dacs.doc electric

Norton Utilities

Keep your PC singing a happy tune

By Wally David

IF YOU DEPEND ON your computer for work or home use, it is important that it boots up reliably and keeps on running. Having the latest hardware is not a guarantee that your system will always cooperate. Lots of things can happen to the operating system, both minor and major. Applications do not always behave themselves and can wreak unbelievable havoc. Windows 95 itself can even hiccup and then refuse to work properly.

But don't dismay. There is a product out there that can keep everything in line, a product that had been doing so for many years. Norton Utilities by Symantec started out as a suite of DOS utilities. I first used it in 1989 or 1990. When Windows came on the scene, Symantec released a version for it, and I was one of its loyal users. When Windows 95 appeared, however, I didn't bother moving up to the Norton Utilities version designed for it. I guess I figured Windows 95 didn't need any after-market utilities to keep it running. I was wrong. While Windows 95 does have an enhanced set of utilities and is more stable than Windows 3.1, it still needs help.

Ben Hallert, a quality assurance engineer with Symantec, came all the way from California to demonstrate Norton Utilities 3.0 for Windows 95 at the May 5 General Meeting of the Danbury Area Computer Society. Ben was a terrific presenter. He had a humorous style that kept everyone smiling. He also did something that was very important when demonstrating a piece of software to an audience: He showed us how Norton Utilities actually worked.

After introducing us to Symantec with some background information, Ben was off and running. When he discovered he had left his PC back in California, Jeff Setaro, DACS VP of Programming, graciously agreed to let him use one of his for the demonstration.

Unlike most meeting reviews, in which I have to judge software by what I see on the screen, I was fortunate enough in the Symantec review to obtain a test copy of Norton Utilities 3.0 for Windows 95. Now I can share with you firsthand my own experiences with and impressions of the program.

As it turns out, I wound up pressing NU into service sooner than I expected. After the General Meeting I arrived home and decided to check my e-mail before going to bed. I booted up my PC and tried to launch the Internet dialer. But Windows 95 had other ideas. I tried it a number of times without any luck.

After much hand-wringing, and a few choice words, I remembered the box with the smiling face of Peter Norton that was sitting on my desk. I cracked it open, unwrapped the CD-ROM, and popped it into the drive. I can't really remember much about the installation process, since I was annoyed and a bit tired. But I would have remembered if there had been any problems, so I'll give it a passing grade.

I was truly impressed with the slick interface, called Norton Utilities Integrator. When running NU, Integrator acts as the control center to access the wide array of tools available to tune up your PC. It gives you quick and easy access to all the Norton Utilities programs.

The first utility I ran was WinDoctor, which is a program that is new to Norton Utilities. WinDoctor scans your system and repairs any software errors that may be causing problems with Windows 95 or any program. It ran for a few minutes and analyzed the system registry, shortcuts, and just about everything else in the system. Sure enough, it found a bunch of registry errors, a mess of files left
over from uninstalled programs, and a number of broken shortcuts.

WinDoctor gave me the option of repairing all the errors or just some, and then asked whether I wanted to let Norton Utilities fix the errors automatically or allow me to fix them myself. I chose to let Norton Utilities fix the problems. When WinDoctor finished its work, all the errors were repaired. And, low and behold, my Internet dialer worked again! What more could I ask for?

There is much more to Norton Utilities than WinDoctor. Other new features include Norton Crash Guard, a nifty utility that runs in the background, using very little of the system resources. It sits there waiting for a program to misbehave and intercepts the crash. It will then allow you to attempt to 'unfreeze' the application, so you can save your work. If this isn't possible, you can shut the application down, without crashing the entire system.

Norton Speed Start is one that I like a lot. Also running in the background, its sole purpose is to make your applications start up more quickly. Speed Start studies an application when it is first launched and figures out the optimum system configuration to make it run best. The next time the app is launched, Speed Start remembers the configuration and improves application load times. I
put a stop watch on some of my applications and found that the load times really did drop by about 50%. All this with no work on my part. Norton Optimization Wizard optimizes the swap file and registry to make the PC run more efficiently and safely.

Norton Utilities LiveUpdate Pro has built-in ability to check for the most recent versions of NU itself as well as for the latest Norton AnitVirus data files from Symantec's Web site. It can also check for and install updates for your other software applications. Norton Utilities comes with a free, limited-time subscription for this expanded feature. But updates for Norton Utilities and the AntiVirus data files are always free.

In addition to its new features, Norton Utilities still provides the tried and true utilities from previous versions. Norton Disk Doctor checks the integrity of your hard drives, file structure, boot records, file allocation tables and directories, as well as the actual surface of the hard drive. Speed Disk
improves system performance by reorganizing the contents of your hard drive so existing files are stored in adjacent clusters. Your hard drive can become fragmented as files are written and deleted because deleted files leave gaps and newly written files fill them wherever they happen to be, even in nonadjacent clusters. This causes the drive to be inefficient. There are other features of NU 3.0 for Windows 95 that make it an incredibly useful suite of utilities that'll keep your system running safely and efficiently. I can't imagine using a computer without having NU keep things under control. For more information about Norton Utilities or other Symantec products, visit NU at www. symantec.com.

