=====News & Views Contents: -----DOS & Windows Utilities -----Does Not Compute... (Bug Reports) -----Missing Authors -----Retail Products ============================ -----DOS & Windows Utilities This month's CD-ROM contains all the utility programs in the library for both DOS and Windows, in addition to the 850 new programs written up in this issue. So this seems like a good time to provide everyone with an overview of the utilities in the library. For the benefit of those who do not get the CD, we have included the disk numbers. The Utilities sections are the most extensive in PsL. We can only give you a flavor in this limited space. For complete write- ups of all the programs, see the U1-*, U2-*, WI-06, WI-09, and WI-9A sections of the Reviews Disks or the TXT files in the UTILS directory of this month's CD. We will look at the DOS utilities first. ---Archiving: Archiving programs can compress one or more files into a single archive file. This has two very valuable benefits: to keep sets of files together so that related files do not get lost and to reduce by an average of 50% the amount of disk space used. The two most popular archivers at this time are LHA (for- merly known as LHarc) and PK-Zip, both of which are in Mega- Disk Set #27059 with some related utilities. A regular archive file has a filename extension, such as ARJ, LZH or ZIP, which indicates the program used to archive the files. This is because the same (or compatible) program must be used to extract the files from the archive when you want to use them. If an archive file has an extension of EXE or COM, it is called a self-extracting archive because no other program is required to extract the contents. When you run a self-extracting archive, it dearchives itself, just as the name says. Once you have dearchived files from an archive, you no longer need the archive file and can delete it. On the other hand, dearchiving an archive does not delete the files from the archive, it simply copies them out and expands them, so if you keep the original archive, you can dearchive it again if something happens to the original files. If you have programs or other types of files which you do not want to delete from your hard disk but which take up a lot of space and are rarely used, you could keep them archived and only dearchive them when you need to use them. A drawback to archiving files to save disk space is that you have to dearchive the files before you can use them. An alterna- tive to archiving for program files (those with EXE or COM extensions) is to use a program compressor such as LZEXE, TinyProg, ComPack, Diet, or PKLite (all of these are also part of MegaDisk Set #27059 for $6.99). These programs will compress program files but still allow you to run them. In fact, compressed programs load faster because reading from disk is slow and less data has to be read from disk. There are countless utilities for working with archiving pro- grams, but the most popular are those which provide a menu- driven interface for the archivers, which are command-line driven themselves. MegaDisk set #27472 has such popular shells as ArcMaster and SHEZ. We also have utilities for handling old, outdated archive for- mats which you might still run across and for handling archive from Macintosh computers. ---Anti-Virus: Not much has to be explained about viruses - the popular press has gone overboard in spreading the word about them, along with many myths. Be sure to see the file MYTHS on disk #1513 for a balanced view. There are a number of popular virus checkers, such as F-Prot (#3675), Integrity Master (#3951), and McAfee's (MegaDisk Set #27397). ---Batch File Utilities: Batch files are actually little programs - a set of instructions carried out by the computer. There are even utilities which let you compile your batch files - convert them from straight text into machine code so that they run faster and cannot be changed. (See TurboBat on #12164.) Because of the limited number of commands which DOS sup- ports in batch files, writing batch files is much easier than learn- ing a real programming language. Utilites in PsL's Batch File section let you add many powerful features to your batch files, but do not increase the difficulty of writing batch files. These utilities let you get input from users (#1008), play sounds & speech (#1146), display fancier screens (#2162, #4224), get and act upon information about the system configura- tion (#0271 & #2394), and much more. To learn how to write batch files, get the Batch File Tutorial on disk #0242 and also look in your DOS manual. Studying installation and other batch files which come with shareware pro- grams is another good way to learn. ---Disk & Drive Utilities: If you are a shareware author or have some other reason to make a lot of copies of one disk, you will definitely be interested in programs such as DiskDupe (#1939) which have an option of making an image of your master floppy, including boot sectors, on your hard disk and making disk copies from that, including formatting new disks if needed. Fordsk (also on #1364) is a very powerful floppy disk format- ter. In addition to normal high-speed disk formatting, it will let you specify cluster size, hidden sectors, and much more. This could let you create copy-protected diskettes if you can program in a low-level language. Disk #2459 has a number of interesting disk formatters. BGFRMAT formats disks in the background. FDRead format disks beyond their rated capacities. Combi-Disk (on #1150) lets you set up a RAM disk and disk cache in the same area of extended memory. ---Directory Listers & Editors: Everyone should have a sorted directory lister. Utilities like HotDIR Plus display files sorted in 1, 2, 4, or 6 columns, using colors to indicate different types of files. If you want to actually write the sorted directory back to disk, CSap (on #1675) may be the best utility around for that purpose. It is infinitely easier to use than Norton's directory sorter, for example. ---File Changing, Copying, and Deleting: Utilities in this section, such as Textcon on #0781, let you clean up files by removing junk characters from them, convert files from one format to another, change data files from fixed for- mat to delimited, etc. This section also includes utilities for com- paring two files (#1440) Disk #0784 has a variety of utilities which let you copy files with a number of options, but perhaps the most essential type of utility on the disk is a file mover, which lets you move a file between directories on your hard disk without having to copy then delete it. BCMove is one of the best of that type. Disk #1441 lets you delete files with verification, based on file dates, deleting all BUT specified file types, and much more. Trash-It is a unique utility which can let you recall files that have been deleted, even if Undelete utilities will not work. Disk #2000 contains programs for splitting large files onto multiple floppies and reuniting them. Disk #1190 has file sorting utilities which far outshine DOS's SORT.EXE. Disk #0425 con- tains file and sector editors. Disk #1713 contains many file encryption utilities. ---File Cataloging: Keeping track of files on the countless floppies you have lay- ing around is much easier with one of the disk catalog programs in this section. DiskCat and CatDisk (no relation), InteliCat, and PMCat+ are are on MegaDisk Set #27338. ---File Managers: Anyone who works in DOS should have a file manager. The best ones let you see two or more sorted directories at once, mak- ing it easy to compare them, copy files between them, etc. CM_Filer (#3541) is a very good one. File managers also make it easy to work in a single directory. You can mark files for mass deletion, copying, viewing, and so on. ---Hard Disk Utilities: Utilities like Duplicate File Locator (#3470) make it easy to clean up your hard disk. Flexibak Plus (#3387) and MegaBack (#4351) are outstanding hard disk backup utilities. Disk #0842 is popular; it has various types of hard disk head parking utilities to help protect your hard drive data in case the head crashes. HDTest (#0698) tests hard disks much more thor- oughly than programs such as Norton's. Disk #1996 covers hard disk security. There a lot of supposed "password" programs which can be bypassed as easily as booting from a floppy. Programs like MagLoc, Secure and SysLock (all on #1996) prevents booting from a floppy as well as from the hard disk, as does Guardian on #3031, and others. Disk #12348 lets you password protect individual programs on your hard disk. JLock, on the same disk, protects ANY file from being opened, created, exectued, deleted, or renamed. ---Subdirectory Utilities: This section contains programs which make it easier to navi- gate through subdirectories (#1405), display all files in all direc- tories (#1034), copy, merge or delete entire directories (#2005), clean up directories (#2169), find files anywhere on a drive (#2410 & #3409), and more. PocketD (#4033) combines many of these functions and a lot more into a single program. ---File View, Compare, Other: A text file viewing utility is another essential. The most pow- erful and best known is List (on #1550). Disk #3410 has pro- grams which let you convert text files into self-scrolling programs which require no file viewing utility. Other programs in this section make it easy to change file attributes (#0274), recover deleted or damaged files (#2163), search files for a specified bit of text (#4131 - try FGREP first), find and replace text in files (#4768), and more. ---Desktop Programs: There are two types of computer programs - Utilities and Applications. Applications are programs which are directed at the outside world, such as creating documents, graphics, etc. Utilities are programs which are directed at the computer, its components, and other programs. Many Desktop Programs do not meet this definition of Utili- ties but they have always been included in Utilities for want of a better place to put them. They include pop-up notepads (#2001), calendars (#3412), alarm clocks (#2395 & #3970), telephone dialers (#1189, #2397), and calculators (#1551, #2396, #4138). ---DOS Menu/Shell Programs: DOS Menu programs let you run programs without having to deal with the DOS prompt. A fairly decent one comes with DOS now, but there are many others in PsL for every taste, including very attractive Graphical User Interfaces requiring VGA, such as Magic Desk (#12467), Picture Shell Menu (#4114), and Icon- DOS (#12223). ---Keyboard, Mouse & Joystick: A keyboard macro program such as the very powerful Newkey (#0290) or the more compact DDKey (on #1149) let you execute multiple commands and/or enter