Norton AntiVirus for Windows 95
                         Reviewed by Doug Reed

    Anyone who spends a lot of time on the 'Net knows the importance of
having a good antivirus program. If you regularly access the Internet
and download files, you are extreme risk of being infected. When
Microsoft released their new OS, Windows 95, they did not include an
antivirus program, an odd omission considering that an antivirus utility
was part of MS-DOS 6. The problem is that the old 16-bit antivirus
software won't work under Windows 95 while even old viruses will find
that Windows 95 is an even friendlier environment than MS-DOS or Windows
3.1.  However, Norton, a long time leader in the field of utility
software, has released a new version of their popular antivirus software
for Windows 95.
    Anyone familiar with previous versions of Norton AntiVirus will find
nothing new in the installation, appearance, or usage of AntiVirus.
AntiVirus comes with the ability to detect 3000+ already known viruses,
and can be upgraded with monthly with updates that can be obtained from
Symantec either on major BBSes, America Online, or at the Symantec web
site (see below for address). In addition, AntiVirus can detect new
viruses by monitoring your system for suspicious activity. The
Auto-Protect portion of AntiVirus checks programs for viruses when you
run, open, or create them. AntiVirus can even scan compressed files
before you expand them and infect your system. AntiVirus can also be
configured as far as what to scan and monitor, as well as how to respond
to a virus once detected. The program can notify you, repair
automatically, or even shutdown the computer should such a drastic
measure be necessary. A rescue disk created by AntiVirus will restore
your system and eliminate the offending virus.
    When installed, AntiVirus configures itself to your system. An icon
is added to the right side of the task bar. Clicking on it will bring up
a window allowing you to enable or disable the Auto-Protect portion of
AntiVirus. AntiVirus can be further configured by opening the AntiVirus
main window and selecting Options. This enables you to set when, where,
and how AntiVirus does its stuff. If you have only 8 megs of RAM,
running Auto-Protect will slow your system but is worth the tradeoff if
you are connected to a network or the Internet.
    AntiVirus can also be configured to work over a network. Once
workstations have AntiVirus installed, they can be configured by the
Network Administrator and updated automatically. To protect against
virus infection, AntiVirus can also 'inoculate' files (configurable by
the user) which saves a fingerprint of the file for later comparison
during scans by AntiVirus. This enables easier detection of unknown
viruses. AntiVirus can also be configured by the user to exclude from
scans programs which act like viruses (such as writing to the boot
record of a disk).
    I found that Norton AntiVirus lives up to its word. It is easy to
install and runs undetectably in the background (with 16 megs of RAM).
Configuring the program to my needs was easily accomplished and did not
require extensive reading of the manual to understand how to do things.
I haven't run across a virus (YET!), but I now consider myself to be
well protected. By the way, AntiVirus is certified by the National
Computer Security Agency, a vendor-independent anti-virus laboratory, as
being able to detect and eliminate more viruses than any other antivirus
program currently on the market. If you have Windows 95, I have two
words for you: Buy AntiVirus.
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                          Symantec Corporation
                            10201 Torre Ave.
                          Cupertino, CA 95014
                             (800) 441-7234
                             (503) 334-6054
                        http://www.symantec.com
                        CompuServe: GO SYMANTEC
 
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