Windows Utilities: Rx for Your PC

The Future of Utilities: Windows 98 and Windows NT 5.0

Shane Rau

Windows 95 comes with basic system utilities. Will Windows 98 or Windows NT 5.0 improve on them? We looked at prerelease versions of both and found that their disk scanning and file manipulation differ little from Windows 95's, but both add diagnostic and crash recovery tools. (As with all prerelease products, the lineup is subject to change.)

The two operating systems will have many tools in common. Their ScanDisk scanner will cover FAT16 and FAT32 disks, and NT will also cover NT File System, versions 4 and 5. As for file management, both OSs will offer Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer (depending on the Justice Department's actions), but neither will improve on Win 95's file management. For file viewing, Quick View will work as in Win 95. Win 98's updated Disk Defragmenter will organize your most-used files so that they load the fastest; NT 5.0's defragger isn't set yet.

The two OSs diverge in diagnostics, uninstalling, and crash tools. Win 98 will include the troubleshooting System Configuration Utility; the Version Conflict Manager, which prevents saving old files over new; and the System File Checker. Add/Remove Programs will remain, but Disk Cleanup will empty the Recycle Bin and Internet cache. Win 98 will also update Win 3.1's Dr. Watson diagnostics; the new Automatic Skip Driver Agent will watch for driver failures, and the Registry Checker will clean up the Registry.

NT 5.0 will integrate those functions into new core features. The Programs Wizard will centralize software installation to prevent conflicts and enable safe uninstalls, while the Hardware Wizard will configure hardware and fix bad device installations.

Shane Rau is a technical editor at PC World.