The Fix Is In: Top Windows Utilities
Sure, Windows has its own built-in set of utilities. But you can do better. We examine dozens of third-party utilities to find the best tools for fine-tuning your PC.
How Much Do You Need?
When it comes to choosing utilities, you really have four options: Stick with what comes with Windows, assemble a collection of stand-alone utilities, buy a utility suite, or cobble together some combination of all three. To determine which option makes the most sense for you, take our quiz, "Which Utilities Do You Need?"
Windows itself offers diagnostic tools (such as System Information, Registry Checker, and ScanDisk), an uninstaller (the Add/Remove Programs applet in Control Panel), file managers (Explorer and, for Win 3.x diehards, File Manager), a file viewer (Quick View), and a stopgap utility for recovering deleted files (the Recycle Bin). It doesn't have tools for compressing individual files or for anticipating and recovering from crashes, though the Close Program dialog box (Ctrl-Alt-Delete) often helps you recover from an application crash by enabling you to close the crashed app.
For some users, putting together a customized collection of tools makes sense. Maybe they need an uninstaller or a file compression tool to supplement Windows' own utilities. Taking the onesie-twosie route can be cheaper than you think--most of these products cost $50 or less. Many stand-alone products are offered as trial-version downloads, so you can kick the tires and see what you like.
For most users, however, suites offer the sweetest deal. Depending on the suite, you get tools for viewing, managing, compressing, and undeleting files; diagnosing hardware and software problems; uninstalling applications; and intercepting or recovering from crashes.
Take, as an example, a typical business user who downloads lots of shareware applications from the Internet, sends scads of e-mail attachments, and all the while wants a smoothly running PC. If she buys Norton SystemWorks for $60, she gets an uninstaller (to remove all the shareware apps she doesn't like), virus protection, a diagnostic tool to check her hardware and optimize her Windows Registry, a compression tool (to shrink e-mail attachments), and a crash-prevention utility. If she frequently receives files created in applications she doesn't have, she may want to add a dedicated file viewer--or opt for Mijenix's Fix-It Utilities 99, which includes excellent tools for managing and viewing files, but lacks an uninstaller. If you need three utilities that cost $30 each, and you can get the same functionality from a suite that costs $50, why not buy the suite?
Prices for utilities vary widely. Some of the difference depends on whether you buy online direct from the vendor or hunt it down at your local superstore. But the price you pay also depends on how the product is packaged--as a bare-bones download (with nothing on CD or paper), shrink-wrapped on CD-ROM with a manual, or as a colorfully packaged and boxed product with documentation. For this reason, we include a range of street prices for individual products where applicable.
