I have been using Norton Utilities ("NU") for 13 years, going back to the DOS-based Advanced Edition version 4.5. (Remember Peter Norton Computing, Inc.?) Actually, I think I owned earlier versions of the toolkit but I don't have the diskettes to prove it, I only have the venerable version 4.5 floppies gathering dust in a storage bin.
In this and a series of future articles I'll be covering each of the latest version of NU's components in depth. Keep in mind that NU 2001 version 5.0 runs on Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, and NT 4. Today I'm covering the System Information component.
Before I get started, first a nod to my colleague Al Gordon, who put it so well in his TNPC #3.19 article on Norton SystemWorks and Windows 2000. I'm paraphrasing his advice here, "The trick during installation is to choose the Custom option so Norton installs everything (assuming you have the disk space), then reject all the options to run things automatically; all the tools are there for you to use when you need them but they're not running when you don't."
System Information lives under the Norton Utilities Integrator's "System Maintenance" category. It is also available from the Norton Utilities program group. System Information offers a dialog with nine tabs: System, Display, Printer, Memory, Drive, Input, Multimedia, Network, and Internet. Each tab provides a window into both common and hidden (or deeply buried from casual view) properties of your system components. The trick is that you can double-click on just about any item displayed in these tabs and get more information. This is information that you may rarely use, but it's there nonetheless. For example, the Memory tab lists all items currently in memory (you can choose to include or exclude library files). When you double-click any item (or right- click, Details) you see a secondary window full of more information: total non-shared memory used, total allocated memory, total module size, threads, memory blocks, and identification. These properties can be expanded further by clicking on the "+" items in the tree.
System Information offers you a wide range of reports to choose from. "Current Tab" prints information about the current tab only. "Typical" prints a generic report covering all the tabs. "Technical Support" prints Typical plus information relevant to your PC's startup behavior. "Custom" lets you pick and choose what elements to include on a report. Naturally, you can choose to route to a printer or a file. Two warnings: it can take a while to produce a report, especially an all-inclusive one, and they're big. The "Technical Support" report on one of my PCs is 212 pages long.
Lastly, System Information offers benchmarking for the System and Drive tabs. I find this component useful because it's very thorough and has a friendly, uncluttered user interface that also allows you to quickly drill down to see the nitty gritty. I use it to examine and benchmark a new PC. I also like the Memory tab's view of how much memory a particular piece of software has snagged, and the reports are extremely thorough. Figure it this way, NU has a retail price of $50 and includes 18 components (of which System Information is one), so this component is costing you a whopping $2.78. Since I like and use at least 10 of those 18 components, and since (as you'll see in future articles) the other eight have compelling virtues that may well interest you even though I don't use them, overall I recommend NU 2001.
If you have a favorite NU story or tip, or have found freeware or shareware products you like better, drop me a line.
I have some additional information about NU for which there isn't
room here. For example, a table showing each individual tool's
name (19 in all), its category (find/fix problems, system
maintenance, etc.), direct links to the TNPC article that
reviewed each tool, and a Yes/No column for Windows 2000
compatibility.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/lee/norton_p1/index.html
Amazon.com has Norton Utilities 2001 for $27.99 after the
manufacturer's mail-in rebate of $15; the rebate applies only if
you are a previous owner of a stand-alone copy of NU.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/405/tr.cgi?lee1
You can reach Lee Hudspeth at:
mailto:leehudspeth@TheNakedPC.com
