Nov 95 First Impressions

BY: Rich Castagna

Picture your PC reclining comfortably, revealing its innermost memories without apprehension. Run Hurricane on your system, and you'll be able to pry into even the darkest recesses of its memory.

Hurricane is one of the new breed of memory utilities that nips and tucks your PC to squeeze out every last bit of memory so you don't have to shell out bucks for new RAM chips. Hurricane is a veritable Houdini at shuffling things in and out of memory to make room for more applications.

Like other RAM-doubling utilities, Hurricane is especially adept at freeing up system resources. My usual assortment of four or five apps normally leaves about 26 percent of my PC's system resources available. With Hurricane swirling around in the background, I still had 45 percent left and about 5MB more available RAM.

In fact, I opened 12 applications--including a word processor, two graphics programs, a spreadsheet and two contact managers--and still had about 40 percent of my system resources just waiting to be tapped. To be sure, things slowed down significantly, and my hard disk was screaming for relief, but the difference was still dramatic.

Hurricane is actually a collection of utilities. The Hurricane Control Center is the program's hub. From its tabbed dialog box, choose the memory-enhancing moves you want to make. Alternately, you can accept the installation defaults, then fiddle with the Control Center's settings to try to fine-tune your setup.

WinGauge looks like something you'd find in an F-16's cockpit. Its animated dial gauges and bar charts graphically show how much of each type of memory is currently in use. Icons along the panel's edges light up to warn you when you're close to running on empty. The WinGauge display can be set to float over other applications, and it can be reduced to two small bars that can be stashed in a corner.

Discover for Windows, Hurricane's third part, fills you in on all the details of your system configuration--from hardware to software. It also includes benchmarks to clock the performance of your system's components such as CPU, RAM and video subsystem.

Hurricane lets your system exceed its limitations. It's also a great way to learn about the complexities of PC memory.

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Hurricane
Price: $79.95
Disk Space: 2MB
System Resources: NA
RAM: NA
Helix Software
800-451-0551, 718-392-3100

BY: Rich Castagna

If work tends to follow you around--in the office, on the road or at home--sooner or later, you're going to find yourself in one place and the files you need in another. HotDisk offers a facile file-transfer solution by modem or cable (parallel or serial).

HotDisk includes two null modem cables and a single diskette of software to install either the host or user sides of the application. After the quick installation, HotDisk loads itself as a TSR.

To transfer files, first establish a connection. Over a parallel cable, mine occurred almost instantly. You can map drives between the two PCs and swap files singly or in bunches. A 1.4MB file transferred in about one minute and 18 seconds. It took more than four minutes to move a 4MB directory holding 36 files--almost twice as long as with TouchStone Software's FastMove, a similar product.

HotDisk's performance is satisfactory, and it's generally easy to use, but I did stumble upon a few quirks. When copying an entire directory, HotDisk is supposed to create it if it doesn't exist on the target PC--but I couldn't get it to work. And when I set up a swap session improperly, the screen still showed the transfer's progress and completion even though no transfer occurred.

Sessions are listed in a simple log on the host side, with who connected, duration and the number of files and bytes conveyed. HotDisk works with Windows 3.x and DOS.

HotDisk lets you stay footloose and fancy-free, but keeps those files at your fingertips.

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HotDisk
Price: $129.95
Disk Space: User or host, 2.5MB
System Resources: 2%
RAM: 640KB
Smith Micro Software
800-964-SMSI, 714-362-2345

BY: Jonathan Karl Matzkin

All the slick editing features and fancy formatting you get with a word processor can't dispel the cold-sweat terror of staring at a blank screen and searching for an idea. Writer's Edge can. This brainstorming tool from the folks who created IdeaFisher is designed specifically to fuel your creative fires and help you hurdle writer's block.

Writer's Edge is a sort of conceptual thesaurus. It not only dishes out synonyms, it also offers thousands of linked concepts, phrases and words related to any word you enter.

The Writer's Edge concept database is the core of the application. It's organized in a three-level hierarchy. The top level, Topical Categories, is a list of concept categories related to your query word. One level down, Section Titles rounds up words and phrases from the selected Topical Category. You choose a Section Title and move down to the third level--an evocative list of ideas, words and phrases. Any of these elements may suggest a different way of saying something or send you off in a novel direction.

