NIS 2004 and Norton System Works 2003

I have just purchased and installed NIS 2004 and have spent the last week trying to fix my computer. I ran SpyBot, AdAware, HiJack This, SFC, Ckdisk, I even reinstalled XP!!!!!!! Never did I think that NIS was causing the problem. Finally uninstalled NIS and problems were gone. Reinstalled 4 times and problems continued (slowwwwwwww start, missing tray icon, various programs that are set to start in msconfig did not start......on and on). (this was an upgrade from Firewall 2003) I did everything that Symantec website said to do to correct the problem. Contacted NIS and now I have to go through this lengthy process to remove the old files which it did not tell you to do in the 1st place and then reinstall NIS. I have always used Norton with no problems. However this has been a nightmare.
I use Norton SystemWorks WinDoctor to correct missing files, corrupt activex....etc. Is there another program to do these things? It seems redundant to buy NIS which includes NAV and upgrade SystemWorks and pay for NAV twice. WinDoctor is the only option I use in SystemWorks. Surely there is another program or another way to do the same thing.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

hey...y don u try formatting ur computer?

 

Joyce, as a long time Norton user, I feel your pain!

As you have learned, installing/uninstalling Norton is messy. Install your new Norton right overtop of the one you have- don't bother trying to uninstall anything. We can clean up after we get Norton working right. Run Live Update, then run it again, reboot, run it again- run it until it is dry, then reboot and post back with how things are going. There was a recent Symantec glitch that caused a lot of problems on computers running Norton. Live Update is the easiest way to fix the problems.

Win Doctor is about the only thing I use from Norton Utilities any more, and I think its value has diminished, over time. XP corrects or compensates for 99% of what Win Dr. finds and fixes anyway. If I did a reinstall right now, I would not bother putting NU back on. Just my two cents. YMMV.

Johanna

 

Agreed,
XP is fairly robust and can correct (within reason) some errors.
Apart from running the sfc /scannow command to replace missing/corrupted and incorrectly overwritten files occasionally, but best only if you suspect a system file problem. Sometimes the saying "If it works, don't fix it" applies fitingly to PC's. I tend to only rely on a couple of registry and spyware cleaners/removers (see below) and regular system maintenence like clearing out temp files and regular defragmentation. Some of these system wide third party cleaners can cause more troubles than they fix, and seem to find problems, prompting correction that wern't really problems to begin with.

 

Thanks all for the information. The last thing I wanted to do was reformat the hard dive.

I did do live update numerous times and it did not correct the problem. I followed the instructions for total removal from Norton and reinstalled. Everything seems to be working fine now.

I have not reinstalled SystemWorks as I was waiting for a reply from my post. I believe I will not reinstall that for now and see if I really need it.

WHY doesn't Norton just tell you that to begin with in the instructions or at least fix the program to install correctly over the old one when doing an upgrade? One of the things that were wrong according to the check I did from the Norton site was the LiveUpdate file was out of date. Seems to me that should have been on the new software that I bought.

Anyway, I have learned and hopefully will remember this when upgrading a Norton product in the future.

 

Joyce,
Glad to hear you got Norton working properly. Thanks for posting back with your solution!

I'm kinda ambivalent about Norton products. When Norton is working correctly, they are quietly doing their thing in the background, as efficiently, or better than, any other available security software.

When Norton is NOT working properly, there can be system wide repercussions, and one major migraine. Norton is almost impossible to get rid of without a reformat, or carefully following 3 pages of instructions that you have to print out, because while you are messing with Norton, you MUST go offline. Even after following the uninstall instructions exactly, you can still be left with a mess in the registry. Norton spiders deep into the OS, but it has to, in order to do its job properly.

There are folks on the BBS who have had terrible experiences with Norton, and there are a few of us that stick with it, because with a properly configured Norton/Symantec security policy, you are about as "safe" as you are going to get, on the internet. Symantec sets the security response standard for the industry.

Johanna