One of the original anti-virus programs, Norton AntiVirus is one of the trusted standards. The current version is extremely easy to set up out of the box and, if you are regularly connected to the Internet, it will automatically keep itself up to date. Updates can be obtained either through the Live Update function or downloaded from the Symantec Web site. The package includes the first 366 days of updates with additional annual subscription being reasonably priced.

It is easy to use, and largely set and forget, which is what you want from anti-virus software. The user interface makes it easy to see what has happened, check the status of the system and find out if any viruses have been caught.
The software ships on a bootable CD-ROM which allows you to access Norton Emergency files in the event that the hard disk is already infected. This is an excellent feature, particularly since many people only invest in anti-virus software when its too late.

We found that the system performed faultlessly when opening Word macros, downloading files from the Internet and scanning floppies. However, the system did allow us to open a Trojan horse without notifying us that the file was automatically cleaned. The system also allowed us to download infected screen savers and even allowed them to be saved to disk. Perhaps this is the default setting, but if so, its not clear since the system advised that email attachments were being scanned. We also found that the uninstall, though easy, was not as neat as we would have liked, as some components needed to be deleted manually.

The Professional Edition is one of the few anti-virus packages that works with Palm OS, thus ensuring that you do not inadvertently store viruses on your Palm. Norton AntiVirus is a solid package, and is suitable for use by a wide range of users, giving them protection against a lot of the Nets nasties.