Customer Reviews

Norton Systemworks 2009 Standard Edition

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

 

 

Systemworks 2009 is a DOWNGRADE (definitely not an upgrade!) from previous versions. If it were free, it still wouldn't be worth having.

Much remains the same, but one functionality has been totally screwed up. Many programs set SHORTCUTS to files. After you've used a program on some files and later move or delete those files, or even if the program itself does so, these shortcuts are often still in place. Now, if you work with a lot of files, as I do, over a short time this can mean several hundred shortcuts are set in your computer that are "dead" - they go nowhere. Obviously, this is not a good thing. Over a longer period of time, this is THOUSANDS of invalid shortcuts!

In the past, Systemworks would find these non-functional shortcuts and bring them up for repair. It would find the file the shortcut originally pointed to, if it could. At repair time you could choose to have the shortcut reset to point to the new file location, or delete the shortcut. And for those shortcuts that were orphans(file it originally pointed to can't be found), Systemworks would just delete the invalid shortcut. Worked good. Makes sense. That's what anyone would do.

The new program just tells YOU to go into the registry and edit the shortcut yourself to fix it - and YOU figure out where the file is (since Systemworks couldn't find it - or didn't look). OK, so you don't want to do that (who would?) - you simply want to delete the shortcut. SORRY! Systemworks will no longer do that. If you can manage to find each individual of those hundreds of invalid shortcuts, you will have to delete them yourself. Be sure to do it right, or you screw up your Registry and then you really have problems.

Why would Norton (or any other company) cut the usefulness of their programs? Especially with new Windows operating systems already doing many of the functions these programs provide?

If you get Systemworks 2009 you will be downgrading from any previous version you may own. If you don't have Systemworks - opt for an older version and hope it will work on Windows 7 when that comes out.

Purchased Norton System Works, which included a 1-year subscription to updates. Installation was a huge pain, requiring more than 6 reboots and 3 more downloads beyond the initial software download. Thankfully, I know enough about computers to trudge through it all without any help. Then, after it was paid for and installed, they sent me an email indicating that they will retain my credit card information, because my purchase of System Works serves as proof that I agree to allow them to charge me for future upgrades and updates automatically. I never agreed to that. So, I went to their website and tried to contact "customer service". No phone numbers and all i can do is fill out request forms which remain unanswered. I will be contact Visa and my state attorney general next. I thought Norton/Symantec were very reputable names, but I was greatly mistaken.

I had what I thought was a simple problem. My PC was freezing due to some file errors, but chkdsk/f would not correct the problems because windows saw the the drive as "RAW," which supposedly means the drive is unformatted. Usually, the files on a RAW drive would not even be accessible, but in my case they were.

I figured that the Norton Disk Doctor component of this package would take care of the problem in short order, but instead, the worthless piece of crap software would "complete" the diagnostics in about 5 seconds (including the surface scan) and reported that the drive had NO PROBLEMS! Windows chkdsk was able to list the actual errors in the file structure, so I knew that they were present. After screwing around with this worthless dog of a program for a while, I finally had to back-up the files to an external drive, repartition and format the problem drive, then load the files back onto it.

Complete success, all symptoms fixed. But no thanks to Norton's worthless, ineffective product that is supposed to fix simple disk errors without having to blow away the partition and restore the data. By the way, after manually fixing the problem, NDD runs on the drive for about 20 minutes before it announces that it is healthy. When the file structure was broken, it only took 5 seconds before it lied like a dog. Very disappointing; Norton Disk Doctor does not live up to its hype.

Since the days of CP/M I have been buying Peter Nortons product's. Since 2003 I always keep telling myself that I'll never buy another program of his. However, for some strange reason, I continue to buy them.

I have been using SystemWorks since it was offered for sale. I believe that the GoBack enhancement might have been added in 2006 & 2007.

[ NORTON's WARNING REGARDING GOBACK (on a internal 2"x3" piece of paper)!
This version of 2009 SystemWorks does not support previous versions of GoBack. That warning is not noted on the outside of the box, just the inside. ]

To top things off..! I AM CONSTANTLY BEING REMINDED by a blinking icon, that new updates are available. When I do a Live Update, GoBack is shown and when the update is completed, I get a bunch of red circles with X's in them saying that GoBack was not updated.

Norton's Tech. Dept. solution: Give my PC a TOTAL Norton Program Removal enema and reload all my Norton programs. (I own more than 1 Norton program...) That just means more lost program activations!

By the way - Before I installed 2009, I deleted all my 2007 GoBack Restore files, used Windows Control Panel Add/Delete on 2007 and then of course rebooted.....

I will never purchase another Symantic product again. The support system stinks at best. A bunch of Analyst from India that do more damage then good. I needed to waste five houes with a Microsoft Tech. to undo the damage done to my pc by Norton chat analyst. Be forewarned . Don't buy Norton unless you understand the risks. They never tell the truth and cut you off the chat to discourage you from making complaints about their products or analyst.

I have been using Norton Utilities for 15 years now, but this is the last time I purchase a copy with Norton Antivirus (Norton Systemworks), for the following reasons:

1. Norton Antivirus randomly seizes 98% of CPU usage, bring my entire system to a halt. This goes on for several minutes. There is not indication of what it is doing (i.e. updating virus definitions, scanning, etc). I tried turning off every option, and still had this issue. Going to the Norton website I discovered this is a known issue.

2. Price. Norton used to offer a rebate to owners of previous versions. They haven't done this for years. They also used to offer to let you renew your virus update subscription at a reduced price. Now that costs as much as a full copy of the software.

3. MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) and AVG both work just as well, use far less resources, and are free!

Norton Utilities is great. Norton Antivirus has become the worst sort of bloatware. Avoid it!

The product includes Norton Antivirus and securities... MANY SELLERS here is not complying with AMAZON product, they are selling the "BASIC" edition which does not have a Norton Antivirus. "BE CAREFUL" as I wss sold the wrong version, now I am fight to get my full money out.
Amazon customer service is in India, and even when I filed a report, they had not fix the AD site! The outsource are so stupid, and did not answer my issue or when I forward a report! Their services hade went down!
Don't take this as an offense, I do love Amazon, just have to be careful now!

I have real problems with Symantec's quality control in that their products are difficult to uninstall (no uninstall ever goes smoothly without errors) and their installs are usually error prone as well. The company even has a tool to remove their programs which says to me that their typical uninstall routines don't work reliably.

The only reason why I buy Systemworks each year is that I can get a new copy for the same price (if not less sometimes) than buying a new years subscription of their virus definitions. When you get a new copy of SystemWorks it of course comes with a new yearly subscription. So, I suppose Norton Anti-Virus is the primary reason why I buy SystemWorks.

This new version seems better; LiveUpdate downloads are faster, the interface is less cluttered. The install even went smoothly and more quickly than ones in the past. So, I'm satisfied with this product. However, I'm at the point now that if I have any more problems with Symantec products I'll be more than happy to chuck Norton Antivirus for another anti virus app and not ever buy SystemWorks again. For now, Symantec seems to have redeemed themselves slightly, but I still feel that this company needs to do a better job with how it produces software.

I should also add that I do find some apps that are part of the Norton Utilities component of SystemWorks helpful and convenient such as Disk Doctor and Speed Disk. After Norton Antivirus, those two apps are the ones I use the most.