Norton AntiVirus 2012 Download:

     By Jay Andrew Allen | September 24, 2011

Dashboard: As noted in our beta preview, the Dashboard of the new Norton sports the same look-and-feel of Norton 2011, but with a cleaner organization. (See our Norton Antivirus 2011 screenshots for comparison.) The sidebar of configuration options has been removed, and the "Computer Protection" and "Network Protection" sections have been condensed into a simple palette of three options: Scan Now, LiveUpdate, and Advanced.

Norton 2012 Dashboard:


Clicking the Advanced link displays a replica of the Norton 2011 Dashboard interface - a feature that will comfort die-hard users of last year's version (Screenshot 2). The Advanced window also displays information regarding the computer's CPU load, as well as the percentage of files that Norton considers trusted, and thus excluded from virus scans.

A button bar at the bottom of the Dashboard is the final navigational element. The bar provides quick access to the famous (or not so famous?) Norton Virus Activity Map, as well as a few other features that are new with Norton 2012.

Unlike some of its competitors, Norton has packed its latest release with a suite of new features - some visible, some behind the curtain. Among the less visible features are increased protection against fake anti-virus applications, and a beefed-up release of SONAR, Norton's malicious process detection component. Norton's analysts can now deem a program as suspicious based on key behaviors, and prevent its execution. SONAR has also been improved to detect Non-Process Threats, or viruses that inject themselves into other running processes.

One feature every user will notice is Download Insight 2.0, Norton's file download protection technology. In 2012, Download Insight will not only warn users about malicious executables, but also about unstable executables that are likely to crash the system (Screenshot 4).

Users who utilize 3G or 4G (LTE) networking cards, or who tether their iPhone or Android to their laptops for Internet access, will appreciate the new Bandwidth Metering feature, which enables road warriors to control how much data Norton AntiVirus downloads over a capped connection (Screenshot 5). This configuration function is available by navigating to Settings -> Network -> Network Security Settings, and selecting Configure next to Metered Broadband Mode.

While not strictly a feature of Norton 2012, Safe Web Lite is a trimmed-down version of an existing feature found in higher end products such as Kaspersky Internet Security. While advertised from within AntiVirus 2012, this feature can be downloaded and installed for free without a Norton license. After Safe Web Lite is installed, Norton will enhance your Web search results with a security icon identifying a site as safe, questionable, or dangerous. Unfortunately, while this sounds great, we didn't see any change to our search results - in Google, Bing, or Yahoo! - after installation. This was after installing, shutting down our browsers, re-starting, and then un-installing and re-installing the add-on.

Norton Management, at first glance, appears to offer security management across multiple machines. In its current incarnation, it mostly supports installing or uninstalling Norton products across a network. Management Center will send you an alert, however, if a major event occurs on another machine on your network (e.g., if someone temporarily disables virus scanning).

Have an Android-powered phone? Android users can download Norton Mobile for Android by scanning a QR code built into the application (Screenshot 3). (Have an iPhone? Sorry - maybe next year.) The code can be scanned using a QR reader such as QR Droid, available for free download from the Android Marketplace.

Keep in mind, these are only the new features. Norton AntiVirus also boasts previous features such as System Insight for tracking computer bottlenecks, Reputation Scan for improving anti-virus performance based on a file's performance across millions of machines, and Facebook Wall Scan for removing malware links.

Norton's virus scanner offers 3 scan types: Quick Scan, Full System Scan, and Custom Scan. While there's nothing all that unique about these three scan types which are found in most other antivirus programs, Norton does offer two additional scan options not seen in many programs - Reputation Scan and Facebook Wall Scan (discussed above).

Norton Virus Scanner:


Scan Speed: On our reference system*, Norton AntiVirus blazed through our 1GB test file matrix in 28.2 seconds, for a scan rate of 36.3MB per second. In our Subsequent Scan Speed test, Norton 2012 notched this down to a mere 7.8 seconds. Norton 2012 edges out Norton AntiVirus 2011's 1GB test file matrix scan speed of 34.7MB per second.

Updates: We found Norton AntiVirus 2012 on average downloaded 192 virus definition updates daily. While that's down from the number of daily definitions slurped up by AntiVirus 2011, it still outpaces every other major anti-virus vendor by a wide margin.

*Reference Computer:  Windows 7 Home Premium running on a Toshiba Pentium Dual-Core T4200 (64 bit), with 3GB of RAM and a 210GB hard drive.

Norton's Support -> Help command links to a Web page chock full of FAQs, tutorials, and other resources. The main help interface is a "virtual agent" named Nathan that parses your Norton-related questions and provides links to the most relevant FAQ answers. Old-school users will be happy to know they can bypass "Nathan" and download a PDF edition of the Norton Help Manual. The Web site also hosts an active user forum where Norton customers can obtain quick assistance from power users and Norton technical professionals.

Users who require direct assistance can click the Get Support command, which launches Norton Autofix. As its name implies, Autofix will check for common problems with the Norton installation and patch them, bypassing the need in some cases to contact Tech Support. However, if Autofix completes without finding errors, it takes you to the same Support Web site link as the Help command. To obtain live support, users must click the Contact Us link at the bottom of the Support page, which provides access to 24-hour Live Chat, Email, and Phone support. Norton also offers a suite of fee-based advanced services including PC performance tuning, manual spyware removal, expert installation, and unlimited technical support for all of a user's computers, peripherals, and smartphones. While the Live Support option is obviously downplayed in favor of Norton's online resources and paid helpdesk services, it remains accessible and robust.

»Quick Support Links:

     • Direct Technical Support (Chat, Email, Phone)
     • Norton AntiVirus 2012 Online Support
     • Norton Online Manual (PDF)
     • NortonLive Services