
                    An Evaluation and Product Review:


                      Norton Utilities for Windows95
                     Copyright 1995 by Paul Kinnaly

 Among the first 32bit programs available for the newly released
 Windows95, was the ubiquitous Norton Utilities.  Symantec's
 announcement of this product brought sighs of relief to Windows95 users
 who had been warned not to use any 16bit disk utilities with the new
 Operating System. The warning was based upon the fact that earlier
 programs were not aware of the long file names used by Win95.  Because
 use of long file names required modifications to the File Allocation
 Table (FAT), many of the earlier Norton Utilities would fix what they
 saw as a damaged FAT, leaving Win95 a horrible mess.  Yet few true
 power users felt comfortable without their copy of Norton Utilities.
 From the time Peter Norton had first released this software,  some
 years ago, it was the tool of choice to deal with the many problems,
 idiosyncrasies, and omissions of DOS.  Running a whole new OpSystem
 -Win95- without this tool at their sides just plain scared many folks.
 Following Symantec's announcement of a Win95 version, the rush was on
 to place an order.

 Disappointment soon followed. Version 8.0 of Norton Utilities for DOS
 and Windows -the last pre-Win95 version - had come with a superb
 manual, a full 1" thick, providing detailed instructions on each of
 the 39 separate tools, tutorials, a trouble-shooting guide, and other
 materials. The Win95 version of the program, however, came with a
 manual comparable only with Microsoft's own Win95 manual; a mere "
 thick, it contains only short descriptions of each of its 9 tools, a
 lesson in how hard disks work, and a section on DOS recovery
 procedures. By the way, that was not a typo; only nine tools in the new
 version...

 The following lists the programs included in each version of Norton
 Utilities:

 NU 8.0: Batch Enhancer, Calibrate, Directory Sort, Disk Editor, Disk
 Monitor, Disk Tools, Diskreet, Duplicate Disk, File Attributes, File
 Date, File Find, File Fix, File Locate, File Size, Image, Line Print,
 Norton Cache, Norton Change Directory, Norton Control Center, Norton
 Diagnostics, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton Utilities Configuration, Rescue
 Disk, Safe Format, SmartCan, Speed Disk, System Info, Text Search,
 Unerase, Unformat, Wipe Information, File Compare, INI Advisor, INI
 Editor, INI Tracker, INI Tuner.

 NU 95: Image, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton Protection, System Doctor,
 Space Wizard, Rescue Disk, Speed Disk, System Information, UnErase
 Wizard.

 Granted, some of the tools available in the earlier 8.0 version are
 very DOS-specific and others are built into Windows95.  However, the
 others would be every bit as useful in a Windows95 environment as they
 were earlier. Did your spreadsheet file get damaged? NU 8.0 could
 probably fix it; NU95 cannot. Do you want to encrypt data on your disk?
 Again, NU 8.0 could do it, but not NU95. Other examples are easy to
 come by; just look at that list again and odds are good that you'll see
 a tool which you had come to depend on is no longer available.

 NU95 also makes you grateful that new, super-size hard drives are
 available: its limited capabilities consume more than 12mb of hard disk
 space, almost double the space used by NU 8.0!  But you do get spiffy
 32bit, protected mode, preemptively multitasked operation of its tools
 - now you can defrag your hard drive while formatting a floppy - if
 that turns you on.... !

 Windows95 itself comes with several utilities, including a Disk Defrag-
 menter and ScanDisk. These programs provide basic functionality in
 their respective areas. NU95 includes their counterparts, SpeedDisk and
 Disk Doctor. Both of these programs add just slightly to the
 capabilities of their Win95 counterparts and include just a few more
 options. But neither seems to include any significant added
 functionality.

 One of NU95's tools deserves special mention: System Doctor. The manual
 states, "...System Doctor runs quietly in the background, continually
 monitoring your computer's operating environment. It can alert you
 immediately when conditions require attention, and can fix many
 problems automatically, without interrupting your work." Sounds pretty
 impressive, eh?  What it does is:

        *   monitor disk integrity (similar to Disk Doctor)
        *   monitor disk fragmentation
        *   indicate how long it's been since Disk Image was last run
        *   indicate how much virtual memory is used
        *   indicate current CPU utilization
        *   indicate when you last made a Rescue Disk
        *   indicate available battery power (if appropriate)

 While these are somewhat useful functions,  very few are vital. In
 fact, most are more appropriate for newbies than they are for the
 techies who formerly were the core of Norton's users.

 With a suggested retail price of $119 for new users -$59 for the
 upgrade(?) - I truly cannot recommend Norton Utilities for Windows95.
 Sadly, what once was a power user's dream package is no longer...


 Paul Kinnaly is the WindoWatch HomePage Editor. He has contributed
 many articles including his evaluation and review of WordPerfect's
 Envoy for Windows and the various commercial and shareware HTML
 tools.


 
                         ww


