Re: Norton Systemworks 2005 Premier -- Will it help?

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From: R. C. White (rc_at_corridor.net)
Date: 02/02/05 

Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 21:15:26 -0600

Hi, Duane.

I agree with Ken Gardner.

I used Norton Utilities from the mid-80's, when Peter Norton actually wrote
them, until about 2000. In the '90s, Symantec bought the utilities and
began to emphasize marketing more than utility. For example, they never
bothered to update DiskEdit (which saved me many times, and taught me how
the file system worked) to work with NTFS, but just let it limp along until
it died of atrophy. Instead, Symantec loaded the "utilities" down with
fluff and eye candy. By the time Win2K arrived, SystemWorks was more
trouble than it was worth.

WinXP is built on the NT platform, not MS-DOS; it uses NTFS, not FAT. I no
longer suffer the kinds of disk and Registry problems that I often had in
Win3.x and Win9x (never used WinME), so I no longer need the tools in
SystemWorks. WinXP's built-in defragger is adequate; I used it until I got
a good deal on PerfectDisk, which I use now.

The only Norton product that I still use is NIS, Norton Internet Security,
which bundles NAV and NPF, plus the new Norton Antispam. Their Antivirus
has always been one of the best, and their Personal Firewall is good,
although it took a couple of versions for them to get it right. NAS is of
some value; I wouldn't buy it standalone, but it enhances the NIS package a
little.

We see plenty of Symantec bashers, of course, and I won't argue with them.
They've had their experiences with Norton; I've had mine. Using NAV - and
practicing "safe hex" - I've never had a virus (yet). I'm not promoting
NIS, but it does the job for me, so I'll keep using it until I find
something that I like better. But I don't have or need SystemWorks.

RC 

-- 
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@corridor.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
"Duane" <Duane@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message 
news:78D1DDC1-5AD7-4BF7-94BF-C6DC4135EC8C@microsoft.com...
>I just got done having to restore my laptop / XP Pro SP2 due to some system
> corruption...bla, bla, bla. Anyway, I am looking for a piece of software 
> to
> maintain the integrity of the system and perform routine checks on system
> health etc..
>
> In the old MAC days Norton Systemworks saved our butts many times. They
> have a new version of Systemworks for XP called Systemworks Premier. It's
> feature are:
<SNIPped Symantec's sales pitch>
> Has anyone had any experience with this program or suggest something else? 
> I
> did purchase Reg Mechanic and it did nothing for me during the time of the
> system errors that all started when I found noen of my HP printers / 
> drivers
> would work  (it gave me a system error when trying to print ---countless
> posts on this community with helpful suggestions -- and many hours with 
> good
> a bad reps from HP forced me to nuke and pave the drive). Everything seems
> good now. I just want a tool that I can rely on for  system health. 
> Plus....I
> do like their anti-virus and spam control  integrated  into my Outlook 
> 2002
> program. Currently, I  am using Spygate for a firewall, S&D and Adaware 
> for
> their purposes and AVG free addition for antivirus.
>
> Thaks for any advise and / or comments!!
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