Writer's Edge suggested a variety of concepts related to my original search word, and led me off on new tangents. "Concept," for instance, yielded "controversy," "debate" and "dialectic," among other terms. But it also suggested "afterlife," "beauty in the abstract" and "enigma." I used ideas at the third level as a jumping off point for new top-level searches, and came up with new, linked ideas. Some ideas were good and easy to latch onto, but others were considerably more elusive--a bit too outré to grasp.

The macros in Writer's Edge will install the program in Word, WordPerfect or Ami Pro so that it's available from within those word processors. In Word, it works like a spell checker. I highlighted a word, chose Writer's Edge from the Tools menu and immediately began my search for ideas.

Writer's Edge didn't make me an instant Hemingway, but its guidance helped focus my creative process.

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Writer's Edge
Price: $39.95
Disk Space: 5MB
System Resources: 7%
RAM: 4MB
IdeaFisher Systems
800-289-4332, 714-474-8111

BY: John Perry

In the digital world, a power failure can spell disaster. For about $200, you can get some peace of mind with the Back-UPS Pro 280, a power management device ideal for a small office.

The Back-UPS Pro 280 measures only 6.6 by 4.7 by 14.5 inches and will serve you 3 to 6 years. Its site wiring fault alert detects AC outlet offenses such as missing grounds, hot-neutral polarity reversal and overloaded neutral circuits. One quick peek at the back panel's site wiring fault alert light tells you whether to give the electrician a ring. You can also run your phone line or 10BaseT network connection through the RJ-11/RJ-45 combination sockets to protect your system from backdoor burnouts that can sneak in through communications lines.

The Pro 280 promises clean, reliable AC power by pumping it first through an EMI/RFI filter, a surge suppressor, APC's patented SmartBoost/SmartTrim voltage regulator, a power converter, a final surge protector and finally out to your system. Switchover time in the event of a power failure averages 2 milliseconds, though it can take up to 4 ms.

If power fails, the included PowerChute Pro software will close down your system before cutting power. PowerChute Pro works with any version of Windows including NT and 95. Keep in mind, though, that you get only 7 minutes of power before the Pro 280 shuts down your Pentium desktop (other systems will last less or more time, depending on the processor and peripherals).

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APC Back-UPS Pro 280
Price: As tested, $239
American Power Conversion
800-800-4272, 401-789-5735

BY: Jeffery Sloman

FirstClass delivers the mail, but it doesn't stop there. Besides traditional e-mail services, it also offers groupware features similar to Lotus Notes but on a more modest scale and at a much lower cost.

FirstClass uses a client/ server architecture that largely accounts for its excellent performance. The newest version of the program, which I tested in beta, runs its server side under Windows NT 3.5x. FirstClass supports both Windows and Macintosh clients. The clients for both platforms are built on common code, and are completely compatible with either server. Connections can be made to a FirstClass server using several transports--AppleTalk, IPX (NetWare), TCP/IP and dial-up access via modem.

The FirstClass client uses a desktop paradigm with file folders and child windows that are within the main, or parent, window. Double-clicking on a given folder leads the user to documents or other folders within that folder. FirstClass' e-mail capabilities are very solid. Mail can be marked as private, personal, normal or company to ensure appropriate security. The system maintains a history for each message, including who read it, if it has been forwarded or replied to, and when these activities happened.

FirstClass offers public and private conferencing using the e-mail facility as the transport. Any FirstClass user can be authorized to create and administer a conference, so managers can determine the level and type of conferencing appropriate for their departments.

Forms processing--creating and routing forms--is another FirstClass function. The FirstClass Designer is a graphical application that you use to create sophisticated forms. Because of its complexity, the learning curve is fairly steep. The forms that you create can interact with enterprise databases and thus reduce an office's paper flow by putting common forms online.

In many ways, FirstClass is a highly advanced bulletin board system. In fact, it has a command-line interface that can be used by a VT100 terminal emulator. Through this interface, particularly when combined with the available TCP/IP connectivity option, FirstClass can be offered to users outside your organization for things like tech support and sales. The remote user license pricing is designed to make this an attractive option.

Administration of a FirstClass server is accomplished primarily through the software used for the mail clients. A user granted administrator privileges can add and remove users and set systemwide options. You have a great deal of control over user profiles, choosing from a checklist of options. Maintenance functions are also available.

