What's your take on Norton Utilities? >>>>>

[NavyDood_ F/A18_Mech]

I think it clutters up the system with too much ****. It seems like my system actually slows down more over time if Norton Utilities is installed.

Jim

[deep_sky]

You are absolutely right. It installs more **** than you would want to put on your system and then causes your computer to flip out when it crashes because of "crashguard". I would advise trying something else. Norton is powerful but has too much useless fluff to be practical

[Vampiel]

I have Norton and it does the job very effectively as far as getting rid of virii. I have not had it for long and havent seen many files put in by it. Although there is an option to copy the old file to a new file with the extension of .vir search your computer for these files and del. them. I have that option turned off though, and have not had Norton for a really long time (about 2 weeks). I have ALL the options off, no auto-scan/auto-live update/auto-ANYTHING. Will it still slow down my computers performance? I would think that it would just sit there until I tell it to scan something. Common computer knowledge told me that enabling that auto-stuff would take up recources. I wouldnt think that with it all off it shouldnt slow it down at all.

[drdeath]

i turned all the stupid options off - i dont let it run anything in the background. actually, the only thing i use norton utilities for is as a replacement for scandisk and defrag, cuz the norton ones are faster and better in my opinion...

[grandslammer]

yeah, all the background "stuff" is better off - well, off...

But I do like the speed disk (defrag). Especially how it puts the swap file on the outermost tracks of the hd. I have nuts and bolts 98 now, and it optimizes the swap file, (makes it one contiguous file) but I don't think it relocates it to the outer side of disk. Also, the N&B98 seems to take MUCH longer to defrag than Norton.

Anyway, enough rambling from me

Mike P.

[Apostle 83]

I have Norton Utilities, and it seems to me that everything it offers is covered in 98, except for virus protection. In fact, Microsoft liscenced software from norton and put it in 98 code. I don't know, Right now I have Norton Recyle bin disabled, and am only running anti-virus. Other than that, it's a waste.

[digital_rat]

Norton Utils is large.....
i agree with most i dont have anything
running in the background....I call it up
when i perceive i need to use it...
(i like the control)...
crash guard is a piece of **** and causes
more problems then it helps...
anyway, on a fine-tuned,well maintained..
puter you shouldnt be crashing anyway

[bobcat]

I have Norton Utils and just use the speed disk. Works great. The defrag time is roughly 20-30 minutes for 3 gig. Compared to Nuts & Bolts 98 on the same partition, took 18 hrs.

I disabled all other features to NU.

[Apostle 83]

Bobcat:
That seems way long for a 3 gig! My 14.4 defrags in about 15 minutes-What processor are you running?

[bigslammer]

only good thing on it is speedisk. on my 8.4 gb it now takes under 5 min. everything else is off and crashguard didn't work well at all for me.

[Pantion]

Yeap... Norton Utilities has a bunch of usefull apps like Norton Registry, Speed Disk, Image and Disk Doctor, but also a lot of useless apps that slows you down.

And don't even mention CrashGuard... it causes more crashes than those it prevents... it even crashes itself.

[Susan]

The only utilities I add to my setup are AVP and Sandra. Neither are hogs and I like to keep it that way. /forum/smile.gif

[socalgal]

Stand-alone NAV 5.0 only here. Uninstalled NU 3.0 a long time ago, and my systems thanked me. Speed Disk is the only good thing on NU, IMO.

[Underclocked]

I've got it. Nothing auto starts or runs in the background. I actually like speed disk, disk doctor, and occasionally run win doctor just to see what kind of **** it tells me. /forum/wink.gif

[daveleau]

I have it, McAfee Office and Mijenix Fix It 99. The first two really take a load of system resources and are a little difficult to disable. Mijenix has a MUCH better Win 'Windoctor'-type utility which is much more effective and fixes registry items with greater ease. As a default, it does not run in the background and takes up little or no system resources. It has a Windows Customizing program which is great for getting rid of resource robbing tray items that are difficult to erradicate. I only have it installed on my system now.

[Arnold]

Ihave Norton 2000 installed. All I wanted was Ghost and the Virus Scan. Iknow find that the system crashes and sometimes won't close correctly.

[digital_rat]

Bobcat ????? 18 hours to de-frag a drive???
theres got to be some kind of problemo
there no matter what processor you have

[bobcat]

You'd think there was some kind of problem. Couldn't find it. Everytime I used it on any of my machines I had these problems. Even after machines had been completly rebuilt.

No such problems with Norton.

[daveleau]

Bobcat-- you must have some program that keeps writing to the disk and making the process pause and than restart. I had that problem myself. Dissable everything (hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and close everything BUT NU and Explorer)) and then go from there. It should speed up tremendously.

[digital_rat]

the computer will be old technology by
the time you de-frag it..ROTFLOL

[Butchk]

I am running Norton utilities 2000 I did a custom setup and left most of the stuf off except for the utilities. The only thing I have running in the back ground is Norton anti virus. Norton has a better defrag program (speed disk) than windows. Win doctor and the disk doctor are two of the other programs on the disk I find very usefull. I have been running Norton for years. You are right if you install the whole CD it will clog up and could slow down your system.That why I always use custom setup.

[Underclocked]

I use Speed Disc also, but I wouldn't say it is better except for being faster. It seems that after all the updates the Win98 defrag and Norton seem to agree when my disc is defragmented. Not long ago, I could defrag with Norton and the Win98 prog would still show fragmentation.

[drizzle]

NU is really bloated...I mostly use the DOS versions of Norton Disk Doctor, UnErase, and UnFormat...they've all helped/saved me many a times!

[rh71]

I think Butchk said exactly what I wanted to say... word for word. Much agreed on the custom setup.