Norton SystemWorks 2008 Premier Edition 11.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)It appears that Symantec has been resting on their laurels.
This is their flagship consumer application, and comes bundled with a modestly improved antivirus (new network and wireless intrusion-detection features). Ghost has been replaced by Save and Restore, and you get the extras, Passmark 6.1 and SmithMicro's CheckIt 7. GoBack is still there, but not installed by default.
It sports a new interface, with a DHTML menu-like slider with scrollbars in each section that took a bit to find what I was looking for. It has an option for a "classic" inteface - but it made me think of HTML 1.0 "classic".
This was a clean install on a clean install of XP SP2.
The install went much smoother than the 2006 version of the same product which I won't cover here. I'll just say it went much smoother.
The plusses: Bundled with some somewhat useful third party (Passmark, SmithMicro) tools.
I liked Save and Restore - which would save and restore to/from any drive - network, internal or external, and Save and Restore is versatile in that you can also specify folders, or the entire drive. Save and Restore could also be scheduled/configured in dozens of ways.
The antivirus (manual scan) was blazingly fast and the new ability of NAV to monitor and interact with my home/SOHO/Wireless network was a positive development.
Passmark (6.1, rebranded Symantec), is a good tool for benchmarking, and comparing my system to others (download free user-generated comparatives at the Passmark site). I learned that my X2 3800/Ati XT1600 (2 Ghz) is 38% slower than a 2.8 Extreme iMac with XP in Boot Camp, and 290% slower than a QX6800 with 7950GT (I didn't compare them all, several thousand to compare to!).
Mostly minuses: I tried to update system drivers - bluescreen city began. A reboot from a bluescreen was usually be followed by a prompt to run one or another function I had scheduled (Save and Restore, virus scan, defrag) - leading me to believe that the scheduler has some conflicts with my AMD machine (ATI/AMD) and the drivers (7.10 - 7.12). The dump error code was useless on both MS and Google to figure out.
I was unable to use System Restore (Microsoft's built-in tool) at all after installing it - it still ran and catalogued checkpoints, but would not roll them back, even after disabling NAV and SystemWorks protection.
Defrag, when it worked - usually took 2-3 passes to defrag. It frequently just froze.
Norton process viewer (with the "google this" feature that I loved) wouldn't auto-update with active processes - whatever was running when I opened the Norton process viewer was it. If I launched Acrobat, and wanted to see what modules where in use, I had to relaunch it. Bizarro!
One Button Checkup (Windoctor, registry section) decided that the BUNDLED CheckIt (third party) tool was all ganked up, and wanted to repair about 20 entries related to it.
The antivirus, even improved, still only "actively scans" inbound and outbound ports 25/110. No IMAP. No secure SMTP/POP (required by certain ISP's now). This doesn't affect send and receive other than the packet stream isn't scanned to/from. Even the free Avast! AV offers multiport/multiprotocol options. Sad.
SmithMicro's CheckIt 7 (bundled) decided that my 939 (K8) CPU was a K7 - the 2006 version got it right tho, what gives?
Regardless, I had a very unstable system, so as a last resort, I tried the Symantec "uninstall tool" - but traces were still left behind, BSOD city. I ended up doing a OEM wipe disk, and clean reinstall of the system. All is well again.
One feature I didn't try was the bult in "paid technician remote login". It just seemed kinda sick - paying Symantec to fix what Symantec seemingly broke.
I do accept the responsibility of reading the reviews (mostly negative) and plunging in anyhow, thinking back on the good old days when SystemWorks, well, worked very well!
Bottom line: This is more of a train wreck than a mashup of useful tools.
Your milage may vary - but I'd recommend steering clear of Norton "anything" until they come out of the 90s regarding the Internet and system usability/flexibility.
It needs a clean disable (or pass through for signed system and/or critical updates).
The feature it needs the most is a 100% "One-Button Checkout" (uninstall)

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Defend against spyware and viruses, enhance your computer's performance, and protect your valuable files with Norton SystemWorks Premier Edition. To block harmful threats, it automatically scans and cleans email and instant messaging attachments. To keep your computer healthy, Norton SystemWorks automatically diagnoses and fixes hard drive errors, removes unwanted Internet clutter, and allows you to optimize your Windows settings from a single screen. If disaster strikes, your computer and valuable data are safeguarded with automatic backup and recovery, allowing you to quickly restore from system failures or recover lost or damaged files.