Behind the scenes, FirstClass' infrastructure ensures that all these features remain available and easy to use. For example, full directory synchronization will maintain up-to-date databases on all servers in your system, including user lists. So, when a user is added or deleted at one site it will be propagated to the other sites supporting FirstClass. Since FirstClass servers are accessible by a number of transports, it's especially important that the system maintains a complete routing table so that mail messages destined for remote sites not only reach the recipient but do so based on the least-cost route.

FirstClass crosses communication categories by integrating features usually found in three or more products. It offers easy administration and a wide range of useful functions, and has a mature, well-thought-out infrastructure.

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FirstClass
Price: $495 (server and five clients); additional user packs available.
In Brief: FirstClass offers e-mail with enhancements such as groupware functionality.
Disk Space: Server, 4MB; client, 1.57MB
System Resources: Server, NA; client, 20%
RAM: Server NA; client, 1MB
SoftArc
800-SOFTARC, 905-415-7000

BY: Jeffery Sloman

The Emulex ConnectPlus LT is a small box with big talent. Just connect it to your LAN (10BaseT or 10Base2) and one or two modems connected to phone lines, and your users will have dial-up access to your LAN from any place with a phone line and modem. Users directly connected to the LAN will be able to use the modems to dial out as well. The ConnectPlus is a great way to get both capabilities in one package.

The ConnectPlus is extremely flexible, supporting a variety of protocols--even remote control. The ConnectPlus is designed for NetWare LANs with Windows 3.x, Windows 95 or DOS workstations, though it also offers TCP/IP dial-up access via PPP or SLIP, with full PAP (Password Access Protocol) support. This means that a user can dial into your TCP/IP LAN with Winsock software (Windows 95 Dial-Up Networking, Trumpet Winsock and so on) and access any IP resources. This is a great feature if your LAN is Internet-connected.

The ConnectPlus is bundled with Symantec's pcAnywhere to provide remote control capability through a special TSR. In addition to the TSR, ConnectPlus includes a commport redirector for Windows users. The ConnectPlus redirector maps commports on the PC to modems or ISDN TAs connected to the ConnectPlus LT server. This allows users to dial out to online services such as CompuServe, America Online or bulletin boards, using the modems/ISDN TAs as if they were directly connected to the PC. Once pcAnywhere is loaded on a target machine, remote users can dial in to the ConnectPlus and remotely run applications. For dial-out services, the ConnectPlus supports NASI (NetWare Asynchronous Services Interface), and the same TSR provides access to these services. Dial-out capabilities can be used either by a communications program that supports it directly, or by remapping local port names to the NASI connection.

Installation of the ConnectPlus takes skill because of the broad capabilities of the unit. Any competent network administrator can install it, though; the manuals are clear and well written. The ConnectPlus is an excellent choice if you need remote access and dial-out capabilities on your LAN.

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Emulex ConnectPlus LT
Price: $899
Emulex Network Systems
800-590-5773, 206-881-4065

BY: Jeffery Sloman

You won't find an easier way to share a CD-ROM on your Windows network than with the AXIS 851

Network CD-ROM Server. The unit ships without a CD-ROM drive. The end user simply installs a standard drive into the available slot (two connectors and four screws). The network installation of the 851 consists of two steps: plug in the power, and plug in the network.

It's that simple. Any LAN Manager, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT or OS/2 client can then access the 851's internal CD-ROM drive.

Configuration of the unit is accomplished without any special software. The server presents a directory structure that includes three directories. In a directory called CONFIG you'll find the CONFIG.INI file, which can be edited and saved to change the server's setup.

The unit includes an external SCSI-2 connector and supports up to six additional CD-ROM drives. These CD-ROMs are mapped into the CD directory as well. The 851 supports TCP/IP access, and, although it was not yet implemented in the test unit, ftp will be supported for configuration.

The AXIS 851 does just what's expected, and it will have your network CD-ROM up and running in minutes.

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AXIS 851 Network CD-ROM Server
Price: Ethernet, $899
Axis Communications
800-444-AXIS, 617-938-1188

BY: James E. Powell

ABC Graphics Suite 95 not only offers some of the best graphics tools around, but it also features extensive integration with Microsoft Office 95. From diagramming and illustration to managing your clip art, ABC Graphics Suite 95 has something for everybody. In fact, this single package may provide all the graphics tools you'll ever need.

