FILES THAT EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE IN THEIR SYSTEM FOLDER 1. Init/Cdev 3.0 - this keeps track of all your INITs and cdevs and lets you activate/deactivate them at startup or on the control panel. Useful when you are testing out possible problematic inits so you can switch them on and off easily. 2. Virtual 2.0 - Virtual memory, what else? If you have a ‘030 machine, or an ‘020 with PMMU, and hard disk space, you should have this. Even if you have 8 megs of RAM, it’s always good to have more when you are working under multifinder. I wouldn’t reccomend getting it if you only have 1 meg of RAM, though. I’ve tried that and it REALLY slows you down. 3. NOIcon - This has been the most useful 2k file I’ve ever seen. It simply gets rid of all the icons that annoy you at startup. It also saves quite a bit of startup time. 4. MaxAppleZoom 1.2 -Very Simple. If you have a Mac II Apple RGB monitor, this will add another half inch on every side of the screen, making your 13 inch monitor into a 14 inch monitor. You can see that the screen used does not take up the entire area on your Mac II monitor. MaxAppleZoom just utilizes it. This utility doesn’t work well with some 8-bit and 24-bit cards, but it’s worth trying anyway. 5. SAM Intercept - You all know what it is. It just tells you when illegal activity is going on in your computer, thus preventing virus infection. You might want to set the security level at standard, though, unless you like to know every time a resource is being changed. This gets quite annoying when using ResEdit, or a similar program. 6. Boomerang 2.0 - This is extremely handy. When in a dialog box, you have the option of going straight to any (user chooses the number) recently accessed folders, rather than going through the hierarchal file system every time you want to locate a file. It does many other things, such as: locating files, creating folders, purging folders, and giving the current space available on all mounted volumes. Some people like Shortcut, but I’ve found Boomerang to be less buggy, more user friendly, and easier to use. 7. Complete Undelete - Exactly what it says. Keeps a log of recently deleted files. If you accidentally trash a file you needed, chances are you will be able to recover it with this cdev. 8. DiskDoubler 2.0 - Simply wonderful if you ever find yourself cramped for space. It is the fastest of any compression programs, and is different because it works from a menu in the Finder. After selecting a file to compress, it compresses a file and deletes the original, so you don’t just have an archived copy of the file you wanted to shrink. It also lets you segment and join files. This is very handy for quick archiving purposes, or for making more space on your HD. 9. Kolor - If you have a color monitor, you should have this. It’s pretty much just cosmetic, but it’s nice to customize your own menus, finder, dialog boxes, etc. with the colors you want. Makes looking at your Macintosh a lot nicer. 10. MacsBug 6.2d3 - This is made for programmers, but if you don’t have an interrupt switch, it can prove invaluable. If you have a system error, you will get a strange screen with numbers on it and a place to type. For a list of commands, just type ‘Help’. But the most basic and useful commands are “RS” which restarts your machine, and “EA”, which escapes to the finder or last application. If you want to use this debugger more thoroughly, you can get a file called “MacsBug Info” which will tell you many in depth commands. 11. NowMenus - This is part of the Now Utilities package. It basically allows you to have hierarchal menus anywhere and pop up menus too. I use it for the control panel menu, which allows you to access any cdev from the Apple menu and go straight to it. This won’t work if you’re using Cdev Shrinker though. The pop up menu is nice, when you hold down the modifier key and you have the menu at your fingertips- anywhere on the screen. 12. On Cue - A must for anyone who has a hard disk (99% of mac users). It puts a menu on your menu bar, with a configurable list of Applications (and documents that go with applications) to launch. You’ll never go through dozens of folders again to open a simple program. 13. Pyro! 4.0 - Some people like After Dark better, but I’ve had less trouble with this screen saver. It’s got configurable modules now, in case you’re in the stone ages. The kalaidascope is quite trippy, in addition. You should also check out the aquarium module. 14. QuicKeys 1.2 package - You all know what macro programs are don’t you? Well, this one just has to be experimented with to know the potential of it. It’s much easier than Tempo II, and is fairly straightforward. The only thing you should know is the ‘record’ feature is often hidden. Just find it on one of the QuicKeys menus on one of the Cdev and make a macro (toggles it on and off). Building of sequences also allows many macros and pauses to be put together into one large Macro. In addition, QuickTimer let’s you assign macros to be performed daily, upon an application launch, at intervals, and at startup. If you have macromaker, throw it away and get Quickeys. It runs MUCH smoother. 15. SuitCase II 1.2.6 - Professional Slick package that lets you open infinite number of DA’s/Font’s/FKEYS. You should either be running this or MasterJuggler on your computer. It lets you open separate suitcases that you can open from SuitCase II, rather than installing them in your System. Also beneficial because the System DA limit is 15. 16. SUM Shield INIT- Even if you don’t have SUM II, you should have this init in your system folder. It will take ‘snapshots’ of your Hard Drive, keep track of deleted files (in case you need to undelete them), and will help you recover your drive if a crash occurs. At that time you may wish to get SUM II and recover your HD. 17. SuperClock! 3.9 - So great, yet so simple. Puts the time in the right hand corner of your menu bar. So you don’t even have to use your watch. Has a stopwatch and the date also, when you click on it. 18. Turbo Mouse - This makes your mouse go AS FAST AS YOU WANT. Much better than Mouse2, which only doubled your speed. Turbo Mouse is fully configurable to any speed you want it at. Very useful for large screen users too. 19. WindowShade - Let’s you double (or single or triple) click on the top of any window and hides the rest of it. So if you have tons of windows open, but don’t want to close them all, you can double click on some of them and still have the top of it remaining. You must use it for a while to fully appreciate it. Well, those are MY favorites. I suggest you try each one, if you haven’t already. If you are having trouble finding a copy of any of these. Post a request on THE HOLY GRAIL or ELITES HIDEAWAY, and we’ll get it to you right a way.