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 - Acts like a virus, hijacks your computer...It slows down start-up, downloading files from Internet and every aspect of computing. It acts like just like a virus, always in the foreground. It slows down opening any file or program. The real nightmare begins if you let your subscription run out. You are notified at each start-up with a red flag. The good news is, I got no virus while using the program. The bad news, it hijacked my computer until I uninstalled it. After I uninstalled it, what a relief I got my computer back. I replaced it with McAffee which offers a much faster and less intrusive virus protection. Rating:  - Best Norton in 10 years.I've been with Norton for over a decade (and have fixed literally thousands of computers) and this new Norton is by far the best version they have made, hand's down. The new interface is perfect for the novice; just let it do what it needs to do, and as a mom & dad, you don't have to change a thing. Moreover, the new interface has been streamlined (very cool) which means that contrary to the novices on here writing these reviews, any technical professional will agree with me, the "strain" on your system resources has been dramatically reduced (down to 1 active process). I'm so excited that they (Symantec Corp.) have completely redone Norton Anti Virus, that I was actually thinking of writing the company directly with this glowing review. I'm simply amazed. Anti virus programs have been notorious since their inception of hogging your computer's memory. Not anymore. This new version has finally done what so many of us had wanted from the early days. A simple-to-use interface with no bells and whistles, and, for us techies out there, a less Godzilla-like footprint when the program is running in the background. By their own admission, Symantec has finally listened to all of us, and done it almost perfectly this time. I give this new version an "A" grade pushing the bounds of an actual "A+". It's THAT good. If you are a simple family who knows nothing about anti-virus programs, you're going to have to take it from someone who's knows, not to mention that I've been a big fan of Symantec back when Peter Norton Computing Corp. sold his company to the former, and 'off they went' to try year after year in a dead heat with McAfee to make the best anti virus products around. Well Norton has done it this time BIG TIME. Another note for the newbies and parents out there. You do not need any other programs that bog down your system. You do not need the other Norton products, nor do you need any 3rd party software for all of the hype you hear about 'adware', malware', 'spyware', etc. Norton Anti Virus actually takes care of all those things auto-magically for you. Trust me, I've worked with family computers forever, and all you really need are 4 things to keep your computer happy (and all of these programs are no--brainers; just follow what they want you to do, and sleep well at night) First and foremost is installing anti virus software on a NEW or fresh re-installed system. If you are a novice, parent, mom, etc., trust me on this one. Have someone do it for you locally if you cannot reformat your system. Here are the simple 4 things you need to know and get... 1 - Norton Anti Virus 2008 (Symantec Corp.) 2 - Tuneup Utilities 2007 (TuneUp Software GmbH) 3 - And 'defragment' your computer every week. Or get PerfectDisk 8.0 to do it even better. 4 - And finally, stay away from Windows Vista. INSIST that your computer manufacturer install Windows XP instead. (All the techies are cheering me on right now, can you hear them?) I really do hope that someone at Symantec reads this review. ALL ANTI VIRUS programs have bad reviews, and always have had them. That's because people get them too late and already have a ravaged computer upon installing these kinds of programs. The technicians know this, I know this and any other 'repair' guy reading this knows this. The new Norton is just THAT good. I'm been running it for a couple of months now, and have been amazed at the simplicity and cool-factor of it, under the hood as well. They slacked off for the last 2-3 years, but now that this new version is out, I now know what they were doing all that time. Revamping their program! And it's about time. Norton is finally... *Back*! Rating:  - Broken Out of the BoxI've been using Norton products on my HP laptop for years. Just a couple months ago Norton Go-Back trashed my computer. After it was down for a couple weeks, and much useless correspondence with Norton tech support, I finally found a way to revive it. But the experience battered my confidence in Norton products. Then my Norton anti-virus subscription expired. It was a tough decision to re-up with Norton, but I did, buying the latest version -- 2008. Sadly, after a couple hours of trying to get it to run, I've given up. I'm asking for a refund and I'm looking for another PC anti-virus package. Reading reviews for the many other anti-virus packages is discouraging. There are so many tales of woe, and few packages get better than tepid overall ratings. Given the horror stories, I can see why. My experience with my Apple Macintosh laptop is so very different. I do little system maintenance -- it just all works, no mess, no fuss. Apple handles the security issues and does a famous job. That's worth money to me. Major money. No more PC's for me. I don't care if they give 'em away. If I have to run PC software I'll buy a Windows license and run it under BootCamp or Parallels or some such. But I'll unplug from the net until I can go back to Mac OS. Update -- I have contacted Norton and been promised a full refund. I avoided a LOOOONG wait for Customer Service by lying, telling them I did have a 'Priority Number' when I did not. What I did have was a chat log number, and that apparently was good enough. Norton, and all other software companies, should have a requirement for their senior personnel to dial up their customer service lines once a month and attempt to get service on an issue picked at random out of a pile of real customer issues. After about two months I'd expect radical changes. The first being the hiring of an 'outplacement' service! Rating: - Norton A-V 2008 is the Best! FORGET TREND MICRO!!As usual, good fast service from Amazon!! Thanks!! So far this program is humming right along, taking care of any problems. I replaced the horrible Trend Micro program with this with a sigh of relief!! TM was due to expire end of Nov. but as soon as I received this I installed it 2 weeks earlier and uninstalled TM with pleasure!! So many problems with them--I will never never never never never use them again. Oh, and did I say never? Norton Antivirus 2008 works!!! Rating:  - Difficulty installing, but once installed, works like a charm - instuctions belowAs a long-time Norton subscriber I was pleased that it was operational on my new computer - for a 3 month trial that is. Being the old-fashioned type who likes the software in their hands, I purchased the latest Norton Antivirus software. Norton won't install smoothly until you unistall previous versions. Initially I had a terrible time trying to uninstall the old version of NAV that was preinstalled on my computer. I gave up a few times, nearly pulling my hair out each time. As has been reported before, Norton's support isn't good at all. I found a solution one night after work. I finally went to google and typed in the exact issue (which was that I couldn't completely uninstall Norton Antivirus from my computer - I have the new Windows Vista). One of the key things noted was to go to Symantec's website and find the unistaller - that wasn't easy to find at all. Back to Google I went and typed in "norton antivirs uninstaller." That took me directly to the Symantec page that contained the unistaller - I followed the on-screen instructions which worked like a charm removing all traces of the previous NAV software. Once my computer was free of the old version, the new version of NAV installed without so much as a hickup. This version works beautifully, updates easily, and scans completely. I highly recommend it. If you have problems like I did, go to the Norton Antivirus unstaller and run that first, then you won't have problems with the newer version.
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