I guess I should post a warning here concerning Norton Symantec products. I don't recommend anyone installing or using Norton Symantec products (unless you know what you're doing). It's not so much of speed issue that concerns me, but:
1. Norton/Symantec software conflicts with any other software that is similiar to the one being installed. ie. If you install Norton AV (any) it will conflict with other AV softwares. If you install Norton Firewall (any) it will conflict with other firewalls. Etcetera. The conflict may crash or hang the applications involved and/or computer, in addition to possible data corruptions, or other effect such as damage to the softwares, in which case: un-installation and re-installation of the softwares are unavoidable.
*I've run into this with thousands of computers, and inevitably made recommendations to several companies to completely remove all Symantec products from their computers (eg. Realty Groups, Military Academies, etc.), And Voila!! No more problems, and some problems miraculously disappeared.
2. Norton Symantec softwares are known to damage Microsoft products, such as the Microsoft Windows Operating System (all) and Microsoft Office (all). By damage, I mean permanent non-function without a clean install of the damaged OS and/or softwares.
*If you're lucky you might be able to boot into safe mode, or were smart enough to make a complete backup of your entire hard drive and lucky enough to completely restore the computer, with a backup before installing the Norton Symantec product (extremely rare case, since the average person isn't even aware that a backup utility comes with the OS and they don't even use it). Additionally, the backup can be split and burned to a CDR or DVDR which would save an even greater amount of time from re-upgrading/updating clean installs.
*I was trying to locate the Microsoft Knowledgebase to no avail for some reason (I read it a few years ago). Anyways, in the knowledge base, Microsoft offers a patch for computers that used Windows XP and Office 2003, that end-users were going to install any Symantec product onto. The Microsoft patch was meant as a possible protection against some damage the Symantec products may cause to the OS and Office. In addition, there was a disclaimer that Microsoft does not gaurantee that even with the patch, the OS and other applications would be damage free, and that use of Symantec products was at your own risk. *I'll keep trying to locate that knowledge base article number, so I can post it, if it hasn't been deleted or moved.
--------------------------------------------------
Anyways, I first noticed Symantec software products doing damage to computers when Norton AV 5.0 came out (yeah that long ago). Doing a comparison between 4.0 and 5.0 the only difference was the Symantec Live Update module and I verified that damages only occured after the first use of the Symantec Live Update. Norton AV is fine so long as you don't use the Symantec Live Update. Only downside, you can't update the virus definitions.
I've even tested various versions of (Norton) System Works, Firewall, Fax Works, etc. All with the same result: damages occured upon first use of the Symantec Live Update regardless of which software was tested. The majority of the cases had damaged OSs that couldn't be repaired. Hard disk format and clean OS install was only option, except for a few that I made a complete hard disk backup of (a complete hard disk restore worked - only if I was able to boot up to safe or normal mode).
As for software conflict tests, I loaded up a few dozen fire walls Tiny Personal Firewall, Black Ice, Zone Alarm, etc. and they all worked fine together on a single system with no conflicts or problems. As soon as Norton Firewall is installed, the system crashes and some of the firewalls including Norton are damaged. Symantec Live Update was not used - hypothesis of why the OS wasn't noticeably damaged. I did a complete system restore anyways -- I wasn't going to chance miss reviewing a non-visible/non-presented damage that might crop up later.
Norton Firewall is fine so long as you do not use the Symantec Live Update or have any other firewalls installed. The downside is you are stuck with only one firewall that might not be completely reliable and has a potential possibility of conflicting with other softwares. Norton Firewall may conflict with Windows XP firewall, but is gauranteed to conflict with all other firewalls.
Norton Registry Doctor also conflicts with other Registry Fixing softwares. Some occurences included hanging and freezing by Norton Registry Doctor after fixes were done by another software such as Fix-It (Ontrack/VCom, etc.). In other instances, damaged data and corrupted data occured when Norton Registry Doctor and another Registry Fixing software are installed on the same system without doing anything other than running it for the first time.
On most of the newer Norton Symantec products, damage is unavoidable as the Symantec Live Update is automatically run after the product is installed and can't be avoided. Alright that's enough examples of these products.
--------------------------------------------------
On the light side, I do like Symantec products because they have given me alot of work and I made alot of money from computers damaged by their products. I can't complain about that.
I don't like the damages and conflicts they have caused on my computer though, which ate up my time and resources. Above all, they're a perfect gift for someone you hate.