Norton AntiVirus 2001 It's an unfortunate fact of life that viruses and worms are now very common, and, thanks to the Internet, new ones can spread around the world in a few hours. Even people who don't have a computer are aware of the threats posed by malicious programs, thanks to the global publicity generated by Melissa, Happy99 and the LoveLetter worm. Yet even technically savvy companies succumbed to the viruses. Still, it's possible to protect yourself against known viruses--with decent antivirus software.
Competition between antivirus software vendors is particularly fierce but many publications rate Norton Antivirus as one of the best. The best is even better with Norton Antivirus 2001, which incorporates a number of significant new features and improvements, both in the accuracy of its detection and in its usability. The new "SmartScan" virus scanning engine, for example, is faster than its predecessor, though it can still take its time: tested on a P200 notebook it took 23 minutes to scan some 21,000 files. This sort of job can be scheduled to take place during the night, and time isn't a problem.
By default, Norton AntiVirus is configured aggressively, with nearly all the scanning options enabled. For example, it has heuristics turned on by default and its manual scanner checks every file, not just files with specific extensions. Though these settings may increase the performance hit, they also provide more reliable protection. You can easily configure the program to scan only specific types of files, but most users are better served by trading off some performance for such thorough protection.
The key to successful virus detection is keeping your virus definition files up to date and the old LiveUpdate feature has been revamped. Not only are update files much smaller in size but LiveUpdate will automatically update all the Norton products installed on your PC in one go. If you have a permanent Internet connection, you can configure LU to update automatically in the background. It can also be set to update whenever you're online. There's now a worldwide network of LU servers, so updating should also be faster and smoother. And if the worst happens and you can't boot your PC because of a virus infection, you can actually boot from the NAV CD-ROM and clean it up from there, a neat trick. Despite Norton AntiVirus 2001's lengthy scan time and mild system performance hit, it provides just about the easiest and most thorough virus protection on the market. Norton Antivirus 2001 runs on Windows 95, 98, ME and Windows 2000. --Roger Gann
Norton Utilities 2001
Norton Utilities 2001 optimises your PC's performance and solves system problems easily. Now Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows Me users can keep their PCs running at peak performance and fix recurring problems. Norton SpeedDisk optimizes your hard drive's performance by arranging files for the fastest access. Norton WinDoctor diagnoses and solves a wide range of Windows problems, from software errors to hardware configuration problems. A healthy hard disk is essential to protecting data and ensuring that your system runs efficiently, so Norton Disk Doctor detects hard drive problems and can repair most of them. The Norton Protected Recycle Bin provides a comprehensive recovery system for deleted and overwritten files, including those rendered that way by a malicious virus. To keep your PC working smoothly every minute it's on, Norton System Doctor runs continuously in the background to detect potential disk and system problems. In many cases, it can automatically take preventive measures to avoid serious trouble. The Norton Utilities tools are fully integrated, working together to make your computer run better and help you recover quickly in the event of an emergency. You can even run many of them directly from the CD.
