Norton 360 is old news by now, but version 2.0 is a whole different matter altogether. Symantec made available Norton 360 2.0 aiming it at Windows XP Home, XP Professional, XP Media Center SP2 "or higher", as well as Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, Business, Starter Edition. As far as Windows XP is concerned, the "SP2 or higher" reference clearly points to the upcoming Service Pack 3. At the same time, the fact that it was released one month after the RTM of Windows Vista SP1 is an indication that Norton 360 will support the first service pack for the latest Windows client.

Obviously, version 2.0 has been designed to be the evolution of Norton and, in this regard, Symantec has touted increased performance and improvements to the existent features, as well as new capabilities. And performance is always an area where Symantec products have been suffering. According to the Cupertino-based security company, Norton 360 2.0 delivers faster start-up, scan and browse speeds. But the main characteristic of Norton 360 2.0 is its luxuriant collection of features.

"Industry-Leading Layered Security helps protect you against advanced threats through a combination of definitions and heuristic and behavioral technologies give you confidence that your PC is secure," Symantec stated. "Network Monitoring protects your home network against unauthorized access by detecting whether your connected wireless network is secure or not secure. Diagnostic Report provides a convenient system snapshot for easier troubleshooting and problem diagnosis of any PC issue by collecting detailed system information including operating system, installed applications, startup applications, hardware configuration, and more."

Coming with a price tag of $79.99, Norton 360 2.0 is a much more complex solution than Norton Internet Security 2008 and Norton AntiVirus 2008, also from Symantec. The security solution offers protection against spyware, viruses, Rootkits, emerging threats, worms etc. But at the same time, it scans incoming email and downloads for malware, offers firewall, protection against vulnerabilities, antiphishing, password encryption and much more.

Norton 360 2.0.0.242 can be downloaded from here.