O'Reilly Press Room: O'REILLY UTILITIES PROVIDE SOLUTIONS FOR EASING WINDOWS ANNOYANCES Software Companion to Popular Book Series Will Ship This Fall

September 9, 1998

O'REILLY UTILITIES PROVIDE SOLUTIONS FOR EASING WINDOWS ANNOYANCES Software Companion to Popular Book Series Will Ship This Fall

San Francisco, CA-- For all those who have felt frustrated with certain aspects of the Windows operating system they use every day, O'Reilly & Associates has a new solution, or more precisely, many solutions. O'Reilly Utilities: Quick Solutions for Windows 98 Annoyances was announced in conjunction with COMDEX Enterprise in San Francisco. The new software, companion to the upcoming "Windows 98 Annoyances" book by David A. Karp, is scheduled to ship in October, just following the book's scheduled release. O'Reilly Utilities for Windows 98 was developed by David A. Karp and Mark Bracewell, and will sell for $39.95 suggested list price, with a $10 discount for owners of Windows 98 Annoyances.

O'Reilly Utilities for Windows 98 provides immediate, automated solutions for many of the key annoyances described in Karp's book, and also offers important new enhancements to Windows 98. This stand-alone software companion to the book provides a complete set of point-and-click tools which let users adjust Windows 98 settings to suit their work preferences, without having to manually tamper with the Windows Registry.

The product is designed to improve users' productivity with dozens of Windows extensions which make common tasks easier, such as group file renaming, file copying, and customizing the desktop. The Utilities solve some of the most aggravating Internet-related behaviors of Windows and other applications, by providing tools for restoring the default browser, email, and FTP settings after a new Internet Explorer or Navigator installation overwrites previously-established settings.

The O'Reilly Utilities software was designed to go beyond unsupported programs such as Microsoft's Tweak UI. O'Reilly's software comes with extensive online help and additional free technical updates on the O'Reilly Web site. O'Reilly also offers for-pay technical support for the product.

Some of the most powerful, yet simple, point-and-click solutions in the Windows 98 Annoyances software include:

INTERNET

Choose default email program, news reader, and Web browser;
Turn off the various aspects of the Internet integration with Internet Explorer;
Share bookmarks and Internet shortcuts between Netscape Communicator and Internet Explorer using drag-and-drop.

FILES AND FOLDERS

Quickly rename individual or groups of files with ease;
Print folder contents easily.

The software also maximizes performance by allowing users to optimize virtual memory easily, and lets users turn off annoying animations and hide icons on their desktop.

O'Reilly Utilities for Windows 98 requires Windows 98, a 486 or higher Intel-based CPU, a CD-ROM drive, 16 MB RAM, and 6 MB free disk space.

ABOUT THE DEVELOPERS

David A. Karp created the Windows 95 Annoyances Web site, the catalyst for his book Windows Annoyances, published by O'Reilly & Associates. Karp initiated the Web site as an early beta tester of Windows 95, and by the time the product was released, his site was widely cited (by such publications as PC/Computing Magazine, Yahoo! Computing, Windows Magazine, and the San Francisco Examiner) as one of the best technical resources on the Web. Karp, a specialist in user-interface design and computer-based training, has also written for technical magazines.

Mark Bracewell is the author of PolyForm, a forms-based Web tool published by O'Reilly. Mark is a lead developer at O'Reilly & Associates, and has worked on such products as WebSite Professional and WebBoard.

WebSite, WebBoard and PolyForm are trademarks of O'Reilly & Associates. All other names may be trademarks of their respective companies.

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O'Reilly Utilities: Quick Solutions for Windows 98 Annoyances
Developed By Mark Bracewell and David A. Karp
1st Edition October 1998 (est.)
No printed documentation; includes full online Help
ISBN: 1-56592-549-1, $39.95

About O'Reilly

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