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Utilities
Utilities
What Every Computer User Must do Now – Round up your data
Oct 19th
Corporations have disaster recovery plans, and so should you. If you want to minimize your own computers’ downtime due to hard drive failure, operating system corruption (i.e. the “Blue Screen of Death”), and the like, there are a number of solutions that you can use that can help you get back up and running quickly. More >
New PC? Clean up the “Extras” with PC Decrapifier
Sep 23rd
Have you unboxed a brand new Windows computer and plugged it in, only to find a desktop full of “trial-ware” installed? Perhaps the browser’s home page has been hijacked redirected to the computer vendor’s website?
The situation is getting better. In early 2008, Sony began offering a “Fresh Start” option when you are purchasing a computer from their site, which lets you opt out of trial-ware. Initially they charged $50, but after a public backlash made this a free option.
Dell also lets you opt out of trialware (such as anti-virus, “productivity” software, etc). If you have an Inspiron or Dimension PC, check out the 3rd-party software-removal tool (Start > All Programs > Dell > Dell Software & Utilities > Product Documentation).
If your new computer does have these software applications preloaded, take a look at the free utility, PC Decrapifier. More >
Virtual Desktops: Divide and Conquer with “Desktops 1.0″ from Sysinternals
Sep 4th
Even with a decent-size screen, if you’re running many applications at the same time, it can be time-consuming toggling through all those windows using Alt-F4 or the taskbar. Wouldn’t things be easier if you have one screen just for email, another for word processing, another for editing graphics, etc.?
Enter Desktops 1.0
Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell recently released Sysinternals’ Desktop 1.0, which allows you to create up to 4 “virtual desktops.” A tiny (62 KB) download, you simply install it and run it. You can choose which key combinations you’ll use to switch between the virtual desktops.
Desktops Options
Now you can switch between your desktops using those key combinations, or by right-clicking on the Desktops icon in the system tray, where you’ll see a screen like the one below:
Choose a Desktop
Takeaway: Desktops 1.0 is a free and simple way to segregate whichever applications you’re currently running into their own virtual desktops.
It’s just one of many free utilities that Sysinternals offers. Many of these will give you insight into what’s happening “behind the scenes” of your Windows operating system. You might just find a utility here that you’ll use every day.
Turn .ISO Files into DVDs/CDs with ImgBurn
Jul 30th
Photo by: Ghirigori Baumann
An .ISO file is an “image,” containing the complete contents of a CD or DVD. It’s a common way that versions of Linux (or many of its variants) are released. For example, you might want to download a copy of F-Secure Rescue CD 3.00 so you can scan a hard drive for any malware.
Also, if you create a BartPE .ISO file as we discussed earlier in “Backup Your Hard drive Now – While You Still Have Time,” you’ll need a way to turn the .ISO into a bootable CD.
If you have Nero or a similar program, you can burn that image to a CD or DVD. Alternatively, you can use the free utility ImgBurn to do the same thing. More >
JKDefrag For Your Hard Drive’s Health
Jul 21st
JKDefrag is a freeware utility that handles that unglamorous but important task of defragmenting your hard drive(s). JKDefrag falls into that happy category of programs that handle a task better than Microsoft’s own utility for the job. Running JKDefrag is quite safe because it “hooks into” Windows’ defragmentation API (Application Programmer’s Interface), sending defragmentation requests to the operating system, so that Windows (not JKDefrag) does the actual work of moving files to the right area of the hard drive. More >
Seeing Double? Use DoubleKiller to Find (and Remove) Duplicate Files
Jul 9th
It’s important to backup your files, but you may be inadvertantly storing and backing up multiple copies of files on your hard drive. You might forget that you have another copy of a video clip or MP3 file somewhere else on your hard drive, and duplicate folders of photos from Aunt Myrtle’s 75th birthday party (no offense to Aunt Myrtle!).
Big Bang Enterprises’ DoubleKiller will allow you to quickly identify and remove those duplicate files. The free version allows you to specify whether DoubleKiller scans for files based on file name, size and date. According to Big Bang, the pay version, DoubleKiller Pro runs at least 70 times faster, can be run from a command line, and offers advanced comparison options not available in the free version. More >
Backup Your Hard drive Now — While You Still Have Time
May 24th
It’s one of those nagging things in the back of your mind: “What happens if my hard drive crashes, or the operating system gets corrupted, or…? I should do something about it.” Then you dismiss that thought because you think it’s too hard, or expensive.
It’s really not that difficult, nor expensive. We’ll look at a couple of options that give you an easy way to protect your investment. The basic strategy is to create an “image” of your hard drive, which is a file (or files) containing an exact copy of your operating system, applications, etc. Then, when disaster strikes, you boot from a CD, and restore that image file to your hard drive. Let’s look at the steps to do this. More >
SteadyState: How to roll back your Windows XP computer to “Square One” — Just by rebooting.
May 21st
Microsoft’s free application, SteadyState, is a way to quickly “undo” many problems that can develop as a result of spyware infections, people installing software that “breaks” other software, etc. It’s perfect for that spare PC that you’ve set up for the kids. Perhaps your parents are using a computer for the first time, and you are their computer support person. In any case, install SteadyState, set up a user account, and configure Windows Disk Protection.
Now, your “user” can surf the web, email, and do whatever they need to do. If they run into problems, simply rebooting the computer will undo any software issues, and they are back up and running. More >
Mail PassView A Free Utility to Recover a Lost Email Password
May 13th
Have you run into this problem yet? Your friend or family member, whos been using a computer for several years, buys a new computer and asks for your help to move everything over to the new computer. Youre able to copy their data files to the PC, but when its time to set up their email program, they know their email address, but when you ask about their password, they give you that deer in the headlights lookthey have no idea what the password is.
You may be able to help them if on their old PC, they used a program like Thunderbird, Outlook Express, or Outlook. More >
Whats on my PC? Belarc Advisor
May 13th
Belarc Advisor is a free-for-personal-use utility (http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) that inspects your Windows computer and creates a nicely formatted HTML report of your installed hardware and software. Its worth installing and running (then backing up the report files thats saved by default at C:\Program Files\Belarc\Advisor\System\tmp) to have just in case.