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Norton Utilities 2001 5.0

Norton Utilities 2001 5.0

List Price: $49.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Functionally superior but klunky in some ways.
Review:

My copy of the Norton Utilities 2001 (NU2001) software installed automatically and easily from its CD. (I'm running Windows 98 on a 350 MHz Pentium II system with 64 Mb of RAM.) Most of NU2001's functionality worked right the first time I tried it. A corrupted program file cause one function to not work; overcoming this problem required reinstalling the program but that was easy and it took only two or three minutes.

Most of this product's several functions performed quickly and effectively the first time I tried to run them. (I haven't needed to refer to the product manual even once yet.) In fact, when I first ran this product it found 52 errors in my system registry. My system had been functioning so poorly that I thought my C: drive was failing. NU2001 corrected all the registry errors automatically and now my system runs properly. I consider NU2001's suite of functions clearly superior to the Microsoft registry-repair and disk-scan functions that came with my copy of Windows 98.

NU2001's best feature may be its manual. It is very well written and very well organized. It may be the most professional software manual I've ever seen, and I've been "into" computers for about 20 years. This manual is a credit to Norton/Symantec and I salute everyone involved in producing it. It is _excellent_ documentation for the average, non-technical computer user. It is simplified, brief, and to the point; it offers step by step, non-technical instructions. It is absolutely excellent!

Now that I've run NU2001 for a while I can attest to its clear value, but I also found a few flaws.

The Rescue Disk function has yet to produce a set of rescue disks that will boot my system. In fact, NU2001 could not even format the new floppy in my A: drive, even though DOS formatted it immediately and without difficulty. Eventually I successfully created a Rescue Disk set but it would not boot my system. Subsequently, at random intervals, I created and tested four or five new Rescue Disk sets but none has ever rebooted my system.

Twice, after the product optimized my registry and proceeded with an automatic shutdown, the shutdown process "hung" and I had to hit my computer's Reset button. That step caused new registry errors. While NU2001 fixed the new errors easily, this extra repair step wastes time. I am becoming less and less tolerant of the time it wastes.

The Anti-Virus function appears to work fine but some of its on-screen prompts are imprecise or otherwise inadequate. Its automatic on-line anti-virus updating process also seems to work properly but the download function's on-screen prompts are puzzling -- I think they are either counter-intuitive or they require too much decision-making on arcane technical points -- or a needed (helpful) prompt is conspicuous by its absence.

While most of the product's on-screen prompts are at least good, I found some to be vague or too complicated. Other prompts seemed poorly written (programmer-ese?). Still other on-screen layouts and prompts seemed to me like they'd been chosen for their "beauty" rather than for their functionality.

The rebate form seems confusing to me, almost as if it had been deliberately written this way to discourage customers from filling it out and mailing it in.

Since I've done some programming myself, I can empathize with programmers who may be pressured my management to quickly complete a project to satisfy marketing or other business demands. However, that pressure on programmers can and often does result in problems for customers who use the product. I suspect that at Norton/Symantec there are two camps: One camp wants to do ship only the best possible overall program design, one with only professionally-written on-screen prompts, a product optimized for ease of use by non-technical customers. The other camp wants to just get the package out the door and into the market, period, and doesn't care about how much trouble customers might have using the product -- this might be called the "Grab the money and run" camp. With NU2001, I suspect both camps may have influenced the product's creation. So while you should have some very satisfying moments with this product, also prepare for at least a little frustration.

In conclusion, I think this product is a good investment. It does several valuable things, it does them well, it does them efficiently, and it does most of them without excessive demand for technical understanding or other interaction by the user. In spite of several flaws, I think Norton Utilities 2001 can be a valuable resource for the most casual computer user as well as professionals. I'm very glad it is available, I'm equally glad I bought it, and I have no qualms about recommending it to others.

P.S. Attention Norton/Symantic management: I'd gladly pay for a NU2001 upgrade (overhaul!) which uses _only_ prompts incorporated into _intuitive_ on-screen layouts, and which are written by _only_ professional writers, and which use _only_ non-technical language. I respectfully submit that the people who wrote the NU2001 manual might be your best guide in this regard.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Garbage
Review: Be Warned They CHARGE for Call in support now!!

