Customer Reviews

Norton Systemworks 2006 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(83)

 

 

I spent three hours helping a friend uninstall norton systemworks..He thought he could install this over norton nis2006 !!Wrong!! these programs arent compatible with each other..Both have versions of noton anti-virus 2006.!!! you cant run both...They fought each other until he got a grey screen.Nothing worked!!! I had to perform a clean windows install,and installed norton 2005 antivirus and the 2005 norton firewall...Now all is well...? we have to wait 15 days to see if the registration fails...You install at your own risk...Upgrading is not always better...You be the judge of this.

I installed Norton Systemworks 2006 on two systems. Both failed and I cannot get it work on either. Avoid it. 2004 and 2005 were more stable.

1 of them, for some reason deleted the hard disk partition. I lost everything in two partitions (images, music). Still in middle of having someone recover what they can.

Other one installed and then everytime the computer restarts, it opens Norton Systemworks at startup and locks up. Could do nothing but to uninstall to avoid the annoying lock up screen.

When I first read some of the poor reviews of this product, I was originally hesitant to purchase it, but then I saw some of the advice from those who had better success with it and I have to agree with those who were patient during installation. This is a wonderful product if you install it slowly and carefully. The first thing I did was uninstall every one one my Norton/Symantec product components step by step. This included Systemworks 2005, Live Reg, Norton WMI, Live Update, and Password Manager. Most of these components will require a restart after each step. Once I cleaned out all of my old Norton programs I rechecked the add/remove programs window in my control panel to make sure they were all gone.

I then went ahead and placed the Systemworks 2006 installation disk. Although it is a good idea to defragment your hard drive before doing so, I was successful in installing the program without this step. Once it gave me the choice for express installation or custom install, I chose custom and unchecked Go Back. If you have important files you are afraid of losing, you may want to do express installation and retain Go back, although this program will need up to an additional 10% of your hard drive space to back up files. Once everything was installed I activated the product after the computer restarted. It will then run you through a live update (which may take a while) and then ask you to restart once this is done. After the restart, run Live Update again and it will continue to update more virus definitions.

I then installed Check It Diagnostics (a handy program on the disk) and reinstalled Password Manager. You can find Password Manager 2004 on this disk by browsing the disk and clicking on NPM. Once you open this up, click on npmsetup.exe to install. Once you install this, it will restart one more time and prompt you to do a live update again. Once everything is installed, then do a full virus scan and you're set. It's not a bad idea to run a disk check for errors and then defragment the volume afterwards.

By following these simple instructions the entire process went flawlessly. Keep in mind I am NOT an expert and my computer is an old dinosaur. It only has a 500 MHZ processor. In spite of this the programs run wonderfully. One of the biggest advantages over last year's model is my email scanning seems to be faster and there are a few added goodies, including XP System Optimizer and Norton Protection Center. Please give this program a chance, but take your time in uninstalling the old components and installing the new ones between restarts. Failure to remove the old programs is the number 1 reason for installation difficulties with Systemworks 2006. Enjoy. -Michael Ditkowsky

Norton Utilities, now known as Norton SystemWorks, used to be a great package. In the last few years, it has gotten extremely bloated. At Home, I use another package for this reason. At work we have faster processor computers with more memory than my computer at home does. However, each installation of Norton seems to be worse than the previous.

First, don't bother using Norton GoBack at all if you've got Windows XP. It doesn't do much more than Windows XP System Restore, and it seriously bogs down your system on start-up. For example: One computer we literally would hit Ctrl-Shift-ESC and it took 30 seconds for the Task Manager to come up. Uninstalling the GoBack part of Norton, and the system was back to regular speed. A second computer, the login took 5 minutes (no exaggeration), upon uninstalling GoBack, the login took 1 minute.

The anti-spyware portion doesn't pick up much, either. I pick up several items with Adaware and Spybot that Norton won't pick up.

Speed Disk and the System Cleanup tools still work nicely. Mostly everything else is useless or just slows down your system to the point of making it pretty slow and useless, which defeats the whole purpose of owning a computer optimizing tool.

