Customer Reviews

Norton SystemWorks 2005 Premier - Single User [AntiVirus, Utilities, GoBack, Ghost, CheckIT]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

I have been a user of Norton SystemWorks for several years now. The programs are great. In my experience Norton Antivirus is the best antivirus software program around. Norton Utilities does an excellent job of keeping my computer up and running. While I like these products there is no way that I can recommend Norton SystemWorks 2005. Like some of the other commenters have noted installing Norton SystemWorks 2005 was a nightmare. While I was able to install the other components of SystemWorks 2005 I could not install Norton Antivirus 2005. I had been previous running Norton SystemWorks 2003 and Norton Antivirus 2004. The uninstall program for Norton Antivirus 2004 left so much clutter on my computer that Norton Antivirus 2005 would not install. After digging around on the Symantec web site I was able to discover a link for technical support via email. Symantec's technical support was useless. After a couple days of trading emails and trying their useless suggestions I decided to wipe my hard drive and reloading Windows and all of my software, which actually took less time then trying all of technical support's useless suggestions.

After reloading Windows I was able to install SystemWorks 2005 without any problems. As I said at the beginning its a great program, but if you have a previous version of Norton Antivirus on your computer I would not recommend upgrading to SystemWorks 2005 or Norton Antivirus 2005.

I recently purchased Norton SystemWorks 2005 Premier to upgrade from Norton SystemWorks 2003 and Norton AntiVirus 2004. There are definitely some major improvements in the programs, especially in Norton Ghost, which no longer comes as an MS-DOS based program.

However...

The installation for this was VERY painful. During the first installation, I received numerous errors, after which it claimed it had completed successfully. After rebooting I kept getting an error message saying that NavEmail.dll was missing. Uninstalling and reinstalling did not help. Symantec technical support was of no help. Eventually I ended up deleting all Symantec registry keys and manually deleting all Symantec software from my hard drive before reinstalling and getting everything to work.

I write this review as a software engineer, one who is technically savy, and I have never had as much trouble getting a program to install as I had with this one. I doubt average Joe User would be willing to deal with this pain.

Symantec has some serious work to do in their Software Q/A team. Either that or their marketing team was too forceful in releasing a product that was not ready for prime time.

System: Athlon 3000+, 512 meg ram, 160 gig HD, Windows XP Home SP2.

Checked the Symantec FAQs which say that SystemWorks is compatible with XP SP2, so I bought it.

Loaded SystemWorks 2005, which uninstalled my NAV 2004, and could not access the internet. The instruction book does not contain any instructions to configure SystemWorks and does not list any trouble line telephone numbers. It only says to go on the internet for troubleshooting help. Since I couldn't use the internet, I was stuck.

Had a friend go on the internet and get a trouble number, which would cost $30 for help. Called the number (1-800-927-4019) and listened to music for 3½ hours. No one ever answered; thank goodness for speakerphones.

Uninstalled SystemWorks and still didn't have internet access. Tried to reinstall NAV 2004 but apparently SystemWorks left residue so NAV 2004 wouldn't load. Tried to reinstall SystemWorks and it wouldn't install either.

Had to use manufacturer's recovery disc and reset my system back to zero and then spend two days reloading, updating and configuring all of my applications.

Will never again buy another Symantec product. The support is non-existent.

I've been using Norton products since the dos days and have upgraded regularly over the years. After a DISASTROUS and completely failed attempt to upgrade both Systemworks and Internet security 2005, I took a hard look at my 2004 versions of the same programs. I have since done a clean reinstall of windows, (trying to upgrade to 2005 completely messed up my os), and all my software. I have upgraded to a combo modem/router with firewall and no longer have a need for Norton Internet security, (if you use dsl and do NOT have a "2wire" brand dsl modem router, GET ONE!). I've upgraded Windows to XP Pro. THE BACKUP FEATURE IN XP PRO IS WORTH THE PRICE OF THE UPGRADE! I backed up 17GB to external hard drive in 30 minutes. So no longer need Norton Ghost. I now use McAfee Antivirus, Spybot(freeware) and Adaware(freeware) and get better protection and lower system resource cost. I've found that Windows Disk Defragmenter does a fine job, so no longer need Speed Disk. Let me tell you, by dumping Norton Internet Security, Ghost, Antivirus and Speedisk, like some others have said, I have a new computer. I have about 80mb of additional ram,(after accounting for replacement software), and surfing the net has become FUN again. You'll see offers of Norton products for free after rebates. DON'T DO IT, unless you want it just for a couple of the smaller utilities like web tools, wipe free space or Windoctor, which is what I have reinstalled. The real costs are hogged system resources and lost/wasted time dealing with bloated software that wants to completely take over your computer. After relying on Norton for over ten years it was HARD to give it up! And while I'm glad I did I'm sorry I had to. Norton needs to scale back, slim down and give us back our computers. When they've done that I'll take another look.

