Customer Reviews

Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I have used Norton SystemWorks for years and have been very satisfied with it - until now. SystemWorks Pro 2004 really gummed up my system. So, I'm sending it back. My advice is not to buy it unless, and until, you see a steady stream of positive comments here and on CNET.com.

Well, as a Windows application programmer myself, I usually get any new software to work under 15 minutes. I was "humbled" by my experience with SystemWorks Pro. It would install fine, but unexpectedly exit right after the startup. No error messages, no warnings, nothing. Symantec knowledge base offered 4 various fix options (one of the most popular articles on the site!), but none of those worked. I guess the problem hit my "vanity", so I sat there for the next hour or so until I solved it (basically removal of every trace of any other Symantec product from the XP system). Finally, it worked. Unfortunately, once it started, it knocked-out my Outlook e-mail ("server could not be located"). Turning off e-mail virus checking completely did NOT help the problem. LiveUpdate reported internal errors, so no chance of updating. That did it for me. Uninstalled and things are back to normal. Two stars instead of one because SpeedDisk actually worked.

I rated this program as a one star only because there was no lower rating on the scale.

I bought Systemworks 2004 and tried to install it last night. I tried it on my Windows XP partition and also on the Windows 98 partition with the same results each time. I have just finished restoring my computer 24 hours later.

On the first install, it said it would overwrite Systemworks 2003. I let it try. Almost all the way through, it gave an error message saying that it found Ghost and could not install over it. Then it completely uninstalled the entire program. I then removed Systemworks 2003 but found out later that their uninstalld does not remove all of it.

Next try, installation started and then said that I have Antivirus 2002 on my computer. It was there 2 years ago but was replaced with NAV 2003 a year ago. It asked for disk "Antivirus Label" whatever that is. Not having ever owned any such disk, I could not provide it. Systemworks then unstalled everything again.

When I tried to run my computer after all this, Explorer would not open folders and the computer locked up.

I have used their products since 1986 and this is the worst piece of garbage that I ever wasted my money on.

This is the single worst software purchase I have ever made. I bought Norton 2004 Professional because of Norton's reputation and a good mail-in-rebate offer. After following all pre-installation instructions, the software crashed during installation. After following all uninstall/reinstall instructions, same problem. After following all Symantec online tech support instructions, same problem. After emailing Symantec for support (and changing so many settings on my computer that I'm pretty sure its even more vulnerable than before I started), same problem. BTW, Symantec says it will respond w/in 48 hours, more like 4 to 8 days per correspondence. I have now spent way more time than any rebate is worth, still don't have protection and Symantec wants to charge me about $40 to actually talk to a support person by phone. Lastly, after giving up on the disc software I purchased, I downloaded the trial version. It worked great. Only problem, the product code I paid for can't be used to activate the trial software. (Why? Because that's Symantec's policy, that's why.) So, I'm stuck with a trial version that expires in 15 days, but I can't activate it without paying for the software twice. HORRIBLE! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

NSW 2004 Pro consists of few changes from the 2003 version (for example, Ghost is still v. 2003) except for in Antivirus 2004. Like others, I have been frustrated by the problems that Norton Antivirus 2004 creates on my system (dual P4 1.7 Ghz CPUs, 1 GB RDRAM, so speed shouldn't be a problem). It conflicts with several other programs, causes the system to hang, requiring a reboot, and is generally a pain. I'vbe tried turning off some of the new scans it does for adware, etc., but that doesn't fully fix the problems. NAV 2003 worked great. It's bad enough having to activate the product. I wish I had stayed with NSW2003 and bought another year of virus definition updates, as I ended up uninstalling this piece of junk and reintsalling NSW2003. On the bright side, the uninstall seems to have clean up my registry enough that NSW2003 shows another year of virus definition subscription.

In the case of Norton Systemworks 2004 Professional, as the years pass and the version numbers are incremented, the software actually get worse. And now, it has come to a point where Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional should not be used at all. With the exception of Norton Ghost, which can be pretty useful, the rest of the product suite is a complete waste. Why? you ask.. Ok.

1) NSW2004Pro is heavy, slow, and at full install requires significant system resources, even when you manually configure the OS/System's services to stop the auto-start of unnecessary crap. It WILL degrade the overall performance of your system and the benefits (only one, Ghost) you gain from it are not worth the expense.

2) If you install NSW2004Pro, you will NOT be able to change your computer performance settings for virtual memory allocation. What? That's right. NSW2004Pro consistently and persistently overrides your manual configurations and sets the virtual memory to the OS/System recommended values. There is NO way around this.

I can go on and on about this horrible software product. I really recommend that you look for other solutions. I won't suggest any, I'm sure you'll be able to research that on your own. I wouldn't want you to think I work for a competitor to Norton.

I was very dissapointed with this product. After installing and running SystemWorks, I noticed every application I run on my computer had slowed down considerably. There was constant hard drive activity, even doing somthing as simple as navigating the programs menu under windows. I also noticed my firewall reporting that windows messenger was accessing the internet in the background, which it had never done prior to installing this software(why did it need to do that?). If it didnt slow my system down so much I may have kept using it, but it was to much of a performance hit. I will say on a positive note, it uninstalled nicely.
btw, system specs are an AthlonXP 2400, 512 ram, Geforce4 ti4200.