Customer Ratings & Reviews

I had a nice detailed review written, but apparently exceeded the limit of characters? So I will have to be quicker and concise I guess for this one. TL/DR you can hit the last two paragraphs. Installed the security product first - no issues. Even though I had Eset installed, it didn't nag about that, which was a bit of a concern since it's not a good idea to have multiple AV programs running concurrently due to performance issues. I removed Eset afterwards. Install didn't require a reboot. I tested the VPN, had no issues, but I have a better VPN solution with a lifetime license that gives me more options and can be controlled with a single click. This one you have to dig through the program main menu, then the VPN sub menu, so you have several clicks to get at it. AV didn't seem to cause any performance issues. The dark web monitoring wants me to add my bank account information, credit card information, driver’s license information... Yeah, these are things that I just do NOT add. Giving all this to Symantec just means that there would be ANOTHER potential source of a hack and the information getting out there. I'm also NOT a fan of the spam on the bottom for "additional apps and services" you can buy now. There is no way to remove it that I've found. So the bottom 1/7th or so of the window is their ad for you to buy more stuff, currently an antitracking product... Next came the password manager. I use Password Boss, another lifetime / unlimited devices subscription, much like my VPN software. But I thought I'd give this a try. The page it opens when you click on "Setup" from the main program page had a QR code, so I used that, installed on my iPhone, which activated and tied into this account immediately. Unfortunately there is no import option for the Password Boss program. And since my program doesn't export to CSV, I'll not be using this feature from Symantec. It uses the phone then every time you open the browser to "unlock" the password vault. And apparently in the background it set my Edge to "run in background" so it was always active, something I hadn't known about and didn't see until the second or third day hidden in my tray area. I turned it off, not realizing that was due to the password vault. With that enabled, I only got prompted the first time I opened Edge to verify with the phone. I turned it off, not knowing what it was for, and then afterwards, EVERY time I open the browser after closing it, I'm nagged with the password vault phone prompt to allow. I have looked, and so far I have not found how to turn that back ON again. I don't see it anywhere in the password manager settings. I have found where I can turn OFF the mobile unlock, but I prefer a password needed the first time the password programs are opened after logging into the computer, just in case it's stolen and someone bypasses the windows password (which is easy with a CD to boot from). So the next time I opened the password vault it prompted me for a password, and the Norton password my account uses did not work. It offered a hint, I looked, and it said that the vault was set up automatically, I have to use the mobile app... And I then couldn't find ANY way in the program to enable using the phone again, so essentially I'm totally locked out of the password vault now. The phone, the website, the program main page, I find no way to fix this. Even searching their online help, I find no way to get that back to normal, since the ONLY thing I found online about enabling the phone again to authorize things required you be logged into the vault webpage, which you CAN NOT DO after disabling the phone. They really need a big warning there that the password you have for the account will NOT WORK to unlock the vault. So since the installer creates the vault, you don't set a password, if you do what I did, you're locked out. I finally found a way to delete it at least by entering the wrong password three times so it gives you an option to delete. I did so since I didn't want the six or seven passwords for things I was testing in the vault in case Symantec is ever hacked for this data. I then installed the utilities. No issues, and like the AV, no options during install to only install certain components. Only option is installation directory. Not a lot to do here for people with an SSD, it tells you that the disk defrag and application accelerator won't be usable, which makes sense with an SSD. The cleanup found some temp files in random places, even a few things in the registry. I normally avoid ANYTHING that is the registry clean up snake oil junk, at our business (IT consulting) we get a lot of people who come in with trashed computers after doing things like that. This one, only found legitimate things for me though, so I had no problems letting it clean them up. Utilities also allows a better performance setting than Windows does by default now with 10 and 11. It's usually impossible to get a performance profile anymore in Windows without hacking a bit. This gave me options for how it would free up unused memory and keep the CPU able to throttle up if demand got high. But the anti-tracking ad on the main screen that I couldn't get rid of, the lack of information when you make a change to password vault and get totally locked out, the subscription model for the utilities - these are all things that left me with a negative impression. Unfortunately, more and more software vendors are forcing people to a subscription-based model rather than perpetual licensing that you may go three years without upgrading to a newer version if not needed, like Acronis did most recently. So while I'm not sure the usefulness of the utilities warrants the yearly charge, I can say that I wouldn't hesitate to give the nod to the Norton Antivirus for any users. I had uninstalled ESET for the time being, with the intention to run this, but I'll be reversing that decision. I don't need to see the big button for the ad at the bottom of the main window all the time, I can't remove the ones I don't use such as the unusable password manager now. It's just not at all configurable for the end user, which I find unappealing. There is a "thinner" main program view you can change to, but that doesn't show the VPN and such, and to get at that you have to launch the other view again regardless. So this is coming off and I'll go back to Eset. Maybe the antivirus alone would be a better product, as I have no problems with the antivirus portion.

