They do Windows - Software Review - Evaluation

The lastest utility software packages make Windows 95 even more user- friendly

Without a doubt, Windows 95 is dramatically more user-friendly than Windows 3.X. This new version of the Windows operating environment has a cleaner desktop, offers more icons to help you easily find your way around, and even includes a number of built-in utilities for performing a wide variety of functions.

But anyone who thinks those features would put an end to the market for utilities designed to make Windows more user-friendly would be wrong. Two new products--Dashboard 95 from Starfish Software and Norton Navigator from Symantec--are among the first available to make managing your Windows 95 desktop even easier.

New Interface

Windows 95 offers a much tidier interface than earlier versions, with icons along the edges that allow you to access and open built-in utilities, find information about your system, and open applications and files. New desktop management programs like Dashboard 95 and Norton Navigator no longer replace the Windows interface like their predecessors did but rather enhance it with features Microsoft did not include.

Designed to look like the dashboard of a car, Dashboard sits at the top of your screen and presents meters, buttons, icons and snap-off palettes that help you "drive" Windows 95. The program enables you to view at a glance all your Windows 95 applications, documents and system information, as well as the utilities that come with Dashboard.

Dashboard's standard panels include Quick Launch, Win Tools, Resources, Clock/Calendar, Printers, Extended Screens, Games, Programs and Taskbar. In addition, miniature buttons let you tile and cascade your open windows, start a run command, and relaunch previously saved windows arrangements.

Norton Navigator's desktop is, thankfully, less cutesy than Dashboard's. It offers a simple Taskbar that contains your default Windows 95 desktop and a customizable set of shortcuts that allows you to access some of the included Norton Navigator utilities. A QuickMenu contains icons that let you access Norton File Manager and the Norton Navigator Control Center, which you use to customize your Taskbar.

Custom improvements

One of the primary reasons to use either Dashboard or Norton Navigator is to customize your desktop.

When you click on Dashboard's Taskbar, you bring up a Customize dialog box, which lets you hide or resize most of the elements in the dashboard panel to suit your tastes. For example, you can adjust panel positions, fonts and colors; switch the Dashboard window between horizontal and vertical orientations; and assign "hot keys" to programs so you can access them with a single mouse click rather than having to navigate through several layers of menus.

Additional buttons let you "snap" off the Programs, Quick Launch, Printers and Taskbar panels and put them anywhere on the desktop or place them against the screen edge.

The Quick Launch bar eliminates the need to go to the Start button and traverse several menus before reaching your application. Instead, one or two mouse clicks will launch your programs. You can group applications into folders or let Dashboard create folders of related programs for you.

Norton Navigator similarly lets you customize the Norton Taskbar, giving you easy access to utilities you specify right from the top of your screen.

Navigator offers QuickMenus, similar to Dashboard's Quick Launch bar, but more sophisticated. QuickMenus offer cascaded lists of recently run commands, recently opened documents grouped by program, and control panel utilities that you specify. The program keeps these lists of recently run commands and documents on hand because it assumes these are the ones you're most likely to use again in the near future--and the lists make them easy to reuse.

More than one hat

Windows 95 can perform more than one task at a time, and both these utilities make it easy to take advantage of this feature by setting up multiple desktops you can easily switch between.

For example, Dashboard, from its Extended Screens panel, lets you work with up to nine virtual desktops. If you often find you need to open several windows at the same time (which can quickly clutter your screen), the virtual desktops help you organize your screen.

Navigator's capabilities go even further: The program allows you to set up separate task-specific desktops you can use simultaneously. You can customize each desktop with shortcuts specific to each type of application you use. For example, you can download files from the Internet on one desktop while you update spreadsheets on another.

Norton Navigator is unique in offering file management capabilities above and beyond those offered in Windows 95. One of the most useful is the SmartFolder feature.

SmartFolders let you set up folders that automatically create and maintain shortcuts to files, such as specific spreadsheet or word processing files. You use SmartFolders to keep your files organized by category, such as by file type (for example, you could store all your spreadsheet files with your spreadsheet program, your word processing documents with your word processing program and so on), then create a group of shortcuts that lets you view and access these files from SmartFolders organized by, say, project. A resulting SmartFolder called Businessplan, for example, might let you access all the documents, spreadsheets and graphics relating to your business plan.

Another particularly useful feature is Norton file indexes. The Windows 95 FastFind command uses Norton file indexes when you search for files containing specific strings of text. FastFind can locate files almost instantly if the text string you're searching for is in an indexed file.

From the Windows 95 Start menu, Navigator lets you easily navigate through a folder branch (a series of folders stored one within the other) without opening the folders--the program displays all file names in the selected folder and its subfolders. You can also add a column to the file list that displays the name of the subfolder where each file is stored. Navigator has also added copying, moving, file compression and folder creation features to the shortcut menu.

The Long File Names Enabler feature lets you add support for Windows 95's long file names capability (which can be up to 255 characters) to previous Windows programs (which could not exceed the DOS limit of eight characters).

The File Archive Wizard helps you clean up old files on your disk. It searches for files that meet the location, file specification and date criteria you specify, then offers to compress or move files to an archive or delete them.

Extras, extras

Dashboard offers a few utilities above and beyond its Windows organizational capabilities, but they are not nearly as extensive as those for Navigator. Additional Dashboard features include a Clock/Calendar panel that lets you set alarms to launch programs or remind you of important meetings. A Resources panel gives you information about your system's memory and available disk space. Or you can access Windows 95 tools from the Dashboard window.

Both Navigator and Dashboard also make it easier to access the World Wide Web. For Internet surfers, Navigator connects you to a file transfer protocol site, then shows you the folders and files as if you were looking at just another drive. Navigator's File Manager also handles encoding and decoding of binary files sent and received via the Internet. A new Web version of Dashboard 95 features a Web tab on its Quick Launch dialog box, in which users can place applications icons and shortcuts to favorite sites.

Both Dashboard and Navigator provide an easy-to-use alternative to the Windows 95 desktop. But Navigator, with its extensive file management capabilities, is far more powerful and useful.

Cheryl J. Goldberg is a former editor of PC Magazine and has reported on the computer industry for more than 13 years. Write to Cheryl J. Goldberg in care of Entrepreneur, 2392 Morse Ave., Irvine, CA 92714. You can also reach her through CompuServe at 70641,3632 or through MCI Mail at 367-2295.

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Norton Navigator Symantec Corp. List Price: $99

Pluses: It has great file management utilities and built-in World Wide Web access.

Minuses: At $99, the product costs as much as Windows 95 itself.

Dashboard 95 Starfish Software List Price: $49.95

Pluses: Quick Launch is a particularly easy way to access applications and files.

Minuses: It doesn't offer the extensive file management capabilities of Navigator.

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