I just installed Norton in 2021 and I am impressed

RoboMan

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We are near the end of 2021 and most comments we see around security forums are usually the same:
  • BitDefender is a resource-hog!
  • Norton is buggy and heavy!
We've analyzed BitDefender 2021 in the past and verified that, at least in most scenarios, their antivirus has improved a lot, to the point where it can be really light to resources.

So, what about Norton? See, I've always been a fan of Norton's SONAR, but in the past I had lots of issues with their solutions, including random freezes, slowdowns, eternal app loading times, bugs and uninstalling problems. But, it's nearly 2022, hopefully they've improved, right? So I decided I wanted to give this experiment a try.

So, first, I spent a good 30 minutes looking for any website that would have any kind of extended trial that would let me test Norton (without having to crack/ilegally download, etc). I finally came to this site Norton Security Deluxe - 90 days Extended Trial | Techprotips that offered a 90 day trial. Hurray! All I had to do after installing was invest a little bit of time in updating the product, since it was way outdated. This including rebooting several times and looking for more updates until there were none.

HOW IT WENT

Installation:
this was ridiculously quick. All it took was a double click, and wait for.. what, 15 seconds? Maybe less.

Updating: as mentioned my product was really outdated because the offer was a bit old, but we got around it in aprox. 10 minutes.

The product: Norton LifeLock pretty much came configured. I took a tour around all the features and configurations, but there wasn't much I could change. The product doesn't offer much of configuration options, but at least some modules come with "Disabled, Enabled, Intense" you can switch from or to. So, it's basically an install and forget product, that's good! This is what my GUI looks like.

1630857725073.png


All important features have a shortcut in the home GUI. There's also a little arrow in the middle right which displays more modules. You could also head to configuration and cofigure different modules. I apologize in advance for being in spanish.

1630857815481.png


Now, to main the point, how does it work?

Well, immediately after updating and rebooting, I made a full scan just in case the product worked with a cache technique that would allow itself to not re-scan every file each time I use it. This full scan of the system took 7 minutes.

HOW DOES THE SYSTEM WORK

Like no product is installed. Literally. Let's start with the fact that before installing Norton, I had no antivirus. I had reciently clean installed Windows 10, and all I had was Hard_Configurator in disallowed mode. So, now I have a security suite protecting my PC in real time, and it doesn't feel like anything changed. This is Norton working in the background:

1630858260271.png


You may be thinking one of two things.

#1 If it consumes so little and the system works as if nothing is installed, it's probably garbage!
#2 Probably if you run an app now, it will take forever to open and resources will go up!

Well well well you little stranger, you're wrong! I downloaded Brave (browser) installer, which downloaded instantly and was not delayed (as more AV delay to scan the item first). After that I double clicked the installer, this triggered Norton File Insight, which is a module that:
  • Analyzes the file looking for malicious intents
  • Compares the hash in the Norton Community and provides you with statistics on how safe it is and how many users have installed it, as well as the file's information.
1630858495725.png


Well RoboMan, quit your fanboy talk, how much did it take Norton to analyze the file and give you this info?

Literally, one and a half seconds. After I double clicked the file, I waited around one second and a green Norton box popped up saying it was safe, half a second later this image popped up and I knew it was safe to install. So I decided to move forward with the installing, which took place immediately after I hit next, no delays for installation whatsoever.

This kind of technique also helps you identify a fake installer (you're installing WhatsApp for PC and suddenly you see nobody has installed it, weird, this cannot be WhatsApp installer!)

OVERALL

I also play a lot, like Runescape, League of Legends, use several apps for these such as Blitz, OP.GG, edit with Photoshop, and all these programs run and load with the same times they did when no product was installed. Booting time is insanely fast yet, daily tasks work as fluid as no AV installed, installations and downloads respond as nothing was scanning them, and Norton answers with details and information on everything in the moment.

So, Norton is buggy and slows down the machine even in 2021? That's another myth taken down by RoboMan, the best of them robots :cool:
 

trandung

New Member
May 20, 2018
7
On my computer, I saw Norton Security v22.21.6.53 has some problems:
- It left Norton Download Manager which run at Windows startup after I uninstalled it by using Norton Remove and Reinstall tool (Remove Only option).
- It slows down game online (unstable ping value, sometimes very high). After I removed it, my ping value back to normal.
- When I viewed my processes by Process Explorer, I didn't see Control Flow Guard (CFG) is enabled for Norton. I'm not sure if that's the problem but others as Windows Defender, Eset, Avast are enabled CFG.
 

RoboMan

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Do you still need a credit card for registration? I had this shady practices
You do for a 7-day trial on their official site. Nevertheless, if you use the link I provided, you don't.
On my computer, I saw Norton Security v22.21.6.53 has some problems:
- It left Norton Download Manager which run at Windows startup after I uninstalled it by using Norton Remove and Reinstall tool (Remove Only option).
- It slows down game online (unstable ping value, sometimes very high). After I removed it, my ping value back to normal.
- When I viewed my processes by Process Explorer, I didn't see Control Flow Guard (CFG) is enabled for Norton. I'm not sure if that's the problem but others as Windows Defender, Eset, Avast are enabled CFG.
That's weird! I have no gaming issues at all, nor connectivity/ping issues. Norton does leave some crap behind after uninstalling, but I always use HiBit Uninstaller which got rid of it all.
 

Nightwater

Level 2
Jan 26, 2021
69
Norton no thanks, too many sign in's,false information on hard selling their other products and a pain to uninstall, may be a security giant and up and coming monopoly but, Kaspersky or Microsoft Defender for me
Kaspersky OK, but Microsoft Defender better than Norton? Joke. Microsoft's antivirus has average protection, I would never risk my system with it alone, its protection against ransomware and exploit is very poor, Norton is focused on security, Microsoft is not.
 

