Tackling climate change is a team sport, and we all have to be in it together if we want to win. So, not only should we hold companies to high standards as far as mitigating their environmental impact, we should also laud them when they make positive steps in the right direction. With almost 190 million laptops expected to ship throughout 2024, laptop manufacturers are some of the companies we should be forcing to do better — and fortunately, many of them already are. From using recycled cardboard for packaging and ocean-bound plastic in laptops themselves, to relying on renewable energy on company property and closed-loop industrial practices. Here’s what the top laptop manufacturers are doing to go green and help save the world. Dell Dell has been a household name in laptops for decades, having become one of the top five manufacturers by market share since the late 90s. The company expanded over time and acquired brands (like the gaming-focused Alienware), while also supplying some of the most iconic product lines in the industry (like its XPS line of premium laptops). As with many modernizing brands, Dell has taken on several eco-driven initiatives that help reduce its carbon footprint: the reduction of non-recycled and non-recyclable materials in laptop construction; improving the repairability of its devices; and making it easier to recycle its products once they’ve reached the ends of their lives. Dell continues to drive up the repairability of its devices, in an effort to extend their lifespans and reduce transport and manufacturing costs for new devices.Dell Dell incorporates several different sources for its recycled materials, too. Some of its laptops use plastics recycled from post-consumer devices, while others utilize recycled ocean-bound plastic, while still others use recycled steel, magnesium, and cobalt. Recycled materials don’t just reduce their impact on landfills and ocean-dumping, but cut down on the carbon output that goes into producing those materials (since metals and plastics don’t need to be harvested and refined to the same extent). Dell makes it easy to recycle your laptop as an individual and for businesses to do the same. It’s an incentivized scheme, too, which ensures destruction of sensitive company data and leads to money back on future purchases. Overall, it helps cut down on laptop e-waste. In the company’s sustainability brochure (PDF), Dell promises that “100 percent of [their] packaging and more than 50 percent of [their] product content will be made from recycled or renewable materials” by 2030. Lenovo By sheer volume of PCs and laptops sold, Lenovo has been the biggest computer manufacturer in the world for over a decade — so any eco-friendly initiatives by this company will not only have a huge impact, but could also encourage its competition to do the same. Like its contemporaries, Lenovo is utilizing more and more recycled materials in its laptop designs, including ocean-bound plastic, closed-loop post-consumer plastics, and recycled metals. Its goals aren’t quite as ambitious as Dell’s, but in Lenovo’s 2024 Sustainability Report (PDF), it has pledged to have 100% of its products contain some post-consumer recycled materials by 2025. It claims around 14.6 million net pounds of plastics containing recycled content were used in 2023. Lenovo continues to expand its renewable energy initiatives at its facilities to reduce its energy-based carbon footprint.Lenovo Lenovo also offers a “reduced carbon transport” service to business customers. They can also pay for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) credits, which helps offset the CO2 output by transporting the laptops and other devices to the customer. While that does rely on customers paying for the reduced carbon transport option, Lenovo is investing in that itself, too. As part of its net-zero-by-2050 commitment, Lenovo is utilizing more rail and sea freight as lower-carbon shipping options, as well as pushing for the use of SAF in Europe and South America. It also has targets to reduce transport costs in its repairs, with a pledge that by 2026 over 84 percent of all repairs of Lenovo products will take place at a repair shop, without the need to ship it to a service center. HP HP has one of the most ambitious green goals for its business, aiming to achieve net-zero emissions throughout its entire value chain by 2040 — that’s a good 10 years ahead of most of its competitors. In its 2023 sustainability report (PDF), HP claimed to have already reached a 27 percent reduction since 2019, with over 184,000 tons of CO2-equivalent emissions avoided in 2023 alone through its partnerships and energy efficiency programs. HP’s upper-tier laptops still feel luxuriously premium even as they rely on increasingly more recycled materials, proving that greener production can still be great.tech kiga / Unsplash The company is also innovating on its products, making them smaller and leaner with less wasted materials, all while using more and more recycled materials in their construction. Its newest print cartridges are 30 percent smaller while also using 35 percent recycled content. Some of its laptops, like the EliteBook 1040, are made from over 90 percent recycled magnesium and have 50 percent recycled plastics in its keycaps. Since 2019, HP claims to have used over a billion pounds of recycled plastics in its devices. Pretty impressive, if you ask me. HP’s certified refurbished systems provide cheaper and more environmentally friendly pathways for companies looking to upgrade their computer systems, too. The HP Device Life Extension program (PDF) offers corporations the option to have their devices cleaned and updated with newer and faster components, extending the life of existing hardware and reducing the need to buy entirely new systems. HP is also working to eliminate single-use plastics in its packaging, having reached a 62 percent reduction between 2018 and 2023, on track to reach 75 percent by 2025. That should coincide with a complete removal of all landfill waste solutions for HP operations that same year. Asus Asus