[tommyboy819]

[size="4"]Symantec is offering a free download of Norton 360 2013 Beta.

The incentive to download and participate, is the offering of a 40% discount when the final version of the software is released and purchased.
A 'geek', (and I use the term with greatest admiration), once told me to "bob", (beware of beta).
Any feedback from my 'techie' superiors would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

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Norton (Symantec ) has a terrible reputation of late...huge resource hog...bogs systems down and just plain old flaky...
I would only recommend Norton to a business competitor of mine so they could spend lots of hours screwing around with it...

[happyrock]

Norton (Symantec ) has a terrible reputation of late...huge resource hog...bogs systems down and just plain old flaky...
I would only recommend Norton to a business competitor of mine so they could spend lots of hours screwing around with it...

[Ztruker]

Somebody should try it though just to see if it's getting better or continues to deserve the reputation it has.

I may give it a go since I have good image backups kept updated every night.

Beta download is here.

Edit: Tried to download and install but it hung on the download. Gave up after 15 minutes. Server is probably very busy. Will try again later or tomorrow.

[happyrock]

Somebody should try it though just to see if it's getting better or continues to deserve the reputation it has.

I may give it a go since I have good image backups kept updated every night.

Beta download is here.

Edit: Tried to download and install but it hung on the download. Gave up after 15 minutes. Server is probably very busy. Will try again later or tomorrow.

great...let us know how it goes and if its any better...list your system specs so we will have a baseline of what will handle it comfortably

[Ztruker]

Will do. So far I have not been able to successfully install it. Continues to hang in the Download Manager saying it's installing. It's still at it now after about 10 minutes. I'll let it run in the background for a while and see what happens. Not to impressive so far.

[Ztruker]

Switched to the Norton Antivirus 2013 Beta and it downloaded and installed okay in a few minutes.

Computer feels slower already. Have not tried a boot yet.

Dell Precision 370 3.4Ghz Dual thread CPU
4GB Ram
Windows 7 Pro X64 on a 128GB SSD.
300GB IDE 7200RPM hard drive (3 partitions).
1.5TB 7200RPM hard drive (4 partitions)

Edit: Boot time about the same as when I had MSE, 45-48 seconds (love the SSD!!!).

[Ztruker]

So far so good. Doesn't run any different than when I had MSE.

You only get a 14 day subscription for the Beta but that's enough to check it out. I may have to reconsider my feelingds about Norton/Symantec if this continues to run as well as it is right now.

Tommyboy819, thanks for the pointer to the Beta.

[Ztruker]

Should I continue to use MBAM Pro with Norton? I liked the combination of MBAM and MSE but I wonder if I need it with Norton.

[happyrock]

You only get a 14 day subscription for the Beta but that's enough to check it out

I could get norton to run for 2 or 3 weeks before it would do something stupid and then screw up for several days in a row...so I personally would not consider a 2 week test a true test of its capability...

Should I continue to use MBAM Pro with Norton? I liked the combination of MBAM and MSE but I wonder if I need it with Norton.

I don't know if they will fight or not...that can be and second part of your test...
after a week or so check your performance monitor and see whats there...

[admin]

When we were at the MVP summit, Microsoft said they had shared their tricks and techniques used to speed MSE with other antivirus vendors. I wouldn't be surprised to see 3rd party AVs lighter on system resources as a result. However, one compromise Microsoft made was not to focus on scan speed. Vendors that focus on increasing scan speed will likely still impact system performance more.

I'll give it a try. Last time I tried Norton it was surprisingly fast after first installing, but got a little slower over time.

[admin]

It downloaded and installed quickly for me, 2-3 minutes. Ran a "quick scan" which wasn't very quick considering this system has an SSD and hardly anything on it. It also deleted my temporary internet files as apparently a Tuneup is part of the quick scan. It removed a "tracking cookie" and considered that a detection.

I see there is a "silent" option under settings, but I'll let it run at the default settings for a while.

Since the beta is for the entire suite it has all kinds of stuff you really don't need. Like the disk defrager (at least it try to defrag the SSD), backup, registry cleaner. There appears to be a task to clean all temporary files. Probably not as good idea if you are infected.

Not overly impressed, but I'll give it 2 weeks.

[happyrock]

at least it try to defrag the SSD

that's a no-no for SSD's...
you can defrag a SSD but it will shorten the life of the drive

[admin]

I forgot the word *didn't. Yes that would be bad.

[NightFury12]

Regarding Norton's Disk Optimizer. it actually runs the Windows Disk Defragmenter in the Background. If the Disk Defragmenter service is disabled the Norton's feature will not work.

[Ztruker]

I just uninstalled the Norton Beta. I kept getting notices for things like an application using to much CPU which I found very annoying. Now add that it runs Defrag and that did it for me. Gone forever. Back to MSE.