AUTOMATION/SCHEDULING TOOLS
NORTHERN's OptiMover was selected by our readers as the best automation/ scheduling tool. OptiMover, a software solution for automating data flows, automates data movement and performs defined actions when triggered by a customizable event, such as a database change, a file modification, or time- and date-related parameters.
OptiMover can execute programs and replicate, move, and import database records and files; works across sites and platforms; and provides full logging with versatile displays. OptiMover makes it easy to move business-critical data automatically between computers, servers, and platforms, creating an efficient data management system.
By automating the process of managing and monitoring data flows between computers, directories, servers, platforms, and sites, OptiMover can nearly eliminate that labor intensive, time-consuming task. In addition, by simplifying the process and delegating repetitious tasks to a self-maintaining system, OptiMover can increase productivity and give IT staff more time to manage a broader array of more strategic responsibilities.
DEFRAGMENTATION UTILITIES
By a large margin, our readers proclaimed Executive Software's Diskeeper 7.0 the winner in the category Best Defragmentation Utilities. Fragmentation has always affected computer performance. Executive Software raised awareness of the problem—and came up with a solution.
With the extremely popular automatic disk defragmenter Diskeeper, Executive Software continues to define the defragmenter market by providing cutting-edge solutions to performance issues, no matter how advanced a computer system may be. Increasing your computer system's performance is the keynote of Diskeeper, and Executive Software promises that the product will continue to evolve in concert with user demand.
EMERGENCY RECOVERY CONSOLE UTILITIES
By far, our readers' favorite emergency recovery console utility is Winternals Software's ERD Commander 2002. ERD Commander 2002 provides full access to unbootable Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT4 systems from a familiar Windows-like environment, and supplies the tools needed to quickly diagnose and repair problems.
ERD Commander 2002 makes any XP/2000/NT4 file system—including FAT, NTFS, and CDFS—accessible through a graphical interface. By booting directly from the CD-ROM drive into a GUI, and bypassing the operating system of the damaged machine, you can repair your systems from an intuitive windowing environment that includes a taskbar.
Numerous built-in tools are accessible through the ERD Commander 2002 start button, including a graphical Registry editor; a File Search utility; a command prompt window; an Application, Security, and System events log viewer; a text editor; and a Locksmith to reset local Administrator passwords. And built-in network access lets you move data off of, or on to, the dead system.
FILE-COMPRESSION TOOLS
File-compression tools are used by nearly everyone today and our readers tagged ACD Systems' ACD Zip as the leader of the pack.
ACDZip brings the power of ACDSee to image compression. With ACDZip you can preview images quickly during and after creating archives. ACDZip lets you compress image, audio, video, and document files to save hard disk space and prepare files for distribution.
With ACDZip you can create eight types of archives (including ZIP and CAB) and preview the images inside them, modify archives without extracting files, protect your archives with passwords and 256-bit encryption, and share compressed files by email directly form ACDZip.