This new version of the venerable Norton Utilities is not just an upgrade of tweaks and touch-ups. It is a completely improved version, with five major functions that have been added or reworked, CrashGuard 3.0, System Doctor, LiveUpdate, NortonZipRescue and WinDoctor. It also includes new versions of the performance tuning tools Optimization Wizard and Speed Disk defragger.

The installation from the CD is a snap, using the InstallShield setup program that most programs now use, so it installs automatically and easily. The LiveUpdate function kicked in immediately after installation, advising of available updates for Norton Utilities 3.0, SystemDoctor and the trial version of Norton AntiVirus which was included. A free six months subscription to support service LiveUpdatePro is included and a few clicks on some buttons launched my Internet provider and connected me to Norton’s web page. The updates included a patch to Norton Utilities itself, correcting some problems that had been noted in earlier magazine reviews, and updates to the AntiVirus program, neat!

Norton Utilities 3.0 primarily runs in the background monitoring the PC’s system, using relatively few resources, and some functions can be disabled or enabled as you wish. CrashGuard intercepts system and application crashes so work can be saved before the system freezes. It supposedly monitors more than 80 critical system resources to provide early warning when one of the programs is acting up. The few times it acted on mine evidently was caused by CrashGuard itself, because that was the application named as not working properly, and one click shut it down and let the PC run.

System Doctor has many trouble sensors and readout charts so the status of drives, virus scans, disk optimization and health and WinDoctor function can be graphically seen. The Sensor submenu includes a selection of many more resources that can be monitored. When the PC boots up, System Doctor indicates with a red light if something is not right in one of the sensors, and a double click on it will bring up the dialog box where corrective steps are taken. Some of the charts are really not necessary, like the ones showing the free space on each drive, but the box can be tailored to show what functions you want.

On boot up, WinDoctor showed that my system had over 60 errors listed, most in the Registry, which I would never touch. Many were referrals to programs that had been previously uninstalled, or duplicate files. WinDoctor creates fixes at the same time it detects problems, so with heart in mouth, I clicked on the button to have System Doctor make all corrections automatically, which it did, without a hitch. Definitely a big plus mark for this program. Speed Disk does a great job of performing scandisk and defragging. One of the innovations moves the swap area of the drive to the beginning where it is most accessible to the programs that need the space. The User Guide is meager but does cover most of the important aspects. The online help is very good, with some very good tutorials.

This is a program that should be on every computer!