PC Tools Version 5.1 -------------------- a review by Bob Zimmerman I recently purchased the new version of PC Tools Deluxe and thought I would share with you some of the good, bad and ugly of this product. I want to emphasize that this is just one persons opinion and I hope others will make their own independently... Overview -------- PC Tools has been running ads since late last year advertising their new version. It was advertised that it is an entire desktop tools package (which it is) and that it was totally integrated the way all users would like it... There is a type of Procomm/Procomm Plus/Telix/Boyan for telecommunications, Sidekick Plus type tools including notepads, outliner, calculator, etc, a full Hard Disk Organizer similar to the new Presentation Manager and more... Of course, I shouldn't leave out that all of the standard PC Tool type utilities were also beefed up. This includes the Mirror program, the Secure, Backup, Compress etc... THE GOOD -------- First I will list what I like about it. Remember, I have only used it for about a week and this list could change significantly... The first thing to mention right off is the ability to run the PC Shell (like presentation manager) as a resident program taking up as little as 7K or you can run it as a stand alone utility... When I say as little as 7k, you are not sacrificing anything at all as far as power. It just takes a bit longer to swap the current application to disk and swap the PC Shell into memory. You have the ability to set the resident part as high as 190k and the swap is almost instantaneous! This means, in the middle of almost any program, including graphic ones, you have the ability to press CTL-ESC (or any key you set up) and pop this little tool on the screen! First, the PC Shell (its version of the Presentation Manager, XTPRO etc...)... I love it with a mouse... (Yes, without a mouse, I am not in love, just a user). I originally bought a mouse with my PC and started using it a great deal. I happen to be a better than average typist and soon, the moving of my hand off the keyboard to the mouse turned into a real pain. So I started learning how to use my software without the mouse, using ALT-letter combos etc... I found myself groping in the beginning, but becoming more productive as time went on. Well, PC Tools puts a nice little ad in its manual, that says they support a Microsoft Mouse (and compatibles) and that it will greatly improve the use of their Shell and Desktop program. So after a day or two of working without the mouse, I hooked it up to COM1 and started working again. The difference is staggering. Mainly because of their poor keyboard setup (will discuss this in the BAD and UGLY section). With the mouse, you can mark a file, change directories, scroll through text, do file maintenance etc.. it a click or two. It is excellent. In many packages, I have seen the implementation of mice in a sloppy manner and find that it gets very upsetting at times. I did not find that case with PC Tools at all. In fact, I hooked the mouse back up and leave it up. Without it, I probably would not use the mouse or PC Tools PCShell that often. The PC Shell is a nice, complete File Manager. With an initial split screen showing your file directories on the left side and your files for the highlighted directory on the right side, it is a very nice implementation. I do have one complaint. When scrolling through directories, it does not update the file list immediately (with the new directory list), it waits about 1 full second for you to stop scrolling and then updates the list. Maybe I am trying to be too fast for my own good, but the pause can be noticeable and distracting! You have the ability to split screen so that there are 2 directories listed. The split occurs horizontally so you have 4 windows. The top 2 are the first set of File Directories and File lists, and the bottom two are the second set of windows. This makes copying or moving files around very nifty... The file lists can be just the file name, or include the file size, date/timestamp, attributes and total clusters used (or any combination of these) and also supports sorting the file list in as many different views. From the menu, the shortcut keys are minimal at best (see the Good and Ugly for more). To do anything with the files, you must select the file menu, either by clicking the mouse, or F10, or ALT-F or plain letter F. At this point, you have one of the most versatile list of file manipulation yet. You are able to Edit in a Word Processor type editor or in a HEX editor, view the file, rename, delete, compare, move and more. You are able to request a little window giving you more info on this file then ever desired. It is a fantastic feature. Another very nice feature, is the Disk Menu selection, similar to the File selection on the Main Menu Bar. You access this option again by clicking on it or pressing the letter D. This list again is one of the most complete lists of disk maintenance in any utility I have personally come across. The standard Copy, Compare and Format Disk if there along with an option for Directory Maintenance. This includes, making, renaming, the nice "graph and prune (moving an entire structure)" is also there. Making a system disk, searching for an ascii or hex string on a disk, or locating a file by wildcard is all there. There is also an option to get a bunch of info about the drive (space information along with technical info) and of course, Parking your disk heads. The Option command allows you to customize screen size and colors, the type of info you want included in your file lists and more. Almost all of these options have a shortcut key that can eliminate additional keystrokes... There is also an Application option that allows you to list the most often used programs. Then by selecting this option and selecting the application, it will run it for you. When you exit the application, it returns to the shell. It comes configured to run all of the PC Tools utility programs, including PC Secure, Compress, Backup etc... It's a nice little touch. You can put any program you want. I put all my disk utils there so I do disk maintenance from one screen! Finally there is the Special menu option that lets you get technical system information (like how much memory and what kind of color card etc...) and allows you to show memory maps, disk maps, un-delete files and more... The HELP is pretty good when you remember to use it. It is definitely one of the strong pluses of the product. Pressing F1 gives you context sensitive help and F2 gives you an Index to the Help facility which I find very nice... What a mouthful... this is only the PC Shell portion of the product. The standard secure, compress, mirror and backup are all there and have been cleaned up with nice graphic screens with pull down menus. I am not going to take up any time describing them. They are almost identical to the old version, except MUCH EASIER to use with the new version because of the drop down menus and being able to select a file from an on screen list, as well as the ability to get on-line help! The only other major new product was the Desktop utilities. I have to admit I was extremely disappointed in them. I use Sidekick Plus heavily and wanted to get rid of Sidekick for its version.. No way. My current system configuration is PC Shell, and Sidekick Plus resident. I hardly use the Desktop utils, and I will explain why in the Bad and Ugly section right now... The Bad and the Ugly! --------------------- I can't really complain all that much about PC Tools, because it is a very nice utility and for the price, $39.00 at Elek Tek, you cant beat the tools you get... I definitely recommend the purchase of this product! There are some basic problems vendors still have with their products and these problems don't seem to disappear. I was hoping that PC Tools Deluxe would have avoided them. In fact, they have made it worse. The problem is consistency. For example, in the Notepad editor, it would be nice if Wordstar like commands were supported. I am not the greatest fan of them (CTL-K and CTL-Q combinations to do editing), but, it is becoming more and more used across products. PC Tools doesn't seem to use anything consistent that I know of. The tools seem to be very nice with this being the one big complaint against them. And this is the reason I don't use the Desktop utilities. When going to the Time Planner or calendar, it is great with a Things To Do list which is a real plus for the product. But trying to figure out how to update or scan is a real pain. How to get todays date shown as the default... That's right, when I paged to another date to record an appointment, and then I left the desktop organizer. When I returned, the date was still on the date I moved to, with no apparent easy way to say jump to todays date. There may be a way to do it. I just didn't feel like searching for it... In general, the product seemed more work then it's worth and this is my opinion LARGELY due to the fact that I am happy with Sidekick Plus. There are alot of Sidekick users that have compatibility problems. I don't have these and just found the Desktop utilities too frustrating. Well, that is a first glance... What a mouthful.. I will probably come out with a version 2 of this doc as I use the product more. I hope there are people that disagree and voice their opinions, that is how we can get some good ideas going both ways! Bob Zimmerman, the author, may be contacted on Compuserv 72371,1700 his BBS, The Mainfrmae at 312-364-0425 (2400/1200/0300 8N1) RBBS of Chicago (Loren Jones BBS) Chicago Computer Society BBS and a few others - grin -