The lack of an alternative is always bad for the consumer of any product. The monopolist not only can assign any price to his product simply on the basis of how much he likes money, not out of production costs, but also has no serious incentive to improve the quality of the product - the buyer will still not go anywhere (fall in love - and undress). Even worse, when the monopoly is generated by consumers themselves, voluntarily giving preference to only one product, and not necessarily the best in the market. The reason for the fact that the buyer deprives himself of the right to choose is often the primitive rigidity of thinking and the unwillingness to change anything in his habits.
Why, for example, do we almost all from time immemorial (in the sense - from the time of MS-DOS) use a set of Norton Utilities system software for computer maintenance? Does Symantec have no competitors in this field? Yes, it's just that we are very used to NU and do not pay attention to new, similar programs. This set of utilities has appeared for a very long time, has undergone many changes and improvements since then, has grown enormously, but has it become the best on the market of similar software?
You can find out about this only if you look at the work of another similar set of programs aimed, like NU, to optimize the work of the PC, eliminate and prevent all possible operating system errors, backup information and restore the system after a malfunction. The most important competitor of NU, perhaps, is today the most powerful program Fix-It Utilities, created by a very serious "office" Ontrack, well-known for its developments in the field of information recovery on "crashed" hard drives, and in general - a variety of applications for working with disks.
Fix-It included programs for almost all occasions - from the defragmenter to the antivirus, and among them there are even a few unique and very useful utilities that are absent in the more common NU.
The program interface is based on the now fashionable integrated panel, from which any components of Fix-It are called. These components are grouped into several semantic sections so that the user can understand and understand all the functions of an impressive set of system utilities.
And this common panel is really much more convenient than a set of shortcuts in the Start menu-there are so many specialized subroutines in the Fix-It that in their long list it's even difficult to immediately find what you need. So, the distribution of utilities on thematic sections of the "integrator" is completely justified, especially since no background programs have been launched, and the "integrator" does not devour system resources while sitting idle in the "tray". Of course, you do not have to install everything that Ontrack offers - when installing the program it is allowed to select only the most attractive utilities, but I advise, after all, not to regret 36 megabytes on the disk and do not throw anything away - everything will come in handy on the farm. By the way, the distribution kit of the program "weighs" only 17Mb, which is more than modest for such an exhaustive set of utilities.
So, let's take a closer look at what is so interesting in this, rapidly gaining popularity, but, nevertheless, very many users are not yet familiar, a competitor of NU (who have decayed at their monopoly position right up to the huge Norton System Works package).

Fix Wizard

A simple and intuitive wizard that allows you to run a full cycle of "processing" the system at the touch of a button: check disks and memory for viruses; Create backup copies of the most important system files; Make snapshots of the hard disk file system to facilitate the recovery of information in the event of a serious crash or virus infection; Clean the hard drive from the temporary files that clog it; To scan the media surface for bad sectors or errors in the structure of the FAT table; Clean up errors in the registry; Defragment the files on the disk.
As you can see, with the help of Fix-It, the tedious procedure of regular care of such a complex and capricious system as PC + Windows is fully automated - I pressed the button - and went to drink coffee. The program will check everything yourself, and you will continue to work with a clear conscience after a while, being sure that no viruses or critical failures have been detected, and the next reserve of Windows configuration files is waiting for its stellar hour, that is, another "phase shift" In the OS. However, the purpose of system utilities is to move this unpleasant moment as far as possible.

Disk and Files

This group of utilities displays everything that pertains to everyday maintenance of hard disks. And along with quite standard programs, there are some quite interesting developments missing from competitors:

