Norton Systemworks

Utilities like Norton System Works are essentially useless and a waste of money with Windows XP.  While they provided some reasonably valuable services with 9X platforms, unless you plan on running a FAT32 setup of XP (I believe the factory setup is NTFS), there's very little that's worth paying a dime for.  XP does a far better job managing itself than any third party suite I've seen, provided it's set up properly.

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@Tonto Goldstein wrote:
Utilities like Norton System Works are essentially useless and a waste of money with Windows XP.  While they provided some reasonably valuable services with 9X platforms, unless you plan on running a FAT32 setup of XP (I believe the factory setup is NTFS), there's very little that's worth paying a dime for.  XP does a far better job managing itself than any third party suite I've seen, provided it's set up properly.

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Actually, Norton SystemWorks offers a significant advantage over buying Norton Antivirus - the fact that previous NAV installations qualify for the upgrade rebate.  So it's cheaper to install SW then NAV, and since you can pick and choose what you want to install, or what you want to run, there is no reason not to get SW.

I use the NAV component plus Norton Protected Recycle Bin and one or two Norton Utilities. 

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@rickmktg wrote:

Actually, Norton SystemWorks offers a significant advantage over buying Norton Antivirus

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I guess it depends on where you get your NAV.  I've never paid even close to what System Works costs from a reputable dealer for NAV from a reputable dealer, and for a new user, there's the absence of temptation to fall for/install all the useless elements of NSW, when you get NAV as a stand-alone product. 

Since the first option one sees when inserting the NSW disc is "Install Norton System Works," that's the option that the uninitiated are most likely to use, and the fact remains that, on an NTFS installation of Windows, a good portion of the elements of NSW are completely worthless at best, and an invitation to muck up an otherwise well performing system at worst.

I already have a copy of Norton Systemworks 2003. I've used NS on two previous computers and I like  some of it's features, Especially Disk Doctor and Win Doctor. But McGafee was already on my disk when I bought my new Win XP computer.

I am not familiar with McGafee. Questions:

Is there an equivalent for WinDoctor and DiskDoctor in McGafee or Windows XP that is as good as NS?

Can I selectively install NS so that possibly I do not install anti-virus (but use McGaffee) but only some features of it, Would not installing anti-virus avoid conflicts with McGafee or alternatively can I install NS anti-virus but disable McGaffee anti-virus (or would it have to be uninstalled).

Do you know what McGaffe does that NS 2003 doesn't do, or vice-versa?

Is there an equivalent for WinDoctor and DiskDoctor in (McAfee) or Windows XP that is as good as NS?  If you do some reading on the differences between Windows XP (in the superior NTFS format) and Win9X operating systems, you'll see that you do not need such things with XP.  Once again, XP does a much better job managing itself than 9X operating systems, particularly with NTFS.

Can I selectively install NS so that possibly I do not install anti-virus but use (McAfee) but only some features of it,  You can, but once again, you don't need it.

Would not installing anti-virus avoid conflicts with (McAfee) or alternatively can I install NS anti-virus but disable (McAfee) anti-virus (or would it have to be uninstalled).  From personal experience, I've found Norton Anti Virus to be much more reliable, and much easier to use than McAfee.  If you elect to use Norton AV, you would want to first completely uninstall McAfee. 

WinDoctor in Norton Utilities in Norton Systemworks will do things like correct broken shortcuts, correct certain invalid registry entries,  and a variety of checks on the integrity of the system. If this is unnecessary, what in XP does something comparable?

Agreed - Is there an alternative registry tool to Win Doctor in XP?