Norton AntiVirus 2008 - Efficiency test

[NienorGT]

Old people don't care about speed. Today I updated Net Framework on a Celeron 1.2 it took more than 20 minutes. And well, the guy (60yrs old) waited in front of the screen all the time saying that he was not in a hurry wile I was playing Stalker on my own machine...

[rajputwarrior]

kaspersky a memory hog??

[The Right Guy]

Definately it confirm me to continue using Nod32 :unsure:

[*John*]

I've read a few of these types of reviews yet I am unable to replicate a single part of them :/

I've used Norton products since forever, along with many other AV solutions. The Norton range from 2000-2005 was the worst for me. Absolute pig of a program. Norton AV 2006 was a massive improvement, and Norton AV 2007 was a revelation. There was bugger all difference between my system AV free, and with Norton. It also compared favourably with the other AV solutions, for the first time in many many years.

Norton Antivirus 2008 is the same in this regard. For me there is almost no difference between my PC AV Free, and with NAV2008 installed. Boot time certainly isn't affected, let alone that ridiculous kind of increase.

If I were any of you i'd go ahead and try the trial version for myself, because this review couldn't be more opposite to my experience on several PC's and laptops :/

Now i'm not saying that you won't get a similar experience to what he's describing for a fact, although I would be very very very surprised if you did.

Hope this helps :)

[Veedems Veteran]

Norton Antivirus 2008 is the same in this regard. For me there is almost no difference between my PC AV Free, and with NAV2008 installed. Boot time certainly isn't affected, let alone that ridiculous kind of increase.

I really doubt that. You're just giving us your impression, he's giving us the cold hard numbers. Any AV is going to affect start up time. Any program, for that matter, is going to affect startup time.

[*RedBull*]

Very good review, after this test that you performed I am really going to avoid norton products.

I have and have not regretted it.

[Janitor]

I've used Norton since 1999. Switched to NOD32 a few weeks ago but uninstalled it and switched to AVG. Now i'm not using Norton i've only got 22 running processes, with Norton i had 30. I'll avoid Norton at all costs from now on!

Edited September 21, 2007 by terrafire

[L3thal Veteran]

If they could only tone down on running all those processes to 2 or 3, it would be a good product, no doubt. They have a process for every god damn feature on their product. Combine them all to one process or stop adding junk to the program.

[franzon]

? Here's a screenshot of the modules NAV 2008 loads at boot:

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/3305/na...autorunsol3.gif

Are you sure you've installed Norton Antivirus 2008 only? Why in your screenshots we see firewall components?

It seems your review is very flawed because you have installed NIS 2008 and NOT Norton antivirus 2008 only.

[SacrificialSoldier]

Guess I'll stay with NOD32 then :yes:

[Angel Blue01]

lol, don't they notice the slow-down? Why not just stick with an old copy of Norton? Actually, if all they've ever ran is Norton, then they probably think that their computer is actually that slow, and has nothing to do with Norton.

Actually they sometimes do buy the latest version, Symantec makes it so appealing.

I do usually suggest reneewing the subscription rather than buying the latest version if they're going to continjue using Norton.

I know one user (77 years old) who doesn't even notice her computer is slow. I complain every time I have to service it and she tells me "well I don't notice". Unfortunatly she has to use Norton since she will not switch away from Juno and AVG and Avast! doestn't support the client.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Actually they sometimes do buy the latest version, Symantec makes it so appealing.

I do usually suggest reneewing the subscription rather than buying the latest version if they're going to continjue using Norton.

I know one user (77 years old) who doesn't even notice her computer is slow. I complain every time I have to service it and she tells me "well I don't notice". Unfortunatly she has to use Norton since she will not switch away from Juno and AVG and Avast! doestn't support the client.

which client the email client?

Why not just specify the pop3 and smtp servers in the avast data file and then just point the email client to 127.0.0.1 for both smtp and pop

[macrosslover]

I have to say i've used the 15 day trial of norton and it's pretty good to me. I've been one of the main ones saying Norton sucked, but I decided to give the trial a try and it indeed is definately not a resource hog on my system. The only thing I don't like about it is the config options suck, it's almost like antivirus for dummies the way they have it, but the performance is definately alot better. I had avg installed before and my system performance seems to be the same in terms of alt-tabbing, boottime, etc. If I didn't know which one was on my system I couldn't tell you just from using the system.

I think everybody who's knocking it should give it a try, the 15 day trial costs you nothing and it allows you to form your own opinion. Best Buy has it on sale for only $20 this week, I'm seriously considering getting it.

[tsupersonic]

If only NAV was like Symantec Corporate AV. They have to make the home edition all bloated.