The suite includes full version upgrades of Micrografx Designer 6.0, ABC FlowCharter 6.0, Picture Publisher 6.0 (see First Impressions, September) and a new program, ABC Media Manager. Though many of the pieces were still works in progress in the beta I tested, what I saw showed great promise. The suite's integration with Office's new Binder is especially encouraging. Office's Binder is a window that lets you combine pieces of other applications into a single "master" document that can be printed in its entirety with sequential page numbering. Although not fully functional in the beta version, the suite will add program icons to the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar, and will also add an icon to invoke the Media Manager from within Microsoft Word and Excel. This will allow access to ABC Graphics Suite's 30,000 clip-art, diagramming tools and photo images that are included on its CD-ROM. The suite also shares Microsoft Office's dictionary to help make more efficient use of disk space.

Media Manager is a great cross-application tool. It displays thumbnail images of graphics files in a hierarchical collection that you design. You can assign keywords to images and search through the cataloged images by keyword. Media Manager works with OLE 2.0-compliant applications. For example, when I dragged an image from Word into the Media Manager, a thumbnail was created and Media Manager automatically added connecting points at the corners and other strategic spots. The added connecting points came in handy when I later dragged the image from Media Manager into ABC FlowCharter, which uses these points to connect objects with lines. Media Manager also converts files automatically to any of 50 file types.

Designer 6.0 has dockable custom toolbars and a Microsoft Office 95-compatible interface. The program makes it easy to take a piece of clip art, add a gradient and some text, then drag the new image into a Word document. Designer works with graphics and vector files, and even imports engineering drawings in .DXF and IGES file formats from technical illustration programs such as AutoCAD. You drag an image from Media Manager, add color or make other changes, then drag it back to Media Manager where it will be stored for future use.

FlowCharter has a new integrated data analysis module for Total Quality Management and Business Process Reengineering tasks. Wizards help you create a chart and add data fields from flowchart and spreadsheet files. You create charts--from Pareto charts to histograms--with the help of a wizard that asks for the chart type you want and explains the purpose of each, then pops up a spreadsheet in which you enter your data. You can quickly switch between a chart and the underlying data for data analysis.

FlowCharter now lets you select a shape for your drawing, change the style attributes and have the change apply to all new objects of the same type that are subsequently added to the drawing. FlowCharter uses Media Manager to store its symbols, which now number over 2,000 organized in 60 palettes. You can rotate shapes, and any text contained with the shape rotates accordingly. I particularly like FlowCharter's ability to align and evenly space selected objects, and to adjust selected objects to the same dimension (height, width or both).

Picture Publisher was reviewed last month, so I won't dwell on it here. Of special interest, however, is its special-effects palette. It's terrific fun and you can easily while away the hours experimenting with it. The new Picture Publisher adds support for .GIF files, dockable custom toolboxes and the Kodak Precision Color Management System.

The suite's greatest benefits result from its optimization for 32-bit performance. The applications work faster and take advantage of multithreading. For example, if you want to apply a change to a graphic image, you can do it in the background while you work with another file. Even in beta, the program's performance was impressive when tested on the final beta of Windows 95 running on a 120MHz Pentium with 16MB of RAM (Micrografx recommends 16MB for the suite). Because the applications support OLE 2.0, you can drag any image into another OLE 2.0-compliant application and then use in-place editing to modify the graphic. There's also support for OLE 2.0 automation, so it's possible to integrate images into Visual Basic or C++ applications. ABC FlowCharter alone includes over 400 OLE objects.

The suite adheres to Windows 95 standards, such as support for long filenames and desktop shortcuts. The program is distributed only on CD-ROM and also includes a 16-bit version of ABC SnapGraphics 2.0 (Micrografx said the 32-bit version wasn't ready for inclusion in the suite). SnapGraphics already has a Microsoft Office interface, and is a terrific tool for creating structured business diagrams such as simple project timelines and organizational charts.

ABC Graphics Suite 95 is a true triple threat. It's a comprehensive graphics package, it takes good advantage of the Windows 95 environment and it fits snugly into Office 95.

