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.
Maybe you've never experienced a real PC disaster, a full-fledged data-spewing-from-every-port meltdown. Maybe you've never needed the kind of tips found in "Troubleshooting Is My Business." Lucky you. But trust us, someday your PC will turn on you. Unless, that is, you arm yourself first. The right Windows utilities can save you from a world of hurt.
The question is, how much help do you need? We enlisted six utilities experts to compare Windows 95/98's built-in tools with 35 third-party utilities. For each utility category, we asked our reviewers to address one question: When does it make sense to pay extra money for a third-party utility, given that you can obtain much of the same functionality from Windows itself?
Microsoft released Windows 98 more than a year ago, with plenty of noise about the operating system's new tools--like Disk Cleanup and System Information. But these and other enhancements don't guarantee you'll be able to handle every problem that comes with Windows. Many users will discover they need third-party utilities to keep their PCs in tune.
The utilities we examined fall into eight categories: suites, diagnostics, uninstallers, file compressors, crash monitors and recovery tools, file managers, file viewers, and undoers and undeleters.
Wondering where the antivirus and Y2K utilities are? For the latter, you'll have to wait until next month for our Y2K roundup. For the former, turn to "Virucide!" in our February issue. Symantec's Norton AntiVirus has now won our World Class award for best antivirus program three years in a row. And because the overwhelming majority of our readers currently use Windows 95/98, we didn't look at any Windows NTA-specific products, though some of the ones we reviewed will work for all three Microsoft operating systems.
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.
Which Utilities Do You Need? (chart)
Where Should You Look?
Another complicating factor: Some of these products don't fit neatly into a given category. Mijenix's PowerDesk, for example, can manage, view, and compress files, but we chose to review it in the file management section. If the utilities quiz indicates that you need a stand-alone utility (rather than a suite or nothing at all), don't ignore the other sections of the review; you may find a product that meets your primary needs as well as several ancillary ones.
Best Buys
Suites
Both Symantec's Norton SystemWorks and Mijenix's Fix-It Utilities 99 are great all-purpose tools. Norton gets the nod for including an uninstaller. But if a top-notch file manager is more important to you, go for Fix-It Utilities 99, with its copy of PowerDesk Utilities 98.
Diagnostics
No best buy. If you have Windows 98, stick with it. If you use Windows 95, either upgrade to the newer OS or get Norton SystemWorks and use its copy of Norton Utilities.
Uninstallers
An easy interface and thorough deletion of old program files (even apps not designed to be uninstalled) help Norton CleanSweep 4.5 win--but get it as part of Norton SystemWorks.
File Compression
Our two favorites are WinZip 7 and PKZip for Windows v.2.6. Both let you compress and decompress files for backup, archiving, moving, e-mailing, or packing onto floppies--all with minimal effort.
Crash Prevention
No best buy. To prevent crashes, opt for Norton CrashGuard as part of the Norton SystemWorks suite. CrashGuard successfully intercepts application crashes before they bring the rest of your system down, and it lets you pick from among several options to relaunch and save data from failing apps.
File Manager
If Windows Explorer is driving you crazy, obtain a copy of Mijenix's PowerDesk Utilities 98 (included with Fix-It Utilities 99). It's easy to use and integrates nicely with Windows--and it's the cheapest file manager we looked at.
File Viewer
People who need greater file-viewing flexibility than Windows' Quick View utility provides should opt for one of our coA-best buys: Jasc's Quick View Plus or Verity's KeyView Pro 6.5. Both let you view and work with files created by apps you don't have on your PC.
Undo/Undelete
A $40 indulgence, Undo & Recover Toolbox 2 automatically tracks all the files on your PC, including the registry, and gives you plenty of ways to recover old files. For even bigger spenders, GoBack ($70) is an incredible PC time machine for reverting to a previous system configuration so you can recover from viruses and crashes.
The Suites: Jacks of All Trades
Both Symantec and Mijenix have developed great products, but we give Norton SystemWorks the nod.
When it comes to utilities, the current crop of suites is bountiful. Buying one of them often makes more sense than purchasing several separate products because they're cheaper and in most cases more convenient, presenting you with just one product to install, one interface to learn, and one manual to read. But suites can also be overwhelmingly vast, resource-hungry, and confusing.
