On browsing other opinions in this category I wasn't surprised that other users of this product found dissatisfaction, but I never knew that that I'd not find a single positive review, atleast here.

I used CrashGuard a long time ago, I think it was version 2 on my late first computer, and even though there's a significant difference of two versions I think I'm able to qualify enough to explain what I think of Crashguard, regardless of the version out.

Norton Crashguard is a simple piece of software, so designed to reduce crashes on your computer which may result in data loss if you're working especially on anything critical.
It works by simply placing a shield icon in the Windows 9x system tray (not entirely dissimilar to virus scanners) and with some menu driven user modifications it's sole task is to intercept crashes, and if possible avert them from happening, or atleast letting you save your data before things go impossibly awry.

A simple press, but Crashguard's performance is below standard, as I found that even though there were a few times it could avert crashes, there was a large amount of time where I could only save my data I was working on (like a WP file), and for some odd reason odd characters would appear in my save and at times ruin my work, which is pointless as a normal crash would've been better, and then there was many times where it couldn't intercept crashes at all - infact it made the Ctrl-Alt-Del function almost obsolete, and shockingly CrashGuard was the contributor to the crashes many times. I had less crashes without it!

Needless to say, after the trial period was over (yes, whew I had it on shareware), I promptly uninstalled it and vowed to never come across it again, which seems just aswell since even now it's not been improved.

I'm sure it's hard to make a program that intercepts crashes, especially for PC's with any combination of softwa
re and hardware, but if you can't make software that will satisfy the majority, then why bother? Norton should go back to the drawing board or let someone else have a go. Or maybe Microsoft should just work on minimising crashes on their systems themselves eh?

Crashguard is only worth trying/buying if you frequently work with sensitive data on an accident prone computer (time to get a new one anyway), the majority of others will be better off with living with the simple crashes rather than clogging up disk space with something that is half-useless, and actually creates more crashes. Sure it works, but enough. The kindest I can be is 2 stars for the concept, and it working somewhat.

For now, don't fear the crash. Fear parting with your cash! I hope for Norton's sake future versions are recitified.