Started by Peter Norton, Symantec is widely known for its award winning antivirus and protection programs. Started as a basic antivirus engine, Symantec is now one of the leading manufacturers of antivirus protection software, utility and security programs.
The antivirus engine installed in the system is considered good only as long as it keeps the system safe from malicious entities. With the growth of the internet and the PC world, new threats are also on the rise. Hence, there is a need for the antivirus engine to be aware of these new threats and update itself accordingly.
As the name indicates, Symantec LiveUpdate is a useful antivirus update tool which keeps a tab of the latest viruses and protects the PC from them. With this technology, a Symantec product installed on any computer is able to gain access to the Symantec server via the internet and check for new releases or updates. It then automatically updates itself and configures the security settings of the PC accordingly. This enables the system to be aware of new virus definitions and a list of potentially dangerous URLs while the Symantec software on the system is kept up to date.
A new update if present is downloaded and then checked for a valid signature. If present, the update is configured into
the system’s security settings.

Symantec Live Update supports all the Operating Systems of Windows from Win 9x/ME/NT/2K/XP to 2K3. Though the LiveUpdate feature is automatically updated using File Cluster, it is recommended to check the parent site as the newer releases may take time to reflect on the updates.