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Posts Tagged ‘Peak Performance’

Norton 360 Version 2 0

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

Norton 360 Version 2 0




Keep your PC as safe as your home is with 360 Version 2.0 for Windows. With a single subscription, you can protect up to 3 PCs. It safeguards your family by verifying trusted Web sites, blocking fake ones, and securely managing user names and passwords so that they can safely shop, bank, or browse online. Norton 360 V2.0 also helps keep your PCs running at peak performance and protects your data by making it easy to automatically back up and restore files locally or to a secured online storage service.

One-click access to expert support right from the software 1-year protection for up to 3 PCs Faster scans and browse speeds, faster start-up times Identity Protection securely manages all your user names, passwords and sensitive information Browser Protection defends against malicious programs that use vulnerabilities in your browser to insert malware Network Monitoring helps protect your home network against unauthorized access Backup provides support for new backup destinations including Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs and iPods Registry Cleanup helps optimize performance by removing unneeded Windows registry files Phishing Protection for Firefox guards online attempts to steal your personal informationSystem Requirements Windows XP Home/XP Pro/XP Media Center Service Pack 2 or higher, Windows Vista Home Basic/Home Premium/Ultimate/Business/Starter Edition Phishing Protection requires Microsoft Internet Explorer v6.0 or higher or Firefox v2.0 or higher Email scanning supported for POP3-compatible email clients Online backup requires high-speed Internet connection 300MHz or higher processor 256MB of RAM minimum 300MB of free hard disk space

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars PRODUCT IS SO, SO
I’ve used this product on 2 laptops and a desk top. This version isn’t as easy. I find the computer freezes much too much now, so I give it a half and half

4 Stars Norton 360 better than expected.
I was really impressed with Norton 360. It found a trojan and fixed it right away. I had McAfee beforehead and it did not detect this problem. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in protecting their laptop or desktop.

1 Star Don’t Waste Your Time or Your Money
I’ve been using Norton 360 for over a year for two features, anti-virus protection, and an online back up service. Both of these failed.

My wife’s laptop with Norton 360 installed and up to date virus definitions got infected with a virus in December. The virus took over Norton and disabled it. I reinstalled Norton, updated the virus definitions, and tried to root out the virus. Norton didn’t help. I checked their online support and indeed they couldn’t provide a fix.

At this point I reformatted the drive and reinstalled Windows and all applications, including Norton 360. I began receiving Windows fatal errors, which pointed to Norton. Their online support claimed it was a memory problem.

I replaced the memory, and for good measure replaced the hard drive. Another new install. Everything worked fine until I installed Norton 360. I was then receiving continual fatal errors. I uninstalled Norton, switched to McAfee, and everything works fine.

I then went about trying to restore the data from Norton’s online back up site. I needed to do so from a different computer , because Norton crashed the original computer at boot-up. I could retrieve a limited amount of data, but not all of it. I spent more than 7 hours over 4 calls with Norton support. Their support was very poor and they frequently provided wrong information.

I was finally told that I could only restore the data back to the original machine from which the data came, and it had to be running Norton 360. I explained that the original machine crashed every time I loaded 360, so I need to download the files to another machine and then transfer them manually. Their plan was to completely change the settings on my new machine to be identical to the original machine, including serial number, etc. I then decided to ask for a refund.

Well, it ends up a refund is not so easy if you bought the software from a retailer. If you bought online from Norton they will give you a refund immediately, but if you bought from a retailer you need all original packaging, original receipt, everything.

I’ve purchased a lot of Norton products over the years and they could see when I installed, what the product key is, etc., but that was not good enough. Their answer was “don’t buy from a retailer, buy online directly from Norton.”

So I wasted weeks of my time troubleshooting, hours on the phone with Norton, and bought unnecessary hardware, all thanks to Norton.

4 Stars Norton 360 has been quite dependable
I have been using Norton 360 for about fourteen months and just renewed my susbscription. I found the product to be very reliable. It automatically updates virus definitions and performs scans and every operation that I have programmed it to do. The only aspect I am not certain about is how good it is in stopping ads from infiltrating my system. Therefore, in addition to Norton 360, I have had to download and periodically run other adware programs.

My one advice to new users is to not update to version 3.0 when it comes out. I believe it is preferable to wait until the subscription expires and then update. And, when updating, it is best to completely uninstall the old version before installing the new.

5 Stars Great price.
Purchasing Norton 360 through Amazon rather than at the local computer store saved me over $20. This is the security recommended by my computer and I wanted to renew my introductory free 3-month subscription but even renewing on line would have cost me $10 more. I think I got a great deal.