P.S. Since doing the complete backup with Windows XP PRO Backup/ASR (automated system recovery), I've had occasion to do a complete restore :-). Easy, intuitive and flawless! Had my computer back in 1 hour.

I've used Norton Systemworks (and Norton Utilities) for years, however, this year I bought the product without reading all the reviews on Amazon. Boy am I sorry. The installation routines for this year's version product are just plain broken. Whoever tested this could not possibly have given it a "thumbs up" to be released. In my small world, even the common testing use cases failed (e.g., clean upgrade from last version, compatibility with other Symantec products, clean de-installs, etc.).

I had Norton Internet Security 2005 and Norton Systemworks 2004 Pro previously installed on my machine. Trying to install this version of Norton Systemworks generated all sorts of problems. In addition, it broke the one feature of Systemworks 2004 I used the most, Password Manager (sadly, that product isn't even included in this year's version of Systemworks). Not only does this product not cleanly install, but when you try to remove it to clean up all that it messed up it gets worse. It even removes what was installed with other Symantec products (when I de-installed NSW 2005 it removed the version of Norton Antivirus that I installed with Norton Internet Security 2005).

I can't say it enough. Read the Amazon reviews on this product. It is worse than broken. I've worked with information technology and software development for more than 20 years and this product should never have been released in its current form. After 6 hours of trying various combinations to get NIS 2005, NSW 2005, and Norton Password Manager 2004 to work I've finally given up. NSW 2005 is going in the trash and I'm reinstalling NSW 2004 Pro.

Symantec, I'm sorry to be so blunt. At one time, the Peter Norton name meant something to consumers that were looking for useful and high quality utilities for their PC. Apparently, those days are long gone. If you are looking for utilities that make your PC run better, either spend your money elsewhere or wait until Symantec pays more attention to their quality assurance and testing efforts.

Should you upgrade? Well, kind of, I tend always upgrade to the latest from Symantec. For this version I only recommend that you upgrade to "Norton Anti-virus 2005", the programs from Symantec such as System Works and Utilities are just the same, no major differences except for a more sleeker interface and the obvious bloat of it. Doesn't even include features your getting for free in Windows like a FireWall, which comes free with SP2 for Windows XP. The introduction of technology such as Activation was not smooth, and caused a lot of headaches which only makes the product less embracing than it use to be.

Symantec needs focus on areas such as Speed, Seamless Integration with Windows, obviously it has lost it. My next purchase from Symantec won't be in the retail line, but from Enterprise space. The Corporate Edition of Norton Antivirus, it offers all the tools I want for protecting my PC, yes it cost a lot and its targetted towards the Large Networks, but it is so subtle and easy to use and it does not bog down your PC.

So, should you upgrade?
If recently purchased System Works 2004 or Norton 2004 or any of the Symantec line of products at least wait until your one year subscription is up. Because that's what you buy a utility program for, to keep updated against the latest attacks.

I purchased this, installed it, and after hours of struggling with compatability issues, have uninstalled everything except for Ghost 9 (which is a significant upgrade from Ghost 2003, because Symantec bought out another company's better drive imaging product and gave it their own brand). Luckily the price after rebates on Systemworks is about the same as for Ghost alone. Antivirus 2005 has all the problems reported for 2004, compatability problems with other programs and it slows your system down significantly. I have switched to Vcom's Fix-It Utilities (better than Norton Utilities) and plan on buying Trend Micro's PC-cillin to replace the antivirus bundled with Fix-It Utilities.
Another customer lost by Symantec...

I had similar install problems at mentioned in the other reviews. I had to wipe out all prior versions of Symantec products manually to get this to install correctly (i.e. playing with registry files). The program now works, but I still get an error message regarding a missing .dll at startup. I did have Norton Antivirus 2004 installed prior to the upgrade (followed directions on uninstalling prior versions, did not work). It also fouled up my internet connection, but I found a website to fix the problem (again, more registry hacking into TCP/IP setting).

