Does "system Works" Work?

[rahulkothari]

... picked from yahoo news ....


Products like "Norton System Works" thrive on both faith and fear -- the fear that something horrible will happen to your computer and the faith that a piece of software is going to save your PC. So if you invest the money and your system runs smoothly, does it mean that the product is working, or that your computer simply has no problems?

But just as Norton may rightly take the credit when everything is running smoothly, it risks taking the blame when the PC starts acting up.

In my limited circle, the buzz on Norton hasn't been very good. It has a reputation for wrapping itself so tightly around your system that it causes its own system problems. At the shop where I take my PC for repairs and upgrades, it's consistently blamed for snafus. And consider the experience of a close friend -- when his networked PC was running so slowly it couldn't keep up with his typing, the problem disappeared after he removed Norton and several other programs.

To be realistic, my computer gurus may simply find "Norton" to be a handy whipping boy, just as nurses and police often blame the full moon when people seem a little crazy, a notion that persists in spite of being disproven long ago. The problem with the networked PC may have been caused by the system administrators who added a cut-rate virus check that was incompatible with Norton.

So I decided to give Norton a chance to tackle the chronic problem I've been having with my old laptop, the one that inexplicably freezes, usually when I'm on the Internet with dialup modem.

So I loaded it up and was taken aback as I was checking the Internet for updates. I received this message: "To receive further available product updates, please run Live Update repeatedly until you see the message 'All of the Symantec products installed on your computer are currently up to date."'

Sure enough, after I rebooted my PC and went back on the Internet, I found that I had to rerun Live Update to update my update.

In other words, "System Works" is smart enough to provide free upgrades, but not smart enough to do the job correctly in one step, a problem not found in its chief competitor, McAfee.

I'd like to report that "Norton System Works" stopped the laptop from seizing, but it didn't. Whether it was a little less likely to freeze up because of Norton, I have my doubts about that as well.

But I'm only one consumer, so I can't really say whether Norton will solve any difficulties you're having. But if you've got a problem and you're tempted to solve it with Norton, you should ask yourself, "Am I feeling lucky?"

(Gene Emery is a columnist who covers science and technology. His Internet address is GEmery(at) Cox.net. Any opinions in the column are his alone.)

.... So, what are your opinions ??

[randyrhoads1981]

Heres mine...it makes a good yard sale item :D . .get AVG..along with Adaware..dont open attachments. and run scandisk once a week and defrag once every other month. When you install Works and do not tweak the options so that everything isnt running all at once, it can really lag a computer. Ive used it myself and after a hour of turning off everything to run at bootup helps the lag issue somewhat. But the way it takes the Windows hostage and its size..isnt worth it..And when installing Works you run Live Update to find that your downloading the whole software over again in updates.. i finally tossed it when the updates where getting into the 12MB area after a fresh install of the software..McAfee isnt even allowed within 300 yards of me :D ..

[skhips]

I only install the AV and ghost (as I use ghost a lot),

I then run from the CD without installing on mine and others computers,

Wipeinfo - "secure" deletion of data
Cleansweep - delete unnessasry files
Win DR - finds and repairs Window errors
Disk DR - like scandisk

I have found that installing all the tools does appear to slow the system down as it is monitioring and saving records for recovery.

:)

[jabarnutcase]

Well, if you read THIS (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=14462) tread, it pretty much sums up my opinion!
I posted it when I first came to the forums because "System Works 2002" was "bugging" me at the time. :D
I think my old thread speaks for itself. At any rate, I just use their Anti-virus now-(Until my free updates run out-Then I'll switch over to AVG or whatever:), and a few other good programs (like Ad-Aware etc.)that have been mentioned here before. And now, I worry a lot less!!! ;)

[evalroy]

Some years ago I bought a copy of System Works on clearance from Office Depot. I was suckered by the allure of a do-it-all program that would watch my back while I was blissfully computing. :rolleyes:

Well it did a lot of things and looked really cool. Mostly, it was a resource hog. It slowed that old computer down considerably and caused my computer to crash randomly. After uninstalling it, I was amazed how much better my computer performed. :eek:

Since then, it has been my goal to better understand my computer and the processes that degrade or improve performance. That is why I really like this forum. It contains much more useful information and advice than slew’s of software “solutions” like System Works. I am afraid that this product is just like other software on the market purporting to put the average PC user's mind to ease - it appeals to the lowest common denominator and plays upon a user's ignorance and fear.

ER :cool:

[Steve]

Yup...I'm a fan of SystemWorks. Norton Antivirus costs a minimal amount but is right up there with the best. CleanSweep is fast and easy and has a real good cookie manager. InfoWipe does a real government wipe. No retrievable data. SpeedDisk is a very good, very fast defragger. I have used Norton System Check to advantage several times after a difficult install of win98. The Optimization Wizard Has increased the performance of my system. RegestySweep does a good job of cleaning the trash and leftovers from the regestry.

All that being said... CrashGuard sucks. It's a lousey program best left uninstalled. The whole SystemWorks program IS an incredible resource hog. When installing, one must be discriminating and install only the features desired.

