Customer Reviews

Norton Systemworks 2006 Premier

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(44)

 

 

Caveat: I am comparing this to systemworks standard, 2005.

Although I've been a user of symantec/norton products for about 10 years now, there has always been some bugginess about them. This is the smoothest release I've ever seen. This is also based on a 3 day review, so it's not really thorough. This also refers to the download version, which is a bit more difficult because I had to burn my own ISO boot/backup/restore disk.

That aside, the reason for the 4 stars is the redundancy in ways to do the same (or very similar) thing twice, and for the minimal (if any) changes to Norton Utilities. Norton Ghost 10, for example, does automatic and manual restore checkpoints on backups. GoBack does the same thing, but it's not meant for ISO, obviously. GoBack hasn't changed much, if at all, since 2005. However, the two togther are somewhat redundant, and could be possibly merged. Safe install in Goback is now automatic, tho (i.e., "it appears you are installing a new program, you'll have the option to restore to pre-install conditions" or some such verbage).

Norton Utilities is about the same, straight up. Wipe slack space, for example, is still a drop down selection, rather than a button option. In fact, everything in Norton Utilities seems the same in the control panel from 2005. No memory defrag. No internet tweaking tools. Just as an idea, symantec, if you're listening, and have no plans to improve Norton Utilities, you could set up a way to allow plug ins like Nvidias N-Tune app...

What's new to me (and possibly other upgraders) is Checkit, which has been updated (but still covers mostly the same content), and Benchmark test, which compares my system against others, and itself, during tweaking, overclocking, or upgrades. However, the list of comparable systems is painfully short. I lucked up and had the exact same setup as one indicated, except for the drives. Process viewer, which is new, gives a greater deal of control and understanding to operating processes (same as the Windows process viewer, just with more options, such as Google this - useful for ID'ing what's running).

Ghost has some redundancy in view progress and performance. Progress is shown during backups anyhow, performance is a useful tool though, to give a sliding scale priority to backups while using other programs, from low (very slow backup) to high (in-use desktop programs take forever, but ghost flies). My 15 gig test setup compressed to 3 gigs on my backup drive, and the incrementals have been reliably popping up to say they're doing so.

What's different? System Optimizer includes user level controls (meaning you can, for example, restrict individual accounts or tweak individual accounts - there are also many more options in there now for tweaking and information. The downside is that settings are still locked to admin level accounts, except for basic things like virus scan.

The main proggy startup has a changed "Norton Status Screen" which has been basically rearranged, but offers more immediate acccess to tools freqently used, rather than clicking "change settings" or "more info". Some have been renamed/regrouped, such as "Performance", which covers auto-protect, spyware, Improve Performance (accesses defrag), clean clutter, fix windows problems (windoctor). Also new is a Norton Status bar that attaches to the lower right taskbar (the regular task icons still install). But the Norton Status bar will pop up on startup giving a snapshot of system health, it seems to me a shortcut to the entire program, should things go wrong anywhere. The status bar is NOT system doctor, which is still available via Utilities.

Everything boots smoother and faster, much faster. Of course, I haven't loaded the system down. I had tried Iolo's v6, and while I liked it's myriad of utilities (memory defrag and recover, for example, and a slew of others that Norton lacks) it was buggy beyond belief on almost everything else). I suppose, in all fairness, I should have tried a clean boot install of Iolo v6, but even so, its lack of information (just stuff like "3 spyware programs detected" without giving info was useless).

Norton's antivirus scans are faster, and sport a new interface. Registry optimizer is about the same as before, and one button checkup hasn't changed.

With the exception of Norton Ghost (which I love), I would have been disappointed in the upgrade had I purchased regular systemworks... the changes are incremental, rather than monumental. However, they make sense and improve the program, well, incrementally.

One thing I still haven't isolated is use with Windows firewall... I was able to use Norton's worm detection and Windows firewall simultaneously without flaw in Systemworks 2005. Now when I try to do the same, downloads slow, then stop completely. It's one or the other, it seems (or install Norton Firewall, which the protection center will suggest (albeit unobtrusively, thank God.

