Otherwise, it’s business as usual for Norton. In fact, you can use the last of the new features, the Task Manager replacement of Process Viewer 2, to see just how much of an impact Symantec applications are having. Not only does the scan take unacceptably long, it also takes your system resources along for the ride. The combined anti-virus/anti-spyware scanning routine proved effective in our tests, but also slow.

Norton AntiVirus now includes protection against ‘potentially unwanted programs’, or spyware as the rest of the world calls it. Cleanup has also been tweaked to include remove lists for Microsoft Office files, Windows Search Assistant, Google toolbar searches and Windows Media Player. It even supports Firefox, which is good, Netscape, which is a touch academic, but not Opera, which is scandalous. If you do potentially disruptive things like installing new software or P2P file-sharing and it all goes pear shaped, your system at least stays safe.Įverything else is in the fine detail: the system cleanup component will now automatically import your browser bookmarks and leave any cookies found that match the URLs during a sweep.

It’s better than the XP System Restore thanks to the Safe Try mode, which creates a temporary test environment. The one notable exception is that GoBack now automatically installs itself so as to provide out-of-the-box continuous rollback coverage.

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