross]

MSE is the best tough.

 

[lagokc]

Now if only Intel would tell their newly acquired McAfee to get off their ass and fix their bloatware. Either that or companies should stop preinstalling McAfee on new laptops.

 

[Berryracer]

MSE is the best tough.

sure it is, just look at their score here >>> http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/home-user/windows-7/novdec-2012/

ROFLMAO

 

[Ketchup]

sure it is, just look at their score here >>> http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/home-user/windows-7/novdec-2012/

ROFLMAO

Nah, Albatross is right on the money. But if you want to use the most targeted brand of Antivirus, go right ahead.

 

[blankslate]

I see, with free AVs, whilst they are good these days. I hate the fact that they are bloated. Take AVG for example, which gets very good test results from AV comparatives. I tried it yesterda, it includes an email scanner by default, constantly nags to have you upgrade to the Pro version and things like that

You can find free AV software with good detection rates that are light on the system.
You'll have to be prepared to switch from year to year I suppose.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/avc_per_201304_en.pdf

I often sanbox my browser for a little bit of extra protection and as stated before I use on demand scanners regularly to see if anything slipped past the AV.

 

[Matt1970]

So Norton now actually does more good than harm?

 

[R0H1T]

So Norton now actually does more good than harm?

That depends on what you define as "harmful" because their AV suites have been pretty nimble since 2010/11 but their "false positives" detection ratio has been horrible ever since ! They flag nearly every cryptor/packer/obfuscated file as malware & alot of other ad supported programs as suspicious :awe:

 

[dguy6789]

MSE is definitely better still

 

[R0H1T]

MSE is definitely better still

No it isn't either way :whiste:

edit : Except that it's free.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Once Norton declined testing with avcomparatives I declined using it any further.

 

[Engineer]

Once you get a paid version of AVG no issues with nags etc...take me I'm using AVG 2013 IS it works quietly and is lightweight in general use and with my online gaming,very impressed with Internet Security version.

I tried the AVG FREE 2013 version a few weeks ago on my home PC's (Quad cores with Windows 7 Pro 64) and all was great. I tried it on my work PC (Core 2 Duo with Windows XP 32 (a must for the old software that we routinely use)) and it sucked ass. Slowed down to half the speed of Avast and MSE. Now I know why my co-worker's laptop is so damned slow (Windows XP 32 bit with AVG).

 

[Mem]

I tried the AVG FREE 2013 version a few weeks ago on my home PC's (Quad cores with Windows 7 Pro 64) and all was great. I tried it on my work PC (Core 2 Duo with Windows XP 32 (a must for the old software that we routinely use)) and it sucked ass. Slowed down to half the speed of Avast and MSE. Now I know why my co-worker's laptop is so damned slow (Windows XP 32 bit with AVG).

I've it on my lappy as well which has i5 3210M 2.5GHz
processor,however both my desktop PC (quad core i5 2500K) and laptop use Win8 Pro x64 so maybe its just faster on Win8,anyway I'm keeping it for now since no reason for me to change,still no issues .

 

[Nintendesert]

No it isn't either way :whiste:

edit : Except that it's free.

A big point of MSE is to be almost completely transparent to the user. There are many people out there with really bad experiences with AV software to the point that they refuse to use the stuff and call the AV software as bad as any malware.

The detection rate might not be as high, but it's free, from MS and just works in the background doing its thing without anyone messing with it too much.

More advanced users can try other stuff, we know what they are, but to just setup on someone's computer without nagware and other popups it's hard to beat MSE.

 

[Agent11]

I'm pretty happy with Norton myself.

 

[Sheep221]

MSE does well for me too. System updates are more important, AV is rather monitoring tool than real protection, it does not makes your system less vulnerable, because when AV spots a treat, it's already in the system and the attacker could already steal your data or execute harmful code. If you have AV, but you might lack some updates for your OS, the treat may get inside even undetected.
Although I believe, the frequent backups of user data and using grid cards or sms keys for internet banking and gaming accounts no one can go wrong, you never know what happens. There was big case 3 years ago when thousands of gaming accounts and credit cards were stolen via bug in flash player, there was no warning no nothing, they just keylogged your stuff entirely remotely, so the system or AV didn't see any suspicious activity.

 

[Pardus]

sure it is, just look at their score hereusing months ofwith Windows 8 >>> http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/home-user/windows-7/novdec-2012/

ROFLMAO

Those test results are for MSE 4.1 and Windows 7. Latest version is 4.2 thst comes with Windows 8 final.


EDIT: They did test MSE with Windows 8 but it was with ver 4.0--- that is outdated

 

[styrafoam]

Out of all the computers i have de-virused I would say the biggest chunk have a non renewed trial copy of norton that came pre-installed on the computer. Second most would have to be a fully updated and current version of norton that comes with your dsl/cable subscription. Third place would be no antivirus at all.

Wouldn't ever use norton, even if it made my boot time one second.