Norton is terrible.
Norton is terrible.
I’ve personally experienced no issues with Norton. Many people criticize it online, but the symptoms they mention don’t match what I’ve seen. I’m using Norton 360 Premier with a family license and it’s only broken once—when a change affected my homepage or default search engine—but otherwise it functions perfectly. (Operating on Windows 7 Pro x64)
The sole solution I'll rely on is Malwarebytes paired with Windows Defender.
I personally rely on Eset antivirus. I subscribed for $20, and it has performed excellently up to now.
I'm not concerned about it; I've already reached this point. Most antivirus programs can't fully shield you from most malicious threats and viruses, especially if someone is trying to gain access through Windows. As I noted before, I don't browse foreign sites or download from unrecognized sources.
It’s unrelated to your awareness. You might get infected by opening an email or clicking a link. It doesn’t need to come from someone trying to gain access—it can be from another computer. In reality, many antivirus programs can shield you from viruses. Strong antivirus software typically achieves a detection and removal rate of over 98-99%. I’m not sure why that seems to leave you unprotected.