Norton woke-up in 2009/10 making the interface user-friendly and its signature updates running in the background making the software less resource-hogging. It's continuing the same trend this year (NIS2012) with a little less cluttered interface - meaning most features automated for the novice user, but you have to dig in deep to make advanced changes. It works well with Windows7 as well as Win XP if you care (I don't have Vista - so cannot comment about that).

1. Installation: As in the recent versions of NIS, installation was a snap. It took under 2 minutes, but needed a restart. If you have existing license for NIS, download the update from support -> check for new version menu item from within NIS. You can update the license number from the disk later when your license is about to expire. In previous version(s), NIS overwrote existing license period if you upgraded from disk. I havent checked it on this version (I still have about 90 days left, too risky!!).

2. Interface: The main interface is less cluttered, but a new addition is a big status window (floating gadget) on the upper right corner of your screen with large buttons for different menus. Most buttons on these menus are for other Norton products unrelated to NIS (annoying). For example button for on-line back-up (costs extra!) or mobile protection for android (free), parental control (free) etc. I havent found an easy way to get rid of this yet! (Alright! It's easy. There is a close button next to it and if you close it, it does not reappear after a restart).

3. Setting up: Most of the settings are done by default and should be fine for the average user. For example how often to scan your computer, what time of the day, which files to allow to connect to the internet etc. If you need advanced settings, most of those are just a couple of clicks away and mostly easy to find. There are some menu items that could have been done better. If you had existing trusted network information from previous NIS, those are retained which is good.

4. Security: As in previous versions, NIS was good at detecting most of the commonly bothering cookies and adware. Everytime you download a file, it is checked for viruses and if it is from a trusted website and there is a pop-up saying it is clean. Similarly, like previous versions, Norton safe search marks results from google searches as safe or not. you can check website security by looking for norton trusted symbol e.g. bank sites or amazon.com - that way you wont enter your password in a phising site.

5. What's new? Like mentioned above the annoying floating gadget is new. The primary interface is less cluttered but at the same time advanced settings are easily accessible from different menus. The new version does appear to be a little faster than 2011. might be significant on older systems.

Overall, very good protection with minimal resource usage.