Norton Utilities
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The Norton Utilities releases were collections of software utilities. Peter Norton published the first version for DOS, The Norton Utilities, Release 1, ca 1981. Release 2 came out several years later, subsequent to the first hard drives for the IBM PC line. Peter Norton's company was sold to Symantec in 1990. However his name remains as a "brand" for Symantec's range of utility and security software for home users.
Contents
Norton Utilities Releases
Release 1.0
The initial release featured the UNERASE utility. This allowed files to be undeleted by restoring the first letter of the directory entry (a feature of the FAT file system used in MS-DOS, albeit one that was not originally documented).Other utilities included the following:
- ASK, used for batch file programming
- BEEP, causes the PC speaker to beep
- VERIFY
Release 2.0
The main feature of this version was FILEFIND, used for searching for files.Release 4.0
Release 4.0 included a number of features including Norton Disk Doctor, a disk defragmenter (SPEEDISK), a sector level disk editor, a system information diagnostic utility, and a disk caching program (NCACHE), which was between 10 - 50% faster than Microsoft's SMARTDrive when properly configured. This version also include a menu system to tie the utilities together called the Norton Integrator (NI). Previously the utilities were accessed by typing the command name (usually a cryptic 2 character name such as FF) at the DOS prompt.Release 5.0
Release 5.0 included more features, including a utility to perform low level formatting on hard disks, and changes such as password protection on the more "dangerous" utilities. It also included a licensed version of the 4DOS replacement for COMMAND.COM called NDOS. This version also allowed the choice of "classic" names (such as FF.EXE) or longer names (such as FINDFAST.EXE); these were configurable in the updated version of the Norton Integrator menu system.Release 7.0
Release 7.0 had revised user interfaces for the utilities that feature a menu-driven user interface. Also some of these tools now did not need to run in full-screen-mode but just displayed a window in the center of the screen, like the disk formatter or the disk duplicator utility.Release 8.0
Release 8.0 was nearly the same as 7.0, but added a few Windows 3.1 utilities, like Norton Disk Doctor, Speed Disk, SystemWatch, FileCompare and some INI tools called INI-Tracker, INI-Tuner and INI-Adviser.Norton Utilities/Systemworks for Windows
The Windows version of Norton Utilities was originally released for Microsoft Windows 95. Norton was in need of a major update as the VFAT system used by Windows 95 to provide long file names was incompatible with utilities such as Norton Utilities' 'SPEEDISK.EXE'. However, the Windows version, called 'Speed Disk' works with much greater speed than Microsoft's supplied defrag program, as it moved groups of clusters, not single clusters as Microsoft's Defrag. Changes in the way Windows operates meant that many of the old utilities were either dropped completely or replaced with GUI based versions. However, with the advent of Windows XP onwards, Norton's 'Speed Disk' reverted back to single-cluster defragmentation.Norton Systemworks started off as a collection of tools which also included Norton Antivirus, Norton Utilities, and a number of other utilities that expanded as Symantec purchased more utilities companies. SystemWorks continues to be a suite of utilities, but Norton Utilities is no longer available as a separate package.
Norton Utilities for the Macintosh
[Norton Utilities for the Macintosh] was originally known as Symantec Utilities for the Macintosh (or SUM). It is currently on version 8 and includes many of the features of Norton Utilities for the PC. A version of Norton Systemworks is also available for the Macintosh.Unix
A Unix version of Norton Utilities was developed and marketed by INTERACTIVE Systems Corp.Incorporation of Norton Utilities into MS-DOS
A number of the Norton Utilities were licensed by Microsoft over the years. The most famous one was SPEEDISK licensed as DEFRAG in MS-DOS 6 onward.List of included applications
- Batch Enhancer
- Norton Cache
- Calibrate
- NCD (Norton Change Directory)
- Norton Companion
- Norton Connection Doctor
- Norton Diagnostics
- Directory Sort
- Norton Disk Doctor
- Norton Disk Editor
- Disk Monitor
- Disk Tools
- Diskreet
- NDOS (Norton DOS)
- DupDisk
- Fast Find
- File Attributes
- Norton File Compare
- File Date
- File Find
- File Fix
- File Locate
- FileSaver
- File Size
- Norton Image
- INI Advisor
- INI Editor
- INI Tracker
- INI Tuner
- Norton Integrator
- Line Printer
- LiveAdvisor
- LiveUpdate
- Norton Optimization Wizard
- Norton Protection
- Norton Registry Editor
- Norton Registry Tracker
- Norton Rescue and Norton ZIP Rescue
- Safe Format
- SmartCan
- Space Wizard
- Speed Disk
- Norton SpeedStart
- Norton System Check
- Norton System Doctor
- Norton System Genie
- System Information
- System Watch
- Text Search
- Norton UnErase
- Unformat
- Volume Recover
- Norton WinDoctor
- Wipe Info
- Norton AntiFreeze
- Norton CrashGuard
Competitors
Old times (1980s and 1990s)
- Central Point Software's PC Tools
- Paul Mace Software's Mace Utilities
- Helix Software's Nuts and Bolts Utilities (later incorporated into McAfee Utilities and then McAfee Office when Helix was acquired by Network Associates)
- McAfee's PC Medic
Modern times (2000s)
- Windows built-in tools, Windows Support Tools, and Windows Resource Kit Tools
- GnuWin32
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