offers tons of in-depth data on its carbon footprint reduction initiatives, so if you want to really dig into the numbers on what it’s done and what it’s doing, there’s loads to chew on. Want to see an exact breakdown of its CO2 emissions? It’s here. A breakdown of how it audits the recycling companies it uses for end-of-life devices? That’s here. As for its more digestible data points, Asus claims that over 11,600 tons of CO2 have been reduced by its use of recycled materials in its products since 2017. This includes ocean-bound plastics, post-consumer plastics, and post-industrial recycled magnesium and aluminum. Asus is pushing for more recyclable materials in its packaging and a greater recycling rate for all of its products, plus more responsibly sourced materials in general.Joachim Pressl / Unsplash The company has also managed to use 90 percent recyclable materials in its laptop packaging, while also prioritizing lighter packaging to help cut back on transport costs and fuel usage. Some of Asus’ goals for 2025 include: reaching 100 percent recyclable materials in its laptop packaging; reaching a 20 percent recycling rate for all Asus products; and expanding its use of responsibly sourced materials like cobalt to 100 percent. By 2030, Asus also plans to reduce company-wide global carbon emissions by 50 percent and reach 100 percent renewable energy usage in all Taiwan-based operations. Apple Apple stands among these companies taking aggressive action to reduce their carbon footprints. In its 2024 sustainability report (PDF), Apple claims a 55 percent reduction in overall emissions since 2015, and that doesn’t include carbon credits either. It’s all part of Apple’s ongoing drive to reduce the company’s global emissions to carbon neutrality by 2030 — by far the most ambitious of all emissions goals on this list. On the road to that lofty goal, Apple has: reduced emissions from transporting its products by 20 percent since 2022; cut back the energy use of its product ranges by as much as 70 percent since 2008; and increased its stock of refurbished devices to nearly 13 million globally. In 2023, Apple increased the quantity of recycled materials in its products, now using 100 percent recycled cobalt in the Apple Watch and iPhone batteries, as well as 25 percent recycled gold across all product lines. It also now uses 100 percent recycled aluminum in the chassis of its Mac, MacBook, and iPad lines. Apple helped pioneer the elaborate unboxing experience, and now it’s helping to drive out plastic with a 100 percent fiber-based Apple Watch packaging design.Apple By 2025, Apple will have 100 percent fiber-based packaging for all of its products, and the company will continue increasing the quantities of recycled metals and minerals in its various lines. Apple is also driving environmental changes up the chain, too. For example, Apple has secured over 320 suppliers who have committed to sourcing their electricity from renewable sources. Although Apple doesn’t expect to eliminate emissions entirely from its production and transportation lines, it will use carbon offsets to get the last leg of the way towards making Apple a carbon-neutral company by the end of the decade. Acer Acer has set its sights on 2050 to make its entire business carbon-neutral, innovating within and encouraging suppliers to join in on its ambitious climate goals. In Acer’s 2023 sustainability report (PDF), the company highlights several key achievements along this road so far, with plans to expand its initiatives as we head into 2025. So far, Acer has managed to reach a 48 percent usage of renewable electricity throughout its business, with a goal to reach 60 percent in 2025 and 100 percent by 2035. It has also managed to get 76 percent of its suppliers to agree to a similar goal, with ongoing efforts to get that number up to 80 percent of critical supplies in 2025. Acer is still playing catch-up to the other major laptop manufacturers when it comes to carbon neutrality, but it’s making steady progress.Raphael Brasileiro / Unsplash Acer is slowly introducing more and more recycled materials into its products, too. Its 2024 Aspire Vero 16 used 60 percent recycled plastics, representing a doubling since the 2021 model. The kinds of innovations that make this possible are set to be introduced in other Acer product lines going forward as well, with a goal to reach 30 percent post-consumer recycled plastics in all Acer products by 2025. As much as 90 percent of Acer’s packaging is now made from recycled pulp, which is itself entirely recyclable, but the company hasn’t quite eliminated the use of plastic in all packaging yet. Acer also continues to expand its device recycling operations, with over 61,000 tons of e-waste recycled between 2018 and 2022. A greener future for laptops Some companies are certainly working harder than others in their efforts to reduce their impact on the global environment, with Apple and HP apparently the most aggressive in their goals so far. There’s plenty of room for those other companies to catch up, though. Ultimately, fighting climate change is a goal that the entire world needs to work towards together. To that end, it’s always nice to see giant megacorporations doing something even if they could be doing more. Read...

