Tag: utility
A couple of days ago, I met an old friend of mine who just got his hands on a brand new Mac and, after about half an hour of showing the ins and outs of the machine, he asked me why the Mac community has so few free applications. If he had known that I would start writing down every piece of free and/or open source software capable of running on a Mac and keep talking about them for a whole hour, I think he wouldn’t have asked me that question in a million years.
To be fair, I kind of slowed down about 30 minutes after I started writing the list but still got pretty far to cover two pages. Those were the apps that I could remember at the moment, while still trying to write down other apps in no particular order.
The exact same question seems to haunt a lot of Mac switchers out there and thus, I decided to put up a list of the most important free applications I would install on my own Mac after performing a clean install.
Because I do want to give the list some type of order, I have put the apps in six categories, again, in no particular order: Internet, network, audio/video, graphics, games, editors and miscellaneous. The content in the first five categories is pretty obvious. In the sixth, I have included the programs that wouldn’t fit in any of the first categories. Read More»
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Although most Windows software comes with an installation program, there can still be problems if you install or uninstall software. A failed installation can cause the installation not to be redone without clearing the failed installation. Unfortunately a failed installation can often not be undone, which means you are stuck with a chicken and egg situation.
Another common situation is when you installed a trial of a software product and after expiration you need to uninstall it before you can install a registered version. In case the uninstall process is not complete, chances are the software will keep on indicating the expired status.
If the standard uninstaller for the program does not work, you can try to manually remove the software. This means that the related files need to be removed from disk and all related configuration data needs to be removed. Some (older) software uses local configuration files that reside with the program in the installation directory, but most software will use the Windows registry to store configuration information. Read More»
Posted in Software, Windows Vista, Windows XP | No Comments »
At a rough guess I would say that around 50 percent of PC problems are concerned one way or another with installing and uninstalling software, the latter being far and away the most troublesome operation for many users. A lot of programs are just not very good at removing themselves from systems, bits and pieces are often left behind, cluttering the Registry or interfering with other programs.
Contrary to popular belief Add/Remove Programs in Windows doesn’t actually do any uninstalling, it’s simply groups together the uninstall utilities for the programs on your PC so maybe it’s time for something with a bit more teeth. How about Revo Uninstaller, it’s a powerful uninstaller utility that takes over where Add/Remove Programs leaves off. Firstly it analyses the program, checking files folders and Registry keys, then it sets a new Restore Point and then, only when it is satisfied that it knows everything there is to know about a program, does it remove all traces of it. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Software | 2 Comments »
As I am sure you know I have been waffling on for years about how your PC monitors your web surfing activities and logs every website you’ve ever visited, from the day you switched it on, in a hidden and protected file called index.dat. Regular readers may also recall a couple of utilities I’ve been recommending to wipe these files. Back n the days of Widows 98 my cleaner of choice was Spider, sadly it was never updated for XP but then along came Crap Cleaner CCleaner, as it is now known which does a brilliant job. Now we have a new utility that works with CCleaner, called Click&Clean, Basically it lets you put a quick-launch icon appropriately enough a toilet roll on your Internet Explorer or Firefox toolbar. You need to have CCleaner installed on your PC first, and the new icon has to be added manually, so don’t forget to read the instructions. One click and it launches CCleaner and your tracks are covered. Read More»
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We all know that when you use a PC you leave a trail, half a mile long, in ‘log’ and ‘dat’ files and Registry entries detailing everything you’ve been doing, from the files and programs you’ve opened, to the websites you’ve visited. It’s no small concern as it can include sensitive and personal information, like passwords and PINs for example. It’s not too difficult to keep your own PC’s record keeping in check, with a free utility like CrapCleaner (see Software section) but what happens when you’ve been using someone else’s computer?
This little program, called CleanAfterMe is what you need to tidy up after you. It’s a small freeware application that you can keep handy on a USB memory stick and when you run it you have the option to delete all of the data and changes you may have left behind during the session. If you are a regular user of other people’s computers and value you privacy and security then don’t leave home without this really handy utility.
Posted in Computer, Software | 1 Comment »
Registry Cleaning and PC maintenance software has got a bad name with so many ‘scareware’ products popping up on websites, telling you that your computer needs attention and offering to put it right. Woe betide anyone who takes up the offer and more often than not you’ll end up with a infected PC, or a bill for a piece of useless software. The other problems is that maintenance software often makes little or no difference, and don’t be misled into thinking they will somehow restore the performance on a terminally sluggish or cluttered machine, that just doesn’t happen in the real world. On the other hand, running a decent cleaner every so often can help to avoid problems later down the line, by removing redundant files and Registry entries, and one freeware utility I have been trialling recently seems to do a pretty good job. Read More»
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This second and final part of our quick tour through the world of portable applications will focus mostly on programs that are not necessarily needed by the common user, but may come in handy in certain situations or to the more experienced Windows fans.
Compressing and decompressing files may be a very easy task, but things change when you have to use another computer that doesn’t have a compression utility installed, so here are some of our suggestions. You can try using the trial version of popular archivers WinRAR and PowerArchiver, or consider giving 7-zip, IZArc2Go and PeaZip a go, which are free for both personal and commercial use.
An organizer is not very helpful if you need to access your agenda from more than one computer. To overcome this inconvenience, feel free to install any of the following portable organizers and personal information managers: Sunbird, EverNote, EssentialPIM Pro, Avignon Concept or MSD Organizer. Read More»
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Windows Sysinternals is a collection of advanced system utilities accompanied by technical information, designed to streamline maintenance, management, diagnosis and troubleshooting tasks under the hood of the Windows operating system. The resources are offered as free downloads by Microsoft since 2006, when the Redmond giant acquired the project put together by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell. As of May 28, Microsoft has enabled alternative access to the utilities via Live Sysinternals, which is still in tests.
“We’re excited to announce the beta of Sysinternals Live, a service that enables you to execute Sysinternals tools directly from the Web without hunting for and manually downloading them. Simply enter a tool’s Sysinternals Live path into Windows Explorer or a command prompt as live.sysinternals.comtools or view the entire Sysinternals Live tools directory in a browser,” reads the announcement from Microsoft. Read More»
Posted in Software, Windows Vista, Windows XP | No Comments »
It happens some time when you lost the password for a database microsoft access file.
As file is password protected so it will not open up without the correct password entered, in order to solve the problem you can simply use a free password revealing utility by nirsoft.net
It’s called Access PassView, the only limitation with this program is that it works for every password-protected mdb file that created with Microsoft Access 95/97/2000/XP. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Office | No Comments »
February 25, 2008 by
Jason
If you have been following my Boot Camp series in The Daily Telegraph you may have see the recent three-parter on making XP look and behave like Vista (Poor Man’s Vista, archive on Bootlog and the DT Website) Here’s another utility to add to the mix, called Vista Start Menu Emulator. It does what it says, giving XP a Vista-like Start menu, complete with transparent borders and a Live Search facility. It’s looks and works well, though my only complaint is that I can’t seem to shift it from the default bottom right hand corner of the screen, which looks a bit odd if, like me you prefer to have your Taskbar down the right side of the screen. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Windows XP | No Comments »
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