It is my belief that everyone needs to have this software package on their computer. In this Epinion I'll cover my favorite features and tell you why they're my favorite:

Fav-o-rite #1) Norton Speed Disk™. This app is the simplest of all the apps offered by Norton. It is also the most powerful one they offer. It's basic function is sorting and defragmenting your files. Some other options are to sort the windows swap file and place it at the end of the hard drive. This is imperative if you allow windows to control the size of your swap file. Finally, it places your application files at the beginning of the hard drive. This usually will decrease the time it takes to start up the applications.

Fav-o-rite #2) Norton System Check™. This glorious app will find and remove the chaff from your computer. It also searches out any potential (or existing) system problems. Drive C: too fragmented? Invalid ActiveX links? Orphaned registry Settings? It'll fix 'em baby! Once it finds the problems you can either let it auto-magically fix the problem, or fix them yourself one at a time.

Fav-o-rite #3) Norton CrashGuard™. This app steps in between dying applications and your operating system. It allows them to die gracefully and not bring down your entire computer. On top of that, it also gives you an opportunity to save your data, and then "Revive" the application. An example of the revive option would be you're working on your 40 page resume in word. Word uses too much memory (that can't happen, can it?) and starts to crash. CrashGuard steps in and when you click the revive option, it will attempt to save your data (on your request); it will terminate Word; then it will restart word and tell it to open the file you were just working on. How cool is that?

I have one gripe about the tool, and it's a fairly common one today. The apps that that can run "behind the scenes" suck a lot of memory.

Here are the system requirements you need to meet before you even think about buying it:

IBM PC or 100%-compatible computer
80486 or higher processor
Windows 95 or Windows 98 software
16 MB of RAM (32 MB or greater recommended)
70 MB of available hard disk space for typical installation; 47 MB for compact installation
CD-ROM drive (double-speed or higher)
256-color VGA or better video
Optional: Sound card
Optional: Iomega Zip or Jaz drive



Recommended: Yes