That's actually a good question. I was giving support over the phone, I asked her to check the NIS control panel but the version wasn't obvious there, nor in Add/Remove Programs (just showed NIS, without a year).

So, the only answer I can give is "the version Best Buy had in mid-August, 2008".

I also heard that the 2009 version has been rewritten (FWIW). To even consider it I'd be letting other people run it for at least a year, first. But more important to me, is the overall attitude of the product:

- both Symantec and McAfee are "in your face" suites. Their philosophy is, the primary purpose of your computer is to be secure, and only after they're sure you're secure can you do the secondary tasks such as Office, VFP etc. They use this philosophy to justify being invasive and resource hogs.

- other products strive to be as unobtrusive as possible, minimizing resource usage and interaction with the rest of the system. Their philosophy is to let you do your work, and only intervene if absolutely necessary.

So, even if Symantec 2009 is an improved product, if it still has Philosophy #1 I won't be interested.

>Just curious, what version of Norton Internet Security?
>
>I tend to have the same opinion on this issue, after coming very close to having to wipe the hard drive on my laptop two or three years ago due to a failed update of Norton SystemWorks. After several years of swearing by (not at) Norton products all the way back to the DOS days, I did not change my opinion casually, but that experience did it for me. In any case, the 2009 version of Norton Internet Security is supposed to be faster and more lightweight. I'm considering it for a new Vista laptop, but I don't know if it's any less intrusive than earlier versions.
>
>
>>I just had yet another instance of a Symantec/Norton antivirus product (in this case, Norton Internet Security) causing major problems with a client. She lives in Outlook 2007 on Vista:
>>
>>- she lost the Reading (Preview) Pane completely
>>- when we turned it back on, it was empty and would not display the currently selected message
>>- all incoming and outgoing mail was stuck/hung
>>
>>Multiple Outlook restarts, Office Diagnostics, and complete machine restarts had no effect. PST file size was "relatively" small, only 550MB.
>>
>>Uninstalling NIS and running the Norton Removal Tool fixed all problems immediately.
>>
>>So, as a reward for explicitly buying NIS and getting Best Buy to put it on her new computer a few months ago:
>>
>>- she lost almost 4 hours of her time
>>- she has to pay for 45 minutes of my time to figure out what the problem was
>>
>>She's now using AVG Antivirus (the paid version at http://www.avg.com/home-and-office-security). The "Plus Firewall" version is not necessary on machines running XP SP2 or later, which already have an adequate firewall. I have a number of clients running this product, with excellent success.
>>
>>For small office networks, I've had good success with the Trend Micro suites.
>>
>>Symantec/Norton antivirus products continue to receive my maximum de-recommendation/condemnation. Fundamentally, you pay good money for a protection suite in order to make your life easier. Symantec's products fail miserably.
>>
>>I haven't had any recent experience with McAfee, but a couple of years ago I set up some brand new Dell laptops with McAfee trialware preinstalled. Trying to uninstall that crapware BSODed all the machines; I later found out from Dell tech support that that product could only be uninstalled via a safe mode start. That's the angriest I can ever recall being about a piece of software, and at the time I swore I'd never consider McAfee again.