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At a GlanceExpert`s Rating ProsStrong antivirus protectionWide protection against major online threatsSimple, straightforward featuresConsPerformance impact on some PCsUser interface would benefit from consolidationUpselling of additional servicesOur VerdictIts interface is a bit unruly, but overall Norton 360 Deluxe offers strong antivirus protection and an excellent spread of protective features that include a password manager, VPN access, automated cloud backups, and Dark Web Monitoring. PCs with modest hardware can experience a performance hit during scans, however—something to consider if you often work heavily with new or altered files. Of Norton’s offerings, the Norton 360 Deluxe plan hits an ideal sweet spot of wide protection and affordable pricing. It’s an excellent all-in-one solution for those who would otherwise be more lax about security if they had to maintain each piece separately. For example, if you’re more likely to use a password manager if it’s part of same user interface as your antivirus, then all the better. Not much is outwardly different still since we last reviewed Norton 360 Deluxe, though the company continues to work on and evolve its back end. Arguably, that’s the more important focus, especially as AI enables bad actors to be more sophisticated with malicious behavior. What has changed is other rival antivirus companies joined with Norton under a single owner. Parent company Gen Digital now owns Avast, AVG, and Avira in addition to Norton, and during a press briefing, Gen shared plans to power all its antivirus software with a single engine and focus more on the features offered by each of its brands. That’s welcome news, because Norton 360 Deluxe’s main Achilles heel isn’t its performance, but rather, how it presents its features to users. And that’s a drag on an otherwise excellent product. Further reading: See our roundup of the best antivirus software for Windows PCs to learn about competing products. What does Norton 360 Deluxe include? Norton groups its many plans under two main umbrellas: Antivirus and All-in-One, with notable overlap in features. Though access to more online protections is always good, keeping the options straight can get a little overwhelming.  Norton 360 Deluxe offers a wide range of features for its price. Norton 360 Deluxe offers a wide range of features for its price.PCWorld Norton 360 Deluxe offers a wide range of features for its price.PCWorld PCWorld Norton 360 Deluxe stands out among the bunch as an all-in-one plan that protects against major online threats, without extras you may not need, like identity theft assistance. Protections against online threats includes antivirus, malware, and ransomware detection, a built-in firewall, malicious link and attachment screening, dark web and privacy monitoring, and webcam safeguards. You also get 50GB of storage for cloud backups, access to Norton’s password manager and VPN, parental controls, and PC utilities that include the ability to monitor for outdated software. Some features, like the privacy monitoring, can be upgraded to include help with scrubbing you from data broker sites. And Norton lets you know it, too. Despite already having paid for a plan, you won’t be immune from upsells of additional subscription services. How much does Norton 360 Deluxe cost? When purchased through Norton directly, the Norton 360 Deluxe plan costs $50 for the first year, and then reverts to a higher full price of $120 afterward. Plans come with a 60-day money-back guarantee. Be aware that Norton automatically enrolls you into auto-renewal at sign-up. Norton 360 Deluxe (5-devices) $50 for the first year $120 per year thereafter You can use Norton 360 Deluxe as an individual or family plan—Norton only limits use by number of devices, which you can spread across Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS as you choose. Compared to rivals, Norton doesn’t favor number of devices over features (or visa versa). Instead, you get a good balance between the two on this mid-tier all-in-one plan. If you really need more devices, you can upgrade to Norton 360 Premium, which isn’t widely advertised on the website. Costing only a little bit more ($55 for the first year and $140 for every year thereafter), it doubles the number of protected devices to 10 and cloud storage to 100GB. You can buy a license for Norton 360 Deluxe through online retailers. You can buy a license for Norton 360 Deluxe through online retailers.PCWorld You can buy a license for Norton 360 Deluxe through online retailers.PCWorld PCWorld As with other antivirus suites, you can save further on Norton 360 Deluxe (and Premium) through third-party retailers, including PCWorld’s own digital store, Amazon, and Newegg. These plans vary more in number of devices and length of subscription, which can help you get a better deal for your situation. That’s especially so during major deal periods like Black Friday—just this past year, we saw a one-year subscription drop to just $20 for Deluxe, and $25 for Premium. Key features of Norton 360 Deluxe Installation and user interface To get Norton 360 Deluxe on your PC, first purchase a subscription and then download the installation file. When that’s complete, you’ll first see the My Norton interface—which is only one of the two you’ll interact with. It has a modern, streamlined look, and Norton 360 Deluxe’s major features can be accessed through it—scans, updates for the program, the VPN, the password manager, dark web and privacy monitoring reports, cloud backup, and parental controls. You can also jump straight to the secure browser and software updater, as well as settings, notifications, and help files. In a nice touch, your subscription status (that is, days remaining) is listed in the upper-left corner. For the most part, this view is simple and clear, but it does have some quirks. One is the lack of a back button while navigating through submenus (like in settings). Another is the limited settings. Norton 360 Deluxe’s interface has two different views, and you have to bounce between both to get access to all features. To access deeper settings, you’ll need to switch to the Classic view. It lets you customize the behavior of antivirus scans, the firewall, backups, and protections for email, apps, and your webcam. You can also tweak administrative settings for the Norton app, like if remote management or silent mode is enabled.  