                            ķ
                             Becker Tools 
                                 v4.0     
                            Ľ
                             by Tony Curro



    Seems as if many companies are in the shell game. Windows shells
    that is. PC-Kwik, Norton and Abacus to name a few. They are many
    more out there. However, Abacus is one of the early entries. While
    the other are at v1.0, they are up to 4.0.


    Becker Tools requires 6MB of hard disk space for installation. Of
    course it also requires MS Windows. The installation is straight
    forward, and easy to follow. It will install on a single PC or on a
    network. For a network you first install in on the server, and then
    on each workstation.

    Becker Tools has a large selection of programs included; I will
    discuss some of them later on. With such a large selection it would
    be hard to remember what each one does. Well, Abacus has made that
    easy for you. As you place you pointer over any icon, you see the
    icon's function explained on the bottom left of the screen. This
    eliminates the need to remember the icons.

    Becker Tools has a toolbox that you can configure with up to 25
    functions. You add the icons from a master group into the toolbox.
    One  of the icons is a reboot icon. Using it, you do not have to go
    through the exit sequence of Windows. There is  also a restart icon.
    Many times you install something, and the program says "Restart
    Windows for the changes to take effect." Click on the restart icon,
    and Windows will do just that.

    When you bring up Becker Tools Shell, you can see a file and/or tree
    display. You can also have one or two drive windows open. This is
    useful for copying or moving. Included also is Launcher. This allows
    you to launch all applications of Becker, and any other
    applications. You customize this to suit you needs.

    Features of Becker Tools include: Undelete, Recover, Print, Blackout
    (Screen Blanker), Disk Optimizer, File Finder.

    There are several editors included: Text, Hex, Icon, Disk.

    A viewer allows you to view the following graphic formats: BMP, PCX,
    GIF, PIC, IFF, TIF and LBM.

    Other programs and features are:
    Disk Info -  Graphic display of disk allocation. Show a pie chart
    with directory names and percentage of disk that each directory is
    using.

    Backup - It will automatically format and verify target diskettes.
    Creates backup history file, and compresses files during backup.

    Group Services - This allows you to add groups to the Program
    Manager. This is useful if you make Becker your primary shell.

    File Compactor and File Extractor - Create archive and
    self-extracting, self-running EXE archive files using Compactor.
    Extractor restores files to their original state.

    Disk Utilities - Copy a diskette in a single pass. Create multiple
    diskettes from one read. Also allows you to copy from one diskette
    format to another.

    Single or Multiple Compare - Single compares source to target.
    Multiple will compare source to multiple target diskettes.

    Disk Librarian - Compress data from diskette into one file on your
    hard drive. This file can then be stored, or copied on to a separate
    diskette. This is like creating a backup of your diskettes. In case
    the original becomes defective, you can use this archived file to
    restore it.

    Compactor will compress Windows applications. It will uncompress the
    file when it is needed. When you exit the session, the uncompressed
    file is removed, leaving only the compressed file. The next time you
    access the application, the above process is repeated.

    Abacus has done a good job with this program. The interface, and
    access, is much improved over previous versions. If you are on the
    market for a Swiss-army-knife of shells, Becker Tools v4.0 does
    deserve a look.

                    ķ
                         Product Information     
                    Ķ
                          Becker Tools v4.0      
                    Ķ
                        List Price -- $129.95    
                    Ķ
                                Abacus           
                           5370 52nd St SE       
                     Grand Rapids, MI 49502-8107 
                             616-698-0330        
                          616-698-0325 (FAX)     
                    Ľ
