Customer Reviews

Norton SystemWorks 2003 Pro

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

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 2003", the programs from Symantec such as System Works and Utilities are just same no major differences except for a more sleeker interface and tools for scanning "Instant messages" for viruses. I really don't know why Symantec decided to release this version so early. Yes, I was expecting a 2003 line of products. But I thought that they would of instead released them around mid-2003 when Microsoft Office 11 would debut. Beacause people use MS Office alot and Norton is good at scanning Office files for viruses.
So, should you upgrade?
If recently purchased System Works 2002 or Norton 2002 or any of the Symantec line of products at least wait until your one year subscription is up. Because that's what you by a utility program for, to keep updated against the latest attacks.

The Good: Norton Systemworks 2003 Pro is a good value and works well on the faster Windows XP based computers as a comprehensive antivirus and utilities software bundle.

The Bad: It seems to install alright on Windows 98 or 98SE based computers but after running all of the Live-Updates I have seen it corrupt, crash, and BSoD (blue screen) computers that were previously working flawlessly. It is also not very fun rebooting into safe mode to try to uninstall the mess it creates. If you are running a computer slower than 1.5 Ghz in speed you should forget about using it. This program will turn your once speedy Pentium computer into a 486 in no time.

The Ugly: If you get it running ok on your computer you can expect one year of antivirus and live updates before either having to register and subscribe for another year of updates or you will have to completely uninstall Norton Systemworks 2003 and install something else. If you decide to go with Systemworks 2004 good luck. Symantec's Norton 2004 products are some of the buggiest, slowest, most privacy invasive, and problem ridden pieces of software ever distributed by a major software security company. You can also expect serious installation problems, poor customer support, required product activation (can only be installed once or twice on the exact same computer), and major performance degradation to even the latest and fastest computers.

The Solution: You can run many of the Systemworks 2003 utilities right from the CD-ROM. If you need to install and use a particular program such as Norton Ghost 2003 then only install that one program and not the entire suite of Systemworks programs. Before you install any new antivirus software make sure you completely uninstall the Norton Systemworks and Antivirus software first or you will see the new software like the new McAfee have major problems dealing with the leftovers files from Norton. For antivirus software go with McAfee Antivirus 2004 (if you buy the McAfee 2004 Internet Security Suite with antivirus do not install the Privacy Service program since it causes major problems). With McAfee 2004 there is no product activation required and it seems to run much more efficiently on newer and older computers than Norton antivirus 2003 or 2004. Some other reportedly good antivirus programs include PC-Cillin 2004, Kaspersky Antivirus 4.5 or 5.0, Panda Platinum Antivirus, and the completely free (to download and update) AVG Antivirus. In this era of unknown Windows security flaws and new viruses being found every day you should also consider using a good software firewall solution such as Zone Alarm and Zone Alarm Pro or XP users should enable the Windows XP internet connection firewall.

It is difficult to make a utility program that works with various operating systems, because in many cases it has to bypass the operating system to work.

That said, Symantec should be able to design with this in mind. But it looks like they haven't. I had an installation of Windows 2000 with Norton 2002 working fine. I made the mistake of upgrading to XP - a mistake because it seems that Norton can't cope with this.

I have a file of nearly 5,000 photos which worked fine under Windows 2000. Under XP each time you opened a file the computer came to a halt for several seconds. This was because Norton Anti-virus was scanning the database.

Eventually I decided to make a clean installation (not an upgrade) of Windows XP. I figured that Norton 2002 would have problems so I ordered Norton 2003. I installed XP and some applications and the system ran fine. Then I made the mistake of installing Norton 2003.

I put in the CD and the program started installing Norton AntiVirus. Suddenly for no reason the computer crashed and restarted. When it moved into Windows I had a message saying that some program had interfered with the installation. It was obvious that things were bad so I went to the programs uninstall, and managed to get rid of most of what was there.

This didn't stop the warning notice appearing every time I started XP. I tried removing all the Norton folders in the program files and got rid of every file but one - this was "in use by Norton Anti-virus." Even after I renamed the folder the warning message still appeared.

The warning message had a link to the Norton web site, where the problem was acknowledged and there were instructions on how to get rid of it. However, one step was to go into the registry and manually remove two lines, with all the possibility of major damage if this wasn't done correctly.

That's when I really lost it with Norton. I've been working with programs that use the registry since around May 1995 (the Windows 95 preview edition) and I have NEVER had to alter the registry by hand. They know their program causes a problem yet they cannot write a simple program to make sure the mistake is cleared up without risk.

Had I cleaned up the registry manually I would then (according to Norton) be in a position to reinstall their software. Given the trouble I had with it I'd rather not go through all that gain, so I'll wait for XP Service Pack 2 for Anti-virus. The only other feature I use regularly is speed disk, but PC Magazine says that it's much slower than the XP disk defragmenter.

As someone else here says, such a pity a program you used to recomend automatically has sunk so low.