You can hop over to Classic view by choosing Device Security > Open in the My Norton view. This interface has a more dated vibe, with four tiles that let you access features (Security, Internet Security, Backup, and Performance). Tap on any of them, and the full options reveal themselves in the middle of the screen. A fifth tile is dedicated to switching back to the My Norton view. Several features can only be accessed through the Classic view, like webcam protection settings and the password generator. The Password Generator tool is only available through the Classic view. The Password Generator tool is only available through the Classic view.PCWorld The Password Generator tool is only available through the Classic view.PCWorld PCWorld With this dual interface setup, your best bet to not get too lost is to click around and get familiar with each layout. One tip for data nerds: You can look at reports about your usage and scan outcomes over time. As for notifications—Norton does err on the side of more pop-up notifications about status changes and activity, but you can turn them off pretty easily. That’s unfortunately not the case for the app’s promotion of additional paid services. Virus, malware, and threat protection Real-time protection Norton 360 Deluxe protects your PC from real-time threats in several different ways. It scans new or altered files that you’ve added, opened, or downloaded; controls access to files and folders that could be targeted by ransomware; and monitors apps for unusual activity. USB drives are also scanned by default as well, as are network drives and scripts in Microsoft and Adobe documents. Norton 360 Deluxe also strips away scripts when downloading documents. And email on your PC is checked for sketchy links and malicious attachments, both incoming and outgoing. When you’re on the web, 360 Deluxe will check websites to see if they’re secure and if they’ve been compromised—but only if you have the Norton Safe Web extension installed. Norton 360 Deluxe also limits access to your webcam (“SafeCam”). Scheduled and manual scans Norton 360 Deluxe’s default schedule is a monthly full scan—but you can change its frequency with surprising precision. (Want to run it every 15 hours? Not a problem.) You can also set a schedule for the other default scan types: Quick Scan, Drive Scan, Folder Scan, and File Scan, or create your own custom scan to add to the list. Advanced users may find the settings for each scan limited. The full scan, for example, only lets you choose to scan within compressed files, remove infected folders automatically, scan network drives, and delete low risk and tracking cookie files. The other default scans have even fewer settings, and there’s no option to run a complete, exhaustive deep scan. It saves on system resources—and won’t hit your PC as hard, if you don’t change your file collection much after the software does an initial pass of all your files—but if you like to manually run thorough scans, you’ll be disappointed. Norton 360 Deluxe offers broad, fairly comprehensive protection, but there are extras that don’t really serve much use, too. You can edit the settings for scans to change their location and how often they happen. You can edit the settings for scans to change their location and how often they happen.PCWorld You can edit the settings for scans to change their location and how often they happen.PCWorld PCWorld Additional features Browser extensions For comprehensive protection, Norton provides several browser extensions to improve online safety. The ones related to web safety are Norton Home Page (which changes your default to Norton’s rendition of a start page), Norton Safe Search (which changes your default to Norton’s search engine), and Norton Safe Web (which scans links and adds a green or red badge to let you know if they’re safe or not to visit). Not all of these are universally helpful, though—most people who already have a preferred home page and search engine will only find value in Norton Safe Web. And weirdly, installing only Norton Safe Web is circuitous on Chrome. I could only get it onto my test PC by going through the Norton 360 Deluxe app, which forces you to first install Norton Home Page and Norton Safe Search. The Norton Safe Web browser extension screens links in search results. The Norton Safe Web browser extension screens links in search results.PCWorld The Norton Safe Web browser extension screens links in search results.PCWorld PCWorld Fortunately, since I went through all that, you can use this direct link for Norton Safe Web to the Chrome Web Store. Why the extension doesn’t turn up when running a search for it isn’t clear. Separately, you can install Norton Password Manager, as well as Norton Family (which monitors web browsing habits). The password manager is the most polished (and in my opinion, useful) of all available extensions. At most, you’ll really only want to use Norton Password Manager, Norton Safe Web, and possibly Norton Family. Cloud backup To have Norton back up your most important files, you’ll need to first set up this feature within the app. If you accept the default settings, cloud backups will upload everything except video and email files in your Windows document folders (i.e., Pictures, Documents, Music, etc). You can change the file types, as well as add or exclude files and folders. You can create different backup rules (called a “Backup Set”), but can only save to one location per backup set. Speaking of save location—this feature really only seems to be for cloud backups. If you choose a local location, Norton 360 Deluxe doesn’t seem to work properly. On more than one PC, I couldn’t get Norton to save the files to an external drive, even though the confirmation dialog said it had. Attempting to back up to a local drive did not work when I tested the feature on more than one PC. Attempting to back up to a local drive did not work when I tested the feature on more than one PC.PCWorld Attempting to back up to a local drive did not work when I tested the feature on more than one PC.PCWorld PCWorld So if Norton’s cloud backups will be your first backup system, you unfortunately won’t be able to use it to properly cover your butt. It’s definitely better than nothing and a good start, though. And if you already have a good backup protocol in place, setting up these cloud backups least further ensures that ransomware can’t lock you out of your most important files. Password manager Norton’s password manager is simple but good—a refreshing change from