Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Boarder8925 (talk | contribs) at 21:38, 3 May 2005 (Added infobox; reworded bits and pieces). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Norton AntiVirus (NAV) is the flagship product of Symantec Corporation and one of the most popular anti-virus programs. Since its birth in 1990, over 100 million people around the world have used it. Early versions of Norton AntiVirus were integrated and took much from Central Point Anti-Virus (CPAV), which was acquired by Symantec in 1994. CPAV was also integrated into the Microsoft Anti-Virus utility. The current version is Norton AntiVirus 2005.

Despite its widespread adoption, it carries a reputation within the computer enthusiast community as slow and inefficient. It is also notorious for being almost impossible to completely uninstall.

Norton AntiVirus's LiveUpdate provides virus definition updates, which enable Norton AntiVirus to detect more viruses. However, it used to require a valid subscription that should be renewed annually. Now, new versions of Norton AntiVirus ship with a free subscription. Most users refrain from renewing Norton AntiVirus's, instead opting to upgrade to the newest version.

Both Norton AntiVirus 2004 and 2005 include an anti-piracy feature called "Product Activation," which is similar to the activation process in Windows XP and Office XP. The activation process can be accomplished in two methods the first one is through Internet connection which mostly do not require end user's participation and the second one is telephone which do require end user's participation.

• Anti-virus software