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Web Developer's Journal Archive SectionThis article is out of date, but may still be useful to some readers.Norton Utilities 8.0by Kief Morris |
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The Norton Utilities, one of the veteran PC applications, is now
out in version 8.0.
This latest version includes all of the old standby utilities which have made The Norton Utilities the package of choice for PC users who need to pull their bacon out of the fire when files or even disks get scrambled, or who like to pull apart their PC setup to see how it works without touching a screwdriver, or who want to tweak their computer for optimum performance. Version 8 gives users reason to upgrade, especially Windows users, by adding a series of new utilities. Most of the utilities in The Norton Utilities can be divided into four major categories: recovery tools, diagnostics, system optimizers, and miscellaneous odds and ends. The recovery tools are probably the reason most people buy The Norton Utilities in the first place - many a PC user has run down to the local software store sweating over lost files, or even trashed hard drives. The tools to handle this include Norton Disk Doctor, UnErase, UnFormat, Disk Tools, File Fix, and the Rescue Disk. Resuscitating Your FilesDiagnosing Your PC's AilmentsVitamins and Supplements for Your PCWindows Users Rejoice!
The Windows utilities come in two types -
Windows versions of faithful old Norton utilities, and new utilities
designed especially for working with Windows setups. The Windowized
programs are Disk Doctor and Speed Disk. Disk Doctor features an
animation of a disturbingly faceless doctor tending to a huge hard drive
platter. Fortunately the animation can be turned off. Speed Disk
operates much the same as the DOS version, with graphical 3-D cluster
blocks rather than the old text mode blocks. But Symantec picked these
two utilities to convert to Windows for a good reason. They take special
advantage of Windows' multi-tasking abilities, running in the background
while you do other work. Defragmenting a typical hard drive under DOS can take a half hour or more, during which you can't do anything else with the computer. The idea of defragmenting in the background is nice, but the reality is a bit clunky. First of all, whatever you're doing in the foreground tends to get very choppy - the system takes a few moments to respond to clicks and keystrokes, which is annoying. This can be blamed on the poor multitasking of MS Windows. Additionally, in order to avoid scrambling files, every time the disk is accessed, such as when you save a document you're working on, Speed Disk stops, calls Disk Doctor to check out the disk, then resumes defragmenting, all of which takes a couple of minutes. The result is you'll still probably want to leave the machine alone while it defrags. The Norton Utilities provides several utilities specifically for Windows. System Watch is an excellent tool which displays dynamic bar graphs indicating how much of certain system resources are being used. As you work the bars jump up and down, showing how much of various types of memory are in use, CPU utilization, file handles and hard drive space free. What is truly useful are the charts of USER and GDI resources currently free, since these are reputed to be the cause of most GPF crashes and lock ups. Any of the resources which can be monitored can also have their own history windows, which show how their usage has fluctuated over the past 30 seconds. Using this, you can start then close an application, and get an idea whether it is properly freeing up resources it allocates for itself. The System Watch and History windows can be made to stay on top of the screen at all times, so you can monitor them even while using another application full screen. Figure Out Your INI Files Once And For All
INI Advisor is an on-line reference using the Windows Help system, with
information on the various standard INI file statements. It also
includes information on other aspects of the Windows setup, including 32
bit disk access, PIF files, RAM disks, and the swap file. INI Tracker
records changes that have been made to INI files when they are saved, to
make it easy to go back and fix things you did earlier that don't work
out quite right. The INI Editor is a much slicker way to edit your INI
files than the SysEdit which comes with Windows. It shows you the
headers of the different sections of the INI file you have loaded in one
window. Clicking on the name of a section in this window pops open a
list of the statements in that section in another window. Buttons make
it simple to add or remove a line, comment or uncomment, etc.
The INI Advisor is also a button click away - just click on a line in the INI
file and click the Advisor button (denoted by a picture of Peter
Norton), and the Advisor program is launched, opened to the section
describing that particular line, if the Advisor knows what it is.
The INI Tuner is the master control for all of these INI utilities. When you start it, the Tuner shows an alphabetical listing of INI file lines from WIN.INI, SYSTEM.INI, PROGMAN.INI, and other important Windows INI files. The listing shows the current and default settings for each line, and double clicking on a line pops open the INI Editor so you can change it. The Tuner also allows you to launch the INI Tracker and Advisor as needed. The INI Tuner can be set to an alternative view, where you see a set of icons denoting various Windows setup categories, including some of those found in the Control Panel such as the Date/Time and Enhanced icons, and some new ones such as Help Colors, Advanced Desktop options, and Program Manager restrictions. These give you graphical tools for making changes that are traditionally made by editing INI lines by hand. For instance, you can adjust the distance between icons by dragging sample icons in a window, or point and click to restrict changes users can make to their Windows setups. If you don't have a package of system utilities similar to The Norton Utilities at your disposal, you're missing out, especially if you manage a number of PC's. If you're using an older version of Norton, or another package that doesn't have the Windows support in The Norton Utilities, it's time to upgrade if your office uses Windows at all - the INI utilities are a very compelling reason to make the move. Version 8.0 of this traditional PC guru (or wannabe guru) toolbox keeps it solidly up to date. |
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