todd@pvi.UUCP (Todd Bradley x293) (06/27/91)
Hi. I've been reading lots of bad reviews of Central Point's PC Tools 7.0 and I'm getting worried. I ordered the upgrade throught their 1-800 phone line last week and so there might still be time for me to cancel the order. I know the USENET has a way of attracting people's NEGATIVE comments and sometimes it's hard to get the full picture. If anybody out there has 7.0 and has installed it and has something GOOD to say about it, please just drop a quick line saying you like it. Compared to all the bad press I've seen on this newsgroup, even a "yes, it works just like advertised" would be a good review. Version 6.0 has been so useful to me that I'd hate to pay $60 for the upgrade if it's a step in the wrong direction. Todd. -- Todd Bradley (extension AXE) Disclaimers are for wimps who have Supreme Ruler of The Galaxy some sort of job security. Precision Visuals, Inc. Boulder, CO (303) 530-9000
akm@geriatrix.cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) (06/28/91)
In article <814@pvi.UUCP> ncar!pvi!todd() writes: > >Hi. I've been reading lots of bad reviews of Central Point's >PC Tools 7.0 and I'm getting worried. I ordered the upgrade >throught their 1-800 phone line last week and so there might >still be time for me to cancel the order. I was considering exercising my 30-day money back option, but have now decided against it. I have a 'vague' notion that I am satisfied with the product/price (I upgraded) , and will try and be concrete, but will likely mention some negative things... Its probably important to start off by saying that I use win 3.0 most of the time, and PC Tools has hooks that let a number of features work with windows. Not as good as having real windows apps, but getting there. I also use DOS 5.0 I *like* the delete tracking abilities of DataMon, which can either stick all the files you delete into a hidden directory, or can keep a list of files you delete, hopefully allowing you to recover them. The drawback is that it takes a while pouring through the documentation to learn how to set the various options. DataMon is a TSR which is compatible with windows, through a TSR manager, and works with the windows version of undelete. As a result, the undelete in windows is nice... The virus detector also apparently works with windows (no virus reports yet, so I dunno), as well as the schudeler, which I don't use. The system information and memory information are good. I use DOS 5, and MI helps me decide what order to load things high etc to make the best use of space. PC Cache seems to speed things up, but no numbers to prove it. I am excited about Commute, which supposedly will allow me to control a PC remotedly, but I don't have the hardware to try it out yet. It is supposed to work under windows, but, without trying it, I can't say. Vdefend, a program that scans *every* .exe that you run for known viruses slows things down considerably. This might be due to my machine (386, 20Mhz, 2:1 MFM controller), but I doubt it. Windows takes approximately 3 times as long to load when I have Vdefend running. Compress (disk optimization) works very fast, though I am not sure that I can get it to optimize as well as DOG. It does not appear as configurable. On the down side... The documentation is confusing. There are a number of manuals, V 6.0 had only three. I *think* that v7.0 has about 8. The documentation is also incomplete, with the information about a number of command line options available only by typing <command>/?. The Docs include a file list that is both incomplete as well as poorly organzed. (or maybe I think it is incomplete because it is poorly organized...) The docs also do not mention Dos 5.0 at all, which I think was a bad decision because Dos 5.0 uses a bunch of Central Point things, such as mirror, and delete tracking. I would like to be able to tell which features are enhanced, as a result of which features of DOS 5.0 I can get rid of. I have been able to do that, but with info from trade rags and the net. The user interface is poorly designed/implemented. This appears to have been caused by trying to use a Windows like UI, and not having something like windows to take care of the window managing. So, I have problems like not being sure which OK button to click on (and at points in PCConfig you get three), because they are all the same color. Scrolling with the mouse is terrible. The scroll bar works like an absolute positioner, so if you click in it, the thumb is moved to where you clicked, not page up or page down as in Windows/Mac. This is very irritating, specially if you are looking at, say, a long file list. This also means that they keyboard interface is inconsistent with the mouse interface. Finally (vis-a-vis scrolling), if you hold down on a up/down button in the scroll bar, viewing something big (say a long file in viewer), the scrolling is so fast that control is very difficult. The window implementation is quirky. If you setup things so that the file list show size, date etc, the file windows will often not show you the details of the last couple of files (files in the last column), and no amount of scroll bar manipulation will get you there. The only way to see the info for the last couple of files is to make sure that your window size is an exact multiple of the size that the info of one file is. This is obviously irritating, and often not practicable. The support for mice (or at least my mouse, Logitech, running the driver v5.0) is poor. In a number of cases, when I run another PCTools program from within PCShell, I can't get the mouse down to the menu bar across the end. I *think* it consistently stops three lines from the bottom, but I am not sure of this. Note that the shell can run in a number of screen sizes, from 25 lines to 50 with VGA, and 60 with some brand of card (can't remember which one). In addition, a number of times when I start up PCShell, the mouse is very slow, and I have to run PCConfig to get it back up to speed. The manuals say that the problem is with older versions of the mouse driver, and recommend 3.4 or better for Logitech, but I have 5.00. Mouse selection is inconsistent. At times, I can select a file by clicking on the icon for the file, sometimes, it only works when I click on the file name. At least once, it would not select a file at all. Mouse selection is also slow, so you can click in a window, think that the focus of control has moved, go to the file menu, say you want to delete a file, find the file was not deleted, delete again, and then find that the delete was actually working in your program list because the focus of control did not switch, and you've deleted most of the things from your program list. This has happened to me twice (and I thought I'd learnt the first time...), and could have been avoided by using a different menu name for the program list (not File). My conclusion is that PC Tools v7 is a good product, but has a quirky interface. I am willing to live with the quirks... I've finally deleted a number of my favourite utilities because I get them in PCTOOLS. Of course, I have delete protection turned on, so I can get them back... :-) Others might be happy with DOS 5.0, which provides many of the features. The new version of Notron's Utilities might also be an answer... hope this helps, kartik -- Anant Kartik Mithal akm@cs.uoregon.edu Network Manager, (503)346-4408 (msgs) Department of Computer Science, (503)346-3989 (direct) University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1202
martell@ucs.ubc.ca (Jonn Martell) (06/29/91)
In article <814@pvi.UUCP> ncar!pvi!todd() writes: > > >I know the USENET has a way of attracting people's NEGATIVE >comments and sometimes it's hard to get the full picture. >If anybody out there has 7.0 and has installed it and has >something GOOD to say about it, please just drop a quick line We just received V.7.01 from Central Point. We are currently testing it and we will let you know how it goes. Central Point has been slow in sending the updates (I am sure that they don't want to lose market share) - the 7.01 version probably solves most of the bugs. The disks don't mention 7.01 (only the shipping bill does). The creation date for the files are 06/09/91 and some files have 06/11/91 (just two weeks ago!) I wouldn't let the bug news worry too many people. The product was rushed (most are these days). CP seems to be something about it. -- Jonn Martell - PC Support Centre - University Computing Services University of British Columbia - 6356 Agricultural Rd. Vancouver BC V7T 1H1 E-Mail Internet: martell@ucs.ubc.ca Compuserve: >INTERNET:martell@ucs.ubc.ca *** DONT FLAME IT - FRAME IT ***