services that feel stripped to the bone. Setup is easy, too. Norton asks you to create a separate vault password, then prompts you to download a recovery key. (You can’t recover your account otherwise if you forget your vault password.) Afterward, you can use the Norton Password Manager mobile app to enable passwordless authentication for logging into your vault. It greatly simplifies an otherwise cumbersome system where two passwords are required to access your vault (once to get into your Norton account, then to unlock the vault), and it’s seamless, though the authentication approval is a little slow to register. You can access your vault through the website, a browser extension, or the mobile app. PCWorld PCWorld PCWorld One odd quirk I encountered during my review period: You only see different font colors for numbers, symbols, and letters when generating a password, but not afterward. You also can’t set the clipboard to automatically clear after a certain time if you copy a password. VPN The interface for Norton’s VPN is clean and easy to understand, but almost too simplified. For starters, you can only choose your location by country and not a specific city. Also, your settings are limited to toggle switches for turning on auto connect, auto VPN (VPN activates on unsecured Wi-Fi networks), the kill switch (blocks internet access if the VPN abruptly disconnects), and ad tracker blocking. You can also add apps to the split tunnel feature, which keeps the VPN from routing their traffic. Speeds while using the VPN were inconsistent during my light testing—for example, while connected to the U.S. server, I got anywhere from about 88 percent of my normal download speed to as little as 29 percent. If you’re stuck on a slower connection, that could hurt a lot. Norton’s VPN settings are bare-bones. Norton’s VPN settings are bare-bones.PCWorld Norton’s VPN settings are bare-bones.PCWorld PCWorld Countries supported are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States. You can only access the VPN through the My Norton interface. Parental controls You can set up Norton 360 Deluxe’s parental controls quickly. Just install the Norton Family app, as well as the Norton Family browser extension, on your kid’s PC. Then set up a child profile for them.  Once in place, you can track web, search, video, and app activity, as well as restrict access based on time of day. On iOS and Android, you can also restrict access based on app (Android) and get alerts if the device leaves a specific location. Norton’s parental controls (“Norton Family”) are accessed through a web browser. Norton’s parental controls (“Norton Family”) are accessed through a web browser.PCWorld Norton’s parental controls (“Norton Family”) are accessed through a web browser.PCWorld PCWorld Like the rest of the Norton website interface, statistics and settings are streamlined and easy to navigate, though there are some limitations. For example, you can only monitor YouTube and Hulu site usage on mobile in Norton’s mobile browser and not within apps or website embeds. PC utilities Included with Norton are several PC tools—though most are duplicates of existing Windows features.  Optimize Disk is Norton’s version of Windows Disk Defragmenter—and honestly, not necessary. According to Norton, it only focuses on defragging of hard disk drives. You’re better off using Windows for disk optimization, which already treats hard drives and SSDs with the appropriate protocols. File Cleanup gets rid of temporary files held by Windows and any lingering Internet Explorer files. (Yep, Internet Explorer—presumably, Norton’s serving people clinging to dead versions of Windows; Edge is not yet supported.) Again, you can use Windows’ own tool for this. Yes, Norton still concerns itself with Internet Explorer files. (Legacy Windows users…it’s time to upgrade, friends.) Yes, Norton still concerns itself with Internet Explorer files. (Legacy Windows users…it’s time to upgrade, friends.)PCWorld Yes, Norton still concerns itself with Internet Explorer files. (Legacy Windows users…it’s time to upgrade, friends.)PCWorld PCWorld Startup Manager lets you view and manage which apps automatically launch with Windows startup. You can easily use Windows’ own management setting for this by typing startup apps in Windows search. While there’s nothing wrong per se with using these utilities—Norton’s attempt to centralize them isn’t a bad impulse—introducing a third-party into the mix is extraneous. The only real interesting tool is Graphs, which shows you a history of system use (installations, downloads, optimization, virus detections, quick scans, and alerts). Dark web monitor You can give Norton information like your email addresses (up to five), physical addresses, phone numbers (up to five), mother’s maiden name, driver’s license number, insurance info (up to five), credit card numbers (up to 10), bank account (up to 10), and gamertags (up to 10). If you’re like most people, you’ll get an instant hit for your email address(es) if you use them often, but the list isn’t nearly as comprehensive as using HaveIBeenPwned.com’s lookup tool. I consider this as an extra method for getting an alert, but not something to rely on for full coverage. Dark Web Monitoring keeps an eye out for leaked data about you. Dark Web Monitoring keeps an eye out for leaked data about you.PCWorld Dark Web Monitoring keeps an eye out for leaked data about you.PCWorld PCWorld Privacy monitor Data broker websites scoop up information about you from public records and other databases that buy data. (The latter is why privacy policies are so important—companies that you interact with can and do sell your information.) Depending on what they find, these websites can put your name, birthdate, current and past addresses, phone numbers, and relatives into just about anyone’s hands, and removing yourself from these sites can be like playing Whack-A-Mole.  