Whether you love it or hate it, you know the Norton name. Symantec has been in the business so long it must be tough to come up with a new version each year, right? Well, you wouldn't know it looking at Norton AntiVirus 2011 ($39.99 direct). The product's appearance continues to evolve, and it includes some interesting new features. It scored very well in my tests, though not always at the very top.
Installs in Minutes
Installation is extremely quick and simple. A few minutes after you click "Agree and Install" you're ready to activate and register the product. Yes, it needs a definition update for peak protection, but it normally performs that update during idle time. Naturally I forced a full update before running my tests.
More than half of my malware-infested test systems requested a reboot soon after installation to finish removing active threats. When Norton wouldn't start correctly on one system, the One Click Support screen appeared automatically with a recommendation to fix the problem; it worked.
A full scan of my standard clean system took almost 50 minutes, twice as long as the average. However, by first running an application ratings scan to identify known good programs I cut the scan time down to barely over two minutes—that's fast! Normally this scan for known good programs would happen automatically during idle time.;
New in the 2011 edition, the Norton Insight Network window displays up-to-the-minute statistics on how many files have been identified as good or bad using input from the Norton community. Along the same lines, the new reputation scan examines all files on your disk and reports on three significant stats: trust level, age, and prevalence. Older and more widespread files are naturally considered safer than very new or very uncommon files.
High Scores from the Labs
For years, Norton has consistently received the VB100% award from Virus Bulletin. Both ICSA Labs and West Coast Labs certify Norton technology for virus detection and removal; West Coast adds several additional checkmark certifications. AV-Comparatives rated Norton ADVANCED+ (the top rating) for on-demand malware removal and ADVANCED for proactive detection of new malware. That parallels my own tests, in which Norton outscored the rest for removal but not for blocking.
Both AV-Comparatives and AV-Test ran special real-world tests last year. In the dynamic test by AV-Comparatives only Norton and Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 ($79.95, ) received an ADVANCED+ rating. AV-Test challenged a dozen security products to protect test systems from real-world current threats over a period of two months. Norton detected the most threats, but PC Tools Internet Security 2010 ($49.95, ) edged it into second place for most thorough protection.
Just this August, AV-Test evaluated a collection of security products and rated them on ease of use, success at repairing malware infestations, and overall protection. Kaspersky, Norton and Panda Internet Security 2010 ($49.95, ) shared the top score, with 5 or 5.5 points in each category.
Thorought Malware Cleanup
Norton's full antivirus scan went smoothly on all thirteen of my malware-infested test systems. In most cases, Norton took care of all the threats it found and simply reported on its success at the end—I like that. For low-risk threats or threats whose removal might force closing active programs, Norton asked for permission first. Most of the systems needed a reboot after scan to complete the cleanup process.
At the bottom of the results screen there's a little note: "If you think there are still risks, click here." Doing so takes you to the download page for Norton Power Eraser. This tool performs a more aggressive scan than Norton AntiVirus alone. That means it can remove more threats, but there's also a chance it will flag a valid file as malicious. Symantec points out that any false positives will be uncommon files, since Norton Insight whitelists known good files that are widely used. For testing, though, I just used Norton AntiVirus without piling on Norton Power Eraser.
Norton detected 89 percent of the assorted threats, matching Panda Antivirus Pro 2011 ($50.95, ) and Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 2010 ($39.95, ). However, Norton was significantly more effective than the other two at removing what it found. It cleaned up almost every trace for nearly half of the threats it found and achieved a malware removal score of 7.9, the highest yet with my current malware collection.
Norton detected 78 percent of the scareware (rogue antivirus) threats. Four other products detected more, but Norton's removal was very effective. With 7.8 points, it came very close to the top scareware removers Ad-Aware Pro Internet Security 8.3 ($29.95, ) and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.46 (Free, ), both of which got 8.1 points.
In a separate test using commercial keyloggers in place of malware Norton again scored well but not at the top. It detected 86 percent of the threats while Webroot AntiVirus with Spy Sweeper 2011 ($39.95, ) and Spyware Doctor caught 93 percent. Webroot definitely won this test with 7.8 points compared to Norton's 6.9.
