Labs

Norton AntiVirus has been around a long time and has established itself as the definitive anti-virus program in most people's minds. It's in all the high-street computer shops and, if you've bought a new PC or motherboard, chances are you've received a few months' worth of Norton AntiVirus protection. Even the downloadable Google Pack, a free bundle of 'essential' utilities available from http://pack.google.com, includes a limited version of the software.

We've had mixed results with Norton AntiVirus over the years. In some tests it will pick up everything we throw at it; other times it will miss a few surprises we've included to trip up the unwary anti-virus vendors. This year we were shocked at how poorly it fared when faced with some Trojans in our sample collection. It missed three, letting them run.

Seven of the products tested here beat it when detecting files, including long-term rival McAfee VirusScan and even Grisoft's AVG Free Edition.

Then there's the price. With the exception of Trend

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Micro's PC-cillin, which is a suite of security software that includes a firewall and other utilities, this is the most expensive product to buy. It also costs more than any other product to renew after the first year; the price is nearly three times that of Steganos AntiVirus and £8 more than the average, not including the free software.

It is clear where Symantec's efforts have gone with this release. The interface is virtually beyond criticism. If we reviewed software on how it looked Norton AntiVirus would win an award. Having said that, Kaspersky's interface is also excellent.

The Norton Status window is essentially a marketing device similar to McAfee's Security Center, offering a clear view of where your PC's security is lacking. If you want maximum security you need to install the full range of Norton software.

CAN OF WORMS

There are some good points to this program, though. It has the full range of disk, email and spyware scanners, and you can run these from the program or using the Windows context menu. The reports are clear and the scheduling facilities are flexible. The Worm Protection feature is actually a built-in firewall, and is a suitable replacement for the standard Windows firewall. Another minor plus is that activating the software is a breeze. Compared to McAfee's system, it's delightful.

Symantec is on the verge of releasing a brand new anti-virus service, so regular Norton AntiVirus users are likely to move to this rather than pay the high renewal fee for their software. Still, in terms of cost and performance, this year's release left us cold.