Review by Tamara Thorne

Installation of Norton Security on my Mac was very easy; in fact the only difficulty I had was getting the free version of Avast! uninstalled. From there, I ran a quick scan effortlessly. However, once I had Firefox open, a Norton plug-in kept crashing. This didn’t stop anything - there’s a button to refresh or to send a report. Either one fixed the problem and uncrashed Norton. Still, it was annoying. I tried running the quick scan again and that totally solved the problem.

Macs are susceptible to vagaries of the internet; there’s one insidious worm in particular that will try to fill your hard drive with junk. Fortunately, a friend does the IT work for the 15 Macs in his science lab and, after running a long scan with Norton, cleaned things up enough that he could identify the worm and remove it for me. (Since then, it’s been added to Norton’s fix-it capabilities.) He told me to get Norton and use it religiously. It saves a lot of hassle.

I’ve been a Norton fan since 1990, when I bought my first DOS computer and Norton Commander was the only menu system worth having. I stuck with it through many PCs, until about 2005, when it became slow and bloated. At that point, I tried other programs and was satisfied for the most part. Since 2011, when I went Mac (and won’t go back!) I’ve mainly used free versions of Bit Defender (it’s in the App Store) and Avast!, which is superior but slows the computer to a crawl several times a day. Neither holds a candle to the ease and simplicity of the new Norton. It’s more thorough and, of course, ad-free. There are lots of customizable settings. You can do a quick scan, check one file, or do a long scan, which will run for a couple days. (I’ve done it once and intend to do it monthly in the future.)nnNorton Security protects from malware, viruses, and spyware, among other things. It also has a complete blocker for your privacy and of course it’s customizable. It can be added to other devices, like your smart phone or tablet and, if you do that, it’s capable of locating them if you lose them. Pretty cool. Also, if you replace a computer (or other device) the program can be moved to the new device without a hassle. That’s a breath of fresh air!nnThis version of Norton Security comes with a product key you use to download the program the internet, and I really liked this because the key is printed on a card that I slipped into my wallet - for once, I won’t lose my key! The other great thing is that you have access to PC or Mac versions in one package. I’m a fan.