First Aid: A knowledge base you will appreciate

First Aid: A knowledge base you will appreciate

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): In my job as an end user consultant, I've always
tried to find software programs that will help PC users learn
more about their own machines -- hardware and software -- so that
they can become more independent.

I'm positive that, in the long run, it will be much better to
educate the users than to offer consultation. Recently, for
instance, I assembled a PC for a colleague. It was a great
machine, and I set everything up to run smoothly. However, a few
days after she had the PC, she informed me that all the icons in
the Program Manager had disappeared and therefore she had not
been able to play her favorite Windows game -- which was
Solitaire, of course.

The moment I took a look at the machine, I knew the problem:
She or someone else in her family had checked and activated the
"Save on Exit" option in Program Manager. Needless to say, after
playing around with Windows for some time, the groups and the
icons in Program Manager must have been juggled around. When she
or her family members exited Windows, the mess became the
default. The next time Windows was loaded, she was shocked to see
the jumble. Hence the SOS cry.

Never to activate "Save on Exit" is just one of the don'ts for
those who don't really know much about the way Windows work.
There are hundreds of other don'ts, including "Don't activate
Printer Manager", and it would take simply too much time to try
to explain most of them to a new Window user.

Yet, it's so easy to inadvertently change various options in
Windows. For instance, we might release the mouse button too soon
as we drag the mouse, and without our knowledge an option gets
activated. Therefore, a good software program that can teach us
basic operations of Windows will certainly be appreciated.

First Aid, from CyberMedia, is one of such programs. It
consists of two modules: First Aid for Windows Users and Don't
Panic. You'll see both of them in the accompanying picture.

Knowledge base

Don't Panic is a knowledge base of a number of problems
typical to Windows. It is provided through the hypertext equipped
Windows Help system. It provides definitions of technical terms,
most of which are very well written and are very easy to
understand. It also offers suggestions on what to do to improve
the performance of your machine.

Don't Panic starts from the very beginning. It even comes with
a tutorial on how to use Windows Help, what the green and
underlined text is for, and how to go back to the previous Help
section. However, it's when it comes to explaining hardware and
software that Don't Panic really shines.

When I clicked on the Hardware sub-topic found under Reference
Information, Don't Panic jumped to the hardware section. When I
clicked on Motherboard, a color bitmap picture of the motherboard
appeared. The memory sub-system is marked by a red rectangle, the
CPU with a blue rectangle, and the BIOS with a purple rectangle.
When I further clicked on the blue rectangle, a pop-up explained
to me what types of CPU exist, how many bits each of these types
handles, and how their speed levels are identified.

With all these nifty features, Don't Panic is actually a
computer course that you can follow on your PC.

Diagnostics

The other module, First Aid for Windows Users, has eight areas
that you can explore: Windows, Applications, Performance, Setup,
Printing, Multimedia, Network, and Notifications. In Windows, for
example, you'll be able to check your keyboard, mouse, fonts and
display as well as clean up Program Manager, File Manager and
OLE. Any problem that First Aid encounters will be displayed in
the Problem Panel. A click on the Diagnose Problem will bring up
the First Aid Diagnosis window, and based on the explanation
given in this window you can fix the problem or let First Aid fix
it for you. In my case, for instance, First Aid reported that my
Windows had a problem of program association; I had not installed
Cardfile, but the *.CRD file association existed. By the way, you
can see this window on bottom left of the picture.

When I clicked on the Auto Fix button, First Aid searched for
the missing applications. Had I installed them, First Aid would
have located them and fixed the problem. Since I had not
installed them, it was unable to fix the problem.

My version of First Aid supports only 25 of the most popular
applications for Windows, including Winword 6.0 and CorelDRAW!4.0
(not 5.0). When first loaded, First Aid had no idea where these
programs resided. I had to tell it to locate each of them and it
searched all the hard disks. Once the programs were located, I
was able to tell First Aid to check each of them again to see
whether everything was in order. In the case of my Winword 6.0,
for instance, First Aid reported that I wouldn't be able to
import CompuServe's GIF files. A click on the Diagnose Problem
revealed that certain files -- conversion files -- were missing.
And if I wanted to know what file was missing, I should go back
to the Problem Panel and click on the Show Detail button. When I
actually did this, First Aid told me that the name of the missing
file was GIFIMP.FLT. Isn't that neat?

The best thing about this knowledge base is that it can be
used whenever you can spare the time to peruse it. The collection
of problems and their solutions, as well as the tips, are the
strongest point of this software. It makes First Aid useful not
only to beginners learning about their computers but also to
consultants bombarded with the same question "What happens to my
PC?"

My only concern is how we can update the knowledge base, as it
will clearly become out of date in no time. For example, my
version of First Aid, Version 1.2, is not Pentium-ready, while at
the moment even P6 is already on the horizon. Therefore, like in
the case of anti-virus protection software in which new viruses
are appearing overnight, we would really appreciate if the
knowledge base could be updated regularly. As new software
programs appear, they also bring potential conflicts with
existing software or hardware, so in order to make a program like
this one truly useful to consultants its knowledge base should be
constantly updated.

Regardless of this, First Aid is a very useful and yet very
user-friendly knowledge base that most Windows users should take
advantage of, particularly newcomers who wish to expand their
knowledge on PC hardware and software. Even when it fails to
solve your problem, it will give you the phone number to call to
get technical support from the people who make all the supported
applications programs.