Description:
With a pedigree almost as long as that of the PC, Norton Utilities has long been the essential bag of software tools for your computer. Originally famed for its undelete facility (a godsend) and then its defragging tools, Norton's basic features have gradually been absorbed into the Windows operating system. But that doesn't dilute the usefulness of Norton Utilities, which, with more than a dozen components, helps you optimize, diagnose, and protect your PC. Like its sibling titles in the Norton catalog, Norton Utilities has an integrated front end. The Integrator groups the various utilities into logical groups--there are sections for Optimize Performance, Find and Fix problems, System Maintenance, and Registry Management. Another common feature is the revamped LiveUpdate facility, which can conveniently update not only Norton Utilities over the Internet but all the other Norton products installed on your PC. The CD-ROM itself is bootable, meaning you can still run Norton if your PC won't boot on its own--again, a neat and useful feature. A new Optimization Wizard helps you choose the optimal size and location for your swap file and compacts your registry to make Windows 9x run a smidgen faster. Another useful tool is the Registry Tracker, which logs every change made to the registry, making it easy to identify when and why an entry was changed. Other tools trawl the registry looking for inconsistent entries-- helping detect problems that could lead to data loss--while the System Doctor and Disk Doctor monitors the health of your PC and storage. Overall, the changes in Norton Utilities 2001 are more evolutionary than revolutionary, but it remains a utility tool bag that many users will find indispensable. --Roger Gann
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