Norton asks for a surprisingly minimal amount of information to run a search for you on these types of sites—but the results aren’t as comprehensive as some other services. You’ll also have to pay for an upgrade to Privacy Monitor Assistant to have them handle the leg work of removing your info. Secure browser For those who don’t want to deal with keeping Chrome secure, Norton 360 Deluxe offers an alternative—Norton Secure Browser. It’s based off the same Chromium code as Google’s browser, but the experience is more locked down.  PCWorld PCWorld PCWorld Out of the gate, Norton Secure Browser comes with the Norton Password Manager, Norton Privacy Guard (which blocks trackers and some ads), and Norton Safe Search Plus (which verifies links) extensions installed, and it only supports a limited number of optional browser extensions. (You can still install extensions for big rival password managers such as Bitwarden, Dashlane, and 1Password, so you’re not completely locked into Norton’s ecosystem.) Overall, it’s a Chrome-lite experience, which has the upside of narrowing how much trouble you can get yourself into. On the flip side, it’s not fool-proof. You can’t install a separate ad-blocker, like uBlock Origin, that blocks sponsored links. In fact, the Safe Search Plus extension will put a green checkmark on some sponsored links for downloads that are not the official, primary site—which in my book opens up users to potential risk. Customer support You can get help directly within the app, both from the My Norton and Classic views. Norton also offers support pages and community forums on its website, as well as technical support through social media, chat, and phone assistance. For simpler questions, the in-app help and support pages are a good place to start, while the forums and company support are better for troubleshooting. Incidentally, if you’re looking for the version info for your Norton app installation, you can access it through Help > About. Updates and maintenance  Virus and app updates run automatically by default, but you can run the LiveUpdate feature manually if you want to check for pending updates. It checks for any changes to the antivirus protection, process protection, and Norton app. Performance In tests performed by leading security research institutes, Norton generally performs well—at least when it comes to online protection. In AV-Test’s zero-day attack and malware tests for March and April 2024 (the most current results released), Norton detected 100 percent of the threats. It caught all 19,228 samples for recently widespread and prevalent malware, and 316 samples of zero-day attacks (including threats spread through the web and email). Similarly, in AV-Comparatives’ real-world protection test for February through May 2024, Norton blocked 99.7 percent of the 489 test cases, with 10 false positives. (For comparison, ESET posted zero false positives, while AVG and Avast had 5.5.) These samples are a mix of malicious web addresses, exploits (like drive-by downloads), and URLs that link directly to malware. In practical terms, Norton will effectively keep shady websites at bay, but its higher filtering sensitivity could cause unwanted hassle or stress when trying to access a legitimate website or start a download. AV-Comparatives’ real-world test results for February through May 2024. AV-Comparatives’ real-world test results for February through May 2024. PCWorld AV-Comparatives’ real-world test results for February through May 2024. PCWorld PCWorld Meanwhile, when tasked with the 10,053 samples in AV-Comparatives’ March 2024 malware protection test, Norton 360 scored a 81.8 percent offline detection rate, 98.9 percent online detection rate, and a 99.97 percent online protection rate, with 26 false positives. Ultimately, the online protection score matters the most, since it tells the story of how well an antivirus suite halts threats that find their way onto your PC and attempt mischief—and Norton’s performance tops the charts. However, Norton’s offline detection score highlights how reliant its antivirus engine is on an active internet connection for full protection. Without access to the company’s servers, Norton misses the presence of malware more often than the competition, trailing almost 15 percent behind its best rivals. That makes for more uneven performance, where you’ll have to wait for malware to rear its head before it gets shown the door. In contrast, rival Bitdefender achieves a 96.1 percent offline detection rate, while still also offering a 96.1 percent online detection rate, 99.92 percent online protection rate, and fewer false alarms (8). Norton did not participate in AV-Comparatives’ November 2023 Advanced Threat Protection Test, which evaluates a security suite’s resistance to more sophisticated, targeted attack methods like malicious scripts and fileless attacks. AV-Comparatives / PCWorld AV-Comparatives / PCWorld AV-Comparatives / PCWorld For PC performance, Norton 360 Deluxe can have a notable effect on common tasks. You’ll see it less in everyday activities, as evidenced by PCMark 10, a benchmark that simulates web browsing, video chatting, gaming, and file editing in open-souce programs like GIMP and LibreOffice for images and documents. When idle in the background, watching for real-time threats, Norton 360 Deluxe had virtually no impact on PCMark 10’s test scores. But if a full scan ran continuously during the benchmark, the results dropped by about 6 percent. When using Microsoft Office apps (as simulated by UL Procyon), the performance drop gets bigger—an almost 10 percent dip during a full scan, and roughly 6 percent at idle. That difference grew biggest when running our Handbrake encoding test, with a 22 percent decrease during a full scan and 11 percent on idle. One thing these numbers don’t show, however, is how Norton typically handles full scans. After an initial full scan, subsequent ones look for changed or new files—which speeds up the scan time and the drag on system resources. And full scans are scheduled by default for off-hours. Still, if you handle files often—especially if you’re on a mid-range or budget PC—Norton’s affect on your PC performance is something to consider. Should you buy Norton 360 Deluxe? Norton offers a lot—but its strength is its Achilles heel, too. You get broad, fairly comprehensive protection, but there are extras that don’t really serve much use, too. This security suite would benefit from a unified interface and a lighter impact on system performance. But if you’re seeking an all-in-one solution, this one still ticks the right boxes. Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating ProsClean, simple interfaceEssential protection against malwareLower impact on PC system resourcesConsLess participation in testing performed by independent security organizationsExtremely light on featuresOur VerdictMalwarebytes Premium Security offers a simple, easy-to-use alternative to Windows Security—but don’t expect big bang for your buck. Seasoned security vets may also find the lower amount of available independent performance test results offputting. Best Prices Today: Malwarebytes Premium Retailer Price Malwarebytes $42.79 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Malwarebytes was once a crucial piece of software—a necessary supplement for your main antivirus scanner. You couldn’t always count on just one program to catch everything, and Malwarebytes rose to prominence as a reliable secondary tool. But the world has changed since 2010. Now if you run multiple antivirus apps, you could open yourself up to software conflicts or increased risk for system vulnerabilities. One single program is the way to go—and if you’re a newbie to security and prefer a dead simple app, then Malwarebytes’ streamlined, elegant approach can fit the bill. How much does Malwarebytes Premium Security cost? As a simple suite, Malwarebytes Premium Security costs $60 per year. New subscribers can sign up for a two-year package to save $9 ($111 total). Unlike most other antivirus vendors, Malwarebytes bills in monthly installments over a 12-month term, rather than charging the total cost upfront.  For its consumer products, the company offers a 14-day trial, and a 60-day money back guarantee. Single-device plan (3 devices) $60 per year (billed monthly over a 12-month term) Malwarebytes’ plan allows you to spread your device allotment over those running Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and even ChromeOS. PCWorld PCWorld PCWorld If you want to cover more gear, or save a little more cash, you can get licenses for Malwarebytes through third-parties like Amazon and the PCWorld Software store with more flexible terms and at lower rates. However, such plans currently don’t include VPN service, which Malwarebytes added to the subscriptions it sells directly. What does Malwarebytes Premium Security include? When you step up from Malwarebytes’ free version to a paid subscription, real-time monitoring for malware, email, web, and select network threats becomes active. (The free plan only scans if you initiate a manual check.) Overall, you’re protected against viruses, ransomware, and other malware, as well as other common attacks like phishing attempts, zero-day exploits on the web and over email, and suspicious apps. Choosing Malwarebytes Premium Security adds on access to the company’s VPN, which Malwarebytes advertises as a no-log service. As premium upgrades go, this one is simplistic—you don’t get parental controls, a password manager, additional defenses like protected folders, or PC utilities, as you do with a rival like AVG. The company seems to weigh its VPN service as equally valuable to a collection of such antivirus features. Key features of Malwarebytes Premium Security Installation and user interface After you install the app, you’ll see the main dashboard. The interface is incredibly streamlined, with just two tabs on the left navbar—Dashboard and Settings. You can choose between Light, Dark, or matching Windows’ mode. PCWorld PCWorld PCWorld Accordingly, you’ll send almost all your time on the Dashboard view, which is divided into three segments. In the larger one, you’ll see a couple of sections blocked out. At the upper left is Security, with Scanner, Detection History, and Real-Time Protection as the three options and their settings: Scanner lets you run a quick, full, or custom scan, as well as jump directly to related settings. You can also access the scheduled scans to review what’s already set up and create new ones.  Detection History shows quarantined items, the history of events (like detected viruses), and your allow list—items that you’ve approved as safe after initially being flagged by Malwarebytes.  Real-Time Protection is not so much a feature, but an explanation for how Malwarebytes and how it safeguards your PC continuously. Directly underneath the security section is one for the VPN. It puts the major controls at your fingertips, letting you quickly activate the service and change the location. You can also jump into related settings. Along the right side is a rating for your PC’s protection level—Malwarebyte’s assessment of how close you are to utilizing the app fully. You can also check on other devices associated with your account. PCWorld PCWorld PCWorld Generally, the interface is clean and simple, as are the settings for the app and its features. The only area where you can dig in deeper are the antivirus protection settings—but as Malwarebytes rightly warns, nearly all users are better off leaving the defaults as they are. One tip: Once the software is installed, head to Settings > Notifications, scroll down to the bottom, and turn off marketing notifications. Virus, malware, and threat protection Real-time protection Malwarebytes Premium Security constantly keeps an eye out for a variety of threats. When you’re opening or adding files, using apps, or browsing the web, it’ll block viruses, ransomware, and other malware like rootkits, along with phishing attempts. Unlike other rivals, Malwarebytes doesn’t offer a firewall. That job is left to Windows. It also doesn’t offer additional protections against dangers like DNS hijacking and webcam takeovers. As for identity protection, like dark web monitoring and insurance coverage, you must upgrade to the company’s Complete Protection plan, which