PRO HACK

Well..it all started with me picking up a Not For Sale copy of Norton Antivirus from an official source who wanted me to test and rate the antivirus. Reluctant in the beginning (I had to take my Comodo firewall and Nod32 antivirus cover from my system to test this behemoth) , I agreed for the sake of proving myself wrong as my previous experience with it was terrible.

I was right..

Well lets start with the basics,I installed it,activated it online and there you go..It eats up system memory and rules like a beast. Silent operation is pesky however you can control the notification settings from the configurable options. I intentionally inserted an infected pendrive with a rather assorted collection of viruses,worms and Trojans (some made with love from various Virus development kits and Trojan makers like Turokjan and PRORAT)  and it was able to detect most of them,however some hardened binded executables were not detected by it.
It includes facility of monitoring and scanning in realtime but doesn't includes anything special and distinctive from other antivirus products. Standard guard subsystems like mail scanning,file scanning,boot time scanning and  reporting are there but are also available in cheaper and free antivirus products like Avast too.
Norton has made a name of itself for its antivirus and I now wonder how ? Perhaps there was a time when only they existed and people didn't really had any choice,but seriously,its time to switch over.
The updates are heavy as it tries to connect to central server and opens many ports in process.
I did that after my system slowed down tremendously and I was pesked with its notifications,I tried to uninstall it but here it too proved that I had to bite tougher nails. Uninstalling pesks with options and tries to stop you like he is the boss and you are not. NAV and live update features suffer from installshield errors sometimes and sometime a virus which has impenetrated into its defenses may corrupt a file or too,which will make it almost impossible (literally) to uninstall. Trust me,I m not a skeptic critic of Norton but they make me shudder every time I see NAV.
I was able to uninstall it after few registry edits and some messing with unlocker .

PROS -

1. Total Protection (?) in a comprehensive suite

CONS-

1. protection at the cost of resources
2. heavy updates
3. System hog
4. resource eater
5. file behemoth
6. uninstallation is tougher
7. Its NORTON
8. costlier then others

Aftermath-
I reverted to Nod32 and Comodo combo and My PC is almost as secure as Fort Knox :P and the best part is that they are the ones I shall recommended to you.

You can download it from here -

Download Norton Antirus 2009 TRIAL

(TRIAL ? well try before you buy which you are not gonna do it after you try it :P else you know where to get cracks :) )

Keep learning..

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