This
month's treasures include two winners: Norton System Works and the
latest from Humongous, Freddi Fish 4. System Works is a utility suite from Symantec that
works so smoothly, it amazed us. Freddi Fish is a Junior Adventure that has a great
balance of education and fun.
Norton SystemWorks 2.0
In the beginning (circa 1984), we saw the Norton Utilities from the mind of
Peter Norton, one of the earliest gurus of the IBM compatible PC. Then guru status was
seen in the mind of the voluble Gary Saxer who created memory management software that
became the flagship of Quarterdeck. We can still remember Gary bouncing around the stage
at our user group meetings. He was trying to explain the need for his QEMM memory
management software that extended the capabilities of the IBM PC. Please remember that
before OS/2 and Windows, the PC was limited to directly addressing only one megabyte of
RAM, and utilities like QEMM tried to work around this limitation. Think of it as an
improved version of HIMEM.SYS that came with DOS.
Quarterdeck grew and became successful enough to create its own utility suite
to compete with the Norton Utilities. Meanwhile, Symantec Corporation grew even faster,
especially when it absorbed Peter Norton Computing, but this was not enough, so the giant
grew again as it absorbed Quarterdeck. Can others compete with Symantec who can now offer
the best from Norton and Quarterdeck? Has Symantec merged these technologies successfully?
We worried about installing all the modules in SystemWorks 2.0 because of the
troubles we had with Network Associate's Deluxe Suite built around their acquisition of
Nuts and Bolts. Thus, we were very cautious and installed each module of SystemWorks
separately. This is easily done from the installer that has a pick list.
Figure 1. (Click on the graphic to enlarge.) The Control Center for Norton SystemWorks 2.0.
The control center in Figure 1 appears when you open SystemWorks. The modules
are as follows:
Norton Utilities 4.0 is a seasoned collection of utilities that automatically
analyzes hard drives, files, Windows 95, 98, and NT setup problems, shortcuts, lost
clusters, and the Registry. A manual override is available, but we let it operate in auto
mode, and it found 210 errors in our test system. We chose auto fix and watched as
problems were corrected with no resulting new problems. This was very impressive, since
this has not been our experience with other utility sets. Equally impressive, in Figure 2
we see the System Doctor that works at all times to prevent problems and report on the
system's usage. We were also amazed to see how much clutter and false setting it removed
from the Registry.
Norton AntiVirus 5.0 is included. This anti-virus package has been at or near
the top in detecting and expunging virus problems for many years. The new version has a
quarantine box when it detects virus-like behavior, but does not recognize the virus. The
Norton Labs are then available to find a cure even if the virus is part of a macro. Note
that macro repair does not mean that you will lose your macros.
Norton TrashCan is an enhanced version that eases undelete, the utility that
made Peter Norton famous in the '80s.
CleanSweep 4.5, which is also included in SystemWorks, is the superb uninstaller acquired from
Quarterdeck. The uninstall applet in the Control Panel is often not able to monitor
installations unless the application is written specifically to activate it. Your best
choice is to use an uninstall utility that comes with your software, but many do not
include one. Thus, we see a huge need for an uninstaller. CleanSweep uninstalls most
completely if you allow it to monitor installations, but Symantec has wisely chosen a
default setting to turn it off during installations. We have seen it cause an install to
fail, but it can still uninstall programs it has not monitored. It can also move programs
from one drive to another, but we don't have confidence in this function.
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Norton CrashGuard 4.0 is working
at all times. It is effective in helping you correct a system crash, even if it only lets
you save your work before shutting down an application. Be sure to reboot after a crash.
Norton Web Services are designed to take you to the Symantec Web site where there is a
collection of thousands of updated Windows drivers. We have not tested this claim, but it
can be a great time-saver if they have the drivers you need. This is a subscription
service, and a six-month subscription comes with SystemWorks, including a subscription to
LiveUpdate.
LiveUpdate takes you to the Symantec Web site for the latest virus
definitions and updates to every module loaded by SystemWorks. The key word here is
"installed," so our one-by-one installation took some time as we updated each
module separately. Fortunately, LiveUpdate not only downloads an update: it actually
installs it.
Figure 2. (Click on the graphic to enlarge.) The Norton System Doctor monitors system performance.
Symantec has a wonderful tray manager that removes clutter from the tray at
the bottom of your screen and, of course, you get the full version of Speed Disk rather
than the abbreviated version included in Windows. The SystemWorks modules can be purchased
separately, but it is less expensive to buy the suite, especially since the suite includes
a bonus disc with WinFax, 2000 BIOS Fix, and Norton "Secret Stuff."
There is a good reason that SystemWorks outsells others by a 4 to 1 margin:
integration and reliability. We have a complex PC setup and not a single glitch occurred.
The menus were great.
Freddi Fish 4 Goes West
Humongous Entertainment scores again as Freddi Fish and Luther search for
clues in "The Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch." This is the newest Junior
Adventure for the 3-to-8 year-old crowd. However, even parents will enjoy the adventure.
In this adventure, we find Freddi and Luther in the town of Briny Gulch
interviewing the inhabitants about the missing Hogfish. At the bottom of the screen we see
bubbles where clues are assembled. These are collected when you make the correct interview
or locate an important hot-spot. The game is kept alive by the changing reactions of
people (actually the fish) and hot spots such as anemones, snails, etc.
Numbers, letters, map making, and simple reasoning are required to solve the
mystery. Additionally, parents will be pleased to see that this PC requires taking notes
with a pencil and paper. On the surface, this looks like an adventure game, but learning
elements are strong, especially to keep trackof clues and the complex routes through the
underwater Hogfish world. We were also pleased to seethat some of the animations went
beyond entertainment. For example, tickling a blow fish resulted in the proper swelling
stomach that we have personally observed on our fishing trips.
This highly recommended adventure includes stickers and an activity book. The
CD-ROM workson a 90-MHz Pentium running Windows 95 (or better) or an 80-MHz Power
Macintosh.
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