Norton Utilities for Windows 95

 Perhaps only the newest of personal computing newbies would need an introduction to the standby NORTON UTILITIES for disk maintenance. Peter Norton's excellent protection and recovery programs have been around since the days of the 8086 CPU (that's 1982 in the Gregorian calendar). It is doubtful that anyone who has been around PC's for very long and has used NORTON UTILITIES has not at one time or another raised his eyes heavenward and intoned, "Thank you, Peter." And the gratitude was not being expressed to the legendary guardian of Heaven's gates.

 Briefly, for those few who may have not yet become acquainted with NORTON UTILITIES, this suite of programs is the HMO for personal computers using MS-DOS or Windows. If you understand the need for home owner's insurance, health care insurance, and auto insurance, then merely transfer that understanding to your computer. These programs are your PC's health diagnostician, care-taker, healer, EMS service, and miracle-worker.

 This newest UTILITIES package is designed especially for the the 32 bit environment of Windows 95. But it retains all the old DOS utilities, which can be run in DOS, for those who are still more at home with a prompt line than with icon-surfing. And the new release has two new features not part of older UTILITIES' packages: Norton System Doctor and Space Wizard. These two additions alone make this new NORTON worth its cost.
 
 

Installation

 Simple installation instructions are on the inside cover flap of the documentation. The program is available on CD ROM, or on 3 1/2" floppies. If you have a CD Reader as part of your computer system, be certain to get the CD version.

 With the CD or floppy loaded, one uses the "Start" button on the task bar, selects the "Add/Remove Programs" icon, and follows the screen prompts. Creating a "rescue disk" is offered as an option during the installation process. It's a good idea to accept this offer, and to have a blank 1.4 Meg. floppy handy to create this emergency recovery disk. The program will format it if you have not already done so.

 Several other installation options are also default procedures, and it is wise to merely accept the whole package. You won't regret it. The whole NORTON UTILITIES package takes a little over 8 MB of disk space when installed.

 There is an automatic reboot when the installation is completed. And if your boot drive is a mess, as mine was, NORTON will immediately take over and tell you what needs to be done to clean up your disk and bring it back to peak efficiency. When NORTON finished cleaning up my C drive, the increase in speed was so startling and perceptible, I thought some one had secretly slipped a Pentium 150 into my machine (a lowly 486DX 33). A simple "dir" command in DOS created a white blur on my screen compared to the leisurely scroll I had been used to.

 NORTON UTILITIES for WINDOWS 95 also supplies a program called "Tune Up" which can be installed in Windows 3.1. This program preps the PC for the installation of Windows 95 by optimizing the hard drive so Windows installs contiguously on the hard drive.
 
 

Four -- make that five -- benefits

EDUCATION

 The mother board is an electronic circuit board holding the CPU (central processing unit: Pentium, 80486, or 80386 chip) and all the wiring and support chips needed to help it do its job. The mother board processes. And the motherboard is static. Once you have it in your machine, there is nothing you can do to alter its configuration. So it is, in effect, beyond your control. It is not modifiable without physically altering it.

 The memory medium, the hard drive(s) is the other primary component. And it/they can be modified, altered, affected, fine-tuned, or left fallow. It/They are the only feature of a PC over which the user has control on an on-going basis. And NORTON UTILITIES make the exercise of that control something a user can manage.

 What do the following mean to you: FAT table, file fragmentation, sector, optimization, lost cluster, boot sector? If these terms leave you befuddled, then NORTON will bring light into your dark world. Chapter Three of the documentation is a superb, easy to understand, illustrated 29 pages of sunlight that will finally illuminate how the disk drives function. This Chapter should be required reading in every training session for kids, adults, and seniors who are learning to work with PC's.

 Chapter Three is, in effect, the best education you will receive anywhere on how to manage and control the one component in your PC that you can affect. Don't miss this chance to learn.
 
 

Norton Utilities Four Service Areas

1. PREVENTION

• IMAGE: The user has to invoke this program icon initially. After that it's all done automatically. The Image makes a copy of the hard drive's FAT table, and that copy is used by several "Restore" programs should they need to be invoked. "What's a FAT table?" you ask. See Chapter Three of NORTON documentation.

 

 

• Norton Protection: Windows 95 users know that the "Recycle Bin" icon on the desktop is where the deleted files go if the user drags the file to the Recycle Bin and puts it there. But what happens if a file is deleted from within another program, like a wordprocessor? Or, deleted in DOS? Well, undoubtedly it goes somewhere. But it _doesn't_ go to the Recycle Bin on the desktop. And wherever it does go, it ain't easy to find it. This Norton prevention feature makes the the W-95 Recycle Bin "Norton Protected." Anything deleted anywhere on the system will end up in the Recycle Bin, and be easily recoverable with "Unerase Wizard".

 

 

• RESCUE DISK: The initial "rescue" disk (Some may want to call this a boot floppy; it is not.) is made while installing NORTON. The initial rescue disk is a bootable floppy with a copy of the boot drive's FAT table and some other helpful programs. Should a boot drive malfunction occur, the rescue disk allows the user to boot to the C drive, start the computer in DOS mode, and use the floppy to repair any serious problems that may have arisen in startup procedures or are disk related problems. In the event a rescue is needed, NORTON is used in DOS.