In my opinion; Norton used to make some great products. I used to recommend their Norton Utilities and Anti Virus programs to friends and install them on computers I assembled for them. Sadly, this has changed. They now have an online forum where you are forced to ask your questions. They may even get around to answering your question, but it takes days to get correct answers (if ever). The quality of their software has plummeted also. Several other companies make similar products that are FAR superior. Not only do I not give them a positive review, I strongly recommend you do NOT use them.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Buen producto
Review: Es un buen producto, aunque tiene sus deficiencias pues hay una parte de el que no es tan facil de usar, lo cual podria causar problemas a personas que no tienen muchos conocimientos de computaciĆ³n.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: NU 2001
Review: Good product. With this i could save a lot of time from the windows deframenter, Speed disk is so fast and effective that i could defragment my harddisk almost every day. Only problem is that if i had any other antivirus programme besides norton running in the background it would prompt to disable it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What a waste of money
Review: I can't believe that someone would actually take the time to create such a horrible, defective, unreliable, useless, meaningless piece of software. I mean, c'mon! I wouldn't buy this again if you gave it to me free with a handjob and a beer.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What a waste of money
Review: I can't believe that someone would actually take the time to create such a horrible, defective, unreliable, useless, meaningless piece of software. I mean, c'mon! I wouldn't buy this again if you gave it to me free with a handjob and a beer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Norton Utilities
Review: I considered this product one of the best which never let me down and help me a lot to fix malfunctions in my computer system

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: For anyone with computer errors !
Review: I have had Norton Utilities for some time and found it to be useful and efficient in almost all of its utilities. The download and running of the programs has generally been flawless and beneficial without a hitch--no system errors or crashes or incompatibilities. I must say that I don't use the defrag utility as I already have another product I use for that (VoptME-excellent!) I bought a new system which uses DDR RAM and have 512MB (2 modules) memory installed. When running Norton's system diagnostic (memory only)I repeatedly got memory address errors time after time. I reversed the modules and cleaned them and the slots according to Norton's directions and still memory errors--failed the test! Couldn't figure it out--this was new memory! I bought 2 new sticks of memory and the same thing happened. Strange after running 4 different reputable diagnostics and the memory passed each time (SmithMicro's CheckIt,DocMem,Mem_86, and BurnIT) I still got errors. I then tried one module at a time in each slot(256MB) and voila! passed with flying colors! Tried the second module in each slot and passed--no problem. Put both modules in as originally seated and memory errors again. Aha!! I've got it. Went to Symantic's website FAQ's and found out that Utilities Suite won't diagnose more than 256MB memory at a time. This was after spending much time and money trying to find the solution to this problem. I really think this sort of thing should be mentioned on the box or manual (I can't find it). After all, there might be many who have more than 256MB RAM and had the same thing happen (according to Norton's FAQ's there are!) Really disappointed and surprised at this and my opinion of Norton has dropped more than one notch.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The Unwritten Details....
Review: I have had Norton Utilities for some time and found it to be useful and efficient in almost all of its utilities. The download and running of the programs has generally been flawless and beneficial without a hitch--no system errors or crashes or incompatibilities. I must say that I don't use the defrag utility as I already have another product I use for that (VoptME-excellent!) I bought a new system which uses DDR RAM and have 512MB (2 modules) memory installed. When running Norton's system diagnostic (memory only)I repeatedly got memory address errors time after time. I reversed the modules and cleaned them and the slots according to Norton's directions and still memory errors--failed the test! Couldn't figure it out--this was new memory! I bought 2 new sticks of memory and the same thing happened. Strange after running 4 different reputable diagnostics and the memory passed each time (SmithMicro's CheckIt,DocMem,Mem_86, and BurnIT) I still got errors. I then tried one module at a time in each slot(256MB) and voila! passed with flying colors! Tried the second module in each slot and passed--no problem. Put both modules in as originally seated and memory errors again. Aha!! I've got it. Went to Symantic's website FAQ's and found out that Utilities Suite won't diagnose more than 256MB memory at a time. This was after spending much time and money trying to find the solution to this problem. I really think this sort of thing should be mentioned on the box or manual (I can't find it). After all, there might be many who have more than 256MB RAM and had the same thing happen (according to Norton's FAQ's there are!) Really disappointed and surprised at this and my opinion of Norton has dropped more than one notch.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Hurts more than it even attempts to help...
Review: I used to like Norton's utility suite, but the minor conflicts that would pop up on the early versions have morphed into major bugs and compatability issues that plague the newest release. Most of the utilities here just don't get along with other software, and for a package that is supposed to fix up your system it caused an awful lot of freeze-ups and blue screens.


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