Norton AntiVirus 2004 By Jay Munro November 25, 2003

• Product: Norton AntiVirus 2004
• Price: $49.95 direct
• Company Info: Symantec Corp., 408-253-9600, www.symantec.com

Editor Rating:

With Norton AntiVirus 2004 (NAV), Symantec adds new touches to a familiar face, keeping NAV atop our A-list. It can now scan your system for installation-stopping viruses before installation, instead of using the old DOS boot CD and a slow command line scanner. It also prescans at setup and scans within ZIP and other archive files by default.

Keeping up with the times, NAV now finds and removes spyware, adware, and dialers. Also new is protection for instant message–borne threats in Yahoo! Messenger, MSN/ Windows Messenger, and AIM. NAV performs automatic updates by default, and you get a systemwide warning when your virus pattern files are out of date.

Installation now includes a product-activation scheme that the company hopes will keep illegal copying of its software under control. This requires you to connect with a server at Symantec to get an activation code to use NAV. Activation is anonymous, and registration is not required. You can reinstall as many times as you like on the same machine, and you have the flexibility to upgrade to a newer machine without buying a new copy.

Spyware, adware, and dialers, while not technically viruses, are threats to your privacy and finances. Like McAfee VirusScan 8.0, NAV now scans and removes these threats. In our testing, NAV found most of our adware, though it missed some spyware and dialers and had difficulty removing others. Symantec claims that NAV will stop incoming spyware and adware received via instant messaging or e-mail but not from Web sites.

This version of NAV has improved default settings. The installation wizard walks you through the options, which include automatic updates, a full initial system scan, weekly system scans, and real-time scanning of compressed files. The status screen shows green, yellow, or red icons to indicate your protection level. In previous versions, if you let your updates lag, only the Update icon turns yellow or red. In NAV 2004, if you bypass an update, the program displays yellow and red icons across the board, indicating that auto-protection is out of gas.

With a 6.4 percent slowdown, NAV came in last on our performance degradation tests, though the hit wasn't significantly worse than VirusScan's 5.9 percent. We think this minor performance impact is a good trade-off for the protection you get. As with VirusScan, NAV has conservative defaults that provide excellent protection. With better defaults and easy updates, Norton AntiVirus once again gets our Editors' Choice nod.