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BitDefender Total Security 2008 - 2 Years/3 Pc's Review

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(More customer reviews)BitDefender seems to have taken a cue from the more popular AV software in its newest release. BitDefender 2008's appearance has changed dramatically in its new incarnation; its master interface looks and feels suspiciously like Symantec's Norton Antivirus. While the attempt to be more user friendly is a good thing, the controls may feel bulky and inefficient for those used to the old setup. Further, the BitDefender console can run quite slowly on less powerful computers, and, oddly, some buttons don't seem to work at times.
BitDefender 2008 also seems to suffer functionality problems on some systems (I run Vista Home Premium); occasionally features (update, identity control, stealth mode, and firewall among them) will simply stop working (BitDefender will say they are "unavailable"), and not start again until the computer is restarted. This is usually associated with either an update that requires a system restart (in which case it will inform you) or coming back from sleep or hybernation (in which case it will NOT always say your protection has been compromised). This seems to have improved as the software has been patched, but it's still not 100%.
Despite these hangups, BitDefender is a solid piece of internet security software. 2008 is loaded with features; all those from the last version plus some new ones, including automatic file backup, registry cleaner, identity control, a basic disk defragmenter, game mode, and a file shredder (I won't bother explaining them here; check the BitDefender website and they'll tell you all about it). Makeover aside, it still provides the same superior protection old customers will expect and new ones appreciate.
Bugs aside, BitDefender still makes the grade, with quicker definitions updates and better heuristic detection than most competitors, including Norton and McAffe. If you're willing to tolerate its flaws, it provides efficient and effective antivirus, P2P, and firewall protection.

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BitDefender Total Security 2008 provides the ultimate proactive protection for up to 3 PCs AND 2 years. It combines state of the art protection against all Internet security threats. Moreover its system maintenance and PC backup tools keep your PC running fast and protected from data loss.**** SMALL BOX.