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ABC Graphics Suite for Windows 95
Price: $299 (street); upgrade from any Micrografx product, competitive product or Microsoft Office, $149
In Brief: ABC Graphics Suite is a full-featured collection of illustration and graphics creation and editing tools, with extensive support for Microsoft Office for Windows 95.
Micrografx
800-676-3110, 214-234-1769

BY: James E. Powell, Northwest Bureau Editor

I've always been a fan of Visual Basic. With Visual Basic--and its excellent documentation--I was able to build my first Windows application in less than an hour. There are major enhancements in Visual Basic 4.0, such as the ability to build 32-bit applications that support long filenames and the use of virtually the same source code to create a 16- or 32-bit application. But some of VB4's smaller changes are notable, too, like the new continuation character that lets code span lines.

There are actually three versions of VB4. The Standard Edition, which builds only 32-bit applications, includes OLE Automation and is designed for the casual user. A Professional Edition features a programmatic data-access layer for fine-tuning the Microsoft Access Jet database engine, Crystal Reports, additional bitmaps and metafiles and the Help compiler. The Enterprise Edition, which I tested in beta, adds support for team development.

With its support for both 16- and 32-bit applications, VB4 prompts you when you try to convert a 16-bit application that uses VBX files to replace them with their equivalent 32-bit OCX versions, assuming they're available. (Most vendors I surveyed said they expected to upgrade their products with OCXs.)

The open, integrated development environment (IDE) makes it easy to add third-party tools to your editing toolkit. The code editor now lets you control the display of code, comments, keywords and identifiers. Context-sensitive help is available, and the Debug window combines stepping through code and displaying watch variables in a single window. You can also now code as one long source code file, rather than individual pieces.

The new Add-In menu and Add-In Manager allow third parties to add menu items or modify VB4 programs (for adding forms, controls or code, for example). VB4 includes an integrated SourceSafe source-code management tool that exploits this technique by attaching itself via a new menu option. SourceSafe lets you add projects, check files in and out with security and audit trails, share files between projects, view comments about earlier versions, and so on. SourceSafe can also synchronize your make file and the project's modules.

VB4 still supports the Access Jet engine. The engine has been upgraded for improved performance, cascading updates and deletes, programmatic access to referential integrity and, according to Microsoft, faster transaction processing on remote servers. There are also four new data-aware controls--a data-bound grid, list box, combo box and OLE container control--that can be bound to the Jet engine or the Remote Data Control (for SQL databases). VB4 also offers programmatic security access for accessing and modifying user and group permissions; use of multiple workspaces (for multiple connections to the same database using different permissions, for example); and database replication, which lets two users work with their own copies of a database.

There are 10 new controls in VB4, including tabbed screens, a tabbed dialog box, status bar, slider, Image List, List View, Tree View, Rich Text box, a progress bar and System Information. The last feature can be used to respond to Plug and Play events such as a screen resolution change.

VB4's language itself has changed only slightly to conform with Visual Basic for Applications, used by other Microsoft products. You can now have a With statement that performs a series of actions on an object without repeating the object's name. The new For Each statement repeats a group of statements for each element in an array, and you don't have to specify the number of elements. There's also support for if ... end if structures for conditional compilation (to execute code specific to 16- or 32-bit environments). Killdoc, a new printer method, cancels print jobs.

N-tier client/server support--which is part technology and part philosophy--is a key feature of the Enterprise Edition. Distributed client/server computing is typically a two-tier model, with the client storing the application code and the server controlling the data. VB4 introduces a third layer, called a Services model, that stores "business services"; these can be thought of as business rules. You can swap out these rules, which can be stored as components, without upsetting the client and server layers. For example, the business services layer could be used to store an airline's price policies. To adjust pricing, you can change the rules in the middle layer; thus, you can avoid updating clients or servers.

VB4 supports this new layer with the ability to create your own OLE controls, which can contain custom properties and methods. The controls function as either out-of-process OLE servers (which contain exposed methods and properties for use by other OLE-enabled applications) or in-process OLE servers (implemented as a DLL; they can run in the same process as the client). You can create the controls as .DLLs or as .EXEs that expose objects with methods and properties, but not directly as OCXs (you still need a C compiler for that).

Crystal Reports, VB4's report-writing control, has been upgraded to 32-bit, though it still lacks some of the functionality of the product's standalone version. Improvements include a Fine Tuner, which lets you modify the report while previewing the completed document. Report Templates lets you use an existing report as a template, and reports can be exported to a variety of formats, including .RTF, Word, WordPerfect, 1-2-3 and Excel, or sent as a MAPI mail message. There's support for OLE as a client, so you can drag charts and images into your work. Cross Tab reports are also new, with control of pivot row and column headings.

