What is Conflict Catcher 4.x?

There are few pieces of software that should be a part of every Mac user’s stable. Conflict Catcher 4 is one of them. For about $60, you not only can wrestle extension conflicts into submission but also can swap sets of browser or Adobe Photoshop plug-ins with a single click, visit Mac trouble-shooting Web sites, maximize your RAM, even tweak PowerPC systems for performance.

Conflict Catcher’s core features (such as enabling and disabling extension sets, displaying normally invisible startup files, and testing for conflicts) are still there, only better. Its extension management now offers multiple ways of viewing your extensions (such as by package, load order, and RAM usage) and includes links. Links are either groups of extensions that need to load together (such as Apple’s CD-ROM software or Microsoft Office) or groups of extensions
that fight over the same resources and thus should never be loaded together. Conflict Catcher’s conflict testing is friendlier and more automated, and it’s able to isolate (and possibly solve) problems between extensions.

Version 4 also sports some new menus. The Web menu includes links to several Mac-related sites (including Mac trouble-shooting and information sites), and the Startup Disk menu shows all eligible startup disks vrithout going to the Startup Disk control panel.

One of the most useful and probably underused features of Conflict Catcher is the System Report. It examines your System in detail for active and inactive extensions, how much RAM they use, and what extensions use traps that emulate 680x0 code. By examining the results of System Report in detail, you can figure out how to squeeze the highest level of performance and the most RAM out of your Mac.

Conflict Catcher 4 is a must-buy utility. Oh, sure, you can get by without it — until that fateful day when you run afoul of an invisible extension that brings your System crashing down and you have to do a manual conflict test.

Reynolds, David. (July 1997). Conflict Catcher 4. MacAddict. (pg. 71).

Download Conflict Catcher 4.x for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver