Davey Winder
Tuesday, 16 September 2008 22:58
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So by flagging installed applications on the basis of
being known and trusted by Norton, being known and trusted by the
community of users (a wisdom of crowds approach to security) and those
which are unknown, Symantec can save time by only scanning the unknowns.
On the test system I saw this represented just 7
percent of the installed applications. No wonder Norton 2009 is so fast.
Performance and speed are also catered for by the fact that Symantec
has made Norton 2009 'content aware.' By which it means that if you are
watching a movie on a plane it won't rob you of battery life by
scanning or updating.
Perhaps one of the smartest moves, given the reputation Norton products
have for being a bitch to uninstall cleanly, is the introduction of
totally free telephone support to go alongside the online chat and
email support options.
Of course, that is the big question that hangs over Norton 2009 still:
does it uninstall cleanly, completely, and every single time without
the need for downloading a separate 'get this bloody thing off my
computer' utility?
Symantec were not keen for me to remove it from one of the handful of
test machines, and my Acer Aspire One upon which I am writing this
coverage from Madrid, has no optical drive. I feel sure the Web will
reveal the answer soon enough though.
Rowan Trollope insists that "This is the highest quality consumer
product we've ever shipped. Today's Norton is now proven to be faster
and stronger than ever before."
It is also most certainly not a lipstick wearing pig, and I was not
expecting to come to that conclusion tonight it has to be said. Well, I've never seen a pig running this fast, anyway!