Norton Utilities - Software Review and User Report
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Is your Windows system getting slower and slower with each passing week? With each new application you install? Welcome to the club. Installing applications, accepting cookies, foreign language add-ons and multimedia plug-ins, grabbing zips and mpegs from the Net, even paying an occasional bill clutters up your system. Poorly written installers litter your Registry and your System directory with detritus from applications you thought you'd uninstalled ages ago, while old downloads and temporary files pile up like dust bunnies. An orphaned file here, a dead tree in the Registry there - pretty soon, Windows' drainpipes are royally clogged up. And when the junkpile gets too big, the only way to clean up the mess and ensure peak performance from your PC is to format and reinstall Windows. But if you do so, all the information on your drive will be lost. And all means all - not only Your Documents, but all of your old e-mail, all of your bookmarks, all of your Internet connectoids, all of your saved games, configuration files, application settings, dirty jpegs, and 31 GB of mp3s. They will all be gone. Unless you back them up first, of course. And there's the catch: finding out what to back up and where it dwells is the greatest nightmare. Given the complexity of an average home - let alone office - Windows system, the days when simply backing up the My Documents folder was enough are gone, and gone for good.
So, you decide not to reformat after all. Better to stick with your old, clogged waxy system for now. Well, that's when you start to realize that a good suite of cleanup and optimization tools is a must.
Now, did you think Microsoft developed new system utilities and applets for each new version of their operating system by themselves? Wrong. They simply buy them from smaller, and smarter, companies. And they buy the best ones from - you guessed - Peter Norton (now part of Symantec Corporation). Just check out the copyright notices on the splash screen of the Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter. See? Now you know where obsolete Norton Utilities end up! And this has been going on at least from the time when the DOS Defrag command first made its appearance.
Incidentally, Norton Utilities and Windows do have some major points in common: the first being that much of both is downright useless. And a second, minor point in common: the rest of both is downright indispensable. Such as Norton System Check. You see, I thought - like you probably did or still do - that a clean Windows reinstall was the best way to get an error-free, reliable system, humming along like a bee and running smoothly as DOS 3.0 used to...
Well, I should have known better: with an average, freshly installed Windows system, Norton System Check finds no less than a dozen things to correct.
Now, pull up a chair and get a fresh cup of coffee; it's a long story. NU, which is short for Norton Utilities, was first introduced for DOS in... lemme think... 1982 - in the happy times of old, when windows were just something you found on walls and when 640 k was indeed "enough for anybody". Slowly, the subsequent versions of Norton Utilities migrated towards the Windows OS, sheding the DOS legacy fairly slowly - for instance, retaining many of the cryptic 8.3-character names in its executables (such as ndd32.exe, windoc.exe) to this very day. A characteristic that NU shares with almost all other PC software, by the way. Have you noticed yet how some primitive atavic traits, in software and people alike, will endure all effort at civilization?
The software is divided into four categories based on functionality. It has utilities to find and fix problems, optimize performance, maintain your system, and manage the Registry. It also comes with some minor utilities, such as Norton System Information with System and Disk benchmarks, and some essential DOS-based utilities. During the installation process, you can choose from four options: Compact to install only the most indispensable programs, Custom to select the components you want to install, Express to install utilities with minimal user interaction, and Standard for installing the standard set of utilities.
Once you've installed and rebooted, you'll get a new icon on the right of your taskbar that looks like a traffic light. This is Norton System Doctor, which consists of a number of real-time sensors that monitor your computer for problems. You also get Norton Utilities Integrator. This is the pretty, easy-to-use Windows front end for the bulk of the programs you get with Norton Utilities. Within this control panel, there are four sections. Let's cover them in random sequence, one by one:
Seek and Destroy Troublemakers
As we said,
Norton System Doctor
squats in the background, continuously monitoring your PC. A number of sensors check on system performance, RAM, disk and CPU usage, disk integrity, system integrity, network throughput, Internet connection, and more, to keep your computer free of problems and running at peak efficiency. You can pick from over 80 sensors to display, and set threshold limits when you want critical alerts to be triggered. Norton System Doctor not only finds potential disk and system problems, but in many cases can also take proactive measures automatically to prevent a minor problem from turning into serious trouble.
