The utilities included with Windows have always been fun to work with. As Wayne and Garth would say, “NOT!” File Manager, according to an informal poll, had to have been the worst programming effort for humans ever accomplished. As we all know, the File Manager required you to load ALL the files on your disk when you went into it which was extremely rough for those users who worked on network drives. File Manager also offered little in the way of navigating your hard drive any easier. There was no file find ability, no drop and drag deletion and definitely little speed. Though not even comparing to any of the DOS based file managers such as Directory Freedom and Xtree, File Manager has managed to add some features that make getting around your media easier.
The screen of File Manager will be unrecognizable to those who used Windows 3.0. The screen is now split in two vertical sections with the list of files of the left and the corresponding directory tree on the right. Rather than having to click through mountains of directories, you can now click on each directory and see what is there. More information is available on the screen at one time. Showing how much space is free on the drive, File Manager now borrows from DOS 5.0 by showing how much space is in use by the current directory. This is a sticky function that also remains consistent through a file filter. The screen layout is well done, with users not needing to have previous DOS experience to understand what to do and how to do it. A good example of this is the fact that you can now move up in the directory structure by using arrows instead of hitting the ..s that make up the directory indications in DOS. File Manager also has some updated functions and new abilities. The PROPERTIES button now supplies you with information such as size, time, date and path concerning a file you have highlighted. File Search and File Associate have both been updated to include browse and help buttons. File Search allows you to now specify where to look and how to look. File Associate offers a better interface for the new user.
File Manager’s biggest disappointment is in what isn’t there. As long as Microsoft was adding DOS 5.0 functionality like directory space totals, why not add an undelete command? How many times have you deleted a file you wanted back? Why not give File Manager a view like Norton’s Undelete has and show all the deleted files? One wonders why Microsoft doesn’t add these simple capabilities into the File Manager.
The terminal program included with Windows doesn’t look like it has been modified. In the marketplace, very few reliable, well-oiled applications exist for the terminal market. Microsoft should have had the heart to at least add a scripting function or more protocols, like Zmodem, to the program.
Paint Brush, sadly to say, was the utility program most updated. I say sadly, because Paint Brush was an ok application before. Whereas utilities like File Manager and Terminal needed to be critically updated, Paint Brush could have stood on its own. I mean, when was the last time you saw a negative comment about Paint Brush? The additions to Paint Brush of such functions like Omit Picture Format make life alot easier when it comes to transferring graphic images via the Clipboard. See, if you select this option, Windows will then copy the graphic to the Clipboard in a generic format, understandable by most programs.
Memory. Yes, memory. Windows never has enough, but can have too much. Never has one piece of a computer been more critical to a software’s ability to work the way it was supposed to. Windows has grown up with the ability to multi-task, though die hard multitasking supporters would contend that what Windows calls multitasking actually task switching in a quick form. Whatever it is, it has extolled a heavy punch on the memory in your PC and how it is controlled. The punch turns from quick jabs into knockout punches when Windows encounters a UAE, which are almost always caused by memory conflicts. Microsoft has actually put in a clever way of recovering from UAEs in 3.1. Rather than having to exit Windows, warm boot your machine or turn it off and on, Windows now lets you reboot the WINDOW that has the UAE attack. Ah, what a break! No longer will you loose that half hour of calculation time that had been going on in the background in Lotus 123 for Windows, when ATM decides it really doesn’t like one of your fonts and UAEs. If Windows can anticipate the error coming, it will also give you a chance to save your work. Wow, software that watches out for itself
16 megabytes. That’s it. That’s all you used to be able to use with Microsoft Windows 3.0. Yep, in fact, if you had more memory Windows refused to run. This lead to being limited to a fixed number of applications, which sometimes weren’t enough for a truly productive session. Microsoft attributed this limitation to BIOS restrictions in AT class machines, but now have they have removed this limitation from the Windows code.
Remember the arcane SWAP FILE? The one where you had to choke Windows down into REAL mode to setup? Well, that is now called VIRTUAL MEMORY and can be tapped by DOS. Also, a separate program is not needed to set virtual memory. Just click on the 386 ENHANCED icon from the CONTROL PANEL and you can easily set up the parameters.
In addition to the above, EMM386.SYS and SMARTDRV.SYS have been updated to actually be competitive with commercial and shareware competitors such as Qemm and HyperDisk.
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