Norton AntiVirus 2002 is the latest incarnation of Symantec's best-selling anti-virus package for all flavours of Windows. This latest update represents an evolutionary change rather than a radical overhaul, consolidating the core functionality, improving the look and feel and adding to usability, without bringing anything fundamentally new to the mix.

For users of previous versions of the package it is necessary to uninstall first, but then the new version seems to pick up on many of the existing settings. Installation is a breeze - which was heartening given some of the glitches reported with NAV 2000. For anyone who has previously registered a Symantec product the ability to pick up on the previous registration details (name, address and so on), makes the process even more fluid than normal and is a nice touch.

As part of the installation process the program logs on to the Symantec Web site in order to download both software patches and hot-fixes and the latest virus signatures, thus ensuring that the package is fully up-to-date from the word go. Given the rate at which viruses mutate and multiply this is definitely the right policy to adopt.

It is also advisable to check the configuration of any security-related package, and anti-virus protection is one of the key components of PC security. Given that this package includes the ability to scan incoming and outgoing emails, making sure that you have the maximum protection is important.

Once installation is complete (and you've verified that you are happy with the settings), it is a good idea to reboot and then run a full system scan - this isn't done automatically but it's worth doing, if only to familiarise yourself with the program in action.

The user interface for this release is pleasantly clean and uncluttered, with easy access to all of the configuration settings and reporting functions. In operation the package is very unobtrusive; an icon in the task bar is what you'll see most of the time. If you select the background updates option then occasionally you'll see a pop-up window informing you that there has been an update to the virus signatures or software while you were online. If you don't want this then the alternative is a pop-up prompt every couple of weeks informing you that you need to run 'LiveUpdate' to bring the package back up to date. Having used both methods we have to say that the background update works extremely well and is our preferred option.

There is one thing about the user interface that could be improved. Running a full system scan no longer gives you a progress bar. It's slightly annoying not to know how far a scan has got to go when checking a machine with tens of gigabytes of data. On the other hand the previous version had developed the irritating habit of bombing out of a scan without warning, and this new release has had no such problem.

Aside from a few minor quibbles, Norton AntiVirus 2002 is easy to install and configure, works diligently in the background and ensures that it is kept up-to-date and ready to deal with the whatever the virus-writers are releasing into the wild. For the ease of update alone, it's recommended.