Norton 360

[bsteiner]

Norton 360 defaults to automatic renewal, though you can turn off automatic renewal.

If you turn off automatic renewal, when your subscription expires, if you don't renew, they'll offer you a lower price to renew, and if you don't, they'll offer a still lower price.

Amazon has a Black Friday special that's less than what they offer if you let your subscription lapse.

If I buy the Amazon deal, can I wait until my subscription runs out and download it from Amazon at that time? Will that work?

[muffins14]

Does this product still actually fulfill a need?

[bsteiner]

Does this product still actually fulfill a need?

I don't know. Since I've had it for many years and it's not very expensive, I've never looked into it.

[Rocinante Rider]

It wasn't as seamless the one time that I did what you describe: just before the existing subscription expired I activated a new subscription purchased on Amazon. Among other things, I had change the license key on all of my devices that used Norton 360 and I kept getting messages that my old subcription had expired even after I activated the new key. The price difference was only about $5 less to purchase it new on Amazon compared to accepting and purchasing one of the discounted renewal offers from Norton as the current license was about to expire. It's easier just to do the renewal of the existing subscription. I always get the auto renewal discount and cancel the autorenewal long before the next payment is due.

As for muffins14's question: I don't know whether Norton is better than Microsoft Defender or whether MD is still free.

[techbud]

As for muffins14's question: I don't know whether Norton is better than Microsoft Defender or whether MD is still free.

Microsoft Defender is free, and it's considered to be "good enough" for most people.
Do you keep your system updated? Do you know enough not to click on links in emails? Not accept unsolicited downloads? Not visit shady websites? Then it should be fine.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2379676 ... users.html

[cheese_breath]

As for muffins14's question: I don't know whether Norton is better than Microsoft Defender or whether MD is still free.

Microsoft Defender is free, and it's considered to be "good enough" for most people....

Not an apples to apples comparison. N-360 includes cloud backup, VPN and other features.

[Rocinante Rider]

As for muffins14's question: I don't know whether Norton is better than Microsoft Defender or whether MD is still free.

Microsoft Defender is free, and it's considered to be "good enough" for most people.
Do you keep your system updated? Do you know enough not to click on links in emails? Not accept unsolicited downloads? Not visit shady websites? Then it should be fine.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2379676 ... users.html

Yes, I keep everything updated (including daily scans and updates with CCleaner), never click on links or downloads, and no shady sites. Desktop and laptop, however, are Windows 10, so sounds like Norton 360 might still be the better security option for now. I also do use Norton's cloud backup.

[techbud]

Microsoft Defender is free, and it's considered to be "good enough" for most people....

Not an apples to apples comparison. N-360 includes cloud backup, VPN and other features.

Shrug, the OP & Rocinante Rider need to answer muffin14's question to make it apples to apples:

Does this product still actually fulfill a need?

Eg, what features are they looking for (and willing to pay for)? If it's just antivirus, Microsoft Defender is sufficient. If they actually use the bundle, then yes, it might make sense. But IMHO, there are much better best-of-breed solutions for VPN, password manager, cloud backup, etc.