strings of text, including cursor movements, with a single keypress - a must for performing repetitive tasks in DOS or in any program. There are many other programs in this section for redefining one or more keys, stuffing keystrokes into the keyboard buffer, speeding up the keyboard's typeamatic rate, and more. ---Operating System Utilities: DOS Command Editors are similar to DOSKey which now comes with DOS. DOSKey was based on these pd/shareware utilities, but the latter are often more flexible and powerful. We still use Chris Dunford's CED (#1346) at PsL. Other OS utilities include those which let you get into DOS from within any program at any time, which let you edit the DOS environment variables such as PATH, which let you get out of some program lockups and rescue from memory. (All of these are on #0276) TSR Utilities (#0436) include Mark-Release (TSR- COM) which let you unload TSRs from memory. 4DOS (MegaDisk Set #27589) completely replaces COM- MAND.COM and provides many of the features you can normally only get by using a collection of separate pd/shareware utilities. Back & Forth (#27568), On-Call and ALT (both in set #27064) are task swapping utilities that let you change from one program to another without having to quit and restart each program. ---System Setup, Testing & Control: Hot programs in this section include BootSys (#12389) for letting you pick during boot-up which device drivers and TSRs to install; Burn-In (#1203), which does extensive testing of comput- ers; RamTest (#1580) for testing memory; TimeSet (#1090) for automatically calling the U.S. Naval Observatory to keep your system's clock accurate; PC-Info (on #0727) for listing all the components in your system. Disk #2409 has CPU slow-down utilities to help when run- ning older games or other programs which may run too fast on newer machines. Painless Even Processor (#3261) lets you set up your system for unattended operation of programs, such as for backing up files at night. ---Utility Sets: There are collections of utilities, each by a single author and usually accessible from a single menu. These are more conve- nient and usually cheaper to register than individual utilities by multiple authors, but may not be as powerful, so be sure to com- pare. If you are a Unix fan, you'll want to look at MegaDisk Set #7263 which includes collections of Unix-like utilities. ---Video Utilities: If you work in DOS a lot, you will find a backscroll utility to be very handy. Utilities such as ScrollIt on #2769 let you page back up to see information that has scrolled off the screen in DOS. Other screen utilities include changing the number of lines per screen in DOS, TSR screen blankers (#12286, 3184, 4350), different EGA and VGA screen fonts, capturing screens to disk (#1036, 12294, 4201 & 2247), specialized screen printing (also on #1036), changing screen colors in DOS (#0280), adjust the cursor shape and blink rate (#2915). MegaDisk Set #20140 includes a number of programs for magnifying all or part of the screen and other programs for the vision impaired. ---OS/2 Programs: People frequently ask why we don't have more for OS/2. The reason is that we don't write the software (for the most part), we just distribute what others write and are limited to the volume of software written by others. Still, there is a pretty good variety of programs for OS/2 (which are not just utilities): clocks & calendars (#4695), file management utilities (#1549), graphics utilities (#4854), PM pro- grams (#2248), games (#4694), printing utilities (#12425), sys- tem utilities (#2460), video utilities (#4770), text editors (Boxer on #20412), spelling checker (#4671), address book (#12678), communications program (#2202, #20202), archiving (#2029), database (#2133), and much more. ---Win31 - Program & File Managers: As in DOS, the utilities Microsoft has provided for Windows leave a lot of room for improvement in terms of power and flexi- bility. Although Program Manager's icon-based program launch- ing looks nice, it can be a time-consuming nuisance to find a particular program's Program Group, open the group, find the desired program's icon, and double-click on it. Programs such as David Stafford's LAUNCH (on #3347) let you pop up a list of programs and simply click on the one you want to run. Many program launchers, such as Click! Filer (on #20004), also offer file management functions, so you can do away with both Program Manager and File Manager. File Commander (#27864) lets you add up to 99 menu items nested up to four levels deep to File manager. Folders (#4698) lets you add sub-folders within Program Groups in Program Manager. Super Stuff (#12327) goes even further with providing five dif- ferent formats: icon, vertical list, multi-column, text, and toolbar. PsL carries a huge array of enhancements and replacements for Program Manager, FIle Manager, and Task Manager. If you are still just using the ones which came with Win31, you are sell- ing yourself short. ---Win31 - Other Utilties: Archive Management: There are a number of Windows front ends for PKZIP. One of the most popular is WinZip (#4535; requires PKZIP only for advanced functions). Anti-Virus: VirusScan for Windows (#4041) is a Windows version of the well-known McAfee SCAN program. WinProtect (#4455) is another virus scanning program for Windows. Disk Cataloging: DiskTrak