Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional

Rating:
Summary: Too much burden on system
Review: This was my third try of the SystemWorks (after 2001 and 2002 versions), and my impression is still the same. It is not worth the hassle of installing and configuring each component and seeing substantial slowing of your machine. I always find it easier to do a fresh installation of Windows a couple of times a year than to suffer with a bogged down machine running SystemWorks. If you are not happy with this product, return it and get your money back.

Rating:
Summary: Useful - But some annoyances
Review: Unlike some of the other reviews, I ran into no problems with installation, despite having a complicated computer setup. (Development/Gaming machine with SW2003Pro) The initial AntiVirus scan was a little slow, but I have ~200K files. No major changes on some of the programs, but too many of them are memory resident now, even if you tell them not to run (speed disk). Just set them to disabled in your services. Otherwise, I have run into no stability issues at all.

Rating:
Summary: Very hard to get to work
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Sucks big time
Review: What a disappointment! I was *very* happy with Norton's Sytemworks 2003 - it worked really smoothly and transparently. My subscription was ending so I thought I'd upgrade to 2004. BIG mistake. It completely gummed up my otherwise zippy system. Everything slowed to a crawl, from start up down even to ordinary text editing. I have no idea what it was doing, but I'd type something and the cursor was in some sort of time warp, about three centuries behind. Navigation through a document was even worse: click click click click the damned thing was still stuck and then would zoom off to some other place. Apparently this was because Norton was busy checking something or the other. The guys at Norton must understand one thing: too much paranoia just leads to inefficiency. If you're going to spend all your time checking for viruses, you don't get work done. Good security software leaps in when it's needed. This one assumes that the user is a totally dumb ass and therefore needs Norton's chastity belt; so what if his work goes downt the tube? It's the virus that counts, not the work, right? Wrong. Avoid this like the plague. Stick with 2003. And I just HATE the activation thing. I've been religiously buying their products and I find this totally demeaning. Get a life, ladies.