The Now Utilities Division of Now Software, Inc. announced a new version of its popular Now Utilities 6.5 and a new product, Now Startup Manager 7.0. Now Utilities 6.5 contains significant enhancements to its most popular components, including Now Super Boomerang and Now QuickFiler. The upgrade includes 30 plug-in utilities for Now Tabs and Now Shortcuts. In addition, the Installer has been enhanced to once again provide installation of individual components.

Now Startup Manager has been completely rewritten to provide significant improvements to automatic conflict isolation and new capabilities for dynamically managing fonts and third party plug-ins, including plug-ins for Netscape Navigator and Adobe Photoshop. It will ship as a component of Now Utilities 6.5, and as a standalone product. The new products will begin shipping on August 28th.

Now Startup Manager Offers More than Just Conflict Catching

"What makes Now Startup Manager unique is it's ability to manage the entire startup process and not just extensions and control panels," said Henry Carstens, General Manager of the Now Utilities Division. "Now Startup Manager 7.0 gives you a single application for managing your control panels, extensions, fonts, and all the new plug-in technologies that are being developed by Adobe, Netscape and others."

Now Startup Manager's most novel feature, however, may be the Now Startup Manager Reference Library(tm) - a plug-in database which provides detailed information on most known extensions and extension conflicts. The Now Startup Manager Reference Library will go on-line on August 7, and be updated at regular intervals. Users will then be able to download new Now Startup Manager Reference Libraries containing the most current conflict and extension information from the Now Utilities Web site at any time.

"When we asked customers what they wanted most in the new Now Startup Manager, they said information," said Carstens. "Information about what an extension or control panel does, what other extensions it works with, needs, or might have a conflict with. We developed the Now Startup Manager Reference Library as a plug-in so users could easily have the most current information available to them in Now Startup Manager."

Both Now Utilities 6.5 and Now Startup Manager 7.0 users can continue to get free monthly updates via the Now Utilities Web site .

Pricing and Availability

Now Utilities 6.5 and Now Startup Manager 7.0 will begin shipping on August 28th. Now Utilities 6.5 has a SRP of $129.95 and Now Startup Manager 7.0 has an SRP of $79.95. The expected street prices are $89.95 and $55.00 respectively. Now Startup Manager 7.0 will be available separately and also as a component of Now Utilities.

Upgrades to Now Utilities 6.5 are $14.95 for 6.0 users and $29.95 for all previous users. A competitive upgrade to Now Startup Manager from Conflict Catcher is available for $29.95.

 

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