 And the rescue disk needs to be updated on a regular basis. Again, the update schedule is maintained automatically. In fact, as I was editing this review, the System Doctor popped up and said it was time to update the "Rescue Disk". Doing what the Doctor ordered can take up to four 1.44 floppies so you should have a few spares available.
 
 

• NORTON SYSTEM DOCTOR: This program is the computer's new primary care physician. System Doctor is an ongoing monitor of the status of Windows95 programs, file allocation, lost clusters, file management, and a whole array of disk activities. System Doctor stays on-line while the PC is turned on and checks on-going activity but _only_ when the system is not working on something else.


 For example, System Doctor monitors the changes in file structure that would affect the "image" of the disk. In other words, locations and addresses and storage sectors change as files change. When a sufficient number of changes make the old "image" obsolete, the little traffic light in the lower right corner of the screen turns red. The user is then warned that it is time to update the "image" of the hard drive. Files too fragmented for easy access? System Doctor turns the "C Drive Status" traffic light red and offers the option to de-fragment the drive. And all this happens without the user having to remember to check the status and condition of the hard drive.

 Want to set a schedule for updating the "Rescue Disk"? Once a week? Tell System Doctor. System Doctor will then remind the user on a weekly basis to update the "Rescue Disk." System Doctor is a very reliable, always-on-call, primary care doctor in Norton's HMO plan for your computer. He doesn't just make house calls; he lives in your house.
 
 

2. RECOVERY

• NORTON DISK DOCTOR: This is the old "doc" that longtime MS-DOS, PC NORTON users will be familiar with. He is quite adept at corrective surgery on the hard disk. It is his forte` and he's good. His healing hands are used primarily when W-95 will _not_ work, and it becomes necessary to do disk surgery in DOS.

 

 

• Unerase Wizard: This is the specialist who recovers lost files and deleted files, ALL of them, regardless of where and/or how they were deleted. He will also allow the user to see an X-ray of deleted or lost files so that contents can be scanned before the file is resusitated. This Wizard is the specialist called upon when it's necessary to recover files from the "Recycle Bin" icon.

3. OPTIMIZATION

• SPEED DISK: This program is the primary "optimizer". What it does precisely and technically is difficult to explain without Chapter Three as a background. Suffice it to say, Speed Disk reorganizes the storage of files on the hard disk so that they are at their optimum accessibility.


 This procedure can be time consuming if the disk is badly in need of reorganization, as was mine. Reorganizing my C drive took about twenty minutes. But the result in increased speed when one has moved from disorganization to organization can be eye-popping.
 
 

• SPACE WIZARD: Is there a DOS user who has not looked at the multitudes of files listed in the Windows directories and said, "What IS all that stuff? Do I really need all that?" But, of course you can't delete any of it, because you don't know whether it's a functioning file or not.


 Space Wizard examines all files from the check-point of their use or lack of use. Specify a time, six months or a year, and Space Wizard locates all the files not used in that time span. It cites the last modification date of the file, usually the installation date. It then cites the last time the file was accessed. If it hasn't been accessed in six months, is that file really needed? Ever notice all those files in Windows with "tmp" extensions? Are they needed. No!

 Space Wizard allows you to delete these files if they do not meet your access criteria. I freed up almost 3 Megs on my C drive. And performance has been vastly improved.

This program cannot be called a "doctor", because a "wizard" is one cut above a doctor's status. "Miracle worker" would be a more appropriate synonym.
 
 

4. INFORMATION

• SYSTEM INFORMATION: Want to know how your own personal PC benchmarks against a Pentium 75? Or, a 486DX 66? System information will tell you, in a graphical display.


 And I won't even try to describe the print-out that System Information will give you about your PC. Pages of detailed data about every thing you never could find out about your mother board's configuration and your hard drive(s). Every techie's cup of joy will be overflowing as System Information spills out every detail that could be sought about your personal computer.
 
 

• INFO DESK: This is the on-line help facility, should you need it. If you get the NORTON UTILITIES on CD, Chapter Three is also on the CD. And, by now, I hope you're convinced that you need to examine Chapter Three of NORTON UTILITIES FOR WINDOWS 95.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

 I placed a call to NORTON technical support number on a weekday at 1:00 p.m. My first call received a busy signal. When I hit the re-dial button five minutes later, I got through immediately to an easy-to-use automated answerer, and one key punch connected me with a live support person. Shasta, my support contact, was delighted to hear that I didn't really have a problem, and was only calling to determine support accessibility.

 Details on the types of support plans available, voice and fax phone numbers, addresses (world wide) are available in the final pages of the documentation.
 
 

PRICING

 But, remember, this payment is NOT like your health insurance premium that comes due every month. This is a one-time bill for an unlimited duration of PC health. Don't be penny-wise but pound foolish.
 
 

LAST WORD