Norton Internet security is a well known name among the computer users who are concerned about the well being of their PCs. It has a reputation for through virus and malware detection in the industry. However, the software became known for its resource hungry nature. It used to reduce the performance of powerful computers and also affected the shut down and boot time significantly. Therefore, many people switched to other anti-virus and system security applications after trying it. It seems that Symantec has got the message from the users and that is why it has tweaked the latest version of the software to make it lighter on system resources. The 2009 version was lighter but the latest release beats its predecessors in terms of resource usage.
The new Norton Internet Security 2010 features a powerful detection engine named Quoram. It implements advanced behavioral detection. The installation is a smooth and fast affair, in stark contrast with the numerous reboots and sluggishness of earlier versions. The interface of the Norton Internet Security 2010 is uncluttered and intuitive. Yet this gives quick access to various components of the program including one click on-demand scan.
The Insight section in the suite has also been given a revamp. Color coding is used by the software to indicate the percentage of reliable and malicious files present in a computer. To give the users an idea about how much memory NIS is hogging, the software uses a performance meter in its interface. This is a section where the users can set the trust level for individual applications. A majority of the NIS interface is taken up by sections like web protection, network defense and computer scanning. Each of the section contains detailed sub menus and information.
An user can choose to deactivate certain features in NIS 2010. He is given the choice of setting a time period for it. This is a good feature as it will ensure the feature gets reactivated after a certain time without user intervention.
The Network section also contains the Firewall settings. NIS 2010 also has intensive browser security. It is possible to block malicious sites from loading in the browser with Norton Safe Web. This is good for detecting phishing websites. Apart from the quick installation, Norton has also improved a lot in scan timing. However, full computer scan still takes a lot of time compared to other anti virus and system security suites. NIS 2010 does not delay system shutdown and boot significantly and resource hungry applications like media encoding can run simultaneously without slowing down the PC much.
As always, Norton shows impressive performance in virus and spy ware detection. The average virus detection rate is above 90 percent. Symantec offers detailed help and customer support for the users of various Norton security suites. There exist a number of useful tutorials for beginners and one can also opt for the free telephonic support. While the software does not offer any outstanding new features, its improved interface and light system footprint puts it at per with other competing products.
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