Norton AntiVirus 2010 is the best-selling security solution with a complete set of features the mordern antivirus is supposed to have. The performance of Semantec security solutions has been questioned by IT specialists over the years. The company addressed those performance issues in the 2009 line of products, and now we have a chance to verify if they keep following this trend in 2010.

1. Installation and system requirements

Installation

Norton Antivirus 2010 installs in less than a minute without the need to reboot the system, which is one of the best results among existing antivirus products. The installation is a straightforward thanks to Symantec Download Manager and Installation wizard. During the procedure you will be ask to create Norton account.

Operating system:

    * Windows XP (SP2 or later)

    * Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit)

    * Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Minimum Hardware Requirements

    * 300MHz or faster processor

    * 256MB of RAM (*512 MB RAM required for the Recovery Tool)

    * 200MB of available hard disk space

    * CD-ROM or DVD drive (if not installing via electronic download)

POP3 and SMTP compatible email clients.

Supported Browsers:

    Internet Explorer 6.0 (32-bit only) and later

    Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and later

2.       Main features

New Features

User interface looks similar to that of 2009, with nice layout providing easy use. It was build with previous versions in mind and some new features such as System Insight, Threat Insight, Download Insight, and Norton Insight Network. “Insight” features are intended to improve system performance and make Norton “invisible” to users in terms of system resources usage

Norton Insight Network offers additional security to users by using Norton Community threat database that is updated on a regular basis.

System Insight takes care about system performance by providing the possibility to reduce the amount of scanned files and folders by adding them to trusted/white list. Thus, repeated scanning is eliminated, allowing the system to run faster.

Files Insight provides full information about the origin and location of files and applications on your computer (if such information is available).

Download Insight delays application updates until your PC is idle making its presence even less noticeable than it was in 2009 version.

Another very useful feature is the laptop operation mode. Laptop battery life is conciderably conserved by the program that delays many system tasks until your machine is plugged in.

Standard Features

While Avira Antivir is relatively easy to use, there is certainly room for improvement. The main window displays the current status of the antivirus and mailguard engines as well as the last virus definition update. To start a scan, you'll need to click on the second tab, click on one of the options (ie: "Local Hard Disks"), and then click the magnifying glass icon. While this is straightforward enough to an expert user, novice users may find this confusing the first time out.

One thing to watch out for is to make sure that you set up a scheduled scan on the "Scheduler" tab ... Avira doesn't do this automatically for you. Once this is done, you can more or less allow the program to run invisibly in the background and forget that it's running.

Updates

Avira automatically connects to the internet once a day and downloads updates. You can also manually start an update from the main overview screen.

Other Features

Avira is a small, lightweight app with few features that runs well on older, slower computers.

The program covers now some advanced features that were not available in free version; premium functions: - Integrated detection of ad/spyware; - Low system resources used; - Extremely fast scanning capability; - Extra protection through email scanner (POP3); - Exclusive download server for faster updates; - User-defined update intervals; - Scan function for selected directories. NEW: Phishing and Rootkit Protection.

3. Conclusion

Professional protection against viruses and malware, adware, Spyware, phishing. Realtime scanning of all files through On-Access Guard.Profile-based On-Demand scans for individually defined scan-jobs. Direct scanning of files or folders directly from Windows Explorer. Pop 3 based MailScanner.

Quarantine management to securely lock suspicious files. Scheduling of routine jobs such as updates and scans. Full-fledged reporting system. Direct online access to detailed descriptions for every detected virus. Standard and expert configuration for individually defined configurations.

Easy to use through user-friendly control center. that lets you control the program from just one central place: Activate/deactivate modules; do updates; renew your license; direct configuration of modules. Very fast performance with very low memory footprint. Very high detection rate. Very fast updates through single file update and incremental updates of virus definitions. License Manager to easily license the program.