Windows 7 Home Premium and Norton Utilities

Hi,

I have been using norton utilities quite a while along with Windows 7 Home Premium x64, with Norton Internet Security 2010.

In the past week or month, I click Norton utilities, the Norton Utilities  hangs, and it doesnt go anywhere.

I will post a picture to an external link if required.

Hi HPTouchsmart,

 

Welcome to the forum. Do you see Norton Utilities (NU for short) load at startup? Is it present in the task tray? How are you trying to load it? Are you trying to load it via the Start Menu? Or are you attempting to load it by either double clicking the NU icon in the task tray or right clicking on the NU icon in the task tray and selecting Open Norton Utilities?

 

Since this should be loading at startup, it won't bring up the NU interface if you try to load it from the start menu.

 

Do you get any sort of error message or just nothing?

 

As far as posting a picture you can do so in the thread when you reply to the post. To do so please hit Shift+Print Screen combination while the image you wish to upload is present on your desktop. Then bring up MS Paint application and hit Ctrl+V to paste it into Paint. Then select Save As from the File menu and save to your desktop as a JPEG image. To upload to the forum, please hit the symbol which looks like a green tree near the top. You can then browse to your image and click Insert. This will attach it to your reply in this thread.

 

Thanks

Allen

Hi Allen,

I opened msconfig and Norton utilities was checked on startup.

I think I have to disable it on startup to get it to work though.

Anyway On the bottom, you can see the Norton Utilities icon.

Start counting from Firefox, which is one, and 5 is NIS 2010, and 8 is Norton utilities.

Click that, and it basically hangs.

I cannot post an image because image size is too big.

This link can be used for the picture, but it is external:

http://s941.photobucket.com/albums/ad255/HPTouchsmart/?action=view&current=norton.png

 


HPTouchsmart wrote:

Hi Allen,

I opened msconfig and Norton utilities was checked on startup.

I think I have to disable it on startup to get it to work though.

Anyway On the bottom, you can see the Norton Utilities icon.

Start counting from Firefox, which is one, and 5 is NIS 2010, and 8 is Norton utilities.

Click that, and it basically hangs.

I cannot post an image because image size is too big.

This link can be used for the picture, but it is external:

http://s941.photobucket.com/albums/ad255/HPTouchsmart/?action=view&current=norton.png

 


 

Hi HPTouchsmart,

 

Thanks for the update. I took a look at the image and it just shows a splash screen so I presume this is all you got and nothing more came up. Is this correct? By the way, you can attach this image to the thread and you have resize options to size it for best fit. However, if you try to upload it as a bitmap image, the forum will not let you do this. You must save it as a JPEG image to upload to the forum. You probably don't need to do that in this case but for future reference....

 

Have you tried to uninstall and reinstall NU? If not you should try this as a first step. Please ensure that when you do diable NIS Anti Virus to ensure there is no conflicts. During the time AV is disabled you should disconnect yourself from the Internet for your own protection.

 

Please try this and let me know how it goes.

 

Thanks

Allen

alright i will try right now.

alright, i have reinstalled and it works fine now. Just something, when i defragmented the registry, the computer rendered unusable, as i noticed it had to delete some system32 files.

but anyway, it works now


HPTouchsmart wrote:

alright, i have reinstalled and it works fine now. Just something, when i defragmented the registry, the computer rendered unusable, as i noticed it had to delete some system32 files.

but anyway, it works now


 

Hi HPTouchsmart,

 

Thank you very much for the update. I am happy this worked for you.

 

Please mark the relevant post which you believe contained the solution by clicking on the green Solution button that only you can see. This will allow others to know the problem is solved and quickly get to the solution when they search the forums.

 

Thanks again

Allen


HPTouchsmart wrote:

 

[ ... ]  Just something, when i defragmented the registry, the computer rendered unusable, as i noticed it had to delete some system32 files.

 

[ ...]


I wish you could shout that out very very loud! <g>

 

I consistently tell people do not try to clean up or tidy up the registry using a utility unless you know more about the registry than the utility does! I do support on another set of forums and time and time again we get people coming in saying

 

"I used such and such to clean up my system and get rid of bloat and now it won't boot up -- what should I do?" 

 

I used the registry cleaner in Norton 360 once and it "fixed" some incomplete links it found by putting in the paths to the missing files that were on  another hard drive as part of a different version of Windows ...... Luckily I found this out by looking in History and there was an Undo command .....

 

As a matter of interest, how did you correct this?

Hi Huwyngr,

 

Likely through system restore. I think it likely some other things were going on as the registry defragger modifies only the registry. As a side note I used Registry Mechanic for well over a year before getting the new NU 14.5 and as you probably know this is what is used in NU for registry cleaning and defragging. I've used registry defragger several times and have never seen a problem with it and in fact I could see a noticeable improvement in windows startup after running it.

 

As in all things, one is best advised to configure NU to automatically create a restore point (which should be default) before making any changes to the registry. This will leave a way to back out if something does go wrong. In my opinion this should not even be configurable, it should just flat out always create a system restore point. Why give a way for any utility (no matter how good) to get someone backed into a corner from which there is no way out.

 

This combined with a good backup strategy which must include regular imaging backups of the system drive will always leave a path of restoration if something goes really wrong.

 

The reality is that most people who have utilities like this are not going to be registry experts, but common sense must be used so that there is a way out if something goes wrong.

 

Allen

Message Edited by AllenM on 11-27-2009 04:31 PM

I beleive evrything you say, especially your last paragraph …

I had to use System Recovery, unfortuantely.


HPTouchsmart wrote:
I had to use System Recovery, unfortuantely.

 

Glad to hear it worked.

HPTouchsmart wrote:
I had to use System Recovery, unfortuantely.

 

Hi HPTouchsmart,

 

I assume you mean system restore? The registry defrag should have never touched any system files, it should make changes only to the system registry. Had you used anything else with NU or other utility in terms of cleaning unused files, internet clutter, etc?

 

Also one side note to mention just as a suggestion. Do you use Ghost or any other sort of imaging backup program? If not you really should consider this, particularly for your system drive.

 

If something like this comes up again, it should really be investigated. I've been using Registry Mechanic which is now included in NU for close to a year and a half now and have never encountered something like this. If there really is a problem it should be investigated and if there were to be any sort of bug, it absolutely should be resolved.

 

Thanks

Allen

actually i contacted MS and they told me to insert Win 7 disk, start cmd and then he gave me instructions on how to expand the files, therefore fixing the OS. The system was inaccessible, so I could not start System Recovery OR System Restore.


HPTouchsmart wrote:
actually i contacted MS and they told me to insert Win 7 disk, start cmd and then he gave me instructions on how to expand the files, therefore fixing the OS. The system was inaccessible, so I could not start System Recovery OR System Restore.

 

Hi HPTouchsmart,

 

That is pretty serious and I do know something like this has never been reported before. Did you have an upgrade situation to your current Windows 7 or clean install?

 

I'm on these forums all the time and I will definitely keep my ear peeled so to speak for any similar problems being reported.

 

Allen

i was using Windows 7 when i defragmented, but the OS seems to be working fine right now.