Here's a good way to screw up your system.

[Brian Frank 0]

If you dont want to reinstall Win2k or any version of Windows more than you have to, DO NOT INSTALL NORTON UTILITIES!!! If you do, dont run anything other than speed disk. Thats it. Win Doctor and System Doctor will screw up things because many of the "fixes" involve deleting registry entries as the first and sometimes only option 8). Win2k will foul up rather quickly, and basically screw your system up so you have to reformat.

Everytime Ive used it, Norton Utilities has messed up the system. Dont use it on ANY version of windows...unless you get a kick out of reinstalling because of screw ups.

 

Just a bit of warning I thought I'd pass along to a few souls.

[Sparkhard 0]

I hear that. Every time i have installed Norton it has always done more harm than good.

[Cardinal 0]

Interesting point Brian.

 

I have heard many people say the Norton system check is a botched program and does more damage then it repairs. But I dunno, I have always used it in win98 and found it to be useful. I use in all, 3 other registry programs to clean up things along with Norton. I use Norton last. The Speed disk in Norton 2001 works quite well with W2k.

 

What version of Norton have you used Brian? If I know you it would be the latest. Hmm.. An interesting point, I used the system check feature in Win2k and liked it for a while. Lets face it, Windows Whatever, had registry problems. A clean install with no programs doesn't. But add any program, ANY program and an error, or at least some inconsistencies appear in the registry. So to maintain optimal OS stability the registry does need to be repaired at some stage. The question is, which program does the job.

Addenum:

 

 

It's worth noting that while I did like Norton in w2k, one day when I turned my computer on expecting to see the usual Windows 2000 is starting up screen, I instead heard a clunk sound from my hdd and the pc reset. This happened constantly. I assumed I had a wrecked Hdd, so after formatting I installed 98 just to see. The install went fine and a surface scan showed no errors on my drive. So who, or what was to blame. Windows 2000? maybe. Norton? who knows.

[Brian Frank 0]

Ive used several versions, but this trial that I tried reminded me of why I stopped using it. Plus, I think that Disk Keeper is better than Norton Speed Disk. This last fiasco with NU may have been the root of my CD Burner issues, the BSOD about ntoskernel.exe being screwed up, a drop of 500 points in 3dmark2000 for no good reason. Now after my reinstall, everything is working perfectly! If something doesnt cause you problems, go a head and use it. For me, it has fouled up my pc's, and Im on #4 as my main rig, and on all of them NU has screwed stuff up. Its just that Win2k is really sensative to changes unlike 9x, so even the smallest screw up, and it goes nuts, dont ask me why.

[Brian Frank 0]

I also just thought of something: the registry is the worst evil from MS.

[Ge0ph 0]

I agree, I can't count how many pc's I've had to un-f*ck because of norton stuff. I will not infect my computer with any norton programs.

I know some people swear by this crap but not me. I think it's some of the poorest set of programs ever.

 

Just my opinion.

[clutch 1]

Rant

 

Symantec $hit is WAY too dialed for specific versions of Windows. Throw on a service pack, and watch the OS circle the drain. I have had to "un-f*ck" (nice term, BTW) several systems thanks to System Works and WinFax Pro. When Win98 first came out, I put WinFax 8 Pro on it and Win98 couldn't shutdown at all. With SystemWorks on 98, I had to go into DOS and restore the old registry because of bizarre behavior. Now, throw PC Anywhere 9.0-9.2 (yes, some releases packaged as 9.2 had this issue as well) on a Win2K box and watch it never boot again. Damn, Symantec just kicks a$$.

 

/Rant

[ThC 129 0]

the only symantec product i use is Norton AntiVirus, all their other programs are inferior to other products on the market. Not to mention all the aformentioned issues.

[Brian Frank 0]

The only Symantec package that hasnt caused problems as far as I know is Norton Internet Security both personal and family. They both contain a firewall and the best antivirus. The faily edition includes filters.

I always h a t e the fact that magazine reviews seem to go through a product once and if it doesnt screw up anything and they like all the features, sure they'll go and reccomend it. Nobody in the magazine buisiness seems to want to actually do a long term testing on anything. Ive found a ton of stuff that has been said to work great has some major issues that the reviewers didnt discover.

I also h a t e it when you get any product and then you find out all the bugs in it that you werent expecting. Windows ME anyone? But not just OS's, I mean hardware too. I have this friend who Im certain his FIC AZ-11 is bad, because it unexpectadly locks up on a boot up and this green line comes over the top. Even when we updated the bios, the bios still locked up several times. Windows 98 has been installed 3 times since he bought the board and the same thing everytime.

 

End rant...for now.

[J_Pro 0]

I have system works 2001. It's not ready for prime time. If you haven't had the nightmare of trying to use it with dual cpu then you don't even know what evil lies beneath. The readouts are inaccurate, the system tray is totally inconsistent and sweep is unusable.

[Brian Frank 0]

This program is several releases old, and the same issues, namely f*cking up your registry, are still there. Either Symantec's has no clue or they do but dont want to admit that it's there. If the program hasnt shown improvement at all within the second release, dump it. Even Windows, while it has problems, does get some of those fixed. Norton Antivirus is the only program Im certain wont screw up your system that Symantec puts out.

[DeadCats 0]

While I use Norton, I use it cautiously. I have system problems when their CleanSweep is in and running. I've learned not to install it.

 

Anti-Virus works fine, no problems.

I also think Diskeeper is probably safer than Speed Disk.

WinFax Pro 10 does exactly what it's supposed to do, on my machine anyway.

 

Not that I haven't had any problems with anything Norton or Symantec has issued, I have, and that's been since pre-Windows 3.1. But that goes for darn near every utility package that's ever been released from any company.

 

I think we...and that goes for me, too...I think that sometimes we spend too much time out on the tweaking-edge, and that includes messing with systems that are already operating at or near peak performance. And when that includes powerful utilities, we can have *powerful* results, sometimes.

[Cynan 0]

I've always used Norton Utilities since waaay back in the DOS days and it competed against PC Tools. Never had a problem with any of Nortons products except for Norton Navigator (nice file manager with XTGold key mappings).

 

Since NU8, I only install Disk Doctor and Speed Disk. Both are surpior IMO to Microsoft's offerings.

 

NTFS however is another matter, Speed Disk never supported this until recently and I must say I had my doubts about using it, but I personaly don't like Diskeeper, and I have had no trouble from Speed Disk to defragging NTFS drives to date.

 

Slightly off-topic, but I did try O&O Defrag once, now that screwed by partition up... so I wouldn't use that ppl.

 

--Cynan.

[michaeljbrooks 0]

I agree about problems with Norton Utilities and Windows 2000.

In my experience Norton Antivirus 2001 is the best anti-virus program for Windows 2000 as long as the default antivirus processes running in the background are shut off except when the user wants them, and Norton Internet Security 2001 (personal firewall) is the best firewall/cookie blocker/popup blocker program for my purposes.

 

I have had bad experiences with the CleanSweep program with Windows 2000 also.

To be fair, most of the registry modifying programs like CleanSweep which can actually fix major problems can also cause major problems with Windows 2000.

[EddiE314 0]

i sold my NU2k cd for $5, it was the worst set of programs i had ever had....a question about AV progs......why doesn't M$ release one?

[Brian Frank 0]

So they dont get in another lawsuit about taking up the market.

[Necrogram 0]

Only Norton products i use is the AV (both Corp 7.0 and 2001) and ghost. Ghost is INHO the best NU for un-f*ucking computers