NewbyUser

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Jul 16, 2021
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Kaspersky OK, but Microsoft Defender better than Norton? Joke. Microsoft's antivirus has average protection, I would never risk my system with it alone, its protection against ransomware and exploit is very poor, Norton is focused on security, Microsoft is not.

 

Dave Russo

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Kaspersky OK, but Microsoft Defender better than Norton? Joke. Microsoft's antivirus has average protection, I would never risk my system with it alone, its protection against ransomware and exploit is very poor, Norton is focused on security, Microsoft is not.
You may have a point but my #1defense against ransomware is my backup(s) Macrium reflect works!
 

Kongo

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Microsoft's antivirus has average protection, I would never risk my system with it alone, its protection against ransomware and exploit is very poor
Based on which source/tests are you stating that? Maybe you should test tweaked Microsoft Defender via ConfigureDefender for example and see if your (outdated) opinion still holds true. An antivirus shouldn't be the only layer of defense on somebody's system. If you update your software and OS, harden your browser and use DNS or extension-based web-filtering you won't need more than Microsoft Defender as potential threats mostly are blocked before reaching the antivirus layer. So stating that people are risking their system by using Microsoft Defender as their AV is simply not true nowadays.
 
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Kongo

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You may be right, but regarding the sources, it's literally all over the internet.
And just as many sources that are stating the opposite. No doubt that MD isn't the best solution out there, but it doesn't provide just "average protection" anymore and it definitely wouldn't put the users at risk that are depending on it as their standalone AV solution.
 

Anthony Qian

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Apr 17, 2021
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I have not been a big fan of Norton since they released Norton Crypto...

Norton is still buggy. The setting interface sometimes won't open and this issue is a long-standing one. Many users, including me, have reported this issue to Norton but they just fail to fix it.


Other noticeable issues include a high FP rate, over-reliance on digital signatures (Norton always trusts malicious softwares with valid signature, if they are not added to Virus Definition), cloud detection that isn't as responsive as Kaspersky or ESET...

Also, I am concerned about Norton's R&D capability in terms of anti-virus as I read the following from NortonLifeLock's SEC filing:
We are dependent upon Broadcom for certain engineering and threat response services, which are critical to our products and business. We could lose our access to these or other data sources, including threat intelligence, which could cause us competitive harm and have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Our endpoint security solution has historically relied upon certain threat analytics software engines and other software (the Engine-Related Services) that have been developed and provided by engineering teams that have transferred to Broadcom as part of the Broadcom sale. The technology, including source code, at issue is shared, and pursuant to the terms of the Broadcom sale, we retain rights to use, modify, enhance and create derivative works from such technology. Broadcom has committed to provide these Engine-Related Services under a transition services agreement, substantially to the same extent and in substantially the same manner, as has been historically provided. As a result, we are dependent on Broadcom for services and technology that are critical to our business, and if Broadcom fails to deliver these Engine-Related Services it would result in significant business disruption, and our business and operating results and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, we cannot provide assurance that we will be able to obtain data from alternative or additional sources if our current sources become unavailable, and if we are able to obtain alternative sources, we could be unable to integrate or deploy them in time, which could cause us competitive harm and have a material adverse effect on our business. Additionally, in connection with the Broadcom sale, we lost many industry-specific engineers and other capabilities, including certain threat intelligence data which were historically provided by our former Enterprise Security business, the lack of which could have a negative impact on our business and products.
 
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RoboMan

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That is weird :) I have tested the product for several days now and have no encountered issues at all. I also tested it some months ago in another laptop I have with minor hardware specs, same results. I guess it's hardware dependant, maybe incompatiblities with some specific pieces or software?

As for Norton's response to threats, I haven't made a malware/protection test yet, but I did test a couple of files that usually trigger Kaspersky, which is an unsigned application for rune-making in League of Legends, a registry-cleaning batch file I made my own, and a batch file that removes Windows bloatware including built-in apps, and Norton didn't flag them. But it did flag some "shady" tools it should flag, such as a tool to remove antiviruses from the PC, and similar.

I will do a malware test these days if you're interested :)
 

CyberDevil

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Apr 4, 2021
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Also, I am concerned about Norton's R&D capability in terms of anti-virus as I read the following from NortonLifeLock's SEC filing:
I've been worried about that for a long time, too. That's why I gave up using Norton while waiting for the company to solve this dependency problem. I think the new Avast One is very similar in interface logic to Norton 360. It's likely that within a year or two Norton will become a rebranding for Avast inside. It's a shame that the old Norton will disappear, but I hope the new product will be quality too. My only concern is that so far Avast One has a very basic firewall.
 

Anthony Qian

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Apr 17, 2021
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I've been worried about that for a long time, too. That's why I gave up using Norton while waiting for the company to solve this dependency problem. I think the new Avast One is very similar in interface logic to Norton 360. It's likely that within a year or two Norton will become a rebranding for Avast inside. It's a shame that the old Norton will disappear, but I hope the new product will be quality too. My only concern is that so far Avast One has a very basic firewall.
Yeah. Norton is likely to abandon Symantec technology and use Avast technology for its next gen product. But please don't forget that Norton also bought Avira, which has an industry-leading engine. So I'm interested to see how Norton handles this situation.
 
F

ForgottenSeer 69673

Yeah. Norton is likely to abandon Symantec technology and use Avast technology for its next gen product. But please don't forget that Norton also bought Avira, which has an industry-leading engine. So I'm interested to see how Norton handles this situation.

Peter Norton - Wikipedia



Peter Norton (born November 14, 1943) is an American programmer, software publisher, author, and philanthropist. He is best known for the computer programs and books that bear his name and portrait. Norton sold his PC software business to Symantec Corporation in 1990.
 

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