DOS, which for many years provided basic operating system services with few extras, bred hundreds of successful utilities. Norton Utilities and PC Tools offered suites combining several utilities that gave users finer control over their computers. Quarterdeck and Qualitas provided better memory management, especially once the 386 made memory more accessible.
Windows 3.0 and 3.1 opened up more possibilities for utilities. With large Windows files -- and disk space at a premium -- Stac Electronics' DoubleSpace utility quickly became a standard for disk compression (which almost as quickly got integrated into DOS 6.x). Windows 3 was not the best at managing memory. Quarterdeck jumped in and adapted QEMM
to handle memory under Windows. Windows' adequate but uninspired Program Manager spawned an industry of Windows shells, with Norton Desktop the leading alternative.
The Macintosh OS has also been a fertile breeding ground for utilities. Many began their existence as desk accessories, enabling users to search for files (Norton File Find), defragment the disk (Norton Disk Defragment), and recover damaged disks (Central Point's Mac Tools). Norton Utilities and Mac Tools made many PC-type utilities available for the Macintosh.
Few utilities have tampered with the look and feel of the Mac OS, however, primarily because Apple has always published and enforced user interface standards that have precluded alternative desktop managers or shells. Mac utilities have largely focused on providing the users with better access to hardware or OS internals.
Running Multiple OSes
For those who run multiple operating systems from the same PC, V Communications' System Commander is an i
ndispensable utility. System Commander lets you load and boot from any of several OSes, such as DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows NT, Windows 95, and OS/2- -- on different disk partitions or on the same partition. It will even work with an OS, such as Win 95, that requires installation on the boot sector of the disk. Boot-management utilities such as this are, in effect, OS-independent, giving the user ready access to any PC operating system.
And NOSes Too
Even network OSes use utilities. For example, Novell's NetWare has a companion product called LAN WorkPlace. LAN WorkPlace, like part of Microsoft Plus, is an Internet access facility that includes the Netscape Navigator for graphical browsing. This points out the growing need for a class of utilities that operate with the NOS, just as most of the popular utilities work with the desktop OS.
What the Other OSes Forgot