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Norton Ghost 14.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Symantec Ghost 14 seems to be a merge of features between Symantec's older Ghost product line with Symantec's disastrous "save and restore" product, which for some strange reason is still offered in version 2.0.
You can see my reviews for Save and restore here on amazon to see why my copy ended up in the garbage can.
I have been using ghost in its various incarnations for several years, when it used to run off a floppy drive, so i am very familiar with its capabilities. Symantec Ghost 14 can backup files or your entire computer's drives if so desired to another computer on a network or to a USB drive. It can do this on a schedule.
The features of Ghost 14 on paper are impressive, so i decided to give it a test by installing the product on my laptop and creating a complete backup to a network drive on another computer. The entire backup was completed in less than 15 minutes. Then i decided to create an updated recovery disc for my laptop to do a full recovery, Ghost automatically recognized the fact that my original Recovery Disk had been burned to a rewriteable disc, and proceeded to erase and burn a new updated version on the same disc.. very impressive.
Unfortunately, as soon as rebooted my laptop with the Recovery Disc and i put an ip address on the interface (i am not running DHCP on my network) i wasn't able to connect to the computer containing the backup, due to some kind of authentication error.. so no matter what i did, i wasn't able to get past this hurdle.. so i am left with a complete computer backup i am not able to access..
Imagine, how would you feel if you computer died and you weren't be able to restore, thanks to Symantec buggy software, despite having an entire backup of it???
What is the point of all the countless fancy features if this product fails at its most useful feature.. which is to restore your computer's hardrive in case of failure?
For all intents and purposes, Norton Ghost 14 is another piece of semi-functional software.. with partially working features, pretty much like every product Symantec makes...
I don't recommend purchasing this product, unless you are somewhat computer literate and are able to get through the bugs that are present in this product.
UPDATE 1: When i booted my laptop using the recovery disc, every time i tried to map the recovery point share on a computer on the network, i keep on getting the following error message: A specified logon session does not exist.
After doing some online research, i was able to figure out how to fix this error by entering the name of the computer followed by the login name in the following format compname\username when prompted for a user / password to map the drive. I will post another update to see if recovery works as advertised.
UPDATE 2: When i booted my laptop using the updated recovery CD, and i mounted the recovery point using the compname\username trick to authenticate, i was able to dump the entire laptop's drive image and do a full recovery. The catch is that i work on the field, and I was able to find out the solution on my own, but less savvy users will probably have to resort to having to call Symantec, etc etc, so when you purchase this product expect to spend some time making it work and make sure you TEST the recovery process if you can.. because the last thing you want to find out is that your recovery process doesn't work when you really need it.
UPDATE 3: I tried to create a backup of my Windows 2000 Dell laptop.. but Norton Ghost 14 doesn't support Windows 2000.. so beware.
UPDATE 4: Unlike Norton's disastrous Save and Restore, Ghost doesn't go on the internet and check the serial number every time you install it on a computer, I know this after i installed my copy of Save and Restore one too many times to one of my 4 computers and the serial number became "blacklisted" and the product ended up in the garbage can.
This good news means that if you want want to make backups of multiple computers, you can just purchase ONE copy of Norton Ghost.
UPDATE 5: Feb 2009
I just tried to move a hardrive with a bootable partition (Windows XP) and a data partition to a bigger SATA Drive with Norton Ghost 14.
After installing the new hardrive on the computer and partitioning using Windows XP, i used Ghost to copy the bootable partition and the data partition to the new drive's partitions.
The results were as follows:
1-The bootable partition copied ok, and the new drive boots from the partition, the only problem is that when i try to login into Windows XP, the system logs me off inmmediately. This is the same problem i had with Norton Save and Restore.
2-I spent over an hour copying the data partition using Ghost 14.. but at the end, the program gave me an error message telling me that the copy couldn't be copied because the system had ran out of memory.
The data that i tried to copy was around 300Gb.
After the Ghost error, all the data the program had supposedly copied was inaccessible because the partition couldn't be mounted by Win XP, so i had to reformat the new partition using the disk utilities in Win XP and use Microsoft's FREE copy utility ROBOCOPY to copy all the files from one partition to another.
The copy worked fine.
Norton Ghost couldn't do something a FREE utility can.
I ended up connecting a CD drive to the computer to boot from a Ghost 2003 CD, and used that program to copy the C partition to the new drive and was finally able to migrate to the new hardrive.
UPDATE 6: 2009-11-14
I was forced to use Norton Ghost 14 to update my computer's laptop hardrive since Ghost 2003 cannot backup an active drive to a firewire connected external drive.
So this is what i did:
1-I booted my laptop with the Norton Ghost 14 CD created specifically for my laptop when i installed the software on it.
2-i backed up my entire laptop hardrive to an external 1tb firewire drive.(bear in mind trying to backup the drive while Windows was running failed every time, so i had to boot from the Norton CD and back it up the old fashioned way.. just like in Ghost 2003!)
3-Physically replaced the laptop's old drive with the new one.
4-I booted my laptop with the Norton Ghost 14 CD. The software was able to find the recovery point in the firewire drive and i was able to do a recovery to the new drive. At no point i was prompted to restore the MBR or to make the new drive bootable.
5-You will think all is well, right? but when i booted the laptop off the new drive, what do you think happened?
Nothing.. the drive refused to boot and i got a blank screen, because it didn't occur to the geniuses at Symantec that most new drives don't have bootable master records (MBR), so the data is in the new drive, but it won't boot.
So i had to get my Windows XP CD, do a dummy installation so the drive boots, and then dump the Norton Ghost Image on the drive AGAIN.
Only when i tried to restore the drive a second time i was prompted to restore the original drive image and the drive MBR.. What a joke!
Symantec is the Microsoft of security and disk utility software, their consumer and pro-level software is garbage, and since their horrible products can't compete in the marketplace, the only way they can get market share is to buy other competing products / companies such as Altiris, Partition Magic and many others!
This is the last time i brother with Symantec's garbage software.
After this, i am uninstalling all traces of Ghost from my laptop and i looking for some other software package.. there has to be something better out there than this piece of junk.
Needless to say, don't waste your time purchasing Norton Ghost 14, unless you want to spend endless hours trying to make it work.