Norton System Check
is System Doctor's on demand counterpart: so it's the alternative of choice, far better than to have System Doctor running in the background, gulping up your precious resources and CPU cycles. Norton System Check checks for disk and Windows problems, reports errors, and suggests solutions. It runs a complete diagnostic on your system, allowing you to fix any disk or Windows problems should they occur. It will also help improve Windows performance checking the fragmentation of your disk and will then run Speed Disk or any other utility as and if required. Norton System Check is easy to use and you can select what tests to run and schedule them when to run.
Norton Disk Doctor
is Norton's ScanDisk: it diagnoses and repairs after notifying user, or automatically, a variety of disk problems, helping to prevent data loss. It checks the integrity of logical disk structures (boot records, FATs, and directories) and performs a series of physical surface tests. This is a rather time-consuming process, but it's not something you need to run very often, and it's something that may easily be scheduled to run at off-peak hours. Much the same as Windows ScanDisk.
Norton WinDoctor
Ever lost a file association (example: double-clicking on a text file no longer opens Notepad, but prompts you to select an application you'd like it opened with instead)? Ever experienced lost functionality, when an application that was perfectly healthy only a day before, simply refuses to launch or, say, crashes when you try to print a document from within it? These are just some of the symptoms of a corrupted Registry. The Registry is a system configuration file where all your Windows settings are stored; and which may get - and does get - corrupted for a variety of reasons: from disk errors and bad installs to Windows hangups and unlucky Registry restores (if a corrupt Registry is detected at boot, Windows 98 automatically replaces it with an older, working copy). To protect you from such ailments, Norton WinDoctor performs a series of tests to diagnose and fix software errors, hardware, configurations, Registry problems, and clutter from failed uninstalls. It digs through your Registry and removes dead-end links, circular references, corrupted or unnecessary Registry keys, sweeps up common Windows detritus, including shortcuts to erased apps, lost ActiveX code strings, and bits of files left after a crash. It groups problems logically to help users fix multiple problems with one corrective action, and better understand what is causing the problems, to try and avoid similar problems in the future. Depending on how much you know, you can look at each problem it finds and deal with it yourself, or you can just let WinDoctor take care of everything automatically. It's quite amazing how many problems it finds at first – the first time you run it, their number may easily reach 100 and more! These tend to just be little things that make your system a bit slower and less stable, so sorting them out is a good thing. If you know what you're doing, of course.
Norton Protection/Unerase Wizard
Ever overwritten a valuable file? Or clicked the wrong button in a dialog, permanently deleting an entire directory? Yes, there are countless ways to delete files in Windows bypassing the Recycle Bin. And in such cases, of course, there's no way to get them back. Well, Norton Utilities adds extra, configurable data recovery protection to the Recycle Bin to help you recover deleted files that the Recycle Bin cannot find: safeguards overwritten files (darn useful, I must admit), files deleted from within a Windows application, and files deleted from the DOS command line (or with another tool that bypasses the Windows trashcan). I know of no other tool that allows this. Norton Unerase Wizard even works for files that you deleted before installing Norton Utilities. It lets you even recover deleted files that have been emptied from the Recycle Bin. Don't rely on it, as it only works until the bit of the disk is written over again, but it's useful if you ever accidentally delete something you wanted to hang on to. Steps the user through the process of recovering lost, deleted and overwritten files including files that are overwritten by a malicious virus.
Relax! You Don't Need a Faster Computer...
