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Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2012 Review: Internet Security Software |
| Visit Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2012 Website | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The best at protecting you and your computer. Updates include a vastly improved performance and several features to make things easier on the user. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Introduction
Worried that high-tech security software will only slow down your PC? Norton has you covered in 2012. Among other new improvements to its top-notch software, the company has focused on increasing the performance of your PC through several new updates and services. Installation Installation is still a breeze, especially for the faster PCs. There is no need to restart your computer; the software is ready to go once installed. Interface Norton has simplified the user interface even further for the 2012 version. Of course, the slick interface is still ... well ... slick. But the main screen has been pared down to only three main options:
The only issue with the new interface is navigating back to the home screen, which is not intuitive. You need to click on the poorly labeled "Activity Map" button at the bottom of the screen to return. Into the Cloud: Norton has also taken a step into the cloud with this software update. The new Norton Management system (under the "Manage" button on the home screen) allows you to keep all your Norton information in one cloud-based location, and also allows you to install and uninstall Norton software from that location. Once you add several PCs, you can easily manage your devices from the Norton website. The cloud-based services are quick and easy to use, but they only work on PCs, so you won't be able to access it on your mobile devices. Performance The most exciting part of the 2012 update is the new features that help optimize your PC's performance. Startup Manager: The new feature allows you to choose which applications to open during startup. Yes, Windows has it's own startup manager, but Norton's manager is much easier to use and offers information on how many resources the different applications use, making it a more efficient experience. Bandwidth Awareness: This feature is specifically for laptops, and will prevent Norton from downloading any large updates to itself when you are using hotspots or any mobile devices that may charge for bandwidth. AV-Comparatives, an independent antivirus testing organization, did an in-depth test of Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2012 new performance features and gave the software the highest rating (three stars). Norton was one of the only systems to score "very fast" in every test category, and had the highest overall score for the variety of tests. Protection Norton Internet Security 2012 keeps many of the same high-performing protections that were included in previous models, but added a few small updates that help round out their protection offerings. Reliability Meter: This is a new feature for the Download Insight feature. The feature gauges the stability of downloaded files based on other Norton users' experience with the file, using data collected from the vast user base. You can also compare your computer to the overall rating of all Norton users. Our system scored an 86.2%, compared to the 6.81% average rating of all Norton users. Chrome update: Norton has finally added Safe Web support for one of the top browsers around, which will save passwords and monitor your online interactions. Protection performance: A full scan of our computer took a little over an hour, which is hard to track because Norton has still not put an estimated time of completion meter on any of its scans. Historically, Norton's antivirus product has done very well in testing from AV-Comparatives. Norton did particularly well in the 2011 Whole-Product Dynamic Test which measures how well the program's various security components work together to protect the PC. It scored the highest overall score, a 99.3% at blocking malware, but failed the "false alarm" test, which test how many times the software blocks clean domains. Conclusion: Taking in to account Norton's past reputation as a top-notch security software provider and all the new bells and whistles that they have added to improve performance, we strongly recommend Norton Internet Security 2012. It's simple new interface and performance updates make it quick and easy to use. System Requirements: Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 AV-Comparatives ratings on a variety of tasks related to the antivirus and anti-malware product. "Known Malware" refers to a product's ability to catch pre-identified viruses, while "Unknown Malware" refers to its ability to detect brand new viruses. Older scores may reflect previous software versions.
Visit Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2012 Website | Compare to Other Internet Security Software |
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**Score indicates impact of antivirus product on system performance. August 2010 test by AV-Comparatives. 
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