What is Connectix Desktop Utility (CDU)?

Connectix Desktop Utilities (CDU) consists of 16 general-purpose System 7 utilities and is the desktop-Mac equivalent of the popular Connectix PowerBook Utilities (CPU). Although CDU is not in the same league as heavyweights like Now Utilities, CDU offers several popular power-user features in one integrated package and includes a powerful file-synchronization utility.

You install CDU as a single control panel and configure all of its functions, except file synchronization, from the control panel interface. After installation, CDU displays the CDU menu and the EasySync menu in the menu bar. The CDU menu can be configured to display tbc current date, time, and the amount of free space on a selected hard drive. You can set CDU to continuously display only one of these items or to cycle through each item at a specified interval. The CDU menu is also a shortcut to the CDU control panel and other standard Mac-configuration options such as sound level, color depth, and Chooser device. If your machine has a color monitor, you can dress up the desktop, menus, and menu bars with one of CDU’s snazzy color-coordinated menu/desktop patterns.

The CDU control panel interface consists of a QuickCon figure mode with check boxes for quickly enabling and disabling CDU's major features, and a FineTune mode for more detailed settings. The Fine-Tune mode sports an interface similar to System 6’s Control Panel, with a scrolling list of available items on the left and the configuration options for the selected item on the right.

CDU also contains a no-frills screen saver, options to hide the balloon-help menu and background application windows, and a disk-activity indicator. The Hot Keys feature is a decent low-level macro program and comes with predefined key combinations for certain CDU functions. You can also assign your own hot keys. The Cursor feature, not usually of much value on a desktop machine, locates a lost cursor by flashing a 1-inch dot around it and can display the I-beam cursor in three thickness levels and an hourglass shape.

If you’re a Windows fan or are partial to using keyboard shortcuts, the Keyboard Power feature will be welcome. This utility enables you to control menus and dialog boxes by typing the letter that CDU underlines in a control word (such as a menu name) in conjunction with the modifier key of your choosing. Keyboard Power can also be configured to have menus drop down when you click on or point to the menu title.

With the security feature enabled, CDU requests a password at start-up or after the Mac wakes from sleep mode. (Desktop machines don’t have sleep modes — further evidence that CDU is a revamped CPU.) Or, you can require a user to click on a portion of a graphic along with a key combination as a password. Both of these security features are easily circumvented by starting up with a floppy and then tossing the CDU Prefs file. But if cheap-and-easy security is what you’re after, CDU’s got it.

The EasySync menu, which appears as an icon in the menu bar, is for configuring CDU’s synchronization features. (Why EasySync is in its own menu and not in the CDU menu remains a mystery.) EasySync modifies the Finder’s copy status window to include Sync and Merge buttons. When you drag an item from one volume to another, EasySync either synchronizes the source and destination folders so that both folders are updated, or merges the changed items from the source folder into the destination folder. I found the EasySync feature the most useful. EasySync also lets you crente syncIetSy graphic representations of scripts to perform repetitive synchronization and/or merge operations. The steps to create a synclet are a little confusing; it took a couple of tries before I got the process correct.

All CDU options can be placed into sets, which comes in handy if your Mac doubles as a luggable from office to home, or if several coworkers or family members use one Mac. You can either create new sets or use the CDU defaults.

Although some of CDU’s features are more at home on a PowerBook, and others are available as parts of other packages, CDU offers the advantage of onestop shopping at a low price. With street prices in the $50 to $60 range, Connectix Desktop Utilities is worth the price just for the file-synchronization. Keyboard Power, and Hot Keys features.

Kratzer, Gary T. (November 1993). Connectix Desktop Utilities 1.0. Macworld. (pg. 77).

Download Connectix Desktop Utility (CDU) for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II