Utilities

What looks like Norton Utilities and acts like Norton Utilities but costs more and has fewer features? Norton Utilities 2.0 for Windows NT 4.0.

The long-awaited release of this package has updated versions of the utilities featured in Norton NT Tools 1.0, which was compatible with Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0. But it's also missing some of the most useful and powerful features of the newest Windows 95 version. We tested the beta version; the product should be shipping by the time you read this.

Symantec is touting this version of Norton Utilities as a system-protection tool. And that's all it really is. Out of the modules that make up this version, most--including Speed Disk, Protected Recycle Bin, and Disk Doctor--are focused on data protection, and one, System Doctor, provides system information. What's absent here are the truly useful tools found in the more comprehensive Windows 95 version, such as the Space Wizard, which analyzes disk space; the Norton Registry Editor, which provides context-sensitive help as you edit your Registry; and the System Genie, which offers system-configuration tools.

The product does offer the Speed Disk defragmentation utility, making Norton Utilities for Windows NT 4.0 one of only two available disk-defragmenting utilities for Windows NT. The other tool, Executive Software's Diskeeper, provides only a disk-defragmentation feature and costs $125 for the NT Workstation version; Norton Utilities, on the other hand, costs $119. We reviewed Diskeeper 2.0 in our February 1997 issue ("To Defrag, Or Not to Defrag?" Registry).

Speed Disk supports both NTFS and FAT partitions--although not FAT32, which NT doesn't support anyway--and it can run either in the foreground or in the background. We tested Speed Disk on an IBM ThinkPad 760CD, a 90-MHz Pentium system with 40MB of RAM and a 1.2GB hard disk formatted as an NTFS partition.

Speed Disk indicated that the disk was very fragmented--roughly 11%--and that we should optimize it. The disk contained 450MB of files. We configured the utility to defragment files and free space, and we set the utility's priority to Normal, although you can also run it as a low-priority task if you want minimal background interference. Finally, we executed Speed Disk, with the System Doctor as the only other active process. Defragmentation took more than an hour, although later optimizations of the same drive were not quite as time-consuming.

Users of any version of Norton Utilities for Windows 95 will be familiar with the other protection features included in this NT product, Protected Recycle Bin and Disk Doctor. The Protected Recycle Bin provides additional protection for deleted files and adds the UnErase Wizard, which was able to recover our deleted files as long as they hadn't been totally destroyed. Disk Doctor diagnoses drive and file-corruption problems on NTFS and FAT partitions.

We configured and launched all of the tools via the System Doctor, which launches by default whenever you boot your system. System Doctor includes desktop meters for various system parameters, including CPU utilization, available disk space, and Internet connection speed.

If you're looking for a complete set of Windows NT utilities comparable to those available for Windows 95, you're not going to be completely satisfied with Norton Utilities 2.0 for Windows NT 4.0. On the other hand, if you run NT Server and use large databases, you should check out the package to get the benefits of Speed Disk alone.

About... Symantec Norton Utilities 2.0 for Windows NT 4.0

PROS: Speed Disk; Protected Recycle Bin; UnErase Wizard.
CONS: Space Wizard, Norton Registry Editor, and System Genie are absent.

Norton Utilities 2.0 for Windows NT 4.0 doesn't match up to Symantec's already established standard for a utility tools package.

COMPANY: Symantec, Cupertino, CA
AVAILABILITY: Now
OS SUPPORT: Win NT 4.0
PHONE: 800-441-7234; 541-334-6054
URL: www.symantec.com