VB4's profiler examines code coverage and optimization. Code coverage checks whether a line of code has been executed during a test. Execution speed has also been addressed with VB4's new code optimization feature. It determines which lines of code are most frequently executed, so you can fine-tune them.

Other new features include support for resource files so you can "internationalize" an application quickly. There's a lock control on the toolbar that prevents you from inadvertently moving a control on a form when you really mean to double-click it and enter code. Using Ctrl+Shift and the arrow keys, you can nudge a control or change its size by a single grid unit. VB4 includes automatic versioning of executables and lets you store .EXE header information, too.

On the whole, this product's got the goods. Its ability to create 16- and 32-bit applications from the same code is a big plus. Even the changes to the editing environment and the Debug window, along with new controls and Jet engine improvements, are reason enough to upgrade. As third-party tools and controls arrive, VB4 will become one of the best development environments on the market.

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Visual Basic 4.0, Enterprise Edition
Price: $999, upgrade, $499; Professional Edition, $499, upgrade, $99; Standard Edition, $99,upgrade $49
In Brief: Upgraded with 32-bit support, VB4's little changes may be most appreciated.
Microsoft Corp.
800-426-9400, 206-882-8080

BY: Joel T. Patz

Two bits is still just 25 cents, but 32 bits adds up to a lot more with Microsoft's new Windows 95 version of Money. This formerly so-so financial program has undergone an exciting upgrade and now offers new screens, navigation techniques for speedy access to its features and your data, and enhancements to many familiar functions.

The beta version of Money I tested presented a user-friendly, task-oriented interface. From the well-conceived and eye-pleasing main screen you choose from among the major finance functions: Account Register, Payment Calendar or Online Banking. You can also select subtasks, including Account Manager, Investment Portfolio, Reports and Charts Gallery, Payees and Categories, and Planning Wizards.

Clicking on Payment Calendar when you're paying bills brings up everything you'd want to know. Regular monthly deposits and bills to be paid are shown, and changes in your account balance immediately display at the bottom of the screen. Paying bills and managing finances are also a lot easier with online bill payment and banking. A click on the main screen button for your online banking service provider brings updated balances, bank statements and account transfers to your fingertips. With online bill payment, you can pay almost any business in the country. You sign up for these services with your bank and establish your various accounts--savings, checking and even credit cards. You can then verify the status of your accounts and payments. In one online session you can update your books, including those ATM transactions you forgot about. You can also use Money's e-mail function to send messages or requests to your bank.

With Account Manager, you set up new accounts, such as asset, investment, line of credit, and other checking or savings accounts. You can also view all the activity for a particular account as a ledger or a graph, where moving your mouse over the graph will show the account balance at that particular point.

The new Reports and Charts gallery's nearly 30 reports are available by clicking on plain English questions or statements related to your financial status. Click on Spending Habits to find out "Where the Money Goes"; your net worth and account balances respond to "What I Have." The word Taxes provides tax-related transactions, capital gains and loan interest information. The Tax Software Report lets you move the data to another program when you prepare your income taxes. In many of the reports, a mouse click brings up a graphical representation of the information, and positioning the mouse over any segment of a chart will provide the precise value it represents. You can also click anywhere in most reports to drill down to the detail that created the entry.

You use the Payee and Categories function to add to your database. The Payee detail box requests the name and address of the payee, telephone number and account number (if applicable) and provides a place for miscellaneous notes. If you have a modem, you can even dial the number from the payee screen, which is very convenient if you want to make reservations at a favorite dining spot or call the power company to find out when your meter was last read. Categories lets you group your accounting areas into income and expense categories, for example, or even more detailed subcategories.

Wizards abound in Money, making setup and planning as easy as possible. Opening an online service account with a participating bank is simplified by filling in the blanks on a series of dialog boxes, each one confidently leading you through the process to success. There is also a group of helpful wizards for retirement planning, calculating mortgages, developing a savings plan, amortizing loans and estimating interest.

From its currency conversion to its excellent online help, this new version of Money makes managing your finances not only easy but also a pleasure.

--Info File--
Microsoft Money for Windows 95
Price: $34.95 (street); free when downloaded from MSN or http: //www.Microsoft.com/ MSHOME/ until Oct. 31
In Brief: Money's major renovation puts all the tools you need to manage your finances within easy reach.
Microsoft Corp.
800-426-9400, 206-882-8080