Norton Systemworks 2003

An antivirus tool is a must for any computer connecting to the Internet and Norton's Antivirus is one of the top two products in this field. You can not go wrong with this product and one year of free updates is included. By default updates are automatically downloaded by the LiveUpdate program or you can select to be notified when new updates are available. Norton Antivirus is very comprehensive and includes auto-protect (checks programs for viruses as they are run), scanning of both incoming and outgoing email, scanning of any Instant Messenger, regular hard disk scans and script blocking. The latter prompts you to confirm the action to be taken when a potentially dangerous script is run. As with any virus checking program it is worth temporarily disabling virus checking and script blocking when you are installing new programs to prevent potential installation problems. The manual included gives detailed advice on what to do if a virus is found.

Norton CleanSweep is a limited tool for removing unwanted files, programs and Internet files from your PC. It offers very little above that already available via Windows own Disk cleanup facility and Internet Explorer menus.

Norton Utilities comprises several separate programs: System Doctor, WinDoctor, Speed Disk and Disk Doctor.

Norton System Doctor can continuously monitor your computer and can be configured to alert you when conditions need attention. This is highly configurable and you can select from a wide range of disk, memory, CPU and network sensors. The style and alarm level are all configurable. It is rather like having an instrument panel on your PC.

WinDoctor is a powerful tool that should be used with great care. It checks for problems such as lost short cuts and invalid registry options. The scan is safe but you should not accept the recommended fix without checking. On my PC it wanted to fix a registry entry for a broken uninstall program by replacing it with a different uninstall program. Imagine the horror when you went to uninstall an application only to uninstall a totally different application.

Disk Doctor is rather like the built in Windows command CHKDSK and will check your hard disk's physical surfaces for errors. This can take a very long time on large disks that are now common in modern PCs.

Speed Disk is a disk defragmentation tool similar to that already included in Windows XP. If you are running Windows XP then Norton's version has the advantage in that it can also defragment system files such as page file and Master File Table. Speed Disk also optimizes the layout of files on disk for best performance.

Other utilities include a protected recycle bin and a utility called wipe info to permanently delete sensitive data to Government standards. Also bundled with the product is a cut down version of GoBack 3. This is a system recovery software tool that records all changes to your hard disk. If you experience a problem due to a bad install or system crash GoBack can revert your system back to a stable state.

With all these utilities SystemWorks represents good value for money. Some of the applications do require a certain level of understanding of Windows to get the best from them.

They are as follows:-

Norton Utilities
optimising/keeping your PC free of errors

Norton Antivirus
Leading antivirus software

Norton Cleensweep
A set of tools to clear up files left over from browsing the internet.

Web Tools
A quick clean tool to remove internet files from your browsing history.

Extra Features
Such as a lite version of Go Back to let you undo any computer problem and also a tool to connect to Symantec to enable remote security checks on your pc.

Looking at the suite as a whole, the Interface has been cleaned up since last years version i.e. 2002 but at the end of the day is it going to tempt you to part with your money - probably not!! Every year, I hope that Symantec will add even more features and functioanlity to enable us to keep our pc's trouble free and all they do is tinker with the interface.

For those who don't have a utility suite - this is a must (also consider Ontracks System Suite V 4). For those with Systemworks 2002 hold onto your money!

SWs also handles your installations, protects your recycle bin (making it possible to retrieve deleted files), protects against dodgy ActiveX and allows you to clean your PC of unused files (temp, temp internet files, history, logs etc).

You also get AV2003 which is the best anti-virus software I've ever used.

Marvellous!