December 1996

`Windows 95`

Norton Crashguard

http://www.symantec.com/crashguard/

Prevents crashes, application freezes and "not responding" messages in Windows 95. According to Symantec's Web site, "On March 1, 1997, Norton CrashGuard will no longer be installable. Any copies already installed before that date will continue to work." Sounds like a great deal! Unreviewed.

95 Ultimate Booter

http://www.ratol.fi/~msiikani/95booter.html
Registered price: Freeware
Rating: 8/10

This program lets you boot Windows 95 into the configuration of your choice: the command prompt, Windows 95 itself, Windows 95 Safe Mode and previous DOS, which is the version of DOS which was installed before you installed Windows 95. It's a simple program, but ideal for you if you run programs which sulk and spit at Windows 95.

AutoMate 96

http://www.unisyn.com
Registered price: $50
Rating: 8/10

AutoMate lets Windows 95 do your work for you while you do something else. No programming is required. You tell AutoMate what you want it to do via a Task Setup wizard and you can create as many tasks as you like. You can have AutoMate send and collect your e-mail, perform backups, virus checks and so on. The program will do simple chores or complex ones which involve several applications, auto keystrokes and DDE conversations. You can have the tasks performed within your choice of time frame -- every minute, every hour, each day. In addition to creating tasks for AutoMate to perform, you can also create reminders with alarms.

Clone Master

http://www.windows95.com
Registered price: $40
Rating: 8/10

Clone Master lets you reclaim lost space on your hard drive. It checks all your disks for duplicate files, and lets you optionally move, delete or rename them. If you have lots of programs, you probably have lots of duplicates squirreled away in unusual places. Clone Master will hunt them down for you.

StarTrek Wallpaper

ftp://ftp.pcworld.com/pub
Registered price: Freeware
Rating: 8/10

This cute Star Trek wallpaper also acts as a desktop manager. You can slot your icons away neatly instead of having them splattered all over your hard drive

Super Task Man

http://www.windows95.com
Registered price: $25
Rating: 8/10

Super Task Man is Windows 95's Task Manager on steroids. It installs itself as a tray icon; right-click to access the menu. It adds lots of functionality to task manager, including a History list which lets you run up to 50 of the programs you've successfully launched previously. In addition, you can create task lists for launching more than one program at a time, and a configurable launch directory for all those programs which you want to be able to access quickly.

WinZip 6.2

http://www.winzip.com
Rating: 9/10

The award-winning shareware utility WinZip is our perennial favourite for unzipping and zipping files under Windows. This new version includes built-in support for popular Internet file formats: TAR, gzip, Unix compress,UUencode, XXencode, BinHex, and MIME. It also includes WinZip Self-Extractor Personal Edition. See also our guide on How to Use WinZip.

Microsoft Word Viewer

http://www.microsoft.com/msword/internet/viewer

This freebie from Microsoft allows you to read Word 7 for Windows files without having the actual program.

ThunderByte Anti-Virus

http://www. thunderbyte.com
Rating: 9/10

All PC users should get a good anti-virus program -- one with advanced scanning techniques so that it can detect unknown viruses and with regular, free updates so that it can identify the latest viruses. Thunderbyte qualifies on all counts.

`Windows`

Macro Mania

http://www.zdnet.com/zdi/software/
Registered price: $30
Rating: 8/10

Macro Mania works with all versions of Windows and with any Windows program. If you're sick of doing the same thing over and over, whether it's repeating keystrokes or typing messages, you can now let Macro Mania do it for you. Creating a macro is simple: select an icon to represent the macro, then go to the Edit box. A full list of commands and syntax are included in the reference section. Your most popular commands will probably be Run to execute a program, and Send to send keystrokes to a particular program. You can create complex macros to use over and over, as well as simple macros you only use for a day. Sample macros are provided, which you can copy -- they give you a headstart to creating your own.

WinZip 6.2

http://www.winzip.com
Rating: 9/10

Microsoft Word Viewer

http://www.microsoft.com/msword/internet/viewer

This freebie from Microsoft allows you to read Word 6 for Windows files without having the actual program.

ThunderByte Anti-Virus

http://www. thunderbyte.com
Rating: 9/10

`DOS`

ThunderByte Anti-Virus

http://www. thunderbyte.com
Rating: 9/10

Back issues:

November 1996 utilities