...If you optimize the one you have. There are two Norton Utilities that will do that for you:
Speed Disk
Speed Disk is much the same as Win 98 Defrag, but is much more thorough and powerful. The first utility to both defrag and optimize your drive(s). Places the most frequently accessed files, e.g., Windows directory or Internet browser - even the swap file - at the beginning of the disk, on the outermost tracks, for fastest access. The first time you run it (and only that first time), it will literally take hours, even on a fast machine, but - with a little help from the Optimization Wizard - you will notice a significant performance increase afterwards. IMHO, if Norton Utilities consisted of nothing more than Speed Disk alone, it would still be the best Windows optimizer around. Fact: launching Speed Disk - with the right options - is the biggest single step you can do to really, noticeably optimize your system.
Norton Optimization Wizard
The second most important step is to reduce disk I/O operations - a job for the Optimization Wizard, which also covers a few other areas. By processing the system Registry, and particularly the swap file, it further optimizes performance. It sets an efficient minimum size for the swap file to minimize its fragmentation, and also moves it to your fastest drive if your PC has multiple drives.
Better to Prevent Or Cure?
The answer given by Norton Utilities seems to be: both. On a sunny day, the system maintenance utilities will gather crucial system information and let you create rescue and image disks; so, if dark clouds should gather some day, they will use all that data to restore and repair a crashed system.
Norton System Information
gives users quick access to system information, including memory, logical and physical disk characteristics, network connections, multimedia devices, and Internet connections. It tells you pretty much everything you will ever need to know about your computer. Your graphics card capabilities, your printer properties, your memory usage, and so on. The thing that I find most useful is being able to see exactly what you've got loaded into memory, what program each thing belongs to, and how much memory it takes up.
Norton WipeInfo
for deleting sensitive files, and making sure they are un-recoverable. When you delete files, Windows only deletes their FAT entry, the data remains there and can be recovered using dedicated tools. WipeInfo permanently deletes all traces of a file or folder by using a Department of Defense approved seven-pass procedure that makes the deletion permanent and unrecoverable. So if you delete something with this, there's basically no getting it back, not even with the Un-erase Wizard. Use with care! Can be used to wipe all free space left in a drive.
Image
Image creates a snapshot of critical disk information: the boot record, FAT, root directory data, etc. Saves it to the hard drive to help ensure complete recovery from accidental folder or file deletion.
Norton File Compare
lets you track changes made to text documents, see what's changed between versions, and selectively undo the changes. Can compare any text files, such as *.ini files, programming source code, HTML files, and - essential! - the Registry. Enables the user to selectively undo changes. Compare and Registry Tracker together give users the ability to examine and undo modifications to program and data files, the Windows Registry and .ini files.
Norton Diagnostics
Identifies hardware problems quickly. Tests the health of hard disks, sound cards, speakers, memory, CD-ROMs, printers, modems, the system board, floppy drives, comm ports, PC Card slots, keyboards, mouse, and more.
Rescue Disk
records a duplicate set of system startup files, CMOS data, disk partition information, etc. Norton Rescue Disk offers two rescue types:
Norton Zip Rescue: Saves rescue information to an Iomega/Jaz type drive
Basic Rescue/Recovery Wizard: Guides users through the process of restarting and fixing a system that fails to boot. Together, they give the user the unique ability to boot to a full working copy of Windows from the Iomega/Jaz type drive, and permit users to save their work and recover critical files.
Rescue Disk also features Windows File Check, which helps determine why Windows is not booting properly.
Master Your Registry
Norton Registry Tracker and Editor monitor changes to critical setup data and startup files, and let you edit the Windows Registry and startup files. The Registry is basically where Windows stores the settings for everything, so if you play around with it, you can cause really nasty problems.
Norton Registry Editor
lets you edit the Registry, much like the analogous Windows tool. The Norton version has a useful bookmark feature for those of you who spend a lot of time in your Registry, and is more comprehensive and powerful than the regular Windows Regedit.
