After spending the majority of the day on IT related activities (the joy of wearing many hats), I added a calendar reminder to do a deep dive on antivirus/firewall/anti-malware software after Thanksgiving vacation. So this post is timely for me. I too have Norton. I've had it for years on business devices and even longer on personal devices, but am wondering if it's still the best option for me. And the pop ups have gotten annoying for me as well. I don't remember them ever being this bad. Plus, the interface seems to keep getting more and more complicated. They seem to be moving toward being not only antivirus/firewall/anti-malware but to a holistic data security platform. That's their prerogative, but I don't want VPN or a password manager through Norton, so the whole thing is beginning to feel a little bloated to me.
One option I'm going to be exploring is the "free" native Windows Defender with a lightweight anti-malware supplemental program. Periodic research I do suggests that the antivirus and firewall in Windows Defender are actually quite good.
I'll let you know what I find. Of course, the best protection is user education. i.e. Don't click on suspicious links and don't visit questionable websites.