December Windows Shareware

There's no doubt that the right utilities can make using your computer faster and more convenient. Here's another mixed bag of goodies from the large selection available.

By David Nourse

Unusual but very useful features include a full FTP client, a multi-launch option for associating file types with several applications (opening the file brings up a launcher selection dialog), and file tagging which allows you to operate on a batch of files spread over several directories. You can also create up to 10 virtual desktops from the toolbar.

Anyone who's annoyed by Explorer's limitations should try this package, and even diehard Explorer fans may find that it's a better way to work.

A Virtual Drive Manager makes it easy to set up drives, build or delete CD images and insert or eject virtual CDs, and also supports Autorun. Virtual drives are accessible through Windows Explorer or other file managers. Disk images can be compressed, which doesn't make much difference to performance and can save a lot of space: we compressed Microsoft Bookshelf 1996-1997 by 24% into a 416M image file, despite it being fairly close-packed in its original form.

If you've got enough free hard drive space, Virtual Drive may save a lot of time and frustration.

If you've ever installed a program that has wrought havoc with your system, this Australian product may be just what you're looking for. Its sole purpose is to provide a protected environment for testing new Windows software. It allows you to restore your system to its original state no matter what damage has been inflicted. This can be a real lifesaver when you'd normally be tearing your hair out at the prospect of reinstalling Windows and most of your software.

The TrialMagician loads before Windows and protects all existing files, which are treated as read-only; new files are stored in a reserved area of hard drive space. After installing new software in the Magician's trial mode, you can check whether things are working smoothly or something nasty has occurred. In either event, when you terminate the trial mode the Magician will remove all new files and system settings, restoring everything to its earlier state. If your new program has worked satisfactorily, you can then install it in the normal way.

There are some restrictions on the types of program that the Magician can handle. It can't be used with software that upgrades the operating system or alters the disk structure. Despite these limitations, TrialMagician provides a clever antidote to the sloppy installation problems that crop up far too often.

You can delete, copy, move or rename files, and create new folders for them. Finding files is much easier: File-Ex gives you lists of recently used files and folders, together with lists for your favourites, and also provides a fast file finder with extensive filtering capabilities.

Rounding off an elegant package, File-Ex has 'training' routines that make it work with many applications that use non-standard dialogs. Strongly recommended.

While Windows 95/98's System module in the Control Panel provides a lot of information, particularly if you dig into the Device Manager, Sandra is more comprehensive and much more accessible: its default setup gives you access from the desktop or the Control Panel and its 55 modules are arranged in logical groups.

The benchmarking modules, which cover CPU, hard drives, CD-ROM/DVD and memory, compare your system's performance with four typical configurations: they're not as thorough as Wintune or some commercial utilities, but do provide a quick test which may help you identify hardware problems. Sandra's listing modules allow you to read (but not edit) the major system initialisation files (SYSTEM.INI, WINDOWS.INI, and so on); information provided by the diagnostic modules includes detailed reports on current processes, memory resources and Plug and Play devices, and settings for hardware interrupts, DMA, and I/O devices.

Sandra's tune-up tips are necessarily general and not always sound (for example, I'm certainly not going to use at least 25% of my 128M RAM for disk caching). That reservation aside, this is a useful, modestly priced package that should appeal to serious users.