I remember being blown away with how great some of the first Systemworks programs were. They cleaned up the computer, protected from viruses, everything you needed. Systemworks 2006 seems to do an adequate job, but at the price of dogging your system down unbelievably. Full virus scans take a long time no matter what program you use, but SW2006 has been taking well over two hours every time. As for its spyware protection, it has yet to detect anything on my hard-drive, but Ad-Aware (free download) always picks up about 10-20 immediately after the Norton Scan. The worst feature is the System Doctor which is supposed to constantly monitor your computer for problems which might slow down or crash your system. Ironically, what System Doctor does best is slow down and crash your system. Immediately after installing SW2006, just disable System Doctor. You'll be much happier.
On the plus side, however, the utilities, anti-virus, and live update are usually pretty good. The "One button checkup" [which now takes 3 clicks to use :)] gives a good once over of your system and does seem to fix things that are wrong. Live Update does a good job of keeping your software current, and updates and improvements come around several times a week. Besides all that, you really can't beat the price for all the programs you're getting, even if you'll wind up disabling or not using several of them. I hope some of the size and speed issues are adressed in Systemworks 2007, but until then, 2006 seems to be working just fine.
***Additional comments Dec. 20- Too bad I can't change the star rating to one. I've owned this for a while now, and more and more problems are cropping up. One Button Check-up freezes my system now, Tech support is slow and not very helpful, and Systemworks has become even slower if you can imagine it. This product doesn't do what it claims.

I am kicking myself for not reading the reviews before buying this software. Honestly, I was a dedicated norton user. I had no trouble with systemworks 2004 and 2005. So when the antivirus update license for systemworks 2005 expired, I did not think twice about buying the systemworks 2006. I popped in the CD and my nightmare started. It tried to install for the first time, but failed. Then second time it asked me to uninstall systemworks2005. After completely uninstalling 2005, it still wont install. The main menu shows up and just sits there. The installer uses 100% CPU and does not do anything.

Customer service is pathetic. You have to wait in line for about an hour before someone answers. All they tell you to do is run the norton removal tool available on their website, remove windows registries for all symantec products, delete all files/folders related to symantec and reboot 100 times. Well, even then, the systemworks 2006 does not install. Can I go back to systemworks 2005 which I had before....I try to do that...and oops...it doesnt install either....WELL DONE SYMANTEC!

Finally, the customer service tells me that it must be a virus on my computer and they need to charge me 60 bucks to tell me how to delete it. That is the worst practical joke I must have ever heard.

So I backup my data and I finally install Sophos antivirus and it installs fine and a deep scan reveals no viruses on my computer...So I lost a complete weekend, wasted 100 dollars, was frustated for 2 days...

Well, I will let you decide if YOU STILL WANT TO BUY this product.

I've been a Norton Systemworks user for over 5 years and have had little problem with the program. So I decided to upgrade to the 2006 version. Bigggggg mistake. As soon as the software was loaded, I immediately began having problems with my email system (you know, like actually receiving and sending them!). In doing some research, I found the best way to handle this was to disable Norton from having the ability to scan inbound and outbound emails (seems to defeat the purpose of the software, eh?). I did this which worked for awhile and all of a sudden I got these annoying pop up windows every couple of minutes telling me I needed to re-enable this feature (this apparently is a new feature in this year's version called "Protection Center" that supposedly keeps constant watch over your system). I tried to disable this annoying feature to no avail. Then it seemed to conflict with my Norton Internet Security (I have the 2005 version) and research showed that I should disable my Anti-Spam filter (again, what's the point of having the software). This seemed to get my email in gear again, but all of a sudden the pop up warnings came fast and furious. Not to mention that it took my computer forever now to load up, reboot or shutdown (I clocked 8 minutes to shutdown, generally takes 30 seconds). So finally I decided to uninstall Systemworks and Internet Security. And guess what - no problems with email, my computer boots and shuts down quickly and no annoying pop ups (I'm using Windows firewall and a well-known free virus software until I do some more research on the best products for my system).

For years I've read complaints about Norton and I just didn't see it. Now I do. This is one product that's time is well past.

I purchased Norton SystemWorks 2006 from Amazon. The CD displayed the error message "The wrong volume is in the drive. Please insert volume NSW2006 into drive E:" The product package only came with one CD.

This is an indication that I was sold a bad or incomplete CD disk. I tried to find the error/resolution on Symantec's service website; however without any luck. I called their 900-number and paid the service call only to have the technician tell me that I had to purchase a duplicate CD at a cost of $10.00 plus $9.95 s&h because they delivered a bad product.

I have been a Norton customer since the early 1990's. Even though they have a good product in SystemWorks, which I have purchased each year since it came out, sadly because of their lack of customer service I am no longer a customer of Symantec, and I have a 2006 version I can do nothing with.

Norton System Works 2006 killed my computer BEFORE it began installing! This is my story.

My three year old computer running XP Pro needed a tune up after many years of loading kids games and downloaded demos. I suspected my windows registry was polluted and thought I could use a NSW to straighten it out without totally reloading my system.

At first I turned to free demo programs like RegistryMechanic and BeClean. Both identified and removed problems, but after that new problems began to appear. When Windows started I would get two error sounds like something failed to load but I got no error message on what it was. Office XP would occasionally want me to insert the CD when I ran one of its programs. Finally, when the Petz 5 game was in use, I would randomly get a blue screen of death. But despite these problems my computer worked. Still I decided to get NSW 2006 before I loaded all the software Santa brought the kids.