If you are an intermediate to advanced computer user with a few hours to spare give it a try, but this is the last Norton product I will ever purchase(after using Norton products for 10+ years). Norton Antivirus 2004 was a resource hog, Systemworks 2005 has a buggy install. The only reason I stuck with Norton was it cost, practically zero to upgrade each year (...) but it's not worth the trouble anymore. I would say you get what you pay for, but considering the retail price of this is (...)...save your money and buy something else.

The product itself with all the features are great and useful, and I was excited to get the new version of Ghost.

What is hard to swallow is the fact that if you are upgrading a Symantec product to this one, it renders your PC useless. I rebooted after the uninstall/install s/w process, and at least the OS booted up initially. I noticed that when the OS started, my internet connection was not functioning. I wasn't pleased with this, and knew as an IT professional it was the software that was responsible. The registration screen locked up and I was forced into rebooting. It was at this point that the OS couldn't boot up, and I ended up reinstalling both operating systems I had on my one hard drive.

There is no acceptable reason in this happening, and Symantec should be embarrassed about this. I read other reviews and find I'm not alone in experiencing this problem. Shame on Symantec and their apparent disregard to this issue. No reasonable software company wouldn't stumble upon this in testing and not do anything about it.

The reason why I even bought this product was so that I could use Ghost and create images of my logical drives to avoid what this install process just forced me to do, which was to reinstall all my apps from scratch.

It's ironic that a primary component of this package is antivirus software. I've never had a virus trash my machine like this pig did.

I installed it and, of course, it wouldn't work. It claimed I had installed it too many times. That was on the first install right out of the box. So I had a nice chat with someone in India whom I could barely understand and after much transoceanic negotiations she was able to do something that let me install. If I had only known...

Anyway, everything installed and it has been diligently protecting me from evil people for about a month or so. I am using an old 5400 RPM 20GB boot drive, I bought a nice new (big) drive and I wanted to swap my boot drive over to that. So I thought I'd use Ghost to clone a new boot drive, exactly as the program was supposed to operate. But first, I thought I'd run the utilities to clean everything up before cloning. If you own this package and ever decide to do that, have a friend tie you in a chair until the urge passes. It went through everything and shrieked in horror... "Your partition tables (on several disks) contains serious errors. Shall I fix it for you"? Regretably, I said sure. It screwed everything up where I couldn't even boot. The system claimed nothing was bootable. After about several hours of dinking around with it, I removed every drive from the machine except the old 20GB and attempted to boot. It worked! Then I hooked the other (3) drives back up, one at a time, rebooting in between, and Win2K was able to figure out how to set everything right.

So now for cloning. Everything appeared to work fine until I tried to reboot using the new (cloned) disk. It seemed to go fine until time to load my personal settings and the like and it then ejected a message "Your system has no paging file... go in and fix it". Great. Except that it just hung with a black screen and no ability at all to do ANYTHING, much less fix the problem. Back to the old system. Internet search... found out how to fix that (it appeared to have to do with anti-piracy... more about that coming up). I finally got it to boot, come up all the way to my user account. Everything looked fine. And then the machine spontaneously rebooted. This happened several times, but once in a while it would make it all the way through. But then when rebooting later the same thing happened. So... everytime I reboot the system, it may or may not come up. It seems to be about 1 time in 4 that it comes up OK. Otherwise it hangs in this silly reboot loop.

I know the story is already long, and I'll try to shorten it. After about a day fooling with it, somewhere along the line it came up and said "Your Norton stuff wasn't activated properly". Aha!! The horrible thing is back on the anti-piracy binge. I found that when it actually got out of the reboot loop, I was able to uninstall Norton's garbage. And guess what... it fixed everything. Except that now I had no antivirus protection, and the only way to get it back is go back through the nice people over in India and try to get them to allow me to reconnect to something I bought and paid for.

So in the end, I wound up throwing a perfectly good weekend down the toilet fooling with this garbage, went back to my old 20 GB boot drive and everything (including, I hope, the antivirus stuff) seems to be working, although I'm still cleaning up various little messes. What a complete waste. I have no problem with the idea that Norton wishes to protect their intellectual (???) property from piracy. It's too bad they did it in a way that renders the product virtually useless to legitimate owners.

The moral to the story... I won't be buying anything from Symantec/Norton again.