The Norton brand from Symantec is better recognized for its antivirus and security offerings than for its utilities for personal computers. While Norton Utilities greatly speed up your test computer’s startup time and increases its overall performance, its functions are restricted. If you’re familiar with Norton’s previous products, you’ll find this one to be intuitive, but newcomers may need help. No free version is available, but the installation is straightforward, and the required 100 MB of disk space is comparable to but lower than that of several competitors.
Surprisingly, Utilities Ultimate initiates a system scan the moment the program is launched. You get a synopsis after running the scan in just a few seconds. Now, coming to the detailed Norton utilities ultimate review 2023, this article will provide you with all you need to know about it.
Key Features
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Norton Utilities Ultimate Review: Pricing
Norton Utilities Ultimate has a price of $39.99 / £29.99 / NZ$39.99 for the first year. After that, it’s $69.99 / £59.99 / NZ$69.99 each year. You can use it on up to 10 computers for that price.
In the first year, it’s cheap—about $3 / £2.50 every month. But, after the first year, it’s more expensive. If your computer is already running well, it might feel costly.
- Avast Cleanup and AVG TuneUp charge $69.99 a year for ten computers.
- CCleaner Pro costs $39.95 / £39.95 a year, but it’s only for three computers.
Norton ultimate utilities review shows that it has a good price for the first year, especially since you can use it on many computers. After the first year, it’s a bit more than others. It’s worth it if you have a lot of computers.
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What Can you Do With It?
Toolbox
The heart of Norton Utilities Ultimate is its Toolbox. Think of it like the main dashboard, where you find all the important tools to make your computer run smoother. The user-friendly design here is commendable – it’s easy to understand and navigate.
Clean
This section has many options, similar to other computer cleanup tools you might have seen. One option here is Registry Cleanup. Back in the early 2000s, computers had issues with unwanted and unnecessary registry entries. These could slow down the computer. But with advanced versions of Windows like 10 and 11, these registry issues don’t affect the computer’s performance much.
But, changing or deleting registry entries without knowledge can be risky. It’s like removing the foundations of a building piece by piece if you remove the wrong part.
The good news is Norton Utilities Ultimate makes the process simple. You’ll see many scanning options, all pre-selected. You can hit the Analyze now button if you don’t want to get into the nitty-gritty. If it finds problems, it will alert you with a bold orange banner. And to fix those? Just click on Clean selected.
Speed Up
One unique feature here is the Newtosk Scanner. This tool scans and shows you the devices connected to your network. It’s a bit like seeing who all are attending your party. But, it doesn’t tell you how much internet each device is using. While it’s cool to have, there are other free tools that give more details about your network.
Protect
This section offers a mix of useful tools:
DriveScrubber: This tool lets you create a bootable USB to wipe out everything from your system securely. It’s like giving your computer a fresh start. Since you can’t delete an operating system while you’re using it, this is a handy tool.
System Privacy: This is your digital privacy guard. Some features on your computer, like Windows Cortana, gather information about your habits and send it to Microsoft. If you’re not comfortable with this, Norton Utilities Ultimate helps you turn off these features. With just one click, you can disable them all or pick and choose which ones to turn off.
Automatic Care
In Norton utilities ultimate review 2023, its Automatic Care tool automatically runs a check-up on your computer, making sure it’s in the best possible shape. It scans various parts of your system and cleans up unnecessary files. One of the things it checks and cleans up is the computer’s registry. The registry is like a big directory that helps your computer know where everything is. Over time, it can get messy with leftover and outdated entries, which is where Automatic Care steps in to clean up the clutter.
Real-Time Boost
Now, Real-Time Boost a feature constantly monitors your computer for processes or activities that are slowing it down. Whenever it detects any “heavy” or resource-draining processes, it immediately clears them up, ensuring your computer remains swift and responsive.
Additionally, it also works on file defragmentation in real-time. But here’s a catch: if you have a Solid State Drive (SSD) in your computer, it doesn’t like this rearranging process. In fact, doing it often can wear it out faster. While it’s not explicitly mentioned whether Norton’s Real-Time Boost does this defragmenting for SSDs, we can hope that the smart folks behind the software have considered this and designed it to treat SSDs gently.
Norton Utilities Ultimate review: Why you should use it?
Although there is hype around Norton Utilities Ultimate in the market, some points make other alternatives a better choice. Nonetheless, Norton still has some advantages over others, and because of them, feel free to give it a try! Here is our review of Norton Utilities Ultimate:
Features
Norton Utilities Ultimate has many helpful tools for computer management as explained in detail in the previous section. It even has some advanced options that more experienced users might like. But, we noticed that it relies a lot on Windows for backup and recovery. It would be better if it had its own way of backing up and restoring settings. Since it’s meant for everyday people, not having this feature makes it a bit less reliable.
Ease of Use
Norton does a good job here. The software is easy to use. When using the tool, users can choose to get into the details or just let the software do its thing. We like how it’s designed for both detailed users and those who want simplicity.
Pricing
When we look at the price per computer, Norton Utilities Ultimate is cheaper than many other options. The great thing is you can use it on up to 10 computers, which is more than what most competitors offer.
However, there are other tools like CCleaner that have free versions. Norton Utilities Ultimate doesn’t clarify its pricing or software details, which is confusing. We found it hard to compare prices because other tools are different. If Norton had a free version and charged only for advanced features, it would be a better deal.
Customer Support
Norton’s customer support is reliable. Compared to other computer management tools, Norton stands out in this regard. They give you a lot of information, choices, and even live support. So, if users have problems, they can easily get the help they need.
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