Norton Utilities

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Norton Utilities

Developed by	Symantec
OS	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and Unix
Genre	Utility software
License	Proprietary

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.

1 Norton Utilities for DOS/Windows
2 Norton Utilities for the Macintosh
3 Norton Utilities for Unix
4 Competitors
- 4.1 Current
- 4.2 Historical
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Norton Utilities for DOS/Windows

A number of programs in the Norton Utilities package were licensed by Microsoft over the years and incorporated into MS-DOS. One example is SPEEDISK.exe, which Microsoft licensed as DEFRAG.exe in MS-DOS 6 onward.

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). The UNERASE utility was what launched NU on its path to success.

Other utilities included the following:

ASK, used for batch file programming
BEEP, causes the PC speaker to beep
VERIFY

Following this release Peter Norton was made Utilities Editor of PC Magazine.

Release 2.0

The main feature of this version was FILEFIND, used for searching for files.

Norton Utilities 4.0 for DOS.

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 included 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 file tools called INI-Tracker, INI-Tuner and INI-Advisor.

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 Windows Disk Defragmenter. 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.

[edit] Norton Utilities for the Macintosh

Norton Utilities for Macintosh was a separate utility suite for the Mac OS, providing much of the same features as the equivalent Windows version. Version 1.0 for the Macintosh was released in 1990. When Apple released System 7, Norton Utilities for the Macintosh needed to be updated in order to run safely. This proved to be a recurring story in the history of this utility; version 4 was highly regarded for a while, but proved to be specifically hazardous to use with newer disk structures and operating systems.

Recent versions were known as simply Symantec Utilities for Macintosh, after Symantec bought the product in the late 1990s. After Mac OS X v10.3 (Panther) was released Norton Utilities was eventually listed as being incompatible, and some time later it was quietly discontinued.

There was also a SystemWorks suite for the Mac OS, encompassing Allume Systems' Spring Cleaning and Retrospect in addition to Symantec's own Norton Utilities. It too was eventually discontinued some time after the release of Mac OS X Panther, although with such little publicity that it remained listed on some Symantec web sites for more than a year afterwards. Spring Cleaning and Retrospect continue to be sold separately.

[edit] Norton Utilities for Unix

In 1990, Peter Norton Computing developed a Unix version of Norton Utilities, in cooperation with Segue Software and INTERACTIVE Systems Corp.^[1] This version of Norton Utilities was available up to 1992, when Interactive Systems stopped marketing the software.^[2] In February 1994, AlmondSeed Software Inc. licensed the software and released it as "The Almond Utilities for UNIX".^[2] AlmondSeed Software released the Utilities for SCO UNIX^[2] and Sun Solaris.^[3]

[edit] Competitors

[edit] Current

Disk Utility (built into Mac OS X)
GnuWin32
Windows built-in tools, Windows Support Tools, and Windows Resource Kit Tools

[edit] Historical

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