I
oftentimes wondered why people did such strange things as adding utilities
to otherwise functional operating systems. Such was my opinion until I
installed the Windows 95 version of Symantec's
Norton Navigator to my 75 Mhz Pentium. I could hardly believe my eyes.
Multiple Desktops, a really neat file manager, zip and unzip functions
at your fingertips (my favorite), it almost seemed too good to be true!
Installation was remarkably uneventful, a big plus in my book, especially since I have fought with practically everything that I have put into my machine over the past few months. The other surprise, the program actually worked. (I know you must be wondering what I have been running.) I usually am not a manual reader, at least not unless "all else fails". The program was very intuitive and it did make a lot of tasks (such as accessing various directory levels, zipping and unzipping files) a lot quicker and simpler. There was practically a button for every task one would want to accomplish.
One of the first "Wow" surprises was the appearance of a very convenient drop down menu for the control panel icon in the Windows 95 Start Up list. There was also one for the run icon. The task bar with the possibility of one touch quick launch buttons was another of my favorites. It didn't take me long to figure out that all I had to do was slide the shortcut over to the task bar and I was in business. I was very impressed with the smart folders and with all of the organizational possibilities I foresaw. As you can see, it didn't take long before Norton and I were on a first name basis.
There were only two disappointments, one - my machine although responsive to the quick launch pad was a little more sluggish when I went that route as opposed to the double click via the Windows 95 desktop shortcuts. The second, the Quick Viewer was not all that quick to install or learn. (To be honest, it's still in the process.) When I went to run it I received a message telling me that although not present, I could find it on the Windows 95 CD. That was OK, so I thought. Out came the Windows 95 disk and before long I had a utility called Word View installed on my C drive. The first time around I chose MS Word as the default viewer since I have that program. That didn't work so I tried again and chose the viewer as the default. Still no luck. I searched the Windows 95 CD for Quick View and did not find it. I then went to the manual and while I did find a page on how to use the viewer, there was no information as to how to get it installed.
I like the way that the manual is set up. It is easy to follow , short and to the point, although in some cases (as with the Quick Viewer, a little too short.)
The minimum system requirements to run this software are: a 486/33 PC with 8 MB of RAM. The best news. It takes up only 8 MB of disk space when installed (and that's installing everything!). I am using it with a 75 Mhz Pentium, 16 MB of RAM and an 850 MB harddrive.
I have seen the program everywhere. The cost, approximately $40.00 dollars,
appears to be a worthy investment for anyone who likes everything organized
and at their fingertips.