Norton SystemWorks review

Norton CrashGuard and LiveUpdate

Norton CrashGuard is designed to stop data loss when an application freezes or fails. It monitors both 16- and 32-bit applications and will intercept and trap a crash. It will then try to fix the problem so you can save your data. If a program freezes on you then Anti-Freeze should be able to help, as it adds an extra button to the Close Program window. Select the culprit and Anti-Freeze will have a go at getting it running again. Full statistics are maintained, so you'll soon see which software is causing the most grief.

A standard feature across all the bundled products is LiveUpdate, which checks Symantec's Web site for SystemWorks upgrades and automatically downloads and installs them. Web Services take this a stage further with LiveUpdate Pro by checking your system configuration and comparing it with an index on the same Web site to see if there are any useful product upgrades or hardware drivers available. After a 20-minute wait, LiveUpdate Pro came back with a list of updates and drivers that were applicable to my system, although it was disappointing to see no new hardware drivers and a software list heavily biased towards Microsoft products. Note also that Web Services is only free for the first six months, after which it costs £30 per year to continue.

Serious users will find a place for virtually all of SystemWorks on their PCs. Norton Utilities is still the best troubleshooting and diagnostic tool around and the idiosyncrasies of Windows 95 and 98 make this even more valuable. Viruses will have a tough time with NAV, and cover disc clutter and demo applications can easily be kept under control with Norton Uninstall. The average user may not want to mess up their Desktop with the entire suite, but at least they can pick and choose which utilities they want to play with. Overall, SystemWorks is a bumper bundle of excellent utilities at a giveaway price.

Author: Dave Mitchell