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Norton Ghost 14.0 protects PCs including all applications, settings, folders, and files with advanced backup and recovery. It provides powerful protection with new features such as offsite backups and Symantec ThreatCon integration, as well as enhanced performance, remote management, LightsOut Restore capability, and more.With Norton Ghost 14.0, you have a choice of backup types: full system (disk image) or specific files and folders. Incremental backups and enhanced compression help reduce the amount of required storage, while encryption helps keep everything safe. Norton Ghost 14.0 works with most storage devices, including external hard drives, networked drives, and recordable and rewritable CDs and DVDs.

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Norton Internet Security 2008 up to 3 Users Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I do not typically write rejoinders from previous reviews, but on this occasion I feel it necessary. As a longtime user and tester of antivirus/antispyware/security suite software, I have been terribly disappointed over the years by what has (or had) become of Norton products. Starting around 2004 they transformed into bloatware, slowing down computers, overhauling the CPU, and basically were a nuisance. NIS 2006 was probably the worst of the lot, although McAfee's security suite software this last year gives it competition in the department of ineptitude.
To give some credit where it is due, Symantec apparently listened, read, and paid attention to the complaints, and they revamped their product. NIS 2008 won over this critic, and I must admit that it was a pleasant surprise when I installed the trial version on my work and home computers (200 GB hard drive, 1.8 GHz Duo Processor, Windows Vista Home Premium on the home laptop). Since I like to test software on my computers to empirically observe the chaos that ensues, I was not expecting much. If anything, my experiences with Norton products instilled in me a sense of foreboding futility. I cannot stress enough how unexpectedly satisfying it was to witness a security software company finally comprehending the concept of listening to its customers.
What impressed me most about NIS 2008 was the ease of use, the simplification of the interface, although its graphics still leave much to be desired (as with the 2007 version), and even featured a more user friendly program with help and assistance options that seem to actually assist a computer user. Best of all, it is not as cumbersome on my computer usage as previous versions, and it is barely noticeable on my CPU. It also has a much better browser defender, which includes one for Mozilla Firefox (after numerous complaints over its past omissions to provide security for non-Explorer web browsers). The browser defender also doubles as a password protector on web pages that you frequent.
Another departure from older versions is that it is easy to install (installs quickly, actually), does not interfere with the booting and re-booting of my computer, and does not slow down my employment of other programs (like Microsoft Office). All of these are areas of progress for NIS.
There are a couple of cautions, however. One, if you do want to use this program, try the trial download first, to see for yourself (it is good for two weeks). Also, if you purchase the product, make sure to download the add-ons for NIS 2008, which contains vital elements like anti-spam and parental controls. You need this add-on (it is located on the Symantec site) for email protection at the very least, so it is highly recommended that you use it.
Compared to other security suite software currently on the market, NIS 2008 is certainly as good, if not better, than the competition. This is not saying much to the extent that much of what constitutes security suite software (like CA, Zone Alarm, McAfee) has over time become gradually worse, less efficient, and slower. NIS 2008 is an advance over its previous versions and the competition. Among the other security suite software, Kaspersky Internet Security is the only program I have tried that is nearly as non-intrusive and maintains the ability to at least detect viruses as efficiently as NIS (although the security tests I used on these programs were more easily detectable than those utilized in more rigorous tests). As long as you are willing to pay and want the protection of a quality antivirus with antispy/malware program, NIS 2008 is a good choice.

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What do you do to keep yourself healthy? Norton Internet Security Suite 2008 is designed to keep your PC healthy. Every time you visit the Internet, there are hackers, predators, and weapons ready to usurp your identity and destroy your computer. It can happen quickly and silently. Some viruses present on the web can have delay mechanisms that can halt use of your computer days, weeks, months ahead. Norton Internet Security Suite 2008 scans your PC for potential pathogens, points them out, and helps eliminate them. It provides regular updates to your system to eliminate any new viruses. It also provides a strong firewall acting as a shield while you're online. Control spam with built-in filter technologies.Enjoy the Internet and safeguard your PC and peripherals with the power and reliability that Symantec is famous for. Be safe when your PC has Norton Internet Security Suite 2008 installed. Intrusion Prevention automatically shields newly discovered security vulnerabilities Network protection configures security settings when logged on at home, or on public networks Full System Scan performs a deep scan to remove existing viruses, spyware and other threats Norton Protection Center provides a central place to easily check overall security settings Includes protection updates and new product features as available throughout the renewable service period Windows Vista friendly

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