The whole core Norton system, including goback and all is now a 1 button install. Performance test is separate, and strikingly similar to checkit. There is also a new registration/validation procedure which claims to be designed to resolve the repeat installation errors that plagued 2005 (regular systemworks, anyhow).

Also, during online purchase, I tried to delete the extended backup service, but it would delete the whole order. This only happened with Premiere, I tried it with other products, and it would not occur. CD Buyers will not have this issue, of course.

Overall, I am happy with the purchase. Overclockers beware that a cmos reset, and even some overclockings, will screw the pooch on Systemworks, and require going thru all reinitilizations again (goback, full virus scan, etc.) - At least on my system. Your mileage may vary. I've probably missed a few dozen improvements which the Norton folks will protest, and the Iolo folks, well, they will learn from their customers .. but this is where things stand now.

Norton is the 800 lb gorilla because it is the best, in my opinion, even with a few bugs, lack of Norton Utilities update, and some redundancy in functionality. If I had to summarize it another way, it is the best antivirus application around, period, with the best of the available utilities, even if they are significantly limited compared to other upstarts.

I would recommend NOT installing GoBack! (In order to NOT install GoBack, you must do a custom install and deselect GoBack.)

Just like another reviewer, I installed NSW Premier with disasterous results. GoBack messed up ALL drives (not just the system drive) so that the PC would not boot (endless boot loop), and a secondary disk was unreadable. I could find no way to uninstall GoBack once the system was corrupted, even after checking the Symantec website. There was no simple utility on the System Recovery CD to check for and uninstall GoBack!!!???!!! I could not believe it. Luckily, I had the drives backed up, but I had to completely rebuild the entire system!

NSW has not changed / improved for nearly five years. While I respect the Symantec Antivirus s/w, NSW is in need of a massive overhaul. Symantec has not invested in these utilities and it shows. Don't waste you money on this product, find a better utilities package.

Egad! I have never had any issues with Symantec products. As a customer who has owned Systemworks Premier 2003 and 2005 on 3 separate machines, overall I've been very satisfied with the integration and stability offered. In fact, in many instances my experience with Systemworks 2003/2005 have exceeded my expectations! My confidence was high and I nonetheless opted to partake in some Black Friday frenzy to nab the latest greatest Symantec Systemworks 2006 Premier edition rebated to nothing! How could I resist?

Exit Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition (provided by my company and was working fine)...

Enter hell in a hand basket. SWP2006 turned a beautifully smooth running brand new HP laptop (ample hardware I assure you) into a sniveling churning, grinding "Pentium II-esqe" background process running dog! Upon install startup took forever, over and over again... and my laptop never stopped grinding away incessantly... (hence the "Pentium II" reference).

My disappointment continued when I tried calling tech support. Yes, I too reached India after 45 minutes on hold and a dial-by-directory maze. They told me to completely uninstall the entire suite of programs (including Live Update) and try reinstalling them one at a time via custom install. "Call back when you isolate the problem." So much for support.

India did state that they are receiving numerous calls from users who report similar affected system performance issues with SWP2006. Great.

Has Symantec gotten to the point where they have to give their products away? After all, its all about the residual updates and re-registrations times millions of users where they make their money!

As far as my system status, while waiting for Go Back to uninstall (as part of the entire suite) I decided to write this and share my experiences with you. Unfortunately I must concur, if you are satisfied with an existing Symantec Systemworks product... DO NOT UPGRADE to SWP2006. Symantec has done little if anything over the last few years to improve Systemworks. Renewals will allow you to receive updates/etc without the hassle of having as one writer put it..."to completely rebuild the entire system!"

But all is not lost, Im still satisfied with the Systemworks 2005 Premier I have on my other systems. (I also have Internet Security Pro 2003 and I highly recommend this- it traces hack attempts with a global GPS map with network administrator contact info)! You can still buy it if you poke around on Google.

