Norton AntiVirus for Windows 95

 Installing the program is a tad more difficult if you are already infected, as I was. First, you must boot from a floppy and I didn't have one handy (silly me.) It's been so long since I made a bootable disk that I had to look up the command, format A: /S, in a dusty DOS manual After I booted, the Norton "emergency" disk eliminated the virus quickly. In fact, it was so fast I ran through the scan again just to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Symantec posts monthly updates to its World Wide Web anti-viral center (http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html) , so I went there next to download the latest virus signature file. There was a significant upgrade -- more than three megabytes -- so I downloaded that, too, along with the February update. I installed it all at once.

I'm not usually a manual reader, but in this case it paid off. Mr. Lappy leads an active social life, so I took Symantec's advice and gave him full protection. Norton AntiVirus promises to protect me through what they call the virus life cycle: infection, detection and recovery. The manual recommends that I scan all floppies, including shrink-wrapped software and pre-formatted disks. A quick floppy scan of just the master boot record and executable files takes about one second. I also ran a full scan of a disk containing 63 files filling 1.3 megabytes. It took a minute. I can live with this. The manual also recommends scanning all programs downloaded from BBSs, online services and the Internet, and you can selectively scan certain files and directories.

 If I don't remember to do this every time (and let's face it, I won't) NAV does a quick scan during boot up and another scan each time I open a program. NAV recommends doing a complete scan once a week, and even allows me to schedule one at a set time. If I do get infected, I should be alerted fairly quickly. In addition to scanning for known viruses, NAV scans for unknown ones by looking for characteristic marks and changes that viruses leave. Monthly updates are available from a Symantec BBS (a toll call) and from the Internet, AOL and Compuserve. You can also arrange to have updates mailed to you.

 I opted to go for maximum protection by inoculating my program files. This step makes a "fingerprint" of file information so that NAV can be more thorough and subtle. You can easily switch on and off which files are inoculated, which is handy if a particular program keeps giving you false positive readings.

All of NAV, in fact, is configurable from an easily accessible menu. All of the commands can be run from DOS. During installation NAV has you make a set of "rescue disks" which are only used when you become infected. They contain records of the master boot record, partition table and CMOS in case a virus eats away at these critical files. If I come across some bizarre virus -- just my luck -- there is a procedure to bundle it up safely and ship it off to Symantec for analysis.

Norton AntiVirus for Windows 95 is available locally for $83.95. Free telephone technical support is offered for 90 days, and premium support packages are available. Updates are available from the Symantec BBS, the Internet and online services.

 I get warm fuzzies from this program. I make my living with my laptop and can't afford a disaster. With NAV I feel I've done everything I can. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, however, so for a complete review of this product ask me about it in a year. If I've managed to keep Mr. Lappy disease free, I'll be happy.