Norton Registry Tracker
(as long as you tell it to) monitors changes to your computer's critical setup data and startup files, including Windows Registry keys and .ini files, and lets you roll back to a previous version if the changes cause problems. So if you're not sure what you're doing with the Registry, but are going to fiddle with it anyway, use the Registry Tracker before you delve in (oh, and make a backup first)!
Norton Utilities also includes
a number of DOS-based programs in four levels:
Recovery procedures, or, How to repair a hard disk, recover accidentally deleted files, or unformat a disk.
Startup procedures, or, How to repair common hardware, setup data, startup data, operating system, and hard disk problems.
Common procedures, or, How to repair common disk problems.
Advanced procedures, or, How to repair less common disk problems with Disk Editor, a lethally powerful or lethally dangerous (depending on whether you know what you are doing with it or don't) disk sector editor.
DOS Apps include versions of Norton Disk Doctor, Unformat, DiskEdit and UnErase that operate under DOS.
Symantec's LiveUpdate
uses your computer's modem or Internet connection to download updates directly from Symantec. LiveUpdate Pro can automatically locate and install updates for your hardware drivers and your other favorite software programs. This is available through subscription to Norton Web Services.
Software Review - Pros
Norton Disk Doctor and Norton Speed Disk provide additional options that ScanDskw.exe and Defrag.exe don't. IMHO, Speed Disk alone is a sufficient reason to buy Norton Utilities: if you care at all about your system's performance, that is.
Complete integration with your OS, which means ease of use.
Customizable as per personal requirements, which means you can configure it to do what you want, when you want, and the way you want it.
Definitely the Unerase Wizard.
Norton WinDoctor.
Norton Disk Doctor will repair errors (and I don't mean minor errors), that W98's ScanDisk just doesn't see, thus making your system sturdier and more reliable.
The possibility to launch Norton Utilities directly from the bootable program CD - a lifesaver if (may it never happen!) you experience a hard drive crash.
Like all good programs, Norton Utilities has an online update feature that calls up a Web site, identifies program updates, downloads and installs them for you. Symantec is particularly good about this approach, and all their programs have a Live Update button that makes the update process a one-click event.
Updates are small and fairly painless to download.
Software Review - Cons
Norton Utilities isn't cheap.
The most powerful tools are potentially extremely dangerous. For example, try to imagine the havoc DiskEdit could do in
inexperienced hands! Just thinking about it makes me shiver.
As of Norton Utilities 6.0, no more CrashGuard. Although, judging by some angry reports by users that reportedly experienced more crashes with CrashGuard running than without it, this may actually be a Pro more than a Con... CrashGuard is obsolete, says Symantec, which also states that "interest in upgrading Norton CrashGuard to support the new operating systems was very low." That's fine for Millennium and Windows 2000 owners, since Windows Me sports a utility that takes snapshots of the system and lets users roll back to a working machine, while 2000 and, consequently, XP, are considered very sturdy. But it's bad news for those who still use Windows 95/98.
By the way. You'll frequently hear Symantec saying "we've omitted the xyz utility from our new edition due to lack of interest on the part of users." Well, don't fall for it - it's just their (pretty trite and boringly repetitive) way of dealing with schedule. If Symantec can't release a software suite on time, they don't postpone the release (as Microsoft do), but rather choose to release it on time - omitting the unfinished parts and blaming it on user wishes. They "did it again" in Norton SystemWorks 2002: the suite only allows you to optimize your Registry if you have Windows 9x or ME, but the option is unavailable for XP users. Obviously, Symantec weren't able to port some of the utilities to XP on time, so they chose simply to leave them out. "Because users said so." Yeah, right. And I'm Jimmy Hoffa.