So long as I can roll back this installation (I've been fortunate not to get burned in the redundant boot loops others are reporting) I'll breathe a sigh of relief.

SWP2006... cant recommend it!

To put this review in context, please understand that I have been using Norton & Symantec since the old MS-DOS version of Norton, well before Symantec became involved. I have recommended them to anyone who asked me about the best utilities and anti-virus to use. I have been in the IT industry since the 1980's and am extremely comfortable and experienced with PC's and the MS operating systems.

Over the years I have put up with increasing difficulty in the installation, removal and re-installation of Symantec and Norton products. Symantec products have sadly become behemoths sucking up system resources and requiring reboots at every turn.

I wish I could say the NSW2006 Premier was a turn-around product, starting to fix the many, many issues I have encountered with each release. But it is not only no better than 2004 or 2005, it seems to be worse.

RESOURCE ISSUES
The system resource issue has become unbearable. I have the product installed on both a desktop and a laptop and both now have ridiculously slow boot up times (8 minutes or more). And once they boot fully, they remain slow for another 5 to ten minutes. I can watch the Task Manager process list and SEE the Norton and Symantec processes chew up CPU.

PRODUCT FUNCTIONALITY
I have had to re-install Norton AntiSpam until I am blue in the face. It will work for a while and then stop completely, although it is loaded and SEEMS to be running, it won't catch a single junk mail. After a reinstallation it works for a few days and then wham, it stops again until the next reinstallation.

Symantec saw fit to stop distributing Password Manager with Norton Systemworks 2005 or later (it was part of the NSW2004 product). So when I purchased and installed 2005 and 2006, Password Manager was automatically uninstalled, requiring a manual install and reactivation each time! And of course reboots every time (not to mention several reboots for misc. errors, etc)

SUPPORT ISSUES
Recently Password Manager (which I have been using since 2004) required another Key Activation after a system restart unrelated to Norton (Password Manager had been in constant use since '04.) Well THIS time it failed the server activation back at good ol' Symantec and refuses to run anymore since it has been "activated too many times". In order for me to be able to use it I have to MAIL a copy of my original install CD (with the Activation Key label) to Symantec in California. There is NO online support option for this failure. Since I have been relying on Password Manager to store my passwords I am now password dysfunctional on many websites until their "installation security manager" can review my issue and respond to me. This situation is absolutely intolerable.

I have had very mixed results with other Symantec problems. Although they have tried to be helpful and in some cases have not charged me for phone support when technically they could have, my overall experience of Symantec support is not very good. I have had two or three different "techs" recommend completely different solutions for the same problem when they couldn't find records of my previous calls, forcing me to start over each time. And, like many companies, their support is farmed out overseas so the understandability of some techs is often difficult.

SUMMARY
I have finally uninstalled Norton Anti-Virus and Personal Firewall, leaving Norton Utilities hoping that the handy utilities it offers will not prove to be huge resource hogs by themselves. I downloaded the free trial of ZoneLabs ZoneAlarm Security Suite and so far have noticed a significant reduction of resource utilization and am very pleased with the simple interfaces, ease of configuration and -knock on wood- smooth operating anti-spam.

Goodbye Symantec, hello ZoneLabs!

Hi, I used Norton since I have a computer (I got my first in the early 90's). Now I bought Norton Systemworks 2006 Premier, and I installed it. After the installation I wasn't able to boot my computer. I was able to go in BIOS, but after that my keyboard was deactivated by Norton. It started Norten GoBack. After that Windows XP should start, but it didn't. I wasn't able to reinstall windows, 'cause my keyboard was deactivated (lol, I read: Press any key to start from CD! but what should I do with a deactivated keyboard). So I went to my local computerstore, and they checked my computer (it last 5 days, 1hour worktime). They had to reinstall Windows. They told me, they never have seen an as corrupted windows as this. (umm. almost forgot it: I tried to contact Symantec for 29.95 USD. They should call me back. THEY NEVER DID!!!)