So I thought Norton System Works could identify and fix many of these problems. I put the cd in and entered its serial number. Before install, it perfromed some tests, including a virus scan. Finally it warned me that I must uninstall my old Norton Anti-Virus 2003 before it began the install. So I stopped the install so I could uninstall NAV. I found that all my icons had been replaced with the unknown program type box. When I tried to launch a program my computer responded with "Unknown File Type .exe" - I am not kidding. I tried to run "cmd" from the Start button and the computer couldn't recogize that. After rebooting nothing changed so I tried to see if I could get NSW 2006 to start the install hoping that it would fix everything it had smashed but it failed too.

Finally, I had to reload Windows XP and Office XP and all my other programs to get my computer running again. I installed System Works at the end and it is fails eveytime it tries to get the latest virus definitions. And to insult me further, it balks with a pop up about the old virus definitions for every email I get!

In wished GoBack meant I could Go Back to the store where I bought this crud. They should relabel this package the Norton Virus 2006.

Update 9/07- I would now have to downgrade NSW (ALL year versions!), to a "1"!-
At the time Norton was good, other than slow loading, and a RESOURCE HOG (expert tests show uses system resources of 1308%!)!
I now use #1 rated (7 years) NOD32 anti-virus (only slows system 4%!) NOD32 Antivirus System
It's a fairly complex /difficult to setup (see "Blackspears NOD32 setup"- Google it), but worth it! For more startling stats see the NOD32 Anti-Virus comparative (their web site)...

You MUST first COMPLETELY uninstall NSW, before installing NOD32...!-
Norton now provides you with an easy "ALL products" uninstall tool called "symnrt" (search their web site!)(Don't Add/Remove anything, but the leftover pgms)(After a restart!))).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Old review-
I am a home software tech (28 years).
I can see why SO MANY reviewers had so many NSW problems...!- NSW is tricky..., and difficult to install PROPERLY, especially if you had old Norton..., or ANY other anti-virus (see "Fix-It Utility 6...", below)!! NEVER run two "active" anti-virus, or anti-spyware!
My install procedures... (below) can be adapted for ALL Norton antivirus..., or any others (corrupted system too...!)!

Features+!-
1. NSW 2006 automatically updates NEW virus definitions DAILY (0-25). ALL older versions only update "once a week (no matter how often you run Live Update!)"!
When NSW daily updates definitions, it automatically does a "Quick Virus Scan"!

