Norman Antivirus 10

Security experts need antivirus protection, but so do folks who just want to use the PC for entertainment and communication. The makers of Norman Antivirus 10 ($45.95 direct for three licenses) aim to make it completely simple and self-explanatory, and for the most part they've succeeded. As for the product's ability to remove malware from an infested system and to keep out further infestations, well, those features could use a little work.

The current edition's user interface has shifted toward big, touch-friendly controls. Large button panels on the main window serve to launch a scan, check for updates, or view files in quarantine; smaller buttons open the task scheduler and settings window. This emphasis on big, self-explanatory controls goes deeper than just the main window. Big sliders turn components on and off, big radio buttons select between different states, and so on. There aren't a lot of configuration options, and all come pre-configured for the best security.

The one possible source of confusion is the fact that the product installs under the name Norman Security Suite. If you look at the settings page you'll see that antivirus protection is present but the other five suite components marked with a note saying "The license for this product has expired." Don't let it throw you; this really is Norman Antivirus.

Preinstall Scan
As part of the somewhat lengthy installation process, you'll be offered the chance to run a preinstall scan. This launches a version of Norman Malware Cleaner that's tailored for automatic action. It doesn't log what it did, but I know it found malware on half of my malware-infested test systems because it requested a reboot to complete the cleanup process.

The preinstall scan offers to run a follow-up scan after reboot; on one system it ran three times to complete the cleanup process. After a preinstall scan that requires rebooting, you'll have to start the installer again and just skip the preinstall scan this time around.

On one test system, malware actively terminated the antivirus scanner every time it launched, and also made booting into Safe Mode impossible. A scan with the full Norman Malware Cleaner didn't help immediately; what solved the problem was uninstalling and reinstalling the full Norman antivirus.

Ransomware on another test system renders the desktop inaccessible, even in Safe Mode, making installation of antivirus software impossible. I was absolutely amazed that Norman tech support deduced the exact nature of the ransomware from my sketchy description and supplied a code that unlocked the desktop.

Now the bad news. The preinstall scan on one of my systems apparently quarantined or deleted a huge number of important Windows files, among them Notepad and the Windows Installer. As noted, the preinstall scan doesn't log its activity, leaving me in the dark as to just what it did. Going forward, the developers plan to add logging. With a lot of help from tech support I eventually managed to get the product installed and working, but the system remained partially unusable.

I rate the antivirus installation experience on a five-star scale, with five stars meaning the product installed on all my test systems with little or no hassle. The more time and effort needed the fewer stars, with two stars normally meaning it took hours and hours of interaction with tech support. Utter failure to install on one or more systems earns a single star; completely disabling one or more systems gets no stars at all.

The amount of work required to get Norman installed and scanning on all twelve systems would have earned it three stars for installation, except for the fact that it left one system partly disabled. I'm knocking it down to two stars, since the damaged test system was still partially functional.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/0T7W_VNwELU/0,2817,2419909,00.asp

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