The Norton brand is probably the most synonymous brand when it comes to virus protection for computers. The Norton Antivirus antivirus software has been in existence since 1990, and since then a growing number of people have come to rely on the Norton name in protecting their computers from virus attacks. In fact, Norton Antivirus is considered as the most widely used antivirus software on the planet.

Over the years, Norton Antivirus constantly underwent several iterations (or generations) as a way of trying to improve on its ability to detect a growing number of viruses that are being spread into the wild. Additionally, each generation or iteration of the software incorporated certain new features and services as a way of making it more effective in its task of detecting and eliminating (or quarantining) viruses as well as turn it into a more robust application. For example, in recent years, Norton Antivirus also began to incorporate the detection not only of viruses but also of Trojan horses, spyware and worms as a direct answer to the growing proliferation of these potentially harmful pieces of code.

With the release of Norton Antivirus 2007, users should expect to see another set of new features that will make the Norton Antivirus still the top of mind when it comes to virus protection.

One of the biggest changes of the 2007 version over the previous 2006 version is the decision of the Norton Antivirus team to rewrite most of the code for the application. What came out is a faster and lighter version of the antivirus software. Rewriting the code also meant that the interface was streamlined as well. Unlike the previous version where each task appears on a separate desktop window, the 2007 version wisely used tabs inside just one window, which makes it so much easier to manage.

Under the hood, Norton Antivirus also benefitted from the code rewrite. There is now an ability for the user to control the scanning engines so that the user can decide whether to use the full system scan or the quick scan to run in the background. Additionally, the virus scan and the spyware scan now run simultaneously, which drastically cuts down on scan time.

Norton Antivirus 2007 also incorporated much of the functionalities of the discontinued Norton Personal Firewall. What this means is that the application can now also double as a software firewall. This feature is not heavily advertised by the company though so in order to use this feature one must dig deep into the settings in order to activate this particular functionality.

A very important feature of the new version of the Antivirus software is the incorporation of enterprise level anti rootkit functions. This powerful level of protection against rootkits is well worth the price of the software what with the growing prevalence of rootkit based attacks on computers.

Unfortunately, the Norton Antivirus team was not able to incorporate an antiphishing function in this generation of the software. This functionality could have been useful especially since phishing scams and practices are increasing on the internet. This omission stops Norton Antivirus from actually being the best all around antivirus software in the market. But even without this feature, Norton Antivirus 2007 is still arguably the best antivirus protection one can get.