• DiskFixer - analogue of the "Windows" ScanDisk, works quite reliably, it treats Russian file names calmly and does not stand out with anything special (and what can you think of a new one?). Although, maybe someone will not like that the percentage of the checked surface is displayed not by a visual map of the disk or by the usual "progress-bar", but displayed in a separate nondescript line at the bottom of the program window, but this is a general Fix-It design, nothing Do it.
• DiskCleaner - a tool for finding and removing temporary and non-critical files. If desired, any new types can be added to the prepared templates of unnecessary files. In general, it is an effective means of maintaining cleanliness on a hard drive.
• DiskVerifier is an extremely useful and unusual utility that checks the readability of all files on the disk. Identify the defective "sidyuk" with her help - it's ten minutes. This program is useful not only for those who get pirates from the "Gorbushka" (if they are still there), but also for users who burn CD-R on their own - no mistakes will be missed and you will get a full picture of how well the next "Dummy" before deleting the information transferred to the "compact" from the hard disk. Agree, to find out that several files on the recorded CD-ROM are not readable, after their copies on the hard drive are destroyed, it's not very nice, to put it mildly ...
• FileUndeleter is a simple but effective tool for quickly recovering files accidentally shaken out of the Recycle Bin, but unexpectedly needed. In case of serious failures on the disk, it will not save you, of course, and it is not intended for this, but recently the deleted file will return elementary. For more difficult tasks, Fix-It has a more powerful program - Easy Recovery.
• JetDefrag is a defragmenter, which, unfortunately, does not justify its "reactive" name, as it does not outstrip its "Windows" counterpart at the speed of its work, although it gives much more opportunities to optimize the location of files on the disk for faster access to them. Here it is necessary to recognize that a very fast SpeedDisk from NU is somewhat preferable - in other programs you will turn gray before defragmenting at least "gigs" fifteen.
• DiskSnapshot - this program takes a snapshot of the file system so that you are more likely to return almost all the information lost when the file location table is corrupted, for example, due to virus or hard drive failure. Of course, for this utility to justify itself, pictures should be taken at least daily, otherwise the disk image will be very much at odds with the actual state of affairs.
• Backup and Restore is one of the most important programs for every user of Microsoft creations. By creating a backup copy of the registry without fail, before installing any, even the most proven program, you are guaranteed to return the system to its previous working state in case of problems. The relevance of this program is reduced except in the "Millennium", where there is a similar fully automatic service "System Restore". In general, "reserve, reserve, and again reserve", as bequeathed to us by the great Billy, his mother ...
• EasyUpdate - the program update wizard via the Internet. Such a nice utility becomes today the standard component of any more or less serious program, which demonstrates the concern of developers about the convenience of communication between users and their products. Do not forget to frequently pump yourself up with fresh anti-virus databases - virmeykery work as Stakhanovites of our days - it would be better to turn the nuts.

System Registry

This section is intended, after all, for more or less experienced users, who are well aware of what a registry is, and what it is eaten (in terms of how it works). The thing is that the most innocuous intrusion into the heart of Windows - the system registry - can easily lead to the OS crash and cause you to reinstall the system from scratch, because when installing the OS over its previous version, most installations in the registry, including The reasons for a number of "glitches" are preserved. So once again I advise you: make backup copies of the registry more often - then thank you for your foresight.

• RegistryFixer - since we compare Fix-It with Norton Utilities, this program is a direct competitor to WinDoctor from Symantec. And here we must honestly say that the implementation of the "healer" for the registry on Ontrack is losing greatly. Not only is the RegFixer interface extremely inconvenient and complicated for understanding, which can lead to errors of insufficiently experienced users, so the program itself is mistaken a bit more often than WinDoctor, offering basically only removing something that does not like the registry parameter and not Offering other, more literate, solutions. In WinDoctor, in such a case, when the program does not know what to do, there is a quick transition to the "Norton" registry editor to find out if there is an incorrect record in fact, or the program simply looked like it was. So, RegFixer is the only program I do not recommend using novice users, or work with it very carefully - Windows does not forgive errors.
• RegEditor is a small registry editor with perhaps the only difference from the completely useless "Windows" RegEdit - the "Bookmarks" menu and the "History" menu for quick access to some sections. The Registry Editor from the NU kit is much more functional and powerful - only the "Undo" function, which facilitates the cancellation of erroneous actions, is worth a lot.
• WinCustomizer is a program for accessing undocumented features of Windows and for fine, non-standard OS settings. In its functions, it is most similar to all the known utility TweakUI, which, however, is slightly weaker than WinCustomizer. However, those who want to get really complete control over the OS, WinBoost 2001 Gold is more suitable - nothing better than it has been invented. However, the fact that the program that extends the configuration of the OS is included in the set of system utilities, in my opinion - an obvious and logical solution of literate Ontrack programmers.
• RegCleaner is a very simple and safe program, it just clears the list of the last commands in the "Run" menu, a list of recently opened documents and a few other equally insignificant parameters in the registry.
• RegDefrag - reorganization of the registry structure in order to reduce the size of its files and speed up the operation of the OS with the registry. At the same time, the entire registry is exported to the REG file and then restored from it in MS-DOS mode. Usually, after such manipulation, the registry files "lose weight" kilobytes by 100-200. All this, however, is easy to do manually, but Fix-It eliminates the need to work with the command line of the registry editor, making a very insecure operation to optimize the registry for ordinary users.