As far as online updates...I don't mind. If I have an out of date copy of SystemWorks, if it takes a few trys to get ALL of the FREE updates to the product, I'm OK. I'm glad that Symantec is so busy and productive that current updates takes more than one download!

JMHO, of course. :)

[sea69]

Originally posted by skhips
I only install the AV and ghost (as I use ghost a lot),

I then run from the CD without installing on mine and others computers,

Wipeinfo - "secure" deletion of data
Cleansweep - delete unnessasry files
Win DR - finds and repairs Window errors
Disk DR - like scandisk

I have found that installing all the tools does appear to slow the system down as it is monitioring and saving records for recovery.

:)

me too- but only on other peoples pc's- never gets in MY cd-tray of my main system.

never- but then again, I know what has and hasn't been done to this one- on others it seems to do a good job run from the cd.


on my personal system I use avg (sometimes), ad aware, trojan gaurd, regcleaner, easy cleaner, and winXP does an automatic disk utility after I think (13) minutes of inactivity- or idle time.


;)

[rahulkothari]

I always follow the I.U.E. theory when it comes to disk monitoring and disk repair utilities.... but yes, when it comes to 'recommending' others i always say "you just can't afford to not to have it" :eek: ;)

I.U.E. :- Install Uninstall Enjoy :)

[RKBA]

rahulkothari,

I agree with the Yahoo News article you posted. I'd used Norton Utilities for many years and kept upgrading as new versions of it came out, but at some point it became more of a liability than an asset. I just recently (a month or two ago) uninstalled Norton Systemworks 2002 from my computer. It took several hours of work, and I was aghast at how it had inserted itself into virtually every nook and cranny of my registry and elsewhere. Naturally, its so called "Uninstall" utility left behind about 80% of Norton Systemworks and had to be painstakingly removed by hand. Now that I've gone to all the trouble of uninstalling it, I'll never reinstall it again.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no decent set of "Suite" tools available. I tried OnTrack's "System Suite 4.0" toolset, because it looked like a great replacement for Norton's Systemworks that wasn't as intrusive as Symantec's. It probably would have been an excellent product if it weren't for the fact that it doesn't work with my Promise Disk Controller chipset. There's a lengthy Customer Support Center discussion thread at "AutoEmailScan, etc" (http://support.ontrack.com/cgi-bin/ontrack.cfg/php/enduser/myq_idp.php?p_sid=Xx4noklg&p_lva=&p_refno=020701-000013&p_created=1025517351&p_sp=cF9ncmlkc29ydD0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD0mcF9zZWFyY 2hfdHlwZT0zJnBfcHJvZF9sdmwxPTcmcF9wcm9kX2x2bDI9fmF ueX4mcF9jYXRfbHZsMT1_YQ**&p_li=&p_gridsort=&p_row_cnt=1&p_page=1) if anyone is interested in the details, but in order to view it I think you need to have an OnTrack UserID and password. At least they gave me a refund without any hassle (other than all the time I spent trying to figure out what was wrong before they finally told me it wasn't compatible with the Promise Chipset), and I would purchase a new copy of it if they ever do come out with Promise support.

I might try the McAfee's "Clinic" software, but it got a pretty poor review on ZdNet. By the way, have you heard that Ziff Davis (owner of ZdNet.com and publisher of PcMagazine) is going bankrupt (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/29/business/media/29ZIFF.html?ex=1028520000&en=73c9a4f95c212ba8&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA)?

-- Ron

[Nooyawkah]

Thanks for all your opinions. (uninstalling Norton, except anti-virus, as we speak).

[John0904]

So I decided to give Norton a chance to tackle the chronic problem I've been having with my old laptop, the one that inexplicably freezes, usually when I'm on the Internet with dialup modem.

I hope this person wasn't expecting a supernatural occurrence that would fix all his software and hardware problems. I'm sure that he would love that though. :p

My opinion? Depends on the user and the computer. If the user tweaks every possible thing he can, no software will help restore their mistakes. I am sure they "thought" they could make their system run better or faster. If it fails, they would rather blame another source than themselves.

I am not saying that all software is infallible but they are not the demons that we make them as. Ok...ok, there are some, but those are far and few. :)

The real reasons that computers crash besides hardware failure, is human intervention. After installing hundreds of programs, deleting, uninstalling, moving, ect...the OS can only take so much and starts crashing.

My theory on this? If you installed the basic OS and Norton SystemWorks and didn't install anything else and didn't tweak the OS, I am sure that the computer will be fine. There are exceptions to this though. But that could be caused by hardware configurations.

Verdict...
There is none. :D Some will praise such programs, while others will condemn it.
To each their own as I say.

[classicsoftware]

Wow!!

I didn't realize how much fear and loathing NSW generates. I have been using Norton since it was really by Peter Norton. I use the Anti-virus and the utilites. I run nothing in the backround.

I just find the Disk Doctor and Speedisk are far superior to the Windows counterparts especially in the Win 9X series. I'm not so sure about XP and 2000.

I don't let anything take over my computer.

And BTW, what's wrong with a company constantly updating their software. Don't you want the bug fixes and slight in version enhancements automatically installed.

I'm still a fan of NSW it works great on my systems all 7 of them...