2. My email... scanning is MUCH faster, than with old Norton!
a. My Symantec total System Performance Test went UP from 295 to 1350 (DELL XPS400, 3.2ghz Pentium D cpu, Raptor 10,000rpm single sata hard drive (WOW!), 2000mb memory)!
b. System antivirus scan is a little slower, but more thorough (found 2 viruses my old Norton missed!)! Protection center takes a minute on startup to scan for security problems- GOOD!).
You should also consider GOOD "full time" spyware protection!-
#1 Spyware Doctor (84%, latest independent test...), or
#2 SpySweeper (66%). The rest are abysmal!

~~~
1. The biggest reason that sooo many people have dificulties..., is that they don't "COMPLETELY" get rid of their old antivirus/"LiveUpdate..." first!!!
A simple add/remove... uninstall, won't do it!- Browse the Symantec support..., for uninstall instructions on your "EXACT", product BEFORE you attempt an uninstall (see SymNRT...)!
I found Symantec free email tech support to be fast (48 hrs max) and EXCELLENT!

Note A- Procedure (takes 1 hours+, to do it right!)! Print procedure out, before trying (VERY detailed/complex!)!

Note B- You may think this long procedure is a hassle..., but much better than a full system reinstall! It's FUN when things... go right, and an "advanced" learning experience!!!

IMPORTANT NOTE C!- ALWAYS wait for your HD (Hard Drive) light to stop blinking (for 15 seconds)!- Just because ANY application... says Finished/Restart Now..., it hasn't removed/written/finished ALL the registry/files... yet! SLOW DOWN, & you'll see HD blinking!

Backup your "critical..." files (Favorites, cookies, email address book..., email ( I recommend ABC Outlook Express!- saves all & trees too!) to an "external" source.

I then use Acronis 9 (same as Ghost, but dependable!) for a "Full Image Backup", to a Western Digital external HD, and really like it (see my amazon.com Acronis 9 review...)! Easily restore your WHOLE system. Acronis is not compatible with Ghost or GoBack (NSW... also recommends NOT installing GoBack!)!

1. Disconnect from internet & restart.

2. COMPLETELTY uninstall/remove ALL previous Norton/Symantec... pgms & tracks...!-
a. Uninstall ALL old Norton... pgms- Norton..., GoBack, Ghost, Live Update, WMI, Live Reg... Restart after each! SLOW DOWN!
b. Symantec uninstall NSW advisory, tells you how to FIRST disable ALL NSW services (VERY complex!), as XP uninstall will not "completely" remove old NSW files/registry... in use (many processes are hidden...!)!
You should not have to do this IF you "lastly" run #1 Fix-It Utilities 6 (see my Amazon.com review!). I disabled services... & Fix-It still found/deleted over 250 invalid registry/files (Cleanup, Fix Registry... Green only!). My ONLY "safe" registry/file cleaner that found/deleted ALL...!
Restart.

3. Run chkdsk... (to repair ANY System/file errors...!)-
My Computer, RIGHT click on C drive, Properties, Tools, Error Checking, check Auto
Fix... (ALWAYS check!- System errors too!).
Restart, "TWICE!" & SLOW DOWN (all changes don't take effect, until HD light stops blinking!)!
a. Defragment your HD ( I recommend Diskeeper 10 Professional Premier!- REALLY speeds up your computer (40%+ WOW!)!!!- see my amazon.com review)).
1. WAIT 1 minute (Registry changes, after ANY defrag is slow!)! Restart! You can also defrag from C Tools (as in error chkdsk... procedure above, but- Defragment Now instead of Error Check...)...

4. Now you are ALMOST ready to install NSW- On to "Clean Install Mode"!-
ALL services & programs MUST be stopped (especially anti-spyware! See my amazon.com review on SpySweeper!).
This is how to safely/easily do a "safe/clean install" (for that matter- ALL pgm installs!), in disabled... mode.
a. Start, Run, put " msconfig " (sans quotes) in box. OK
1. Put a dot in Selective Startup. Remove check from Load Startup Items. Apply, Close (wait for HD lights!), Restart...
2. OK, Cancel (gray boxes. Wait for hour glass & HD lights!)
3. wait 1 minute & Defrag again (slow down! This makes NSW files contiguous/performance!) & restart TWICE...!

4. Now to install NSW (no internet, firewalls, no nothing!)-
a. Dot in Custom Install!
1. Uncheck- !GOBack! (Per NSW- plays havoc..., even if you don't have Acronis!). Utilities box, uncheck- System Doctor, Speed Disk, and any others..., you don't use...
2 . Good ones!- WinDoctor, DiskDoctor, Explorer Extension... (if you don't know..., leave them)...

b. IMPORTANT NOTE!- During the install it check/asks you if you want "Worm Protection". This is REALLY a sorta firewall, in disguise (I had to start over here... DRAT!, as it conflicted with my Sygate 5.5 firewall! DRAT)!
Luckily I had an Acronis system restore backup! (XP restore is flaky... & doesn't do it ALL!)!
1. ONLY If you don't already have a 3d party firewall ( I really like Sygate "5.5!, only!"!), REMOVE the check.
a. If you only have the standard XP firewall, leave it in!
3. Install NSW be VERY patient & SLOW DOWN (always!)!

c. Remove CD, Restart . SLOW DOWN!
1. Manually start your 3d party firewall (if you have one), & log onto internet (hope you have high-speed!). You may have to do this around... the NSW messages...
2. Wait awhile, & Norton Protection Center will keep coming up with "do now..." alerts!
a. Whatever you do, "always" exit this now...!
b. Whatever you do DON'T run "One Button Checkup..."!
3. Actvate NSW... (I didn't register?)
4. If Live Update doesn't come up automatically (slow)-
Open NSW... & do a "Live Update (biggy!). Be VERY patient (seems like not-responding, but is really working...). Restart when asked. SLOW DOWN!
5. Enable 3d party firewall, and Live Update again. Keep doing this until no more updates.
Restart.

5. Disconnect from internet & go back to Run/msconfig..., and remove the gray check from Load Startup Items, again. Apply, Close (wait for HD lights!), Restart...
a. Defrag again (packs NSW files, for performance).
1 minute, & Restart.
b. Now go back to Run/msconfig... & put dot in "Normal Startup". Apply, Close (wait for HD lights!), Restart...
1. Log onto internet. Restart.
C. This is a GOOD time to do another Acronis backup!

6. DANGER!- All NSW Cleanups... will delete your IE favorites & cookies! To save them...-
a. Open NSW, Options, Norton Cleanup, Internet Clutter & remove check from cookies..., "Saved Web Sites" folder & "Import Favorites", Apply, OK.
Restart (ANY changes... don't take full effect, until AFTER a restart!).

7. Now schedule a weekly system scan- Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Scheduled Tasks, RIGHT click on Norton Scan..., Properties, Schedule (set time...), Apply, OK. Close out... & Restart.
Do an Acronis back up...!

DONE!

Scott :o)