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Norton Utilities 3.0
Don't start your computer until you have Norton Utilities ready to load. Along with Norton AntiVirus, Norton Utilities are and should be a required addition to your operating environment.
Norton, now owned by Symantec(1-800-441-7234), has been around since the dawn of microcomputing. Norton's unerase has been a required addition to microcomputers since DOS, when there was no built-in method of recovering files that were accidentally erased. Yes, many of the functions found in the set of utilities are now part of Windows. However, the Windows versions are not all that sophisticated, nor do the Windows versions give you the ease of use, functionality and information that you'll receive through Norton Utilities.
After loading Norton Utilities, you will find a interface called Norton Integrator. Integrator is a is a consistent interface from which you can access all of the utility features.
The first thing you should do after installation is to make
a set of rescue disks. This way if things really go berserk,
you can redo your working system settings. With the prevalence
of ZIP drives, Rescue Disk now creates a ZIP drive rescue disk
along with a floppy to boot the computer from and then access
the ZIP drive. This is great stuff and I've already used my
ZIP rescue set to resurrect my portable computer. The old Norton
Image is still there and it doesn't hurt to create an image every
time you boot the computer so that it is available for all the
other utility programs to use.
You will find that the most used program will be either Norton
Speed Disk, or Norton Disk Doctor. Speed Disk optimizes your
hard disk so that your files lie in contiguous sectors and will
make it easier to recover accidentally deleted files as well
as let your files be accessed faster. Speed Disk also places
different types of files at different places on the disk and
it also optimizes your windows swap file. I particularly like
being able to click on a sector block after things have been
optimized so that I can see what file is actually on that physical
part of the disk. I've had to reconstruct cross-linked files
and this feature really helps to understand what happened and
where. Speed Disk now places the Windows Swap File at the start
of the disk, rather than at the end of all your files. That
makes for faster usage and an apparent increase in the speed
at which your computer works.
Norton Unerase does a number of functions that should have been in the Windows Recycle bin. First, it keeps track of files that the Recycle Bin does not recognize such as files deleted by operating programs or deleted from DOS. And, if that isn't enough, Unerase will also look for and find a deleted file that isn't tracked. As always, if you delete a file accidentally, stop what you are doing and run Unerase immediately. If you keep working, you run the risk of using that section of the disk you need to restore.
Norton Disk Doctor replaces the Windows Scandisk program. It looks at your disk structure, fixes problems and will, if asked, do a surface scan of the entire disk. It also runs when you start your computer after an unusual shutdown to insure that you have disk integrity as you start up the computer.
Win Doctor checks a multitude of registry settings as well as other items to see if your version of Windows is set up to run in an optimal environment. It will help you optimize both hardware and software settings. Win Doctor also checks the registry and helps you remove unwanted and unneeded registry settings that might cause conflicts with other operations.
Norton now comes with a "Live Update" feature. When run, it logs on to Norton's Internet site and downloads and installs upgrades and fixes automatically. This is the way all software should be updated.
Also in this version is CrashGuard 3.0. This program monitors memory and when one program attempts to use memory already in use by another program it alerts you and lets you exit gracefully and save data if necessary. Normally, when a memory conflict occurs, a complete system lockup happens and you must reboot your computer to get started again. In my computing life, I'm always fooling with new software. Crashguard makes my life significantly easier when new and beta test software conflict.
No matter how large your hard drive is, you should periodically clean it up and get rid of unwanted and unnecessary files. Norton's Space Wizard finds your backup and temporary files as will as suggests getting rid of unused or orphan DLLs and other types of files. When you delete these files, back them up, since you might find you really do need some of them. Many programs scatter DLL files around, don't register those files anywhere, so the space wizard thinks they are not needed when they really are necessary.
All in all, this set of utilities belongs on every PC. You may not need every utility every day, but will need all of them at some time. Don't turn on your computer without them.