Keep in mind that this is one person's opinion, but I thought maybe people
should see this who are thinking of buying Norton 2007. 73.
Harvey Heagy (N.5.H.A.U.)
Hello, As a long time user of Symantec products, I am saddened to inform
everyone that the new Norton 2007 products are no longer compatible with
Jaws. After purchasing Norton Internet Security 2007, and performing
extensive testing on it, I've determined the following.
* A blind person is unable to activate the product without sighted
assistance. if Jaws is loaded, the Activation program immediately quits,
rather than displaying its dialogs. This happens during the setup process,
and causes your installation to be left in an unusable state. Fixing this
requires sighted assistance to get through the activation process, at which
time the product (mostly) repairs itself.
* Once the product is installed, configuration is exceedingly difficult. The
software is completely inaccessible from the keyboard, Unlike it previous
versions the interface does not appear to take advantage of the Windows
built in html rendering facilities, instead using its own rendering method.
All configuration must be done with the jaws cursor, and Jaws's ability to
see things like buttons is eratic at best. (admittedly, it may be possible
to improve this via the use of a tool like Hotspot clicker, but getting to a
state where you could would require heavy sighted intevention, and its
questionable as to whether it would be worth it.) * When the product tries
to alert with Jaws loaded (at least on my machine), it instead blue screens
and reboots. I tested this with the standard antivirus test. Eicar?
(not sure on the spelling), which is a harmless .com file intended to do
nothing but trigger antivirus products. (all products use this as a
standard, "hello world" test.)
The combination of the three above points leads me to believe that ongoing
persistance with this product would prove fruitless.
(Note: while I did not perform testing with Window Eyes, it has been my
experience in the past that WE has been less effective at accessing the
Norton interfaces when they were accessible, so I have no reason to believe,
and hence no inclination to try it, that the situation with 2007 would be
any better, in fact, I suspect it would be dramaticly worse).
This message is a heads up to advise others not to buy the Norton
2007 products. if you are a Norton user, stick with 2006, as that is, at
least, accessible. If not, then it looks like its now time to find a new
package.
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