System Requirements for v2002
I just couldn't decide where to put the hardware requirements: in the Pros or in the Cons section. In fact, 50 MB of
hard drive space may seem quite a lot for a utilities suite, but considering the completeness of the package and the
sheer number of utilities, I could hardly say that 50 MB is excessive. On the other hand, I couldn't just put them in the Pros section either, could I? So I tossed a coin and here they are:
The Norton Utilities system requirements:
Windows XP Home Edition/Professional
Intel Pentium 233MHZ or higher processor
AMD K6 /Athlon/Duron Family processor at 233MHZ or higher
64 MB of RAM
Windows 2000 Professional
Intel Pentium 133MHZ or higher processor
AMD K5 Family processor at 133MHZ or higher
64 MB of RAM
Windows NT Workstation
Windows NT v4.0 Workstation operating system with service pack 6 or higher
Intel Pentium 133MHZ or higher processor
AMD K5 Family processor at 133MHZ or higher
32 MB of RAM
Windows Me/98
Intel Pentium 133MHZ or higher processor
AMD K5 Family processor at 133MHZ or higher
32 MB of RAM
Required for All Installations
50 MB of available hard disk space
CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
User Report - Tips, Tricks and Tweaks
Don't Let System Doctor Cut You An Arm And A Leg
You can decrease the amount of system resources that System Doctor uses at any one time, by using only the sensors you need at that time. System Doctor includes a feature for saving/loading various sensor combinations and settings.
Typical sensors that do scanning or otherwise use more system resources than other sensors:
Disk Doctor (9x only)
Disk Doctor Surface test (9x only)
Disk Optimization
Disk Health (9x only)
WinDoctor
Norton Antivirus SE Scan (available only in Norton Utilities 4.0 and before)
A suggested minimal configuration for improving system performance might include the following two sensors:
Disk Space
Disk Optimization
Some typical sensors that measure factors that affect system performance:
Disk Space
Disk Optimization
Open Files (9x only)
Typical sensors that measure various aspects of system performance:
To save your current sensor configuration, create an *.nsd file, as follows:
Open Norton System Doctor.
Choose File and click Save Configuration As. The Save As dialog box appears.
Type a name for the configuration, such as SysDocMaint.nsd.
Choose a location for the file. Do not use the Norton Utilities nor the Norton SystemWorks folder, since uninstalling these programs could delete your saved file.
Click Save.
To create a new configuration:
If you want to keep your current configuration, save it, and then:
Open Norton System Doctor.
Remove any sensors you do not want in the new configuration.
Add each sensor you want in the new configuration. To add a new sensor:
Click Sensors in the System Doctor menu.
Point to one of the options, such as Disks.
Click the name of the sensor, such as Disk Optimization.
Either use the default sensor settings, or set the options for each sensor. To set the options:
Right-click the sensor.
Click Properties. This displays a Properties window with two or more tabs.
For each tab:
Check the options you want.
Uncheck the options you do not want.
When you have finished checking/unchecking the options, click Apply, then OK.
Save the new configuration.
To restore a configuration:
Open Norton System Doctor.
Choose File and click Open Configuration. The Open dialog box appears.
Double-click the name of the configuration file. For example, double-click the SysDocMaint.nsd file.
What Version of Norton Utilies Is Installed?
This method is only applicable if you did a complete install of Norton Utilities, and you look for these options on the start menu (instead of other places, such as Norton Integrator).
If you have a program called System Genie, then you have version 2.0.
If you have a program called Norton Connection Doctor, then you have version 4.0.
If you do not have System Genie, Norton Connection Doctor, nor Norton WinDoctor, then you have version 1.0.
If you do not have version 1.0, 2.0 or 4.0, and you do have a program called Space Wizard, then you have version 3.0.
If you do not have Space Wizard, then you have version 4.5 or later.
If you have CrashGuard, then you have 5.0, if you don't, then you have 6.0.
Alternatively:
Version 4.0 - Windows 95/98
Find the version number by choosing the Help menu from Norton System Doctor and then clicking About Norton System Doctor. The version number displays on both the General and Norton Utilities tabs. There currently are no updates for version 4 other than for virus definitions. Version 4 ships with Norton System Works 2.0.
