Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional

by Symantec

Product Features

• Norton Utilities optimizes your PC¿s performance and solves computer problems
• Norton Password Manager keeps your passwords secure and easy to manage
• Norton GoBack Personal Edition restores your PC after a serious problem
• Norton CleanSweep removes unwanted programs and files that waste disk space
• Norton Ghost protects your data from computer disasters

Product Details

Product Manual [3.88mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000C8Y0V
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 8, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,759 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Symantec’s Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional Edition provides advanced problem-solving solutions to maximize PC performance. This powerful suite helps you defend against viruses, optimize your hard disk, manage your passwords, recover from system problems, remove unneeded files, and back up vital information. The "one-button checkup" feature lets you quickly check the health of your PC using multiple Norton SystemWorks tools--and now you can schedule customized scans to run any time you want. Norton AntiVirus, a trusted antivirus solution, now alerts you to the presence of certain non-virus threats such as spyware and keystroke loggers.

Features:

• Norton Utilities: optimizes your PC’s performance and solves computer problems.
• Norton Password Manager: keeps your passwords secure and easy to manage; it can even automatically fill in online forms.
• Norton GoBack Personal Edition: restores your PC to a healthy state after a serious problem such as a system crash or a failed software installation.
• Norton CleanSweep: removes unwanted programs and files that waste disk space.
• Norton Ghost: protects your data from computer disasters by letting you create full system backups easily.

Keep your PC running smoothly and prepared for emergencies with Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional Edition. Small office packs for five or 10 users are also available.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Consider the Alternatives, November 1, 2003

By 

Diego Banducci (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional (CD-ROM)

Having used the Norton Utilities since Peter Norton first brought them out, I am abandoning them. The other reviews on this page describe the problems with them, which get worse with each "upgrade." Symantec is following McAfee's lead: unbundled programs (It's better to sell 10 programs at $30 each than one integrated suite at $100), conflicts between the programs, lots of bugs, no customer service, and a $30/year per program charge for updates.
Where we reviewers fall down is in not suggesting alternatives (It doesn't cut it to say that there are better programs available and not identify them by name). So I'm offering these alternatives in the hope that other reviewers will suggest others:

1. ANTI-VIRUS: "PC-cillin" by Trend Micro is the hands-down favorite.

2. TOOL KITS: Take a look at "Fix-It Utilities 5" by Vcom and "WinOptimizer Suite" by AShampoo. Another option is "System Mechanic 3" by Iolo Technologies, although that gets mixed reviews.

3. SUITES (Security, Privacy, Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam): Check out "System Suite 5" by Vcom.

Note the Vcom recently purchased "Fix-It Utilities" and "System Suite" from OnTrack, so there may be transition problems.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Configuration Problems Galore, October 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional (CD-ROM)

I would stick with NSW 2003 Pro and not just because of the product activation. Too many problems with the installed Norton Antivirus (NAV) 2004. What is irritating is that Symantec knows there are specific problems with the auto protect feature in NAV 2004, but you do not get the error message until it's installed. You're then linked to their website to check specific settings in Windows (I'm using XP Pro). Then if that doesn't work, there is a another set of steps they recommend including uninstalling and reinstalling systemworks, cleanbooting, etc.

In my setup, NSW 2004 Pro had to be installed before the Zonealarm firewall. The auto protect feature in NAV 2004 would not activate if you installed NSW 2004 Pro after Zonealarm. You would get a specific error message and be linked to the Symantec website to go through all those steps mentioned previously. If those steps didn't work, then they wanted you to go through an uninstall/reinstall. By the time you get through (and it still doesn't work), you've just had it. In another case, the auto protect feature in NAV was disabled by the installation of a Creative Audigy 2 ZS sound card. I went back to NSW 2003 Pro which includes NAV 2003 and there were none of these problems.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Use only GoBack and Ghost, disregard the rest., March 7, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional (CD-ROM)

I have not used Systemworks Pro since version 2002 (and I will never again, it bogs down any PC and the system utilities have messed up my PC way too many times), however I am a very happy user of GoBack 3 De-Luxe and Ghost 2002.
I purchased Goback before Roxio sold it to Symantec, so mine still has the Roxio/Adaptec user interface, but hopefully has not been able to mess it up in just a couple of months.

I would say: if you like to have a tuned-up working PC (and that should be the reason that pushes one to shop for Systemworks, your best bet is probably to became proficient with Goback and Ghost included in Systemworks and forget about any system cleaning/tuning utilities.

Ghost will allow you to create a copy of your system (hopefully at a time when it is working fine) that can be reinstalled in a matter of minutes (or hours, depending on size).
Goback allows to goback to the past to undo the bad effects of an installation or anything wrong.
It is similar to the system restore that is part of Windows XP or Me, but a lot more powerful (after going back you can still recover specific files from the "future" that you might want to keep, or if Windows ain't booting, no problem: Goback Deluxe kicks in before the Bios looks for an OS, so just press the space bar when prompted by GoBack and pick the time to go back to.

This is a Duo that keep your system running forever, but you need to learn how to use them properly (Disclaimers, Inc.).

Important: my suggestion is to use only Ghost and Goback out of Systemworks, so it takes some tinkering with the installation, and a lot of disabling services and options after the installation, to try to limit the PC paralysis induced by a default Norton installation and to avoid being harassed by the stupid Norton Protected Recycled bin, clean sweeper, windoctor, big brother or whatever else they are called, another option is to get standalone versions of Ghost and Goback, or even better to download free 15 day trials from Symantec, test them out, license them if you like them.