Review by RealDave

Norton 360 version 2.0 is the latest iteration of Symantec’s popular all in one utilities. It came about as a bundling of the various standalone software such as Norton Antivirus, Norton Utilities, Norton Firewall and Ghost (included in some versions). The fact that these software were developed separately and then marketed together shows up in the uneven performance across the board.

First, the good. The Utilities component is outstanding. The defragmentation feature is worth the price of admission and represents an upgrade over the vanilla variety that windows offers (which in of itself is licensed from symantec I believe). the registry maintenance is another heaven-sent feature.

Then there is the ugly. Some components such as the Antivirus consume an inordinate amount of system resources to cause a noticeable slowdown in system performance. While the virus protection does work well there are free programs which work just as well, with minimal hit to your computer’s speed.

360 2.0 is more user friendly than the prior versions with better integration of the various components. It is to be recommended for the casual user. However, expert users will be able to replicate much of its functionality using free utilities that are faster and much efficient.