I like my nod32

[Orange]

Maybe nice review but still NOD32 is for me, doesn't need a fancy gui nor it uses nearly all your memory and slows your pc down! Nod32 does it all just in half the time and half the memory.

[Polarman]

I have always used Norton since DOS times.

Having upgraded to Vista recently, i had to let go of the NAV 2003. Shame because 2003 was the last that did not require activation.

Now i have 2008 and i'm very happy with it. My boot time (Fully loaded with apps 64 Seconds) cannot be compared with a clean install Pentium III.

On another note, if you have this installed on a Vista, make sure you delete the:

C:/users/XXXXXX/AppData/Local/Temp

XXXXXX is the name you gave it. There was over 350MB of data in this temp folder on my pc. Ccleaner did not see this one. There was some leftover symantec stuff in there.

[DELTETHISACCOUNT]

If only NAV was like Symantec Corporate AV. They have to make the home edition all bloated.

I agree 100%

Symantec AntiVirus is without a doubt, THE best Antivirus program I have ever used. Much better than any free antivirus program out there.

[patconn87]

I'M NOT even surprised by those results...

I have to agree on that one. I've never really been a big fan of NAV. I had a demo version of the NIS (2006 I think it was) pre-installed on my laptop, and when I removed it, I noticed that my machine sped up significantly. The shut down and boot times were much quicker, let alone the general use of the machine.

I even had NAV 2000 on an old 80486DX4-based laptop running Win98SE, and scanning the C: drive took forever! (Hell, that machine took forever to do anything for that matter.)

My Dad purchased Norton 2005 (I think it was), and he went through some activation hell with it, and then it went in and conflicted with his sound card software, and started reeking havoc. He finally removed it, and I installed eTrust AV on it. No significant problems with it thus far. I hardly notice any significant drag on any of my machines that have it installed on.

In the end, no more Norton for me. Great review btw.

[RedFlow]

And here is more proof that just because a product is sold on the shelves of stores doesn't mean it is better. Thank you!

[Dogan]

Great review! Informative and easy to read. Thanks for the charts (Y)

[daniel_rh]

Great comparative with this review, thanks for this reality check

[Unto Darkness]

Firstly, what do you mean by a clean system?

If your "clean system" took more then 1:30 min to boot up then I think your system is seriously screwed up...

And for your general info [all of you], Norton Antivirus has a BETTER detection rate that NOD32. Source

[Dogan]

edit: nevermind.

[mobilnic]

my laptop came pre-installed with norton is 2007 trial which i used until it expired to give it a thorough testing, although it was an emprovement over previous versions, it did slow my boot time abit too much.

then i installed various other av trials and would've bought eset if it wasn't such a disappointment over nod32 v2.7 which i really liked. also tried kaspersky v7 & even some other ppl i know say it is a resorce hog on old and new systems.

finally, i got the 15-day trial of norton is 2008 and immediately bought it thereafter as it made minimal impact on my system/boot resources, the scans are damn quick and it always finds & cleans malware on other peoples removable drives when they use my laptop, oh and it has so far never interfered with anything else on my pc whatsoever.

i am running vista business 32 on an hp compaq with amd turion 2ghz dual, 2gb ddr2 ram, 160gb hd while running aero and i haven't tampered with any start-up entries or such. nuff said!

[RocknRoll]

very nice review :) been always interested in Av's .. anyway to mention something regarding Norton i had an experience with it like 4 or 5 years ago in an InterNet Cafe i used to mentain .. the pc's there got infected with a pretty normal Virus called "Kargo" as far as i remember .. and Norton was installed on all the pc's ... and it didnt even detect it .. i asked for someone's help and he told me about the kaspersky and i downloaded and installed and SURPRISE it caught dozens of threats . ... it was hilarious coz before that i was a big fan of all symantic products ... what version was the Norton ?!?! sorry i cant remember but it was the latest one am sure with the latest Virus Definitions' database and upto date .... thats a part of my experience

and ofcourse lots of you know about the System restore Exclusion by norton ... when i used to be a norton user i noticed that By Default it Excludes the System restore areas regardless what Os you are using ...

so i used to remove that exclusion .. so anyway i believe that norton wasnt just the best antivirus .. it just has the Best selling and it doesnt mean anything technically its a Marketing regarding process

and by the way .. i dont mind a resources killer or hog or whatever u call it .. if it will offer me a higher security .. and it doesnt bother me if it takes 5 mins more during Boot than other softwares coz it means this Av is performing a real thorough scan on my startup applications and services ..

got more stuff to say regarding norton coz isuffered alot with that antivirus .. seriously its nothing compared to some other Av's

thanks for the review and it was such a nice forum to register :)