Review by Bill Cashell

I have tried several antivirus utilities before Norton. The past year I have been using 360, and been very happy with it. One challenge I had was figuring what to use. They had Norton Antivirus, Norton Internet Security and Norton 360 and I was not totally sure what each did. The new Norton Security is an effort to merge Norton products into one subscription service. The only option is the backup.

Installation was really simple. There was no CD in the box only a credit card size key card. It was a bit difficult to get at because the code was on the back of the card which was glued to a larger card. After that, you log into their site with your account and enter your license key for the installation. From there you can download the installer for your Windows, Mac, or Android device and proceed with installation. You can also send an email to the device you want to protect. Either way, installing protection is a snap.

It requires a restart, and then Norton automatically launched an installation process, which took about 4 minutes. I had to repeat the process for each of my 3 computers (you can protect up to 10 devices).

The dashboard window is simplified with four large panels labeled Security, Identity, Performance, and More Norton. If you’ve chosen the edition with backup, you’ll also have a Backup panel. Clicking a panel causes the whole row of panels to shrink down, exposing buttons that perform specific tasks. It’s a nice change from previous editions.

Clicking Settings brings up a window that seems less cluttered than previous Norton products. A series of checkboxes lets you quickly turn components on or off. It comes out of the box configured for maximum security, but you can change the controls if you really want. My guess is that most users won’t need to change anything.

Im not a computer antivirus guru. I want something that is easy to use and does a good job. So far, this has been even better that the previous Norton 360. Independent tests performed by Dennis Technology Labs, gave Norton their highest rating of 5 stars. The other programs receiving 5 stars were Kaspersky, ESET, Bit Defender and BullGuard.

Norton Security with Backup also adds an online backup service with 25GB of free space. More is available at additional cost if you need it. I back up most data on an external hard drive, but I like an additional back up of key data online.

Im sure there are some people who will find faults and say there are better products. For me, they made a good thing better.