Internet Security Suite Comparison: Kaspersky vs. Norton – Part 1

Internet Security Suite is commonly known to offer complete PC security tools in protecting your computer, e-mail, browsing, kids (parental control) and your identity against theft, malware and vulnerability risks.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 (KIS 2010) and Norton Internet Security 2010 (NIS 2010) will offer the protection that most security suite end-users would like to have. Let’s find out which of them is better.

Both programs supports Windows 7, Vista and XP systems including popular e-mail clients, Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook, Windows Mail and Thunderbird.

The installer in this review is using the download version from the respective websites. NIS 2010’s installer is using a boot-strap which means, you will initially download a 393KB file called, NISDownloader.exe which is the Norton Download Manager. Executing this file will automatically download the latest application installer of NIS 2010 which is 84.50MB in size. The download manager allows you to pause or continue and can be minimized to the notification area in Windows. The installation will run at once after the download and it only took 2 minutes for NIS 2010 to be installed. A reboot is not required after installing and even after running your first program and definitions update. The only issue that I will note is that the installer is bundled with Search Assistant by Ask.com. This feature is disabled by default when the security community calls it as unwanted and unnecessary addition in security software.

KIS 2010’s installer is only 72.7MB in size. The installer will connect to Kaspersky server to check for new installer version. It also took 2 minutes to finish installing the suite and like NIS 2010, a reboot is not required after installation and first update. What is neat with KIS 2010’s installer is you can customize the installation. Allowing you to choose which features in the product to remove or continue to install. This customized installation is quite useful to end-users who may have another program that they want to keep and use together with KIS 2010 or if they prefer to not to install a feature due to compatibility issue.

The hard-disk space used by NIS 2010 is 64.8MB while KIS 2010 will only use 36MB of HD space. The Windows Defender in Vista will be disabled by NIS 2010 installer but not by KIS 2010. Both programs will report their status to Windows Security Center without issue.

The UI of NIS 2010 and KIS 2010 are both neat and easy to find the items you want to check or configure. However, the settings interface by KIS 2010 is much easier to use than NIS 2010. You don’t have to scroll much on the settings windows of KIS 2010 which is what Symantec have done with NIS 2010.

Both programs will install browser add-ons in Internet Explorer: Kaspersky will install 2 BHO and 2 Browser Extension while NIS 2010 will install 2 BHO and 1 Toolbar. If you will enable the “Norton Safe Search” in Norton Toolbar, you will end up having another browser add-on which is a search provider, Ask.com. This is not automatically removed in the list of search providers if you decide to disable Norton Safe Search. In Firefox, NIS 2010 will install Norton Toolbar and 1 BHO as Intrusion Prevention add-on while KIS 2010 will only install 1 add-on in Firefox – Kaspersky URL Advisor.