Norton Utilities Activation Key
Garland Flugum
Norton Utilities is a utility software suite designed to help analyze, configure, optimize and maintain a computer. The latest version of the original series of Norton Utilities is Norton Utilities 16 for Windows XP/Vista/7/8 was released 26 October 2012.
Peter Norton published the first version for DOS, The Norton Utilities, Release 1, in 1982. Release 2 came out about a year later, subsequent to the first hard drives for the IBM PC line. Peter Norton's company was sold to Symantec (now known as Gen Digital) in 1990 and Peter Norton himself no longer has any connection to the brand or company.
The initial 1982 release supports DOS 1.x and features the UNERASE utility. This allows files to be undeleted by restoring the first letter of the directory entry (a workaround of the FAT file system used in DOS). The UNERASE utility was what launched NU on its path to success. Quoting Peter Norton, "Why did The Norton Utilities become such popular software? Well, industry wisdom has it that software becomes standard either by providing superior capabilities or by solving problems that were previously unsolvable. In 1982, when I sat down at my PC to write Unerase, I was solving a common problem to which there was no readily available solution."[1]
The main feature of this DOS 2.x compatible version is FILEFIND, used for searching for files.[citation needed] This 1983 release adds hard disk support, and the PRINT program was renamed LPRINT to avoid conflict with the DOS command introduced in MS-DOS 2.0 as PRINT.COM.[4] Following this release Norton became Utilities Editor of PC Magazine.[5]
Norton Disk Doctor is the major addition in this 1988 release.[9]It also includes Wipedisk; Wipefile, a Batch Enhancer and a sector level disk editor; a system information diagnostic utility and a disk caching program (NCACHE), which is between 10 - 50% faster than Microsoft's SMARTDrive when properly configured.
Release 5.0 adds new features, including Disk Editor, a utility to perform low level formatting on hard disks and changes such as password protection on the more "dangerous" utilities. It also includes a licensed version of the 4DOS replacement for COMMAND.COM called NDOS. This version also allows the choice of "classic" names (such as FF.EXE) or longer names (such as FINDFAST.EXE); these are configurable in the updated version of the Norton Integrator menu system.
UnErase takes advantage of DOS 5.0's Delete Tracking and Mirror File features to recover data.[11] However, MS-DOS 5.0 adds a new UNDELETE.exe program, licensed from Norton competitor Central Point Software,[12] which takes advantage of the same Delete Sentry control and Deletion-tracking files. (The ERASE command is an alias for the DEL (Delete) command in the DOS command line). Windows 95's Recycle Bin soon further reduced the need for UnErase.
Release 7.0 has revised user interfaces for the utilities that feature a menu-driven user interface. Also some of these tools now do not need to run in full-screen-mode but just display a window in the center of the screen, like the disk formatter or the disk duplicator utility.
It includes Norton Image, Norton System Doctor, Norton Protection, Rescue Disk, System Information, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton UnErase, Space Wizard, Speed Disk, System Information.[16] DOS tools include Disk Editor, Disk Doctor, Pre-Installation TuneUp.[17]
The Windows version of Speed Disk works with much greater speed than Microsoft's supplied defrag program, as it moved groups of clusters, not single clusters as Microsoft's Windows Disk Defragmenter. Changes in the way Windows operates meant that many of the old utilities were either dropped completely or replaced with GUI based versions. However, with the advent of Windows XP onwards, Norton's Speed Disk reverted to single-cluster defragmentation.[citation needed]
Version 2.0 was announced on 7 October 1996.[19]Version 2.0 features Norton CrashGuard with Anti-Freeze, Norton System Genie, Norton AntiVirus, LiveUpdate, System Genie, Registry Editor, System Doctor, System Benchmark, Disk Benchmark, Multimedia Benchmark, Speed Disk, Space Wizard.[20]
Officially announced on 10 November 1997,[26] Norton Utilities 3.0 was the first version of to be included in Norton SystemWorks, it includes Norton WinDoctor, Norton Web Services, LiveUpdate Pro, Norton CrashGuard 3.0, Norton Zip Rescue, Norton System Doctor, Norton SpeedStart, Norton Optimization Wizard, Speed Disk.
Symantec announced it had sponsored a bug-a-thon between USC and UCLA during the final development stages of the latest product release of Norton Utilities 3.0. The software began shipping on 21 November 1997.[28]
New additions include Windows 98 support, Norton SystemCheck, Registry Doctor Scan, Norton WinDoctor, Connection Doctor, Norton Wipe Info, Norton CrashGuard 4.0, Norton Zip Rescue, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton UnErase, a six-month subscription to Norton Web Services for $6.95.
