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Please Note: Pref Doctor has since been renamed to Reset Doctor. This posting was originally written as when the program was named PrefDoctor. I have updated the links and made the name changes in the review but kept the title the same. Please keep that in mind.

When I originally got my Treo 650 in March, I was getting quite annoyed at losing all my settings most times after an expected crash and reset. Being a first time Treo user and adjusting to a newer device and NVFS, and not readily having access to a computer, it was quite a trying time. I didn’t know or at least, wasn’t aware of how NVFS would cause frequent crashes and resets and of course, when they do happen, which is often, I find that all my settings like brightness, volume, as well as registered applications were wiped out. So, I end up having to re-enter and re-set everything. And this would happen quite often. I ended up writing down all my registration ids in my Memo Pad application so that when my preferences were wiped out, I could at least re-enter them without having to dig for them again.

Of course, a backup program could help in this case, but then, you may end up having to do frequent back ups and then restoring from them frequently. That can be quite cumbersome.

There is a solution offered by the developers of Hobbyistsoftware called Reset Doctor.

What Reset Doctor does is automatically saving your preference file and locking it (if enabled) so that you don’t have to worry about losing your preferences when a crash or reset occurs. And it does it automatically. So, the next time you experience a reset or crash, most likely, Reset Doctor will detect a crash and may ask you whether you wish to restore the saved preferences file or keep the one you currently have. That means, that after the crash or reset, your brightness setting, registrations for programs are still there and you don’t have to reset or re-enter them again. And that can be very nice.

Here’s a simulation of the program and how it looks.

Simulation of Reset Doctor

The simulation will play through to the end unless I’ve inserted a pop up note to explain specific points.

To continue playing the simulation, press the or button.
To go back to a previous paused segment, click on the or button.
To pause the simulation at any time, press the button. To continue after it’s paused, press the button again.

To scroll forward or backward in the simulation, click anywhere on the left (to go back earlier in the simulation), or right (to go forward in the simulation) on the progress bar.

Alternative Flash links: Photobucket

This is quite a great program to own as the current version 1.10 is quite stable and has done a great job of saving all my settings. From time to time, it seems that the volume of my clicks start back at the setting of 4 after a reset and the general volume is noticeably louder than what I usually have set, but that’s minor as the majority of other settings are saved, which is what’s important.

If you have ever dealt with having to re-set your settings for programs, you’ll appreciate Reset Doctor keeping it saved so that you don’t have to do it every time a crash or reset happens. And as most Treo owners can probably tell you, we do experience a lot more resets on the Treo than on the older Palm device due to NVFS. This is a very sad fact. But thankfully, there’s Reset Doctor to help.

So, if you own a Treo, or any other NVFS device, you should try out Reset Doctor. This is certainly an Essential Treo app that I strongly recommend.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Handango and purchases made with the affiliate links in this post and throughout the site will help keep Palm Discovery.net running as well as paying for future giveaways offered from time to time. Thanks to your generosity, $20 was donated to Plan Canada (formerly Foster Parents Plan International) in 2006 and $85 was donated in 2007.

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