Based on market share, Network Associates' McAfee Office and Symantec's Norton SystemWorks are the 500-pound gorillas of utility suites. Unfortunately, we could only review one of the two. According to McAfee's current schedule, it will have shipped an updated version of Office--dubbed Office 2000, and arrayed with a different group of bundled utilities--by the time you read this. McAfee Office 2000 should offer improved integration over its predecessor, which took a mixed-nuts approach (see "McAfee Cleans Up Its Office"). Norton SystemWorks doesn't win the crown in this area by default, however: We compared it with an impressive newcomer, Fix-It Utilities 99 from Mijenix.
Not much is missing from Symantec's $70 suite. SystemWorks combines Norton Utilities, Norton AntiVirus, Norton CleanSweep, Norton CrashGuard 4, and Norton Web Services. You also get a "bonus pack" CD-ROM that contains some useful extras, including Zip-It, Norton 2000 BIOS Test & Fix, Visual Page (a basic Web page designer), and WinFax Basic Edition. SystemWorks Pro, a $100 package designed for small businesses, adds Norton Ghost (a utility that backs up and clones entire hard drives) and Norton 2000 (a tool that scans hardware, applications, and data for potential Y2K problems).
Less comprehensive than SystemWorks, but also $20 cheaper, Fix-It Utilities 99 includes tools for monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing your system, and tools for fixing software problems (especially those related to the Registry). It also supplies an antivirus utility, a crash monitor, and--best of all--PowerDesk, Mijenix's excellent file manager (see "File Managers" ). Missing from Fix-It are an uninstaller and a feature like Norton Web Services to update Windows, apps, and hardware drivers.
It's easy to see why suites are good deals. If you bought the individual packages that make up Norton SystemWorks separately, you'd pay more than $170. Similarly, Mijenix sells its excellent PowerDesk Utilities 98 program separately for $30, more than half the cost of the entire Fix-It Utilities 99 package.
Suite Specifics (chart)
Suite Ease of Installation
In the early days of utility suites (meaning a year or so ago), installation was a pain. Too often, it meant going through a separate installation routine for each component. Today, however, installing either SystemWorks or Fix-It Utilities 99 is a breeze in comparison.
In SystemWorks, a simple screen allows you to choose which components to install--and that's a good thing because the works occupy 122MB of hard disk space in their entirety. It's even simpler with Fix-It Utilities 99 (PowerDesk Utilities 98 is a separate install on the same CD-ROM): everything gets installed at once and the whole suite takes up only 18MB of space.
Both packages also come with emergency disks that let you boot your system even when your hard drive is fried. During installation, you create the necessary rescue floppies, customized with the specific hardware drivers your PC needs. And in a refreshing change from the recent tendency of software developers to provide their manuals only on disc, these two suites come with thick (200-plus-page) printed manuals, which may come in handy when your drive is momentarily muddled. Both offer extensive integrated help, too.
After installation, SystemWorks and Fix-It each volunteer to check their Web sites for recent updates--slight version upgrades, bug fixes, or (in the case of SystemWorks) a new version of one of the suite components. A word to the wise: Like other applications, these suites carry READ.ME files containing potentially essential information--such as known hardware and software incompatibilities--that you should read before, not after, you install the software.
Unfortunately, the READ.ME file was not much help with Fix-It 99: After we installed the suite on our test PC, our system began locking up and crashing. Mijenix's technical support reps eventually tracked the trouble to a (previously unknown) incompatibility between Fix-It and an old driver for a Hewlett-Packard CD-RW drive residing in our PC.
Suite Diagnostics
Diagnostics lies at the core of each suite. Both SystemWorks and Fix-It Utilities 99 let you continuously monitor crucial system parameters, such as memory use, free disk space, and percentage of CPU power being used at a given moment. You can automate the process of checking your system with a scheduler that lets you specify what you want checked. You can also set system resource thresholds and arrange to have the products alert you when a resource falls below that level.
Once installed, each suite offers a centralized interface, though Fix-It Utilities 99 is the better integrated. Symantec has done a good job of tying together the various tools in Norton SystemWorks, but substantial differences remain in the look and feel of each package.
At hard-core diagnostics--especially hardware--Fix-It Utilities 99 edges Norton. Fix-It's PC diagnostics can perform a wide range of analyses that delve deep into specific hardware, from the motherboard to RAM to hard drives. This can be valuable for spotting problems before they become major. SystemWorks lacks comparable abilities.
Both suites have crash-protection programs, and though they can't recover from some situations--such as esoteric hardware problems or windows glitches--these crash-protection modules are valuable additions. Norton CrashGuard and Mijenix CrashProof 99 offer wide protection in their default settings, and numerous customizable settings (mainly for advanced users).
On our test PC (a Pentium II-333 with 128MB of RAM), we didn't notice any performance slowdown when either suite was in place. Your mileage may vary, of course, especially if you have an older, slower PC with limited RAM.
Suite Antivirus Features
As viruses proliferate and become more dangerous, an effective antivirus package is essential. Both utility suites offer similar antivirus features, including full-time background virus scanning, one-touch active scans, and easy updates of essential virus signature files via the Web. Both products let you schedule your virus-file updating, and both scan downloads for viruses.
Symantec provides a year of free virus signature updates with Norton SystemWorks. After that, the company charges $3 per year for updates. We haven't had a chance to test Fix-It's virus eradication skills yet. Like Symantec, Mijenix offers free virus signature updates for one year.
Both suites reward purchasers with some nice extras. Norton Web Services merits special mention. Like Oil Change and similar online update services, it analyzes your Windows installation, applications, and hardware drivers, and then checks your system's contents against its online database. A Symantec spokesperson says the database includes the top 500 applications, as well as 250 games, the top 10 browser plug-ins, 25 shareware applications, and hundreds of hardware drivers. New components are added and updated every month. You choose the updates you want; the software then downloads them for you to install. Norton Web Services even tells you whether or not a given patch can be uninstalled (one ActiveX Update we were offered, for example, wasn't uninstallable). Norton Web Services comes with a six-month free subscription; after that, subscribing costs $30 a year or $4 a month.
Fix-It, on the other hand, comes with PowerDesk--which all by itself may give Mijenix's suite the edge over SystemWorks for some users. It includes several features that the Symantec product does not: powerful file viewing and file management, file shredding, a graphics conversion utility for 19 graphic formats, and e-mail attachment decoding. And unlike SystemWorks, Fix-It runs on Windows NT as well as on Win 95/98.
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McAfee Cleans Up Its Office
As we worked on this story, McAfee informed us it was pulling the plug on the current version of Office. The replacement--McAfee Office 2000--wasn't available for an early look, but the company did fill us in on where the suite is heading.
According to Tracy Hulver, Network Associates' product manager for McAfee Office, McAfee Office 2000 should be available by the time you read this, bearing a street price of $59 (same as before). The new version will eliminate several utilities from the current Office suite, including Pretty Good Privacy, Hurricane (Windows optimization), and Guard Dog (Internet security). Hulver says that many elements of these three utilities overlapped with features present in other components.
That leaves six utilities in McAfee Office 2000: First Aid 2000 (emergency repair); Nuts & Bolts (analysis, optimization, data security, and crash protection); Oil Change (software and driver updates via the Web); UnInstaller (removing or moving applications); ViruScan (virus detection and repair); and 2000 ToolBox (Y2K testing).
The biggest change in McAfee Office 2000, Hulver says, is a completely new (and as yet unnamed) browser-based replacement for McAfee Office Central--the main interface through which users access the other components of the suite. This will permit much greater integration between the different components.
Most individual utilities will remain fundamentally unchanged in Office 2000. The exception is 2000 ToolBox, which will be updated to handle Microsoft Office 2000 and Windows 2000.
Diagnostics: Heal Thyself
For finding and fixing common hardware and software problems, Windows 98 provides enough muscle for most users. But if you manage multiple systems or you still use Windows 95, get the copy of Norton Utilities 4 that comes with Norton SystemWorks.
Win 98's built-in System Information utility can probably tell you anything you want to know about your PC's hardware or software. None of the four third-party diagnostic utilities we tested--CheckIt 98, First Aid Deluxe 2000, Nuts & Bolts 98, and Norton Utilities 4--beat Windows at listing which hardware component uses which IRQ, or at identifying the contents of system memory.
Windows 98 is also tops at diagnosing and solving hardware problems, like malfunctioning modems and flaky video cards. After intentionally creating a series of hardware conflicts by fiddling with interrupts in Device Manager, we found that Windows 98 resolved as many mix-ups as the third-party products.
Furthermore, the third-party products made a number of boneheaded mistakes in attempting to identify basic problems. For example, when we disconnected our printer's parallel cable and asked CheckIt to troubleshoot the problem, the utility claimed to have tested the printer. It then suggested that we run Windows 98's Disk Cleanup, Defrag, and ScanDisk--all completely irrelevant steps. After running First Aid's checkup routine, we were told that our system's lack of sound card drivers was a "critical" problem; the program should have recognized that we had no sound card installed (a fact that CheckIt, Nuts & Bolts, and Windows 98 all figured out). For its part, Nuts & Bolts reported that our modem was "working optimally," even after we had disconnected it.
One third-party tool--Norton Utilities' Disk Doctor--does a better job than Windows of keeping your hard drive in good working order. It can fix many errors--such as problems with a disk's boot record or partition table--that Windows' ScanDisk can't. Norton Speed Disk is more flexible than Windows' Disk Defragmenter. For example, it can move recently opened files to the most accessible area of the hard drive.
Software Woes
Windows 98 proves inadequate--and First Aid, Norton Utilities, and Nuts & Bolts more effective--when it comes to diagnosing Registry errors, shortcuts to missing or moved files, junk left behind by deleted programs, missing DLLs, broken file associations, and other software-related problems. (CheckIt claims to have software-troubleshooting tools, too, but in reality it relies almost entirely on those that come with Windows 98.)
Both First Aid and Norton Utilities automatically scan your system for existing and potential Windows problems. After the scan, each lets you decide which problems to fix and which to leave unchanged. If you opt to have the program fix everything, it will try to do the job; afterward, you'll receive a new list of items that couldn't be fixed, with tips for fixing them yourself. On one test system, both First Aid and Norton found more than 100 such problems in the Registry alone; Windows 98's Registry Checker found none. Nuts & Bolts found more than 100 problems as well, but its AutoFix routine resolved only a handful.
If you run Windows 98 and your system's not problem-prone, you probably don't need a stand-alone diagnostic utility. If you run Windows 95, these diagnostic tools are one very good reason to upgrade to Windows 98. If you'd rather stick with the older OS, Norton Utilities 4 is your best bet for a finder/fixer tool--but you should get it as part of Norton SystemWorks.
--Robert Lauriston
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Uninstallers: Now You C: It...
If you need more file-removing power than Win 95/98's Add/Remove Programs has to offer, Symantec's CleanSweep is the best uninstaller--but buy it as part of Norton SystemWorks, our Best Buy utility suite.
An old, unwanted application is like the creature in a B horror film. You think you've destroyed the monster for good and all, but the next time you boot, there it is again--lurking as an icon on your desktop or an entry on the Start menu.
If you use Windows, you already have access to a fairly good tool for exorcising The Undead App. The Add/Remove Programs applet in Control Panel works well enough--if the application you want to eradicate was designed properly. But if the software maker failed to design that app to permit uninstallation, Add/Remove Programs isn't much help.
Hence, uninstallers--utilities that rid your system of unwanted programs (and when we say "rid," we mean deleting unneeded DLLs from your Windows/System folder and shortcuts from the Start menu, too). These utilities also scan your hard drive for orphaned or unnecessary files.
The average user who rarely installs anything new and never adds a program to his or her system just for the heck of it probably doesn't need a stand-alone uninstaller. But others--hard-core shareware addicts who constantly add new and not-always-well-behaved programs to their systems and devotees of older applications--just might.
Installing the Uninstallers
For this review we tested McAfee's UnInstaller 5.1, Quarterdeck's Remove-It 98, IMSI's WinDelete 5, and Norton CleanSweep 4.5. We examined each utility in three settings: First, we loaded "well-behaved" applications (apps designed to be removable) and used the utilities to remove them. Next, we asked the utilities to get rid of some older Windows 3.x programs that weren't designed for easy removal. Finally, we deleted application folders from our hard drive to see if the utilities could dump the detritus left behind. All four uninstallers work better if you turn them on before installing new apps; they then have a better idea of what to delete. We tested each product with its monitor--which keeps track of the files installed by new apps--turned on and turned off.
After all the testing, Norton CleanSweep 4.5 emerged as our Best Buy. It accurately monitored installed files and removed them quickly and effectively. It was particularly good at removing older apps that weren't specifically designed to be uninstalled. The interface is intuitive and easy to navigate.
Other uninstallers are more useful in certain narrow cases. If you need to clear a specific amount of space from your drive--to make room for a particular download or application, for instance--McAfee UnInstaller's SpaceMaker Wizard will calculate how much space you need and then carve out that much room by looking for and deleting unused files.
Remove-It 98 is especially good at removing stray files of programs that weren't monitored during installation. It's also fast, and it reliably tracks Internet downloads, cache files, and cookies. But Remove-It's interface is unnecessarily confusing; and given the sensitive nature of uninstalling apps, any confusion can lead to serious harm.
WinDelete 5 is good for beginners because, when run in basic user mode, the program won't let you delete crucial system files. Basic mode also offers more guidance, in the form of a wizardlike assistant, in identifying unneeded files. WinDelete includes an antivirus utility called InocuLAN, which may help justify its $30 price. Unfortunately, in our tests WinDelete left behind files that other programs picked up, even in cases where it had monitored the installation.
All things considered, Norton CleanSweep is our favorite uninstaller--but we don't recommend buying it. Instead, you should purchase Norton SystemWorks, which packs a copy of CleanSweep along with its other tools.
--Paul Heltzel
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File Compression: Shrink to Fit
Both of the utility suites we looked at come with a compression utility. But if you aren't planning to buy a suite, consider purchasing WinZip 7 or PKZip.
A good file compression utility is essential for users at any level. These utilities allow you to create an archive file (often termed a .zip file) that's composed of one or more ordinary files in compressed form. Besides their obvious benefit of saving hard disk space, these smaller archive files allow you to speed uploads and downloads over the Internet, combine a group of files into one compressed archive file, and copy large files onto multiple floppies--a process known as diskette spanning. Some file compression programs (like PKZip, WinZip, and NetZip) also serve as fully functional backup utilities.
Windows does not provide any way to compress selected files--the Windows DriveSpace disk compression utility does not compress individual files. Fortunately, however, most third-party file managers (see "File Managers") also provide file compression, so if you're thinking of acquiring a file manager, you probably won't need a dedicated file compression utility. On the other hand, dedicated compressors typically come with useful extras--such as NetZip's feature that lets you resume a broken Internet download--missing from the versions that are built into file managers. And if you don't need a file manager, using a file compression utility makes far more sense.
The best compression utilities are quick and simple to use. We tested five of the latest and greatest. Certain kinds of files are more compressible than others, so we collected 15.7MB of assorted file types: a 5.7MB Microsoft Excel worksheet, a 2MB Microsoft Word file, 3MB of bit maps, a 1.7MB data file from Microsoft Money, and 4MB of executable programs. Then we instructed each compression utility to pack these into a single archive file. We measured how long the process took and recorded the size of the final file.
All the utilities produced archive files of nearly the same size--4.1MB, give or take a few kilobytes. No surprise there: Most compression utilities use a similar method to shrink files. We found quite a difference in performance, however: The fastest compressor (PKZip 2.6) did the job in 20 seconds, while the slowest (TurboZip 1) took nearly 2 minutes.
Incidentally, though some of these utilities are available in shrink-wrapped boxes with a printed manual, you'll probably download a trial version from a Web site first. That means you won't have a paper manual--so an intuitive interface counts for a lot.
WinZip: Fast and Easy
WinZip 7 proved to be among the easiest of the compression utilities to use: We never needed to open the manual or access Help. A convenient toolbar lets you produce new .zip files, add files to an existing archive, or extract files later with ease. It's fast, too: WinZip created the archive file in only 25 seconds. The program lets you narrow down your selection and compression of files to those with the archive bit set--and then reset the bit after archiving. That's exactly how backup utilities function, and this capability turns WinZip into a dandy backup program. The product also supports automatic diskette spanning.
PKZip for Windows v.2.6 works with drop-down menus as opposed to WinZip's toolbar, but it's equally easy to use. It incorporates the same handy archive-bit backup feature and the same painless disk-spanning capability. For some elusive reason--maybe the pretty toolbar--we slightly prefer WinZip to PKZip, but both programs are aces.
In contrast, DropStuff 1 took nearly twice as long (39 seconds) as PKZip to build the .zip file--and we didn't find it particularly intuitive to use. For instance, we had to access the Help menu to work out how to create a new archive. Most compressors ask you to choose a name and a location for your new archive before opening it. DropStuff, however, makes those decisions for you, so to create an archive you simply select the files you want to compress and click Add. Once you catch on, the arrangement is sensible enough--but you will have to get along without an archive-bit backup capability and disk spanning; neither is provided.
We found ZipMagic 2.02 similarly difficult to figure out. Adding files to an existing archive, for example, should be more straightforward than it is. A wizard simplifies the process, but compressing test files with the wizard took 83 seconds versus 41 without it. Your zipped files are displayed in Explorer as folders--we found this more of an annoyance than a help (it can be turned off, fortunately). Another minus: No archive-bit backup.
NetZip Deluxe 6.3 is relatively easy to use, and it supports diskette spanning and the archive-bit trick--but at nearly 52 seconds, it took far too long to compress our files. NetZip does the same view-zips-as-folders trick as ZipMagic.
--Michael Goodwin
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Crash Prevention: The Big Freeze
Buy a suite with crash protection--and don't forget to save your work often.
If you use Windows, you know all about crashes. These scourges have many causes--applications with conflicting system demands, corrupted Registry or other system files, poorly written or incompatible drivers. Sometimes they happen while Windows is loading, sometimes while you're happily working away. But whenever a crash happens, and whatever the cause, you can lose valuable data and precious time.
Though Windows 98 is much better than Win 95 at avoiding these dread events, it remains far from crashproof. Two kinds of third-party utilities can help. The first type intercepts application crashes as they happen and (you hope) keeps your whole system from coming down. The second, less proactive type just tries to clean up the mess afterward.
Preventing the Big Bang
We looked at two crash interceptors--Norton CrashGuard 4 and Quarterdeck Crash Defender 2 Deluxe. Both products are owned and distributed by Symantec, and both are designed to intercept application and system error messages. Once you've installed a crash interceptor, it replaces Windows' general protection fault reports with a dialog box that offers you the option of "unfreezing" the application, giving you a chance to save open data files before Windows restarts.
Both tools successfully rescued data from crashes we created in Microsoft Publisher 97/98 and Office 95 and 97. But choosing the unfreeze/antifreeze option at times allowed a problem to spread to the rest of the system, forcing a hard reboot.
CrashGuard has a slightly greater feature repertoire than Crash Defender. Beyond the unfreeze/antifreeze option both programs offer, CrashGuard provides specific commands to relaunch and save data from a failing app. But in the same situations, Crash Defender's single unfreeze option saved our data just as well.
But whatever its features, a stand-alone crash monitor doesn't make much sense economically. For $20 more, you can buy the complete Norton SystemWorks, which includes a copy of CrashGuard. Crash protection is just one more reason to buy the suite. (Symantec plans to stop selling CrashGuard 4 as a stand-alone product as of August 1999.)
A word of caution: Crash interceptors--particularly those whose version numbers end in "0"--are among the leading causes of complaints to PC World's Bugs and Fixes column. From the available evidence it appears that crash protectors create just as many problems as they solve.
After the Crash
Instead of intercepting crashes, WinRescue 95/98 and Reset 2000 try to mop up the mess crashes leave behind. But neither utility is essential.
WinRescue creates a multitude of system archives, each containing the current or last-known good Windows Registry, plus .ini files, DOS system files, Desktop configuration, Start menu, and IE Favorites links. (Users can customize backups to include additional specified files and directories.) But if you're willing to tweak some settings, Windows 98's ScanReg can do pretty much the same thing.
ReSet Software's ReSet 2000 is more extensively automated. It automatically creates and maintains five copies of the Windows Registry, Desktop, Start menu, and system configuration files. After that, if Windows fails to start, a preboot screen allows you to restore the last good configuration. Unfortunately, though, ReSet 2000 costs about $50.
If your system crashes often enough to make that a worthwhile investment, you're better off buying Norton SystemWorks, which includes CrashGuard and a Rescue Disk feature, plus diagnostics, Registry optimization, and protection against trashed FATs and directory problems caused by viruses. Windows 95 users don't get Win 98's ScanReg tool; if you're one of them and you absolutely, positively don't need any other utilities, you might consider WinRescue.
--Lenny Bailes
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File Managers: Explorer Gets Lost
If you need a replacement for Windows' own file tools, PowerDesk Utilities is the best--and it's free with Mijenix's Fix-It Utilities 99.
Why on earth would you need a file manager? Look, you already have Windows Explorer to handle copying, moving, launching, and otherwise manipulating files. But if you work a lot with files--downloading them, examining them, relocating them, and zipping them into archives, Explorer's limitations become obvious. Third-party file managers can help you live amicably with those limitations. These programs give you a number of conveniences Microsoft left out--including split windows that let you view two folders at once, filtering so you can see only the files you want, and built-in file compression.
We looked at five file management programs for this review: Clear & Simple Software's DiskJockey 98, Canyon Software's Drag and File Gold, Science Translations' FileTiger, Mijenix's PowerDesk Utilities 98, and Pacific Gold Coast's Turbo Browser 98. Which is best? That's an easy one: PowerDesk trounced the competition on almost every measure. It's easy to use, integrates nicely with Windows, and does pretty much anything you could ask a file manager to do. The icing: It's also the cheapest application in the group.
The PowerDesk Edge
PowerDesk 98 looks and works like the Windows 95 version of Explorer, so you'll feel at home immediately. And it truly assimilates into Windows. Right-click a file, and you'll get PowerDesk options such as Zip and Copy. Or you can summon PowerDesk anytime you click the My Computer icon.
PowerDesk improves on Explorer in countless little ways. You can split the window to see two folders at once, print a file list, and filter the list to see only certain types of files. You can easily toggle the folder-tree pane on and off, but it remains available as a pull-down menu.
Like Microsoft, Mijenix uses Inso's Quick View file-viewing technology. If you don't have Quick View installed, PowerDesk's installation program will load it for you. Like Windows' version of Quick View, PowerDesk carries a modest set of viewers heavily oriented toward Microsoft Office applications; however, it does add more graphics formats, including JPG, GIF, and TIF. Unlike Quick View, PowerDesk lets you copy and print what you view. And PowerDesk integrates well with Inso's full-size Quick View Plus (see "File Viewers").
Best of all, PowerDesk 98 won't strain your credit card. The official retail price of $30 is low enough, but you can find it in stores and online for about $25. Alternatively, you can purchase PowerDesk as part of Mijenix's $49 Fix-It Utilities 99 suite (see "The Suites").
Other Options
Though PowerDesk is the best general-purpose file manager, other products have some noteworthy specialized skills. Canyon Software's Drag and File Gold, the only file manager we've seen that supports the Internet's File Transfer Protocol, makes posting files to a Web site as easy as copying them to a floppy. Clear & Simple's DiskJockey 98 offers better file viewing than its competitors. Its larger set of viewers (also based on Inso's technology) lets you examine Corel and Lotus apps that you can't look at with basic Quick View.
But Drag and File Gold, DiskJockey 98, and Turbo Browser 98 share a common problem: a high price tag. Drag and File Gold carries a hefty $50 registration fee--$55 plus shipping if you want to get a CD-ROM and a manual. (Plain Drag and File--without Gold's Drag and Zip compression program--costs $30.) Disk Jockey and Turbo Browser both cost close to $60. FileTiger costs only $40, but all you get is a bare-bones file list.
A good file manager rates as a convenience, not a necessity. All you risk by forgoing one is a little extra work. But for $25, PowerDesk lets you avoid the excess labor and makes your computing life more pleasant. We'd spend the money.
--Lincoln Spector
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File Viewers: Open for Business
Windows' Quick View offers extremely limited file viewing functionality. We recommend Quick View Plus or KeyView Pro.
File incompatibilities are a leading cause of mice with toothmarks all over them. The scenario: Under pressure to get a project finished, you receive a long-awaited file after-hours. Huzzah! But when you try to open it, you find it was created in a program your PC doesn't have--and you're ready to start gnawing.
File viewers to the rescue. These handy utilities let you view, print, and copy text from files created by applications you don't have. They even maintain the original version's formatting. They don't, however, let you convert files to a different format. For that, you need a converter like Conversions Plus from DataViz ($100 street price; www.dataviz.com; 800/733-0030; product info no. 650).
Windows 95 and 98 come with a simple file viewer called Quick View, which supports only 31 file types, including .asc, .bmp, .doc, .exe, .ini, .ppt, .wmf, .wri, and .xls file formats. Quick View is essentially a scaled-down version of Quick View Plus from Inso, from whom the product was originally licensed. Some PC users don't need anything more substantial, but if you often receive files you can't open, you should purchase a dedicated file viewer.
We looked at four file viewers, testing them on 15 reasonably common file types, including a Word document, an Excel worksheet, a Macintosh Illustrator file, a PowerPoint presentation, and various image formats. The only file that none could open was a Macintosh Quark document. Panoramic 3.1 handled the most formats, but it's also the most expensive viewer, at $99. When we balanced price against performance, KeyView Pro and Quick View Plus (both priced at $59) tied for the Best Buy.
Quick View Plus from Jasc--the company that distributes Inso's product at the retail level--opened 10 of our 15 test files. It supports an additional 175 file types beyond Windows' meager 31. It also integrates with many Windows applications, kicking in automatically when you click on a file in any such application. Quick View Plus and KeyView Pro were the only two viewers that could handle a .ppt presentation.
In fact, Verity's KeyView Pro 6.5 opened the same 10 test file types as Quick View Plus. Its interface is starkly simple: Drop down the File menu and click Open. Or you can elect to integrate KeyView with your applications so it works automatically when you try to open a file for which you lack the original app.
Panoramic 3.1 from Cimmetry reads big files slowly, but otherwise it works extremely well, with a simple interface that opened 11 of our test file formats--more than any other viewer we tested. It was the only viewer that could open Microsoft Access files and Illustrator files created on a Macintosh. Panoramic's mark-up feature lets you add comments and graphics to viewed files before you print them--without altering the original file.
Drag and View 4.50 from Canyon Software integrates easily with Windows Explorer. It was the only viewer we tested that could handle a Macintosh PhotoShop file. However, Drag and View opened only nine of our test files.
--Michael Goodwin
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Undo/Undelete: Back From the Brink
If you revise documents frequently, get Undo & Recover. If you're willing to spend $70, consider GoBack--an incredible time machine that allows you to recover from even the most debilitating viruses and crashes.
Most Windows apps have undo functions. And you can fish for deleted files in Windows' own Recycle Bin. But a whole subgenre of utilities goes far beyond this level of functionality, letting you recover the last 100 saved versions of a Word document or reproduce the contents of an entire trashed hard drive.
Save and Still Undo
Three utilities--Aladdin Systems' FlashBack, PGSoft's Save Butt, and Kiss Software's Undo & Recover Toolbox 2--let you recover old, saved versions of almost any document in your system. If you want to revert to the version of a Word document you saved a week ago, all three of these utilities can do the job.
Of the three, Undo & Recover Toolbox works the best. It automatically tracks all files on your system, including the Registry. In contrast, Save Butt automatically tracks only documents registered to applications on the Windows Start menu; you can, however, add new file types manually by using a System Tray applet. FlashBack makes you register specific document types by dragging each into a FlashBack file window. Undo & Recover and FlashBack both track an unlimited number of file versions; Save Butt tracks the most recent 99.
Undo & Recover Toolbox gives you more ways to recover old files. A Quick Undo menu in the System Tray lets you reverse the last five saves to your hard drive. The Undo Storage Wizard lets you view and select deleted and changed files by name or application. And the Start Over feature automatically restores the Windows Registry and system configuration files. Our only complaint: Undo & Recover doesn't track changes made in DOS sessions. And at $40, it's pricey.
The Ultimate Undos
Three other utilities--PowerQuest's Lost and Found, OnTrack's Tiramisu, and Wild File's GoBack--surpass simple revision tracking, letting you restore files lost to viruses, hardware failure, or a slip of the finger on the Delete key.
GoBack is our favorite undeleter. The program keeps a sector-by-sector record of all changes written to a hard disk from Windows or DOS, which it stores on a special, protected section of your hard drive. So if a virus trashes your disk on Tuesday, GoBack can return your system to its Monday state and (once you've cleaned it of viruses) restore the files you modified before the crash. At $70, it isn't cheap. But for that kind of time-machine functionality, we'd say it's worth it.
--Lenny Bailes
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Cameron Heffernan is an associate editor for PC World,and Dan Miller is a senior editor for PC World.