Version 4.5 (2000) - Windows 95/98
Find the version number by choosing the Help menu from Norton System Doctor and then clicking About Norton System Doctor. The version number displays on both the General and Norton Utilities tabs. There currently are no updates for version 4.5. Version 4.5 ships with Norton System Works 3.0 (2000).
Version 5.0 (2001) - Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000
Find the version number by choosing the Help menu from Norton System Doctor and then clicking About Norton System Doctor. The version number displays on both the General and Norton Utilities tabs. There is an update for version 5.0 that updates it to version 5.02. Version 5.0 ships with Norton System Works 4.0 (2001).
Version 6.0 (2002) - Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP
Find the version number by choosing the Help menu from Norton System Doctor and then clicking About Norton System Doctor. The version number displays on both the General and Norton Utilities tabs. There is an update for version 6.0 that updates it to version 6.0.3. Version 6.0 ships with Norton System Works 5.0 (2002).
If you have installed Norton Utilities as part of Norton SystemWorks, click Help and then click About. The version information is available on the Norton Utilities tab.
Do's and Dont's
What you definitely should (and what you definitely shouldn't) use Norton Utilities for:
Don't let the Wizard mess up your virtual memory settings before you read the virtual memory tutorial. And, for best results, don't let it mess them up even after that.
The default Norton settings protect and hide for a period of time any files you may move to the Recycle Bin. Unless for some uncanny reason you really need all that safety, or you have extremely critical files on your drive (such as confidential FBI databases or national defense data), empty your Norton Protected files and turn the option off. It introduces an overhead on your system just like any other TSR - er, sorry, "background application".
Definitely disable any auto-starting utilities and other junk, be it Norton or Horton. They don't do any good except slow down your startup time. Earlier versions of Norton Utilities acquired a reputation as system resource hogs, mainly because of the System Doctor. Although that has been very efficiently dealt with, I'm telling you nothing new if I say that, as a rule, having any task, however tiny, run in the background only slows down your system. You may always run those checks later, at your convenience, when you decide it's time to do some system maintenance, or - better still - schedule them to run when your computer is idle. The best way to disable such nuisances is to fire up MSConfig.exe, which allows you to conveniently and easily access all possible culprits in one place: from msdos.sys, config.sys and autoexec.bat, to system.ini, win.ini and various Run subkeys in your Registry.
Do let Norton Speed Disk defragment your swap file. It's the only (or next to only) utility capable of moving it to the initial cylinders of the HD, thus speeding its performance considerably.
If you have Norton Utilities 3.0 or later, do let Norton WinDoctor scan and repair your Registry and Norton Optimization Wizard optimize it.
So What Do All These Improvements Mean For You?
Usually, calling a product a "safe buy" is a backhanded compliment; it's the slogan of corporate drones who bought IBM hardware a few decades ago or buy Microsoft Office without even considering alternatives today. Well, in contrast to that, i would say that Norton Utilities is a safe buy for the considerate buyer who's done his/her research and discovered there are surprisingly few - if any - other packages that make the grade. Whenever I set up a new workstation, or reinstall an old one, the first thing I install after the operating system is Windows Commander to replace the inane Explorer - but the second I install is Norton Utilities.
If you happen to be a registered Norton Utilities user already, you can take advantage of the massive 63% discount and purchase Norton Utilities 2001 (Applications), at www.catalogcity.com.
If you're not a user, on the other hand, you can get Norton Utilities 2002 V6.0 98/NT4/W2K/WME/XP at www.alphacraze.com. And pretty cheap, too. Fact: although prices can vary a great amount from one vendor to another, they actually don't. What I want to say is, if something looks too good to be true, it probably is: the apparently lower price is commonly counterbalanced by inflated shipping & handling charges. However, if you run into an unusually low (or high) price, always check the descriptions of any items you buy: you'll soon discover that the apparently cheaper product simply doesn't include the paper documentation or some of the components. This one does.
