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Tools to prevent and overcome problems with Windows. Links with more resources. The best books about Windows. |
 First let us give you this disclaimer: we don't have any commercial interests in the tools recommended here; we only try to give you the best possible advise, and believe that our staying 'neutral' wouldn't lead you anywhere.
In times of trouble, you won't regret having a program that can partition your disk and transfer data and applications to a safe place, even when you only have access to Dos. Partition Magic, for instance, is a very user-friendly application with a lot of features that give you your money's worth. To name one thing: if you feel the need for an alternative operating system, but are not sure which way to go, you could install and try out NT and Linux and OS/2 at the same time without any danger of them interfering with Windows95/98 (a 'boot manager' is included). Read Reinstalling Windows without Losing Data to convince yourself why you really need a program like this. A full-blown utilities program is no luxury, and the widely used Norton Utilities offer you a wide range of tools to keep your system in shape, or, at least, warn you if there's anything wrong. Replacing corrupted system files, safely editing the Windows Registry, wiping parts of your disk ultra-clean, checking some of your hardware... This program can do it and a lot of other things too, but don't count on it to solve all your problems. The 'CrashGuard' that is included, does not always make good its promise to save your work before shutting down or restarting, but it does make a difference if you have an unstable system. It also keeps a log of crashes and blockades, which enables you to check if there is any coherence between them. The programs has a demo of almost every feature, it is extremely easy to use and provides brief but clear explanations of what it is doing.
The advantages of having this program become very clear in a situation where you're unable to start Windows and you can make use of the Norton Emergency Disks to run several diagnostics programs under DOS. Some of them (e.g. Disk Editor) give you the opportunity to fix things on a profound level.
(One important word of warning though: the Norton Protected Recycle Bin should be disabled each time you install a new program (for instance Internet Explorer 5.0).)
A combination of these utilities with the above mentioned partitioning program, offers you a considerable amount of control and security. And given to what you stand to lose without them, the price is fairly nice.
Apart from the Windows utilities, the Windows Resource Kit offers some little-known tools, to be found on the 98 cd in Tools/Reskit; on the 95 cd you'll find a leaner version in Admin/Nettools--whatever is not included can be downloaded at Microsoft). A particular way to safeguard you against a crash of your browser is the use of a download manager. It can be extremely irritating to be cut off in the middle or toward the end of a long download and having to start all over again. A good download manager will resume the download immediately and automatically (or later and manually, if you wish to do so) and start again where it left off. It will also search for the fastest FTP-connection and keep a log of your downloads. Go!zilla is freeware that does the job beautifully, if you can live with a little bit of advertising along the way. It will automatically team up with your default browser and do its work when you start to download--but not always, because some sites don't seem to tolerate the interference of a download manager; and besides that, not all dowloads are resumable, as the program will indicate (this can differ from one FTP-site to another, but Go!zilla gives you the possibility to choose, and it's better to go a little slower than to go 'not resumable').
To feel completely safe about your data, you should save them to a Zip or Jaz drive. Feeling completely safe is a rather expensive option, though. These tools are not 100% necessary, in our opinion, because the quality of present-day hard-drives is such that a disk-crash very rarely occurs. And if it does occur, a scandisk-like procedure will probably warn you from far ahead. Still, if you have the money to spare, these portable hard drives are a good buy, especially if you want to transport large chunks of data from one computer to another. The comprehensive PC Guide is a valuable resource for people trying to solve their own problems. If the real problem lies with your hardware or BIOS, here you can learn all about it and keep matters under your own control.
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The abundance of pages on the Net about troubleshooting Windows, can be discouraging for someone who needs quick relief. There are two sites that, combined, would tempt us to say 'If you can't find it there...':
You can't do without a good reference guide if you want to take full advantage of Windows and be able to solve problems on your own. If you don't own one already, or aren't satisfied with the one you have, take a look at our selection to know which are