There was a time when Norton Systemworks was arguably regarded as the best utility suite for non-geek computer users -- it did all it purported to do with unequaled user friendliness and reliability. For reasons not clear to me, the product began having problems in the 2002 version, and by this, the 2003 version, it became only marginally reliable. When it installs correctly, it works like a dream. But out of a dozen or so Win2000 and WinXP computers I've built in the past year, it has only installed on 5 of them. Add/Remove doesnt get rid of it after a failed install -- but Symantec graciously offers a webpage of 100 or so registry edits to get around that-- read it if you're considering the purchase as your likely future some Sunday afternoon. For the scores of hours I've spent repairing the damage done by Symantec to my systems, it will be years before I ever trust anything branded by them again. ...

I bought this to try and rescue a non-booting Win2k machine. Window's CHKDSK wasn't fixing the problem, so I thought I'd buy Norton's in the hopes that it would keep me from having to reformat and reinstall Windows. Even though Win2k is clearly marked as supported on the box, few of Disk Doctor's features actually work with Win2k's NTFS disk formatting. I ended up having to reinstall Windows and recovering what data I could manually.

Ghost seemed like it would be really useful, but Ghost's "burn image directly to CDRWs" option didn't work with either of the CDRW drives that I tried (TEAC CDW28E or HP 8210e).

Speed disk seems to work fine, which is about the only good thing that I have to say about SystemWorks so far. To be fair, Win98 seems much more fully supported, but that doesn't help my Win2k laptop! (And who buys Win98 anymore??)

Summary: avoid for Win2000, maybe OK for Win98.

Ghost2003 is great(!)- the newest Ghost9 can be bought separately & integrated: highly recommended!
A listing of my favorite features-
1.AntiVirus-(10/10) I love it! Best. AntiVirus. Ever.
2.Speed Disk-(9/10) I love it! Defragmentation in a Symantec style.
3.Disk Doctor-(9/10) I love it! Windows CHKDSK in a Symantec style.
4.Wipe Info-(9/10) great file deletion. Permanently destroys individual files, yet NOT free space on NTFS disks.
5.Ghost 2003-(10/10) awesome as usual. Newest Ghost9 is even better! Great with RAID 0- Ghost9 is speedier.
6.No Activation-(10/10) sounds strange, but these days the lack of activation= a very nice feature!
7.Quick Clean-(8/10) I like it; I created a shortcut to WCQUICK.EXE & frequently use it.
8.UnErase Wizard-(7/10) I like it; rarely need it. Extra protection from file deletion.
9.Process Viewer-(7/10) I like it; rarely need it. Windows Process Viewer/Manager.
10.WinDoctor-(6/10) semi-controversial. People say it ruins Windows(!). I mainly use it for analysis.
Bottom Line- Amazingly, even today 2003Pro is Symantec's best. I've had great success using it with ZoneAlarm, Spybot, and PartitionMagic 8.0. Ghost9 can be obtained individually and integrated. You're BEST value-for-money can be had by purchasing the Norton Ghost 9.0 & Partition Magic 8.0 Bundle. As far as 2005Premier is concerned: Get SystemWorks2003Pro instead! It has a better look, no product activation, is every bit as capable, and is EXCEEDINGLY cost-effective right now: it's still available if you're willing to search for it! Get it today!

DO NOT INSTALL NAV or NIS 2003
If you like reading KB articles and fixing problems to no avail and then ending up with

ERROR loading explorer.exe
You must reload windows

Then install this dangerware.
The fixes for this problem given by MS on the KB do not fix this problem.
I have researched this for three months with no solution except to reload Win Me, Norton NAV & NIS 2002, which we had very few problems with.
You can't get to SAFE or NORMAL modes once this appears.
We have 14 systems that WERE running until we upgraded to 2003 NAV & NIS.
We installed Win ME, 2003 NAV & NIS only, on 2 systems and both systems crashed as above.
It takes awhile to crash though, so don't put to much confidence into it when you first load.
I think Sym has abandoned Win ME already and from what I have read while researching this they don't have it right for XP either.
Their support in a word SUCKS.
Paid support to fix the problems they created for us is, bull.
They should be paying us.

Since 0 is not an option our rating for this is 0

Being a previous user of Norton Systemworks 2002 and wanting to 'stay current' PLUS provided with a great price after rebates I purchased NSW 2003. Upon receipt I uninstalled the 2002 version on my Windows XP Pro laptop as per the install instructions and then spent the next 5 hours -- yes, no kidding, five hours -- installing and uninstalling in a vicious cycle of irritation and frustration that had me at the Norton website over and over again. Beyond the install/uninstall/install endless loop there was the great pleasure of extended registry editing, utility downloading and the useless crossing of fingers.

Understand that I am very comfortable troubleshooting and hunting down fixes for software and hardware problems, but never have I experienced the ..., problem plagued install that I encountered with Norton SystemWorks 2003.

My advice? RUUNNN AWWWAAAYYY!! IT'S NOT WORTH IT. Find value somewhere else, for the vast waste of time makes this totally NOT WORTH the price of admission.

The newest version installed and came up operating like a charm. The anti-virus, disk optimization, windows system fix, and ghosting of the disk all worked flawlessly. Symantec seems to have ironed out the kinks in previous versions of this package. This was installed under Windows XP with service pack 1.

Warning: Amazon says SW 2003 Pro is compatible with NT. However, the installer will not allow installation on NT.