for Windows (#4526) and Disk- Man #(4643) are good for keeping track of files on floppy disks. Encryption: Encrypt-It for Windows (#12274) is a powerful encryption/decryption package. Security: Security for Windows (#12712) lets you password protect programs in Program Manager and also modify PM so that no programs can be run which are not on the PM menu. Disk Copying & Formatting: Sabdu (#3960) provides an interface for copying, comparing and formatting diskettes. Hard Disk Backup: Second Copy (#12514) backs up files in the background. Install/De-Install: WinInstall (#20260) lets Network users install or remove Windows apps with a single mouse click. Printing: CodeMaker (#4994) prints barcodes. Envelogo (#12513) prints envelopes with a fancy logo return address. Mul- tiLabel (#4510) is a WYSIWYG label designing program. Winve- lope (#20313) allows you to capture an address from any Windows document or screen and print the address on an envelope. System Setup: Win Multiple Configurations (#12145) allows you to maintain and choose among up to eight different Windows configuration environments. Video: BackDesk (#3545) gives you a virtual desktop of up to 8x8 times the size of your screen. There are also a large number of attractive, fun, and interesting screen savers in the library. -----Does Not Compute... PsL welcomes readers' letters and bug reports. Letters to PsL become the property of PsL and may be edited for publication for brevity or clarity. ---File Notes 1.0 vs Norton Desktop John Oxley, Halifax, Nova Scotia: I installed the program and it worked fine in File Manager but when I ran Norton Desktop for Windows, NDW crashed. PsL: We have confirmed that the program is not compatible with Norton Desktop for Windows and will add this information to our reviews. ---ZapCHK William Quick, Independence, MO: This program requires another product PKLite to unpack CHKDSK and I can't find it on any of your CD-ROMs, did I miss it? PsL: You can get it on this month's CD which features the Utility sections of the library. Look under Archiving. ---Chart1 Richard Weatherford, Huntington Beach, CA: When I try to view the chart files I get an error message "unrecoverable error -- 5". I'm using an 8088 with CGA but the documentation doesn't state any limitations. PsL: The documentation doesn't state EGA/VGA required, but since it works fine on our EGA/VGA systems, we will assume that is the problem and add the requirement to our reviews. -----Missing Authors The authors of the following programs can no longer be reached at the address listed in their documentation: League Play Scheduler (J. Millikin), VControl (James Shaw), DoorStop (Scott Johnson), CMOS (Roedy Green), Cars (Joel Kurasch), Word Search for Windows (Steven Stern), Sit (David- son Corry), Fonetic Speling (Edward Rondthaler), Context (Haim Avni), CopyFix (Dan Smith), TIM Utilities (David Down- ing), Mortgage Plus & Tracker (Michael J. Peters). -----Selected Retail Products Multi-function Interface Card (#30052) $29.95 Simple jumper settings let you choose the ports you need from the following: 1 parallel, 1 game, 2 serial, 2 floppy, 1 IDE hard drive. 486-33SX Motherboard (#30429) $169.00 Upgrade your present computer with a brand new 486 motherboard! Use the same drives, controllers, video, and other interface cards in your present machine. 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PC Command (Game) Pad (#30414) $15.00 This is a game pad (joystick replacement) just like on the most popular video games. Use with many arcade games in PsL. CD Caddies #3031510 for $50 Protect your valuable CDs by having a caddy for each one. (S&H: $5) Single unit price: $6.50 plus S&H. NEVER PAY ANOTHER SHAREWARE DISK FEE! Why pay up to $5 a disk to try a single program when you can get thousands of programs for under $20. Get one of these CD-ROM drives and start saving money today! SyDos Personal CD (#30385) $99/mo. for 3 months by credit card only. $297 by check. 3 mo. PsL CD FREE! (Free CD offer for new subscribers only - starts with current issue of the PsL Monthly CD.) Virtually no installation!! Plugs into parallel port. Perfect for laptops or desktops. (Not MPC compatible. 550ms access time.) (Add $8 s&h) Omni CD Kit (#30428) $75/mo. of 3 months Double-Speed, MPC-Compliant, Internal CD-ROM Drive For just $75/month for three months on credit card or $225 by check. (Add $7 s&h). 3 months PsL CD FREE! (Free CD offer for new subscribers only, as above.) Packaged and supported by Creative Labs. ---PsL Monthly CD-ROM (single issue price)$29.95 Subscribe for $19.95 per month plus $4 shipping, charged monthly, cancel any time. Satisfaction guaranteed -- return the CD for a full refund if not completely pleased. Get all the new/updated programs written up in PsL News each month PLUS a different section of our disk-based library each month, starting with Programming in December (sold out), Games in January (sold out), then Business (including Comm., Database, Engineering, Mailing List, Spreadsheets, Statistics, and Church/Religion), Home (including Education), Utilities (includes all OS/2 programs), and then Words, Graphics & Sounds. In six months, you will have all 10,000+ programs in our extensive library, all arranged by subject. A few back issues are still available for September - March (excl. Dec., Jan.) @ $29.95 plus $4 shipping.