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New Software is getting bad. I've lots of examples. The last few days I've been trying to help customers sort out problems with their computers. New breeds of problems seem to be making themselves a pest. Is this because vendors such as Symantec and Nero are getting greedy? I believe this is part of the reason. Take Norton Anti-Virus 2003 for example. This is the earliest version to run under Windows XP so when you are upgrading to XP a message comes up telling you to uninstall versions of NAV that are earlier than 2003. How does one do this properly? Unless you visit the Symantec site you wouldn't know. Even when visiting the site you'd find it hard to search out the information anyway. What if a machine is being upgraded from Windows 98 to XP and it already has Norton 2003 installed on it? I bet you a pound to a penny all will not be well when you've finished. What about the punter that decides to upgrade to Norton 2004? Well I've not had an example of a successful upgrade yet. The first user, running XP just couldn't get 2004 to install. Another running Windows 98 spent all day then came to me. I know what to do I thought. I'll check on Symantec's site first. "You must completely remove any trace of Symantec's products first", they said and went to great lengths to explain how. So this is what I did. I completely cleaned out all the old products. The new CD went in and installation proceeded apace. I certainly got a lot further than my customer had. He arrived just as the tail end of the installation was being completed. I typed in the code numbers from the package… He checked the digits were just so and … Nothing… The "NEXT" box wouldn't illuminate… We just could not proceed. I selected "BACK" and took the option to, "DEAL WITH THIS LATER", and bashed on… The machine rebooted and up came an error message… "UNINSTALL AND RE-INSTALL"… What… I just spent hours installing and now I have to repeat the exercise… My customer groaned as I started the un-installation, followed by a reinstallation… Finally the computer rebooted and …. Exactly the same results… I'd just wasted more time.. This time I clicked on a hyperlink and logged onto the Internet… We went to a page on Symantec's site that said we had to remove FIXIT 2000 Why should we have to do this? Anyway I removed FIXIT 2000 and tried again… Another error message… "UNINSTALL AND RE-INSTALL"… This is getting beyond a joke.. I dutifully uninstalled and reinstalled… Up came an error message… "Uninstall FIXIT 2000" I can't, I already did this… Another error message comes up.. "UNINSTALL AND RE-INSTALL".. I packed in for the night.. Time to call it a day. The next day, after reading a reply to my request for help to Symantec, I removed NAV2004, packed the bits into the box and successfully installed the original NAV2003. When the customer arrived I handed him the new package and told him to ask for his money back as Symantec had advised. I'm afraid this just won't do Symantec!
Pull your socks up and get a grip on things, your product used
to be really good, now as far as I'm concerned it's pretty useless! |