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Micromat TechTool Pro 4 Mac

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Micromat TechTool Pro 4 Mac




This is the eagerly anticipated Universal Binary version of TechTool Pro that will run on both Intel and PowerPC-based Macs. It fully supports the hardware changes introduced to the Macintosh platform with the introduction of the new MacIntel chipsets. All of the features of the program that were previously available for PowerPC based Macs are available for Intel-based Macs as well. This includes the innovative eDrive (emergency startup partition) feature of the program, found nowhere else. In addition to Universal Binary support, the new release will also include some significant program enhancements, including improved Disk Controller test routines. Unlike most application software, more than a simple re-compile of the program was required to support the new Intel-based Macs. Because TechTool Pro works with the computer hardware at the lowest levels, it was necessary for Micromat to completely re-engineer the software from the ground up. In order to support the new models, Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is required to run the program.
TechTool Pro ships on DVD for both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs. The DVD will automatically boot the correct system version.
No product comes close to TechTool Pro for ensuring that all of your hardware and software is operating at peak performance. No other software gives you the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your valuable data is protected by the latest technology. With a single mouse click, TechTool Pro can automatically run a series of sophisticated tests that will troubleshoot almost any problem you are having with your Macintosh.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars I Think It’s Good
Some software’s are so complicated - but this doesn’t appear to be. It seems to be rather quite simple… That is, if I’m taking advantages of all it can do. I bought it because of the reviews on this site and CNET. I guess it “dose” good for the “system” becsue it seems to run better afterwords (CERTAINLY not worse) - however if my computing functions are all that complicated in the first place to need such “refining” remains to be seen. So I recommend it “just because” it’s good to have something that dose what it says it dose… But always remember - don’t fool yourself - run the “advanced” scan at night - it will tip the scales at FOUR HOURS or even more…

5 Stars Works as advertised. I am very pleased with their new 5.02 update.
I am a reluctant “need to maintain this Mac” user. I am a webmaster for my church using iWeb. I looked at Disc Warrior and didn’t understand the features offered. I tried the trial download and still didn’t understand disc warrior.

After generating a “disc error” disc utility couldn’t fix I frantically searched for a solution and found the tech tool version that came with my Appe Care Warranty.

Never could fix problem with that version. I bought the Pro version, at that time 4.6 and got it fixed in 5 minutes!

The new interface is much better when doing volume optimization. There is a graphic that lets you clearly see where you are in this lengthy process. It does take a long time to complete, but the performance of your machine will amaze you.

I used to take 45 Min. to an hr. to completely back up 141+ GB to a backup disc. After the optimization it takes 7 minutes!

You DO need to read their documentation. Get familiar with what they tell you before you start willy-nilly trying things.

This program is not meant for the highly networked Terabyte business. Again they tell you clearly what they can and can not do on what hardware, running which operating system versions. Excellent job Micromat.

1 Star TechTool Pro v4.6.1 will not work with Mac OS X 10.5
I’ve had Tech Tool Pro from the start. I thought it to be essential. Not so as it will not work for me with Mac 6S X 10.5.

I have a G-Drive 500 GB exterior hard drive. It is the item 4.6.1 cannot deal with. I have just run a complete defrag of the G-Drive in this, my 20th or so attempt to get 4.6.1 to run. Running the medium program, as recommended for periodic maintence, it runs to Volumes, Volume Structures (for the G-Drive) to the point of Catalog File (B-Tree) number 1394362 of 2604014 and freezes. Nothing clicks. The computer must then be completely shut down then restarted in order to get the disk to eject.

This completely worthless. And to think I paid an upgrade from 4.5 only to get the code more perfectly written to serve the Intel processors. My unit is still a Powerbook with G4 chip.

And to think I paid for the 4.6 then the announcements about 5.0 began with explanation mmost all of us would have to pay for an entire upgrade again.

If Micromat thinks we will all be sheep & buy 5.0 they have another thing coming.

5 Stars excellent service
received shipping notice right away. did not receive my software for like a month. emailed amazon and they sent another one right away.

1 Star Do NOT waste your $$$$
To begin with, TTP is not by any means the only game in town. It is however, going to be the the most expensive or completely useless. Micromat will be happy either way. As a current Micromat customer, I am the proud owner of an expensive utility that worked for all of two months. Leopard broke it completely. When Micromat updated their utility to be compatible with Apple’s current OS, they wanted all of us to pay them again. They simply renamed the “update” from “Techtool Pro 4″ r4.5.3 to “Techtool Pro 4″ r4.6.1 an “upgrade”. They’re also calling their all new “Techtool Pro 5″ an “upgrade”. Do yourself a favor, buy Diskwarrior and you’ll only have to pay for it just the one time.

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