Verdict:
A big name in antivirus, but a poor performer in our tests.
Symantec utilities have a reputation of being resource hogs, but when we reviewed the new Norton 360 suite (web ID: 110678) we found it was quite lightweight, to the point that "most of the time we didn't know Norton services were running - exactly how it should be". Norton AntiVirus 2007 may predate Norton 360, but on XP we found it, too, was a far smoother performer than past experience had led us to anticipate. While scanning incoming emails on this system, memory usage was minimal
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and the CPU rarely exceeded 50%.
On Vista, however, the interface was the most sluggish we'd seen, with simple operations tying up the CPU for several seconds at a time. Initiating a full system scan put such a strain on the computer it led to the mouse pointer becoming jerky.
Despite these very different experiences on Vista and XP, test results were equally poor across the two platforms: a paltry 68% of malware was detected and removed, with many items missed that were identified by eight or nine competing products. The package whose name was once synonymous with antivirus ranked 11th overall in a field of 13.
This dismal performance makes it hard to see Norton's £34 price as anything but a rip-off, especially since, like McAfee, the company sells the application for around half that price in the US. We were also irked at the interface's references to other Symantec products, a transparent bid to get us to buy them. With Norton 360, the name may be on the way to regaining its lustre, but AntiVirus 2007 won't be part of the revival.
