Rating: 
Summary: Phew!!!
Review: I'm amazed this product gets such good reviews by the experts. I have a modicum of experience with computers and software and am unable to recommend SystemWorks. Like others, I've had nothing but problems with Norton/Symantec Products. I've had to re-format my hard drive on more than one occasion for issues I felt Symantec not only caused but should have been able to prevent (the problems can be found on their website and were known issues prior to my version of the product). No free tech support--not even for installation issues which I have found to be frequent. Advise against the purchase of this product!
Rating:
Summary: Bloated and Customer loses
Review: I've used Norton products since the early 90s and have to say that Symantec is a company that buys well known products to generate revenue but the products quality is run into the ground. Every year they come up with a new excuse to introduce a "new" version and 2004 is that last I will every buy. It's not only even slower (the virus scanning especially), more bloated and adds nothing from 2003, but it also doesn't work as well. Recovering files is totally worthless. I also found out about horrible Symantec support as 2004 now includes copy protection keys. Even after registering the product, if you lose the key (or became unreadable in my case, they refuse to provide your customer information and will charge you $25 to send you a new CD you don't need! Incredible, but true. I own Powerquest products which were just bought by Symantec and replace "Ghost" but doesn't work well either. I have since moved to other antivirus products that are much leaner, faster and do their jobs well and have continued development. Oh yeah, 2004 has been incompatible with XP SP2 now for a while. Stay far away from Symantec. There is a reason why Norton products are getting panned virtually everywhere by actual users and 'praised' by a few commercial reviewers.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY! DO NOT USE!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Disgruntled w/Symmatec
Review: More than being very disappointed with this software, I am extremely disappointed with Symmantec's customer service and support, which is basically nonexistent unless you pay them almost as much as you paid for the software in the first place. (They also outsource all their technical help and it is often VERY hard to understand the person who you are paying (dearly) to help you. Even worse is to be told that you must uninstall other manufacturers' software, or even other Symmantec software before this software will run properly. There is a lot of good "Utility" software on the market from companies with good support. Because of that, I will never purchase software from Symmantec again.
Rating:
Summary: Buy a Different Prouct Made By Someone Who Won't Rip You Off
Review: Most software you buy allows you to install it twice if you own both a desktop and a laptop system. Microsoft allows this for example. Symantec however does not. Their website did not address the issue so and e-mail to customer service earned this reply: "please be informed that in order to install Norton SystemWorks (NSW) 2004 on two computers, you should have two user licenses." I don't know about you, but I am not paying 2x the money to protect both my laptop and desktop. I will seek out alternatives to Symantec and so should you.
Rating:
Summary: A 'DOWNGRADE' FROM NSW2003!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Worked for a while, but live update crashed it.
Review: Silly me. I figured that live updating the Systemwork Professional software and virus definitions would be good. Ran live update which showed an error. Pasword manager was now broke, Norton antivirus was broke, the rest I did not dare to try. Uninstalled and reinstalled. Now anti-virus will not even install and password manager still does not work. Oh, and live update still is failing. Symantec's fix is a 200 step process from wipe out these files to go muck about in the registry. No thanks. Back to 2003 version.
Rating: 
Summary: Norton is GOOD for YOU!
Review: Symantec's usual excellent antivirus and utilities. I couldn't do without.
Rating:
Summary: Save your time and money. Buy something else!
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Save your time and money. Buy something else!
Review: 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!
| 
