X-Assist: Restores Much Loved But Missing Features of OS 9

Originally downloaded 7/12/06.This was featured recently in Macworld, and since it’s free–and I’ve never tried it before–here goes. It looks pretty much like FruitMenu, which I have a license for. But I’m curious to see exactly how it compares to that and a couple of other similar apps I’ve tried. Too bad the developer never learned anything more than HTML 1.0, though.

Update 9/3/06 X-Assist was an early OS X application intended to make OS 9 users feel more at home. Like other apps (e.g., FruitMenu), it duplicates OS 9’s native ability to let users define a custom menu (preferably where the old Apple menu used to be), restores window behavior to the OS 9 default, improves operation of OS 9 in Classic mode, among many other features. This freeware has been updated a few times since, the last time for Panther in 2003. It still works fine in Tiger, but besides being a bit anachronistic in its mission, it does nothing for me that many other apps don’t already do. If you’re still slowly migrating to OS X, though, you might find X-Assist just the thing to get you all the way there.

Version as tested: 0.7