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Best Buys

If you'd rather not buy a separate file manager, disk scanner, and so on, go for a utilities suite. Of these, Nuts & Bolts sports a simple interface and file management tools. If you need more robust utilities--and better defragging and recovery--pick the slightly more expensive Norton Utilities.

FILE MANAGER Mijenix's PowerDesk Utilities 98 is everything Windows Explorer should have been, and more. You get the best of Explorer and the Windows 3.1 File Manager, plus encryption and file synchronization.

FILE COMPRESSOR Mijenix's ZipMagic lets your zipped archives act like standard Windows folders, so you can use the files without unzipping them.

FILE VIEWER There are many pluses in Inso's Quick View Plus 4.5: This easy-to-use upgrade to Windows' Quick View adds support for dozens of file formats. Built-in unzipping and other features help make oddball files easier to manage.

DIAGNOSTICS Alas, no product stood out as a stand-alone diagnostic program. But if you want a good crash recovery utility, see "Crash Prevention and Recovery," below.

DISK SCANNER The Disk Minder utility included in Nuts & Bolts (from Network Associates) is the best disk scanner around, repairing damaged files that the other products we tested couldn't. It's also the fastest of the bunch.

UNINSTALLER The best overall performer in our tests was CyberMedia's Uninstaller 4.51. The program removes newly installed applications flawlessly, and its interface and documentation are easy to understand.

DEFRAGMENTER Speed Disk, part of Symantec's Norton Utilities, is the fastest and best at defragmenting.

CRASH PREVENTION AND RECOVERY With its familiar browserlike interface, CyberMedia's First Aid 98 Deluxe is the best crash recovery utility.