costs twice as much per year. PCWorld PCWorld PCWorld If you want to adjust your real-time scanning settings, you can change what the app screens for and how stringent it is with its filters, as well as how it handles suspicious files. Malwarebytes allows you dig surprisingly deep, though only experts should get into the weeds. The overwhelming majority of users should keep the defaults as they are. Scheduled and manual scans At installation, Malwarebytes Premium Security automatically creates a scheduled scan for once per week. It runs whenever your system is idle, which the app calls a “smart scan.” You can edit this default or create additional scheduled scans. For manual scans, Malwarebytes offers three types. The default is a threat scan, which checks commonly targeted areas of your PC, including things running in memory and at startup, as well as registry changes. Files stored on your PC are also looked over.  PCWorld PCWorld PCWorld To fire up a quick or custom scan, you must choose Advanced Scan from the three-dot menu for the Scanner on the dashboard. Custom scans let you tweak a handful of settings related to file types and areas of your PC, as well as how to handle potentially unwanted programs and modifications to your system. Additional features Browser extension Malwarebytes offers a Browser Guard extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, but despite being available as a separate free download, it’s still considered a component of the Premium Security suite. After installation, it runs quietly in the background, protecting your browser from malware and scams (including credit card skimming), as well as serving as an adblocker. VPN Malwarebytes keeps its controls for its VPN simple rather than restrictive. Firing up the service is quick and fast, as is choosing a location for a server—and Malwarebytes lets you choose a handful of cities within countries outside of the US, more similar to a dedicated VPN. PCWorld PCWorld PCWorld You can choose servers in Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, Ukraine, USA. This country list isn’t as large as with some VPN services, but as mentioned above, you can generally choose between two to four cities per country. The exception is the United States, which has 18 cities available, coast to coast. Speeds held stable when using the VPN during light testing. For US server speeds, Los Angeles (within the same state as PCWorld’s San Francisco location) showed a decrease of about 5 to 7 percent, while New York saw a roughly 26 percent drop. Customer support From within the app, you can jump to Malwarebytes’ user guide, support pages, and support tool. You can also use an AI chatbot for answers to your questions, or if you’re signed into your Malwarebytes account, to contact customer support—you’ll get funneled to your choice of email or live chat. Updates and maintenance  Updates for the app and virus definitions happen automatically in the background, but you can also trigger a check manually. You’ll need to click on the person icon in the upper right of the app window, then choose About Malwarebytes and click on the Check for updates button. PCWorld PCWorld PCWorld Performance While Malwarebytes participates in some independent benchmarking of its software, it has no current results from AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, two major organizations that test how well antivirus suites can catch threats. Instead, the company points the curious toward AVLabs’s testing data. During the May 2024 advanced in-the-wild test, Malwarebytes caught all 521 samples—though its detection rate was split between 78.32 percent pre-launch and 21.38 percent post-launch of the samples (that is, before the malware samples could activate versus after). In comparison, rivals Bitdefender and McAfee caught nearly all the samples before they could execute, with 97.98 percent and 99.3 percent pre-launch detection, respectively. When asked about its participation in independent benchmarks, a representative from Malwarebytes said the company “focuses on third-party testing that is most closely aligned with the needs of customers” and that it works “with the third-party testers that are most relevant to what our customers encounter in today’s threat landscape.” PCWorld / AVLab PCWorld / AVLab PCWorld / AVLab During hardware performance tests on our budget Acer Aspire 3 test laptop, Malwarebytes lived up to its claims of light impact on PC resources. When left idle in the background, it had virtually no effect on typical tasks, as shown by PCMark 10’s extended benchmark. That test simulates video chatting, web browsing, gaming, image and document editing in free apps like GIMP and LibreOffice, and the like.  If you work instead on Microsoft Office documents, our UL Procyon tests showed a minimal impact on results, with a less than 3 percent difference. Similarly, our Handbrake encoding test only dipped by about 4 percent. Even running a threat scan continuously during our benchmarks didn’t disturb these numbers much—PCMark 10 slipped by about 7 percent, Procyon by about 14 percent, and Handbrake by about 19 percent. Given how rival antivirus engines from rivals like McAfee and Norton are far greedier about system resources, Malwarebytes does distinguish itself in this regard. Conclusion If you dislike complicated interfaces, Malwarebytes Premium Security can be a good fit as an alternative to Windows Security—so long as you don’t mind not getting as much bang for your buck. The app is attractive and clean in its layout, and the settings are clear and straightforward. However, more seasoned security vets may have reason to hesitate on pulling the trigger, due to the relatively low amount of independent testing data available about software performance. Antivirus Read...

The rain will continue in lower North Island and upper South Island, as unsettled weather continues today. Read...

Band of rain expected to bring downpours to areas in the north from late Thursday, with the possibility of unsettled weather in some places until early next week. Read...