I’ve been using various flavors of Norton 360 for over a decade and have been using Norton products in general since the early ‘90s. I began with Norton Utilities and Norton Antivirus for DOS and Windows 3.1 and began using Norton Internet Security when it was introduced years later. Just sharing this to point out that after three decades, I’m more than a little familiar with Norton products. I stopped using Norton around the turn of the century and experimented with numerous other AV and Internet security apps before ultimately returning to Norton. I stopped using Norton originally because it simply got too bloated and resource hungry. I returned after Symantec replaced the bloated version with a lean, lightweight, resource friendly version. This current iteration lies somewhere in between. It’s not as lightweight and resource friendly as it was several years ago but it’s not as bloated and laggy as it was around the early 2000’s. Like nearly every other commercial app out there, Norton is now subscription-based with annual renewals. The program requires a product key and a Norton account for activation and use. When activated through the Norton account, it requires a payment method and automatic renewals are enabled by default. Renewals tend to be pricier than simply buying a new retail license, so I usually disable renewal immediately after activating. Norton usually sweetens the pot by offering a few extra months if you keep auto-renewal active. Performance wise, I have never experienced a malware or virus infection while using Norton. The realtime protection is fantastic at detecting and preventing malicious files and apps from running and Norton Insight is helpful for those questionable borderline apps that I’m not familiar with. Other features include no-log VPN and dark web monitoring. The VPN is super easy to use, even for total PC novices. Although most home and ISP routers now typically offer SPI firewall capabilities, Norton provides an excellent first, or second layer of defense in case anything sneaks through. It also provides robust application control, which many hardware firewalls typically don’t offer. Norton security is excellent and provides a good measure of safety but some degree of common sense is still required. Risky behaviors like frequently using P2P to exchange or download files from strangers, visiting dangerous sketchy websites, sharing removable media like flash drives among multiple foreign systems and exhibiting other reckless behavior will likely result in an eventual malware incursion regardless of the security software being used. Norton utilities is useful in some regards but aside from general housekeeping, largely unnecessary. Registry cleaners have always been questionable at best. Most systems don’t need registry cleaning and if any critical registry keys are accidentally removed, it can completely wreck a system and require a full Windows reinstall. File cleanup can be accomplished for free using native windows utilities. High resource startup programs can be manually disabled in task manager. Defrag may be useful on systems still using mechanical drives but again, is a feature available natively in Windows. Modern SSDs don’t require defragging and TRIM, the SSD equivalent, is usually enabled in Windows by default. So, in a nutshell, non-technical users may find some benefit in Norton Utilities but anyone comfortable and savvy enough to use native Windows utilities can accomplish most of the same results without a third-party app. Norton has traditionally been resource friendly with Windows 7, 8 and 10 in the past decade. However, it seems to be a little more resource greedy lately on Windows 11. It caused a noticeable hit to frame rates on my gaming PC. I tried enabling silent mode but it didn’t result in much improvement. I eventually uninstalled Norton since I only game on the PC and don’t even browse the web on it. I also had an issue where Norton kept blocking Teredo for one of my games which prevented me from playing online. Nothing I tried could fix it other than completely uninstalling Norton. Norton Utilities was also unable to help resolve the issue. So far, I’ve been mostly satisfied with Norton 360. The anti-malware and Internet security are both top notch, although a little resource hungry. The Teredo issue was quite annoying and I think I’ll skip the mostly unnecessary utilities on the next go-round. It’s ironic that the very utilities that initially introduced me to Norton three decades ago are basically unnecessary these days thanks to OS advancements and native utilities.