Norton Utilities

Keep your PC singing a happy tune

*By Wally David*
IF YOU DEPEND ON your computer for work or home use, it is important that it boots up reliably and keeps on running. Having the latest hardware is not a guarantee that your system will always cooperate. Lots of things can happen to the operating system, both minor and major. Applications do not always behave themselves and can wreak unbelievable havoc. Windows 95 itself can even hiccup and then refuse to work properly. But don't dismay. There is a product out there that can keep everything in line, a product that had been doing so for many years. Norton Utilities by Symantec started out as a suite of DOS utilities. I first used it in 1989 or 1990. When Windows came on the scene, Symantec released a version for it, and I was one of its loyal users. When Windows 95 appeared, however, I didn't bother moving up to the Norton Utilities version designed for it. I guess I figured Windows 95 didn't need any after-market utilities to keep it running. I was wrong. While Windows 95 does have an enhanced set of utilities and is more stable than Windows 3.1, it still needs help. Ben Hallert, a quality assurance engineer with Symantec, came all the way from California to demonstrate Norton Utilities 3.0 for Windows 95 at the May 5 General Meeting of the Danbury Area Computer Society. Ben was a terrific presenter. He had a humorous style that kept everyone smiling. He also did something that was very important when demonstrating a piece of software to an audience: He showed us how Norton Utilities actually worked. After introducing us to Symantec with some background information, Ben was off and running. When he discovered he had left his PC back in California, Jeff Setaro, DACS VP of Programming, graciously agreed to let him use one of his for the demonstration. Unlike most meeting reviews, in which I have to judge software by what I see on the screen, I was fortunate enough in the Symantec review to obtain a test copy of Norton Utilities 3.0 for Windows 95. Now I can share with you firsthand my own experiences with and impressions of the program. As it turns out, I wound up pressing NU into service sooner than I expected. After the General Meeting I arrived home and decided to check my e-mail before going to bed. I booted up my PC and tried to launch the Internet dialer. But Windows 95 had other ideas. I tried it a number of times without any luck. After much hand-wringing, and a few choice words, I remembered the box with the smiling face of Peter Norton that was sitting on my desk. I cracked it open, unwrapped the CD-ROM, and popped it into the drive. I can't really remember much about the installation process, since I was annoyed and a bit tired. But I would have remembered if there had been any problems, so I'll give it a passing grade. I was truly impressed with the slick interface, called Norton Utilities Integrator. When running NU, Integrator acts as the control center to access the wide array of tools available to tune up your PC. It gives you quick and easy access to all the Norton Utilities programs. The first utility I ran was WinDoctor, which is a program that is new to Norton Utilities. WinDoctor scans your system and repairs any software errors that may be causing problems with Windows 95 or any program. It ran for a few minutes and analyzed the system registry, shortcuts, and just about everything else in the system. Sure enough, it found a bunch of registry errors, a mess of files left over from uninstalled programs, and a number of broken shortcuts. WinDoctor gave me the option of repairing all the errors or just some, and then asked whether I wanted to let Norton Utilities fix the errors automatically or allow me to fix them myself. I chose to let Norton Utilities fix the problems. When WinDoctor finished its work, all the errors were repaired. And, low and behold, my Internet dialer worked again! What more could I ask for? There is much more to Norton Utilities than WinDoctor. Other new features include Norton Crash Guard, a nifty utility that runs in the background, using very little of the system resources. It sits there waiting for a program to misbehave and intercepts the crash. It will then allow you to attempt to 'unfreeze' the application, so you can save your work. If this isn't possible, you can shut the application down, without crashing the entire system. Norton Speed Start is one that I like a lot. Also running in the background, its sole purpose is to make your applications start up more quickly. Speed Start studies an application when it is first launched and figures out the optimum system configuration to make it run best. The next time the app is launched, Speed Start remembers the configuration and improves application load times. I put a stop watch on some of my applications and found that the load times really did drop by about 50%. All this with no work on my part. Norton Optimization Wizard optimizes the swap file and registry to make the PC run more efficiently and safely. Norton Utilities LiveUpdate Pro has built-in ability to check for the most recent versions of NU itself as well as for the latest Norton AnitVirus data files from Symantec's Web site. It can also check for and install updates for your other software applications. Norton Utilities comes with a free, limited-time subscription for this expanded feature. But updates for Norton Utilities and the AntiVirus data files are always free. In addition to its new features, Norton Utilities still provides the tried and true utilities from previous versions. Norton Disk Doctor checks the integrity of your hard drives, file structure, boot records, file allocation tables and directories, as well as the actual surface of the hard drive. Speed Disk improves system performance by reorganizing the contents of your hard drive so existing files are stored in adjacent clusters. Your hard drive can become fragmented as files are written and deleted because deleted files leave gaps and newly written files fill them wherever they happen to be, even in nonadjacent clusters. This causes the drive to be inefficient. There are other features of NU 3.0 for Windows 95 that make it an incredibly useful suite of utilities that'll keep your system running safely and efficiently. I can't imagine using a computer without having NU keep things under control. For more information about Norton Utilities or other Symantec products, visit NU at www. symantec.com.

Wally David is Board Chairman and member of the editorial committee.A systems support specialist for Labatt USA.Contact him at wallydavid@myself.com.