McAfee NUTS & BOLTS '98

By John Hilvert

This month we really are spoiling you with goodies. Thanks to Network Associates International, we are providing the full version of a hot PC utility suite, McAfee's Nuts and Bolts 98, Version 2. You can also upgrade to the latest version of McAfee utilities for just $29.95 (see below).

If you don't have a set of utilities that keeps your system clean, repairs, diagnoses or tunes up, Nuts and Bolts is pretty cool. What's more, it works with Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows 98 systems.

Minimum requirements are: CPU 386SX or above, Windows 3.1 or above, at least 20Mb of RAM and 18Mb of hard disk space, VGA 16-colour display at 640 x 480 pixels and a CD-ROM drive. 

Please take a little time to read the licence terms of use on our installation page.

Installing the program
To install, insert the PC User Disc 1 in your drive, but exit the browser when it boots up the usual menu. It's best to install it outside the browser.

Click Start/Run, browse to your CD-ROM drive, click the McAfee folder and double-click autorun.exe.

Alternatively, assuming your CD-ROM drive is E:, run E:\mcafee\autorun.exe. If your CD-ROM drive is a different letter, eg: D:, then click D:\mcafee\autorun.exe.

In the unusual event that nothing occurs, do one of the following:

For Windows 95/98 users: double-click the CD-ROM and click \mcafee\autorun.exe.
For Windows 3.1 users: double-click the CD-ROM and click \mcafee\nb\setup.exe

This should start the installation, bringing up a a control panel that offers you six options, install Nuts and Bolts, install Virus Scan, browse the CD-ROM, install Acrobat Reader, What's New and exit.

For the purposes of this guide, we recommend you install Nuts and Bolts at this stage. Consider installing the virus scanner if you do not have one already. However, make sure you update its data files to ensure against the current batch of virus nasties. Only load the Adobe Acrobat reader if you don't already have one installed.

Then follow the onscreen instructions. As this is a free version of Nuts and Bolts 98, no technical support is available. However, there is excellent online help, and its entire manual is available as nutsbolts.pdf and is useful for showing you around the enormous range of functions available and how to use them.

You are given a choice of Express or Custom install. Custom allows you to fine-tune the utilities you want. If you are unsure, click Express, as this will install all the facilities to your system. Note: that this will set up your Windows system to open Bomb Shelter (an anti-crash utility) and McAfee Image (a hard drive security utility) automatically.

You will also be prompted if you want to create a rescue disk. This is designed to help you recover in case your system ever fails to boot up properly due to problems with your operating system. If you do not already have such a disk, we recommend that you create one.

Finally, you'll be invited to check on whether there are updates to Nuts and Bolts. If you are on the Net, click yes and you will get the latest versions for Nuts and Bolts 98. We have noted in some cases that the installation may hang after the updates. If nothing occurs after about five minutes, manually close down the Set Up screen with the key combination Alt+F4 and it should be fine.

On your desktop you should see several new icons: Quick Copy, Nuts and Bolts, McAfee File Shredder, McAfee Fortress and McAfee Zip Manager.

Click the Nuts and Bolts icon and the new floating interactive menu will appear. You can also access this via Start, Programs, Nuts & Bolts menu in Windows 95 and 98, or double-clicking the McAfee Nuts & Bolts program group in the program manager window and double-clicking the central Nuts & Bolts program icon.

This menu lets you to choose four broad functions at the left: repair and recover, clean and optimise, prevent and protect, secure and manage. When you click on these, you'll see the options available on the right.

For example, clean and optimise offers a clean-up wizard for getting rid of unnecessary files, DiskTune to optimise your hard drive, Registry Wizard to fix any errors in Windows 95's registry, a shortcut wizard to manage orphan or incorrect shortcuts in your system and Launch Rocket, a new program-launcher bar.

Take your time getting to know the various elements. Click on help or check the online manual to try out the functions. Nuts and Bolts offers a variety of aids, including manual and auto-fix.

That said, any utility program, no matter how well tested, can cause as many problems as benefits if you don't take certain precautions. Always back up your critical data files and never make changes to your set-up unless you clearly understand how to do it and why.

Note on uninstalling
Be aware also that while Nuts & Bolts 98 was state of the art several years ago, some of its apps may crash with current systems. It will uninstall via the Windows Add-Remove utility in the control panel. However it may hang or not properly remove all its features. On some systems, it may leave undeletable desktop icons. Use TweakUI for 95 or TweakUI for 98 (desktop tab) to remove this souvenir of Nuts & Bolts. TweakUI can be installed afterwards if your attempt to delete was unsuccessful.

If you like Nuts & Bolts 98, you can upgrade to the latest McAfee Utilities for just $29.99 with even more features for optimising your PC. 

Contact Support Group Services at:

Customer Service 
Upgrade Department 
Support Group Services 
P.O. Box 202 
Williamstown VIC 3016

(03) 9929 9700 (ph)
(03) 9929 9787 (fax)

Quote APC2000 when ordering.