So I have read great things about Norton 360 and thought I’d give it a try, so I downloaded it and giving the 15 day trial a run. So far it’s hit and miss for a tweak junkie. There are no install options, it just installs, I remember the previous version of Norton System Works kind of “hid” the options on install and if you clicked too quickly you got it all. This time, as far as I can tell, there is no hidden “options” and when you do a change in “Add/Remove” it asks to completely uninstall. I hate this because I don’t necessarily like all of it installed or at least I want to see what is being installed.

The nice thing is on reboot, the ccSvcHst.exe was running at around 20kb, a big improvement over previous Symantec products, even Corporate AV which was at 77kb. This was at least some great news.

I began the configuration.  I first began with the backup/restore using default options, chose a network drive and it failed. Apparently the Norton Firewall disabled all access to my network drives. I disabled the firewall to test out the backup. Ran the default settings and it didn’t grab anything in “My Documents”. I have all my data on a separate drive so that if I rebuild, I lose nothing that I would cry about.   So changing the location of your “My Documents” doesn’t seem to matter to the Backup/Restore program and it ignores the location. I added folders manually but I’d assume that it would at least grab your special folders such as “My Documents”, “My Images” but no such luck on either.
Configuration is a bit confusing to change options and I loved how defrag worked but not sure how to update settings. Again, this is day one. As I play with 360 more over the trial period I’ll update my findings.  This is a blog entry so it’s posting discoveries as I go for the program.
Additionally if you want to add Anti-Spam (actually one of my favorite Norton products in the past), you have to download an Add-On pack that contains Anti-Spam and Parental Controls. But it worked like a charm once it was downloaded and installed.  It’s also a pain in the ass to find it on the site but when I do find it again, I’ll throw it in my next entry.
We’ll see how this journey continues.

Also, if you are looking to buy Norton 360, I found a Yahoo promotion here for $49 and it expires on 6/14. Good deal considering it’s $69 everywhere else and will apparently go up to $79 for all promotions soon. This also protects 3 machines for one year. Not tried the multiple PCs yet but I believe you need to download it directly to that PC for it to be protected based on some reviews at Amazon.

If you’re looking for a box version, Amazon does have it for $56 and some change.