With this release, Symantec changed the naming scheme to incorporate the year of release. Marketed as Norton Utilities 2000, this is the final version to run solely on the original Windows 95 platform.
For the next six years, Norton Utilities ceasted to exist as standalone product, instead becoming part of Norton SystemWorks starting 2003. SystemWorks is essentially several Symantec software bundled together in one package.
It includes Norton Protection, Speed Disk, Norton Optimization Wizard, Norton System Doctor, UnErase Wizard, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton WinDoctor, System Information, Wipe Info, Image, Norton File Compare, Norton Registry Editor, Norton Registry Tracker, and Explorer Shell Extension.[34]
The revival of Norton Utilities as standalone software was announced on 3 February 2009,[35] along with the discontinuation of Norton SystemWorks, which it replaces as Symantec's flagship PC tune-up suite.
This version adds 64-bit support on Windows XP and Vista. It includes Registry Defragmenter, Registry Cleaners, Disk Cleaner, Disk Defragmenter, Startup Manager, Service Manager, Restore Center, System Optimizer, Process Viewer, and Performance Test.
PC Pro rated Norton Utilities 14 with 1 star (out of 6) for "an overpriced collection of optimization tools that falls far short of its promise.[36] IT Reviews called the package "light on features compared to rivals" and it questioned the "usefulness of some of the monitoring utilities.[37]
PC Advisor criticized Norton Utilities 14 for delivering "little that you can't already do with Windows", although it did acknowledge that it brought two things to the table: "The registry tools, which are useful, and the performance monitor, which is interesting but not always useful."[38]
Symantec has released a version of Norton Utilities which is called Norton Utilities Premier Edition. It has all features of Norton Utilities plus Norton Online Backup. It is also compatible with Windows 7. It was released on 14 October 2009.
Norton Utilities 15.0 includes features from the discontinued Norton SystemWorks. It includes Norton Speed Disk, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton UnErase, Registry Restore, Registry Defragmenter, Registry Cleaner, Disk Cleaner, Disk Defragmenter, Startup Manager, Service Manager, Restore Center, System Optimizer, Process Viewer, and Performance Test. This version also includes a new GUI.
Norton Utilities 16.0 includes features from Norton SystemWorks. It includes Application Uninstaller, Norton Speed Disk, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton UnErase, Registry Restore, Registry Defragmenter, Registry Cleaner, Disk Cleaner, Duplicate File Finder, Disk Defragmenter, Startup Manager, Service Manager, Restore Center, System Optimizer, System Dashboard, Process Viewer, Performance Test and Smart Updates.
When Apple released System 7, Norton Utilities for the Macintosh needed to be updated in order to run safely. This proved to be a recurring story in the history of the utility; early versions were highly regarded for a while, but proved to be hazardous when used with newer disk structures and operating systems before being updated.
Announced on 12 May 1997, v3.5 is the first version of Norton Utilities for Macintosh to ship on CD-ROM.[44] This version supports Macs with Motorola 68020-68040 processors and G3 PowerMacs running Mac OS 7.1-8.6.[45]
Announced on 14 September 1998.[46] For the first time, Norton Utilities can run natively on PowerPC Mac computers. Version 4.0 is compatible with PowerPC Macs (up to G3) running Mac OS 7.5 and above (up to 8.6) and adds Mac OS Extended Format (HFS+) file system support.
Version 7.0 runs on Mac OS 8 and OS 9, and added Mac OS X support. Mac OS X tools run on PowerPC G3 Mac (except Beige G3). However, the Mac OS X tools have not been tested on Mac OS X later than 10.2.6, and is known to be incompatible with Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther).[50]
In 2004, Symantec confirmed it had stopped developing Norton Utilities for Macintosh and Norton SystemWorks for Macintosh, and concentrated its efforts solely on Internet security products for the Mac.[54]
Symantec Utilities for Macintosh (SUM) is a set of system utilities from Symantec, developed before Symantec had acquired Peter Norton Computing. SUM started out as a revised version of the MacZap data recovery tools[55][56] and includes utilities for data recovery, disk partitioning, disk defragmentation, and floppy disk duplication, among others.[57] Later SUM tools may have shared code with Norton Utilities for Macintosh. Some of the functionality from SUM II was incorporated into Norton Utilities 2.0.[58]
SUM II was announced for release in August 1989[60][61] and includes tools for data backup and data encryption.[57] SUM II v2.0 runs on Macs with System 4.2 or higher and 1 MB of memory. One review mentioned that it is easy to make use of most of SUM II's utilities, but at the same time, the file recovery functionality in SUM II is less automated and required more manual configuration compared to the file recovery functionality in Norton Utilities.[62] In September 1991, version 2.1 of SUM II, which would support System 7, was announced.[63]
b37509886e