System Diagnostics

In this section of the program are concentrated utilities designed to collect and analyze all kinds of information about hardware and monitoring the consumption of system resources, which is often required when searching for the causes of various problems in the operation of the computer, operating system, applications.

• PC Diagnostics - testing the performance of almost all components of a personal computer - from ports to expansion cards. If you suddenly do not know what kind of video card is installed in the PC, or how many RAMs you have stolen during the next repair, then everything secret will finally become clear. Some shortcomings and limitations of the functionality of your system as a whole - both hardware and software - will be revealed. Depending on how much time you do not waste to spend testing a PC, you can choose either a superficial, fast test, either standard, or, after waiting a dozen minutes, find out the details of each chip in deep tests. Here the closest analogue is probably SiSoft SANDRA package - only it can be compared with Fix-It for seriousness of the system diagnostics approach. I remember, however, an old, but very interesting program McAfee PC Medic - it's very similar to its utility PC Diagnostics - perhaps Ontrack licensed the technology of this successful development and applied it in its product.
  By the way, if you just bought a PC, then conduct the Stress tests, which will tense your system to the maximum. Unreliable components at the same time must somehow announce themselves, and the factory marriage will quickly get out, and you make claims to the computer assembler until the term of the free warranty expired.
• System Monitors - a monitor of system resources - it, of course, does not hold out to the monster-like competitor from NU, but also does not take, as he, all these resources only by himself, his beloved. All the basic parameters of System Monitor show, practically without loading the system, which is important for determining, for example, which particular application causes a memory leak or the processor loops. If this does not work for you, then run the standard system monitor from the Windows kit - but it does not compare to the convenient, non-interfering and nice interface of the Fix-It monitor, which, if desired, turns into a narrow strip on the background of the " " window.
• System Explorer - here you will get extended information about the current operation and configuration of the system - components, configuration files, parameters of open windows, downloaded drivers, information about media, running programs. For each item a very detailed report is issued, useful not only to those who want to understand how the operating system functions, but also to experienced users searching for the reason for another "zakoka" Windows.
• SMART Defender - information about the operation of the modern built-in SMART hard disk diagnostics system, which is already used almost everywhere. This utility will help you in time to prevent the shedding of clusters on the hard drive, save valuable files and sell the "screw" to the best friend, as yet no "scandisk" discovers almost ripe bad blocks and unreadable sectors.

System Protection

A small selection of utilities to protect the system from crashes and viruses. One of the most important sections of any system package, since prevention is always cheaper than biting elbows after the worst has already happened.

