Ontrack Fix-It Utilities 4.0

There's only one thing more certain than death and taxes. One day, when you least expect it - and probably when it's most inconvenient - your PC will go wrong. Your hard disk will break down or be struck by a virus or you may accidentally delete a file that you spent all week working on.

When this happens you need a good set of system utilities to help you get your PC back in good working order. There are quite a few of these utilities available but they're often rather confusing for the less experienced user. If you're not familiar with jargon such as defragmentation and FAT you can easily find yourself completely baffled by these programs.

Ontrack's Fix-It Utilities is a good option for PC owners who don't know all the technical intricacies of how their PC functions but simply require it to work. It provides a wide range of tools that can be used to detect and solve hard disk problems, locate and remove viruses and recover deleted files. More importantly, it also does a good job of simplifying those tools so that non-experts can use them quickly and easily.

Experienced users can modify the settings for each of these tools individually but the program also provides a number of wizards that are designed to help beginners. When you launch Fix-It Utilities, you will see a small window on screen that lists six simple options. The first is to use the program's wizards, which will display three buttons labelled CleanUp, SpeedUp and FixUp.

CleanUp tells Fix-It to clear out any unnecessary files that may be clogging up your hard disk. The SpeedUp button fine-tunes the hard disk so you can find and open files as quickly as possible, while FixUp performs a general check on the PC system to see if it can locate and fix any potential problems. There's also an All-In-One button that will run all three wizards at once for you.

Each of these buttons performs several quite complex tasks but all you have to do is press the button and leave the software to run its tests automatically. You don't have to worry about any of the settings for the various tests, so there's no need to spend hours reading the manual before you can use Fix-It.

It's worth taking at least a quick look at the manual though, as it will tell you about other useful options included in Fix-It Utilities. The File Undeleter does just what its name implies, allowing you to try to recover files that have been accidentally deleted. There's an Easy Update option that keeps Fix-It up to date with information about new computer viruses, and PC Diagnostics, which lets you test specific components such as your PC's graphics or sound card.

Remembering that prevention is the best cure, Fix-It also provides a scheduling option that allows you to automatically run tests at regular intervals so that you can detect any serious problems before they bring your PC to its knees.

Admittedly, there are several rival utility packages that provide a similar range of troubleshooting tools, but Fix-It Utilties is one of the easiest to use and, at under £50, it's cracking good value to boot.

Contact: Ontrack 01732 741 999 www.ontrack.com

Also consider: Norton Systemworks 2002
Comprehensive tools and ready for XP. £60.

See also:

Ontrack SystemSuite 4

If you're ready to improve your PC utility software, SystemSuite 4 could be for you.  05 Mar 2002

Ontrack MyPCTools.co.uk

Download vital maintenance for your home PC from the internet.  22 Feb 2002

McAfee Utilities 4

A feature-packed utility suite with a whole host of useful tools.  28 Jun 2001

Network Associates McAfee Office 3

A collection of software tools to optimise, troubleshoot, repair, protect, secure and maintain your PC both online and off.  09 Mar 2001

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