Tips & TidBITS
©
by Caroline Horton
Has Intel confused you yet? Intel plans on naming its Klamath chip the Pentium II. This spring’s lineup will include the 200 MHz Pentium with MMX, 200 MHz Pentium Pro with L2 cache, 233 MHz with MMX, but without L2 cache, and the new 233 MHz Pentium II.
The lineup gets foggy at this point, as Intel will be releasing their new TX chip set, which will allow the 200 MHz Pentium to perform at the level of the Pentium Pro and the Pentium II. Now we can start to get confused – Intel has a 300 MHz chip waiting to be unveiled along with the new P7 chip using RISC technology. Yes, I said RISC technology – so why wait buy a system based on Digital’s 600 MHz RISC technology today at less than ½ of Intel’s current 233 MHz Pentium price. Using Digital’s chip you simply load Windows NT 4.0 and run all of your Microsoft software, CAUTION – fasten your seatbelt and wear asbestos gloves – the speed could damage you!
Cyrix has released its MediaGX line of CPUs, which includes – audio, graphics, memory controllers and PCI interface built in. Compaq released a system based on this chip @ $999.
Still using Excel 95? If so here is a neat Easter Egg: Start Excel for Windows 95 using a blank worksheet. Scroll down to row 95, clicking on the number 95 to select the entire row. Use your Tab key (once) to get to row ‘B’ – now select Help/About. Now hold down the Ctrl+Shift+Alt keys, and click on Tech Support – A new window labeled "Hall of Tortured Souls" appears – directly ahead of you are stairs. Using your cursor keys go up the stairs and look around, now come back down the stairs and type ‘excelkfa’. The wall will disappear leaving a twisting path – now is the time to use your cursor keys to navigate the trail (if you dare). Ah, curious (?) – find out for yourself.
Remember February’s issue where I took Quarterdeck/Landmark to task for bad software? Well the saga continues. I have run the newest version of CleanSweep 95 (v3.0) through the meat grinder.
CleanSweep comes with a un-installer as required by Microsoft of all Windows 95 programs. This is one item sure to be dear to the heart of all avid computer users! It also has a TSR that starts every time you start Windows. This logging program allows CleanSweep to keep track of all new files installed by programs. There is a TSR that tracks file usage and make suggestions what files to compress - old font files etc., that you may use very infrequently.
The program uses safe delete methods, meaning that you can undelete files - if you have not thrown out the trash! They both use red, yellow, and green designations for files. (Green indicates files that can be safety deleted, yellow indicates files that you should think about before deleting, and red indicates files that should not be deleted.) Under options you can turn off a new feature called Safety Sweep – this restricts your ability to remove files to Green selections only.
CleanSweep’s removal menu - is file tab oriented and includes - Program, CleanUp, Restore, View, Registry, and Options. (During installation, this program found some optional files that I had not installed with Windows 95.)
Choosing the Program tab reveals - Uninstall Wizard - uninstalls the CleanSweep program; Archive Wizard - compresses infrequently used programs; BackUp Wizard - creates compressed backups of applications; Move Wizard - for moving programs to different hard drives; Transport Wizard - Replicates a program on another computer.
Use the CleanUp tab to find - duplicate files, redundant DLL files, unused file type locator, low file usage files, and orphan files.
The Restore tab - used to restore files or programs that were backed-up, archived, or transported.
The View tab allows you to view - Master Log - every action is recorded in this log; Savings - savings that have occurred due to using CleanSweep; and Folder Usage - shows how large each folder is on your desktop.
The Registry Tab – allows two options – Registry Genie: for editing the system Registry with advanced editing features (must be used with caution), and Registry Sweep: for cleaning up your system Registry by eliminating unused entries.
The Option tab - opens another folder that allows you to set up the Usage Watch program, the Smart Sweep program, setup for the Backup/Restore programs, View the default file report, Safety Sweep command controls, and Update-It for updating the program from the Internet.
CleanSweep found files that were not found by WINProbe 95 and indicated they could be safely deleted. Among these files were the display drivers for a display adapter not currently installed.
Running CleanSweep proved to be easy after my experience with WINProbe 95. It ran smoothly and provided the extra information (what program the file belongs with, or the function that the file performs) necessary to safely delete DLL’s and orphan files and without problems.
The feature that allows for backup of deleted corrections especially for the registry, allowing you to restore deletions can save your sanity as well as much sweat and tears.
NOTE: Just because something is marked ‘green’ dose not mean it can automatically be deleted and some item marked ‘red’ need to be removed but cannot be removed from within CleanSweep 95 at any time.
Another product from Quarterdeck is for computer professionals – PC Certify Pro v7.0. Being a computer professional, this program was touted as a great troubleshooting and diagnosing tool. I had to run scan disk to fix my hard drives, after running the hard drive program. Even running scan disk did not completely fix the problem. (A couple of programs had to be reinstalled.) Evidentially in the write test mode it had a problem with my 32 bit fat tables.
It could not find all of the memory in my system – although it stated it had thoroughly tested my memory (it only displayed 64 Megs – while I have 128 Megs installed). It also misdiagnosed a few other items – all of the flaws indicate it is still basically an older DOS program that was souped up to look good. This product only confuses the issue and belongs in the same category as WINProbe 95 – both products are dangerous and offer misleading information.
Partition-It another product from Quarterdeck was touted to be better than Partition Magic, but the comparison was made with Partition Magic 2.0 not Partition Magic v3.0. Both Programs have the same features. Oh yes, I used Partition Magic 3.0 recently to repartition my hard drives, resize the extended partitions and rewrite the registry files, *.ini files, etc. The rewrite was accomplished by simply selecting the option PowerQuest DriveRemapper. I used it to remove two Partitions and resize 6 hard drives with partitions. When through you simply run the program and tell it what you did and it makes all the corrections and even changes the shortcuts on your desktop.
Partition Magic worked flawlessly, copying files where needed and correcting the references so that the files were properly listed in the Window’s registry.
