Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional

List Price: $99.95

Features:

• Norton Utilities optimizes your PC¿s performance and solves computer problems
• Norton Password Manager keeps your passwords secure and easy to manage
• Norton GoBack Personal Edition restores your PC after a serious problem
• Norton CleanSweep removes unwanted programs and files that waste disk space
• Norton Ghost protects your data from computer disasters

Customer Reviews:

Slowed the system too much. [Posted on 2004-04-06]
I used Norton Systemworks 2001 on my old laptop with Windows 1998. Considering the laptop was second-hand when I bought it in March 2000, had 2GB hard-drive, 40mb RAM and a Pentium 133MHz processor - I gave the credit to Norton for making it last until February of this year. And even then, it was the screen that went on it. I bought a new laptop shortly afterwards, and as I had so much sucess with Norton Systemworks 2001, I thought I would treat myself to the latest version, and bought Norton Systemworks Pro 2004. I had no problem installing the software, and enjoyed seeing familar features like the one-button check-up. However, I noticed a considerable decrease in performance on my laptop (Inspiron 8600) after the installation. It seemed to take twice as long to start-up and shut-down, and programs took longer to load. DVDs etc. did not seem to run as smoothly, and the computer seemed to revert to a lower spec in terms of it's overall performance - which was not my intention at all. I made a mistake by not reading reviews prior to purchasing the product, and being blinded by my experiences of previous Norton products. I have since uninstalled the software (I encountered no problems here either) and asked for a refund from Symantec. I am pleased to say that the computer's performance has returned to normal. Perhaps Norton should go back to the drawing-board here - and rather than try and adapt their software to Windows XP and higher spec systems, completely start from scratch. I think that after reading most of these reviews, a change of name for this product might be the best thing for Norton's reputation!

Save your time and money. Buy something else! [Posted on 2004-06-26]
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!

still love norton [Posted on 2004-09-12]
after reading the review's i allmost didn't buy this copy of 2004 pro., but i'm very glad now that i did. would have rated it 5 star's if not for ghost being so hard to work your way from start to finish. the anti virus part is still the best and even better. ghost work's but you may have to fix so thing's on your computor and make a gdisk on a floppy along with your cd's it is a 9 cd long image for my hard drive that is 11gb used space. the rebate was the fastest ever, had it back in just about a week and a half.

Bloated and Customer loses [Posted on 2004-09-19]
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.

Disgruntled w/Symmatec [Posted on 2005-01-30]
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.

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