2012 Antivirus Software Ratings

Norton Antivirus Software 2012

Norton AntiVirus 2012 makes several good steps in the right direction this year. Gone are the days of bloated, sluggish, bolted-on antivirus protection.

While Norton is still behind the pack in overall usability and seamless integration, their core antivirus protection has certainly improved this year. And all of the major testing labs agree.

On the strong side, Norton caught most of the real-time, zero-day threats during testing, but missed a few critical warnings from time to time.

Another strong side is Norton's ability to effectively remove stubborn, embedded viruses. Not always an easy task.

The user interface is better this year, but still too disjointed for us. There are a few different screens to navigate through that each have different looking switches, buttons, and links. A more unified and uniform user interface would have been much more effective.

Resource usage is average, but far better than previous years.

Add a few decent extra features like Email and IM Protection, and Norton AntiVirus gains some respect from us this year.

	Next: Virus & Spyware Protection

Norton AntiVirus 2012 Features

• Real-time Antivirus
  
  Protects your computer against current and zero-day virus threats in real-time 24/7.
• Email Protection
  
  Helps keep your inbox safe by scanning for dangerous links and attachments.
• IM Protection
  
  Monitors your Instant Messages for virus links and dangerous files that may transfer through your IM chat window.
• Pulse Updates
  
  Small and frequent updates every 5-15 minutes. Helps keep your antivirus software up-to-date with the most current virus definitions.
• Identity Protection
  
  Stores your login information in a safe environment and automatically enters it so identity thieves can't see what you're typing.
• Bootable Recovery Tool
  
  Creates an emergency CD/DVD/USB that can boot up your PC in case you become so infected that your computer won't start normally.