Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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87 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Middle of the road package. Not the best, nor the worst., July 31, 2004
As the head of the IT support desk for a large contractor, to the government, I have to find software that will reduce downtime, fix errors and keep pc user's machine up and running.
I bought a full version of this product. [The Pro version].
To evaluate it's performance and abilities.
In my opinion;
I give it a [3-Star] "middle-of-the-road" score, as far as a "packaged" s/w utility goes.
This was neither a 5-Star, "miracle" s/w package, nor was it a 1-Star "total flop".
I could go on and give a dissertation, but let me just touch on a few select topics.
1. Anti-Spyware - I have 4 full version packages in my personal arsenal [home pc, not at work]. And STILL, if I run all 4 anti-spyware packages, each one will find something that the others don't.
My picks are:
a. Spysweeper [new V3.0 has a few new, cool upgrades over it's prior version, 2.x version]
b. Pestpatrol [also Spyware X-terminator, apparently licensed to STOMP INC but appears to use the Pestpatrol engine]
c. Mcafee Anti-spyware
d. X cleaner - I like this as an overall bundle-of-utilities better that for it's abilities as an in-depth anti-spyware, though it has been getting better.
2. Anti-virus and firewall - I have used either Norton AV alone, or as part of a Norton "bundle". This would be my first choice. Mcafee NAV probably 2nd.
I have not been very happy with Panda, as an anti-virus
w/ firewall. I don't know what it does behind the scenes, but it has a tendency in my experience to suck-the-life out of my pc. [Which is a 3 GHz with 1 gig ram.]
Bit-defender's demo worked quite well. It is an AV product only [I believe]. something to look at as a anti-virus product.
3. Utility suites - I have used Norton systemworks since 2000, along with the prior version of Norton utilities
for both PCs and MACs.
I normally use Norton Systemworks. A second choice would be V-COM's Systemsuite 5.0.
The only downside of Systemsuite 5 is that it's "disk fixer" product often just seems to throw up it's hands and tells you to manually invoke the CHKDSK utility to repair disk errors.
My suggestions:
1. look for TRIAL software from places like Norton [Symantec], PC-Cillin Trend Micro, Mcafee, Bit defender, V-COM, Iolo, Panda.
2. Always be a bit suspect of reviews [on any product here on AMAZON] that simply say general, non-commitive
terms like "It bites", "No good", "useless".
I give much more credibility to reviews that cover, WHO, WHAT, HOW, WHY, WHEN.
Why is something good or bad? What does it do that is good or bad? How is it better or worse than other products?
Why would I recommend or not recommend it? Based on what? When [under what circumstances]
Did it perform good or poor?
Just my .02 cents.
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30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome set of tools -- a must have!, November 15, 2003
I'm a long time computer user, having run everything from Apple II's to PC Jr's all the way up to the latest pentiums -- and I've always been a software-utility buff. I've owned all the versions Norton (even up to the newest 2004), and most of the competitors. I used to swear by the Norton Utilities/SystemWorks product -- that is until I tried System Mechanic 4 Pro by Iolo. I had tried the version 3 of System Mechanic a while ago, but it fell short. Now with version 4, hands down, I have to finally admit that someone has created a better set of tools: They are faster, safer, easier to use, more effective, and best of all, they don't hijack your system into oblivion like the Norton products tend to do. I had an aggravating blue screen lock-up problem that other utilities couldn't fix -- the registry tool fixed it immediately. I ran the spyware detection tool and got rid of six nasty parasites (Norton doesn't even have a spyware remover). With the included Popup killer tool, I can now surf the web in peace, and because the ads inside a webpage are filtered (in addition to popups), it speeds up everything at least two-fold. The defrag tool is the best I've seen to date, and at least twice as fast as SpeedDisk (80GB drive done in ten minutes!). I got rid of almost 3GB of junk that other utilities missed on the first run. Needless to say, I've said farewell to my long-time friend "Norton", and uninstalled all other utilities... For the beginner, I recommend the Maintenance Wizard tool because it's a point-and-shoot fix-up/tune-up process that you can't go wrong with. Experts will love how easy this product makes it to tinker and tune the system for max performance as well. The only caveat I could see (and I bet this is why one other reviewer I saw here may have had trouble) is that it's very important to uninstall any other antivirus software before installing System Mechanic Pro, because it installs its own antivirus (and two antivirus products running at the same time will always fight with each other and cause locks). I've had very positive experience with iolo's tech support as well, both by phone and email: fast, courteous, and accurate -- and they don't charge me a dime! Bottom line: If you need a great, safe set of tools that WORK and will NOT harm your computer, get System Mechanic Pro -- I did, and I'll never buy from another company.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
It really gave me a scare!, March 3, 2004
First off, it requires the removal of your existing anti-virus if you want to install the Panda anti-virus. I reluctantly removed Norton AV-2004 to try Panda. But, the real fun began when I had the utilities do a few things like defragment, which caused a complete lock-up of the system when the screen saver lighted up. Then, when doing a complete system scan using Panda, there was the same problem once again. It just wasn't worth the trouble. But the excitement began when I tried to reinstall Norton. Something wasn't right, and it took about an hour to figure out. IMHO, it just isn't worth it - too many bugs!
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