The most positive thing I can say about Norton 360 Standard is that I noticed nothing. That's the hallmark of a good antivirus - unless you specifically interact with it or there are threats found, you don't even notice that it's there. I've never got a notification about "We scanned and found nothing!," and I've never got advertisement notifications. I didn't even notice a performance hit. The VPN was also nice. My browsing speed didn't get worse, and I had no issues accessing things. Again, much like the main Norton 360 suite, I didn't even notice it was there half the time. When I did choose to interact with Norton 360, the interface was pretty easy and simple to use. However, I do think the default "modern" interface was a bit too simple. I am glad they included the "classic" version. I suppose it makes sense as well to have a "simple" view and a separate one for users that really know what they're doing. The advanced view wasn't even infinitely complicated like some software is - all the options were in places that made sense, and I never felt lost while configuring scan schedules or exceptions. Overall, nothing really stood out to me. The software meshed pretty well with my Mac, wasn't disruptive, and did nothing to remind me it was there. That's the way it should be, in my opinion. The only part that was annoying was that the Backup software doesn't seem to work with Mac and appears to be exclusive to Windows. One final thing that was included was the Norton LifeLock software. After attaching various things such as email addresses or Driver's License numbers, the software was able to find various data breaches where my information got leaked. This has been incredibly helpful for tasks such as tracking down and closing old accounts as well as making sure that all of my passwords are secure. I feel like LifeLock was the most immediately useful feature, since Backup doesn't work on Mac. While the antivirus is good to have as a safety measure, I tend to not particularly care about the firewall features since I never download stuff from strange sites and my network has a great firewall of its own. (This doesn't mean I don't feel like it's useless, though - car airbags are kind of useless and invisible too, until you get in a wreck.) The one flaw with Norton 360 is that the installation experience on Mac is very annoying, since it needs a LOT of permissions and restarts and app reboots. However, I believe that's not very avoidable. Overall, I've had a really positive experience with Norton 360. It feels like they've massively improved since the last time I had Norton, back in an era when there were constant pop-ups about clean scans or trying to get me to buy additional products. Norton's advertising seems to stay in my email inbox and has an unsubscribe option, so I think I'm pretty happy with it. As I've said, the best antiviruses are the ones you don't notice until you need them, and Norton 360 seems to fit the bill.

This being my first experience with Norton, I was anxious to see what it provided that similar programs did not. I was pleasantly surprised to see it offered a plethera of utilities; some very useful, some, not so much. The Dark Web Monitoring and Lifelock utilities proved to be very useful. Immediately after installation, it alerted me to a data breach involving one of my online accounts. I immediately changed the password. Thanks Norton! Norton offers full protection for several of your personal accounts, including: credit cards; bank accounts; driver's license, and a few others. Sorry Norton, but I don't trust ANYONE enough to input so much personal information, no matter how good your reputation. I also wasn't crazy about paying for a program that implies that you're receiving Ultimate Utilities with the package, but they force you to pay extra for some of those utilities. Anti-track, computer tune-up and other programs are offered a la carte. I've never been a fan of subscription based software, but it seems like they're here to stay. Norton forces you to agree to automatic annual renewals before you can even install the darn program. Norton 360 Standard does what it's supposed to do; protect your computer and your information. But for me, the overall cost of this program (in dollars and aggravation) didn't make me love this program. I'll stick with what I already have. While it isn't for me, but it might be up your alley.

Norton 360 Standard with Norton Utilities Ultimate is a good combination of security software and general PC utilities that do a good job of doing exactly what they were designed to do. Having some sort of reliable security software is extremely important nowadays given how much of our lives are on our computers and in digital form. Norton has been an industry leader when it comes to providing quality protection for a long time and from what I can tell so far, the 360 Standard edition lives up to the Norton reputation of providing quality protection. When it comes to the additional utilities included as part of this package, although many of them are things that are included with Windows or available for free from other sources, they do work well and it is nice having them easily accessible all in one place. Everything seems to work the way it should without sucking up too much of my computer’s resources which is nice because it wasn’t always this way when it comes to Norton products. In my experience, protection was never a problem with Norton software, but years ago, Norton software really seemed to slow down my systems at times. Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be a problem with this version and I am very happy with everything that is included in this package. In summary, if you are in the market for good security software that comes with some handy additional utilities, you can’t go wrong with Norton 360 Standard with Norton Utilities Ultimate.

Good but computer runs slower. Needs to be explained better.

I am soooo disappointed with this Norton software. I have always used Norton for my virus protection and it was always very good but this edition is not. The virus protection is setup like my old Norton but the features are very unstable. The scans always seem to identify several programs that I use everyday as a danger and constantly tries to remove them or asks if I want them removed. I have marked them exempt from the virus protection but it still clashes. This is so extremely annoying. Now, the Norton utilities are ok I guess. I don't really notice any difference in my PC's performance or speed. It is honestly very annoying because the window pops up all the time and gets in the way of what I am doing. I feel like the utilities are more of a gimmick than an actual help. This is sad cause they could have been useful if done right. And ow the vpn. It is terrible. I mean absolutely terrible. It is constantly disconnecting no matter what setting I have it on. It won't allow for P2P file sharing nor will it allow any third party client to run while the vpn is on. It prevents me from using a bunch of shopping websites and things like that. Overall, I am so so disappointed with this software. I hope that Norton cn improve it in the future.