• CrashProof - a program that intercepts system errors - well known to all "Inadmissible Operations" - before you can close a failed task, you could "unfrozen" it for a short while and save all the data it has generated. In theory, CrashProof should even prevent glitches, but it, like any other similar program, is not omnipotent in opposing the creation of Bill Gates, so do not expect much. However, if there is any chance to save the fruits of one's labor, then I think that it is not worth neglecting it, especially since when localizing certain types of crashes, CrashProof is very effective.
• Fix-It Sheduler - Task Scheduler. And that's it. As the pilots of modern fighters have missiles of the class "let-and-forget", able to independently guide themselves on the target, regardless of what the airplane that has released them, so here - "set up - and burn everything with fire." To care for manual start of standard system utilities it is not necessary any more - the scheduler itself will make all. Program for lazy people and sclerotics.
• Undo-It - the abolition of fatal changes in the system, which was involved in Fix-It. Irreplaceable function for fans of experiments, especially with their illiterate attempts to "cure" the Windows registry. However, to use it, it is necessary that the OS boots at least in the mode of protection from failures.
• Virus Scanner - as the authors of the program write, it is "world-class antivirus". Well, maybe it is, but personally I trust the domestic developments more - they are, nevertheless, closer to what is produced on the machines of Russian users. Although, if the disk space is not a pity, then the extra antivirus will only benefit - suspicious objects should always be checked by several programs.
• Fix-It Log - a report on the work done by Fix-It. Particularly useful with the active use of the task scheduler - control of the program is still necessary - you never know what it is without you ponisispravaet.

Crisis Center

The last hope of the user. It will have to look here not for prevention, but when a roasted cock pecked in one place. Basically here you can find information on where to go with the "bored" hard drive, if you want to restore from it the work of all life or the next course work. But since for us all this is not very real - not to go because of this to the States (and by our mail if the "screw" to send, then no one will help him exactly), then the greatest interest for Russian users is presented by a unique program like " Rescue drowning - the affairs of the hands of the drowning themselves "- Easy Recovery . This utility, in fact, and glorified Ontrack, while still "nee" Tiramisu. It's a shame only that Ontrack abandoned the untwisted and unusual old name and renamed this program into Easy Recovery. This name may be more understandable to American farmers, but somehow it's not at all interesting.
Easy Recovery can restore to life files on completely lost by viruses or by users of hopeless disks. Files on hard disks, subjected to execution with the help of FDISK, and it is not difficult to restore. However, if the disk "crashed", then run faster to put on it Fix-It is not necessary - the files that you want to try to resurrect, will be overwritten with files of the Fix-It itself. It will be more correct to transfer the failed disk to another computer, and already from it to work, so that nothing new will be written to your hard drive after the detection of the problems. Unfortunately, Fix-It comes with a slightly light version of the program, but it does not affect the quality of its work. Although, of course, each user should ideally have a professional version of Easy Recovery, which works directly from the boot floppy disk in MS-DOS mode, but the Windows interface of this program from Fix-It is much more convenient, especially for beginners. When you boot from the floppy disk, you probably already will not be able to write to the failed "screw", and the chances of recovering important files will increase.
The power of Easy Recovery is due to the fact that it restores files not from the FAT table (but if at least one of its copies is preserved, it will also be used), which can be damaged, and by scanning the entire hard disk cluster after cluster and trying to restore everything The data strings found on it. And the less fragmented the files on the disk, the higher, so to speak, "percentage of fit." Naturally, such a process takes some time, which, I think, in such a critical situation no one will be sorry.
There is in the Crisis Center section and one more interesting button, when pressed, the experts of Ontrack allegedly right through the Internet will try to restore the files on your disk. But at least kill, I can not imagine how this happens, if at all it is real. To verify this, you must have a licensed registered copy of the program. Before that, as you know, I have not yet sunk (or did not rise?).

Thus, the package of programs for servicing the Fix-It Utilities system, although it is not without some drawbacks (and that is perfect?), Nevertheless deserves attention, since it combines almost everything necessary to maintain the vital functions of Windows. The individual components of Fix-It are generally unique. Therefore, this program found its fans, and they are not so few. At least, it is worthy of the computer users looking at it - maybe it will suit you more than the notorious Norton Utilities, especially since it works perfectly in Windows 95, 98, ME, NT and 2000.
So, there are good alternatives to the most common and common system products, and one Fix-It, incidentally, is not limited to - no less interesting is the similarly designed Nuts and Bolts software package - look at it.
In general - down with stamps, clichés, monopolies! Long live the diversity and freedom of choice! Amen…