I really like to warn you. Be prepared, that your complete Windows will be gone if you install this programm.

Sorry for my bad english and greetings from a former Norton-fan!

I am not a computer noob. I am experienced at network and currently working on my comptia A+ certification. I saw this for free after rebates and figured what the heck, why not? I will honostly say this is the worst program I have used in my life. My computer went from running like its fresh athlon 3000 with 1 gig of ram to litterally slower than my 400 mghz pentium 2 with 128 mb if ram. NO JOKE! I am very pissed off and def. don't isntall norton go back. It is currently unistalling and is about half way done after an hour and a half. COMEON NORTON! how does it take longer to unistall your darn program than to reformat my entire machine!!!!!!!!???????????????????? I will be calling Norton to try to get a refund and air my complaints. And Everyone else is telling the truth, my hard drive was constantly spinning when I wasn't using the computer why?
In conclusion DON'T TOUCH THIS PROGRAM WITH A POOPY STICK

NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER buy this product! I installed in on my new laptop and as soon as it was done and said "reboot", my system went into a NEVER ENDING reboot cycle. I thought I had something on my computer that caused my problem. After reloading Windows XP Pro, I decided to make it the first software I would add, no other software conflicts. SAME THING, REBOOT LOOP, OVER AND OVER AND OVER. How can they sell this kind of garbage? I used 2003, 2004. Could NEVER get 2005 to install, alway an error message half way through. Maybe that was a blessing. 2006 WIPED OUT MY COMPUTER. DO NOT BUY AND DO NOT EXPECT SUPPORT WORTH A ....

Support call put me in India to a person who could not get the spelling of my name and I could not understand her.

DO NOT BUY UNLESS YOU WANT TO WASTE TWO DAYS RECOVERING YOUR SYSTEM.

I have been buying Norton products since the mid 90's with no major problems until now. Goback included in System Works 2006 has prevented my computer from booting resulting in my having to reformat my computer. Fortunately it was a brand new computer and I lost only time, not data. However in the process I learned that Symantec has no product support! I have been waiting for 24 hours for a Paid(29.95)call back and it's not happened. Luckily I have a second computer and was able to search the web for help on this and it's not an uncommon problem. If it were free I wouldn't use it, because I paid for it I am furious. If you have a RAID drive stay away from this, if you have more than 1GB of memory, Stay away from this!
Heck, stay away from this period. This had been a reliable product but it is now crap with no support!

Generally speaking, as a provider of AntiVirus software, Norton has been more reliable than Mcafee. GoBack, however, is an abomination. As other reviewers have noted, start up time will increase by two or three magnitudes of order. There are background processes that constantly run that kill performance and response time. It also creates a documented problem when trying to add a secondary hard drive with GoBack installed, to a new computer. The secondary hard drive will not be recognized under "my computer" (rendering it totally useless). The workaround? Disable GoBack! The solution? Don't by this piece of junk software in the first place.

After installing the product suite, even trying to limit the background and startup options, performance of my P4 240Ghz with 384 MB RAM was noticeably degraded. The final straw was when I tried to play my favorite pinball game (several years old, and never a problem before), and the ball would frequently jump or stutter, accompanied by a flurry of hard disk activity.

Norton (actually, Symantec), which long ago had a reputation for good support, now seems to offer no support at all, other than pay-per-minute phone support, and a knowledge base which returns out-of-date and mostly irrelevant answers. I could find no place on their support site to submit a question or even suggest that the problem be looked into.

I uninstalled the entire product, and retried the pinball game, and it ran perfectly.

Then I reinstalled, deselecting everything except AntiVirus. There was some degradation on the pinball again, but not to the level of the full suite. Annoying, but I can live with it.

Next year, I will get AntiVirus standalone, or maybe try one of their virus protection competitors.