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.
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Written by Jason on June 21st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1340 and 1354 and 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and 544 and Contributors and Security and Software and USB and Utility and application and computer and freeware and memory and program and registry.
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. It’s called nCleaner Second and it covers a lot of ground, from scanning the Registry, to tweaking Windows settings and scanning Startup files. I’m still playing around with it but so far so good and the promise of it being able to free up an average of 2Gb of hard disc space certainly seems to be true. It’s small the download is on 875kB and remarkably fast, so see what you think, and I would be interested to hear your views, good or bad.
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Written by Jason on June 12th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1340 and 1354 and 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and 544 and Contributors and Help and Maintenance and Performance and Software and Utility and computer and download and freeware and freeware utility and registry and startup and tweak and windows.
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.
Securing your data may be done in several ways: by encrypting your important files and folders, by safely managing your passwords and other sensitive data and by removing your traces and any redundant data from the host computer. Let’s take a closer look at each method and see what are your portable alternatives.
If you’re interested in encrypting data without spending a single cent, you should know that there are quite a few freeware portable programs that will help you achieve this without a lot of hassle, and here are just some of the options: Portable TrueCrypt, Challenger, Androsa FileProtector or Blowfish Advanced CS. If these programs don’t satisfy your needs, then you might consider shedding a few bucks on much more advanced encryption applications like Portable Vault, CryptoLock or MyPrivacyKey.
Passwords (or passphrases) generally pose two very important problems: you must always store them in a safe place, where nobody can discover them and, furthermore, if we’re talking about more than two or three, it’s almost impossible to memorize all of them. This is where password managers enter the scene like the lifesavers they sometimes are. Here are just a few suggestions of portable applications that will enable you to easily carry your passwords with you wherever you go: KeePass, SignupShield, SimplePasswords, and Password Safe, which are all freeware programs; or Roboform2Go, WebM8 and Handy Password, which will require a small investment on your behalf in order to use them without any kind of restrictions.
To easily and safely remove sensitive or redundant data, there are quite a few powerful utilities that will enable you to wisely save some space on your drives, and the best part is that they’re free! So don’t hesitate to put some of these babies to work, while you sit back as files are being shred: CCleaner, Eraser Portable, ZKleener or MV RegClean.
Creating a backup copy of your flash drive or important files and folders ensures protection against any type of data loss. So, let’s see what portable software should always be on your USB stick to prevent unrecoverable removal of your files: Cobian, Toucan, Allway Sync ‘n’ Go, Backup4all and Package Backup For U3. Still, if you’ve erased something, restoring deleted data is not at all impossible, so just immediately run a recovery tool such as: Recuva, Avira UnErase Personal or FileExtractor.
And now, at the end of our journey, after such a long walk through the world of portable applications, let’s take a final look at your options when it comes to managing your files. An easy way to have all of your portable applications and rapidly run them is that of using a portable launcher, so here are your options: PStart, Portable Start Menu, Open Menu+ or Executor. However, if you’re looking for a lot more than that, here a few very popular file managers which will most probably help you get your job done in a jiffy: EF Commander, Total Commander, XYplorer, UltraExplorer. That’s all, folks! Enjoy your portable applications!
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Written by Jason on June 6th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Contributors and Password and Portable and Software and Utility and WinRAR and application and command and computer and encrypt and free and freeware and utilities and windows.
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.
The new Sysinternals service has been in private beta testing until this week, but now it is open to the general public. Sysinternals Live is a basic HTML page designed exclusively for functionality. According to the Microsoft Windows Sysinternals Team, users are advised to turn to the standard Windows Sysinternals website if they are unfamiliar with the utilities.
The Sysinternals home page contains detailed information about each utility, unlike Live Sysinternals which assumes that the users simply want effortless access to the latest versions of the tools as they get updated. Along with the launch of Live Sysinternals, Microsoft also updates three tools, namely Process Explorer, AutoRuns, and Process Monitor.
Sysinternals Live “is a file share allowing access to all Sysinternals utilities. We have developed this to test an alternate distribution mechanism for our utilities. This will allow you to run these tools from any computer connected to the Internet without having to navigate to a webpage, download and extract the zip file,” the Windows Sysinternals Team stated.
The entire Sysinternals Suite 1.0 Build 28.05.2008 is available for download here.
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Written by Jason on May 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and Browser and Contributors and Maintenance and Software and Sysinternals and Troubleshoot and Troubleshooting and Utility and Windows Vista and Windows XP and command and microsoft and windows and windows explorer.
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. (more…)
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Written by Jason on March 17th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Microsoft's Technet has a utility called "Windows Easy Transfer Companion" (WETC). It can copy key software programs from Windows XP to Windows Vista for those planning to migrate over and want to make sure that the apps still work.
Windows Vista contains a similar utility, however, this version runs both on the source Windows XP PC first by scanning you hard drive, gathering basic system information, and analyzing all installed software. You need to connect the Windows XP (Source PC) to the separate Windows Vista (Target PC) via network or a easy transfer USB cable.
The utility communicates with the Windows XP machine to display a list of all discovered applications which you select to be transferred (click picture below)
At the end, a status message tells you which programs were copied and whether errors occurred.
Here is a sample list of programs that have been transferred with all its settings successfully in the past using this utility:
| Program | Vendor | Versions |
| Acrobat | Adobe | 7 |
| Acrobat Reader | Adobe | 7, 7.0.5, 7.0.8 |
| AOL Instant Messenger | AOL | 5.9 |
| AOL Toolbar | AOL | 3 |
| Avant Browser | Avant Force | 11 |
| Cam Frog Video Chat | Camshare | 3.72 |
| Trillian | Cerulean Studios | 3.1 |
| Google Earth | Google | 3 |
| Google Talk | Google |
|
| Google Toolbar | Google | 2.0.114, 3.0.126.3, 4 |
| Windows Live Mail Desktop | Microsoft |
|
| Firefox | Mozilla | 1.0.7, 1.0.6, 2 |
| Netscape | Netscape | 7.2, 8.0.2, 8.0.4 |
| Opera | Opera | 8.5 |
| Eudora | Qualcomm | 6 |
| Skype | Skype | 2.0 |
| Yahoo Messenger | Yahoo! | 7, 8.1 |
| Program | Vendor | Versions |
| Call of Duty | Activision | 2 |
| Battlefield 2 | EA Games | 1 |
| Star Wars Battlefront | Lucas Arts | 2 |
Download the Utility directly from Microsoft hereOther Tips Users have watched
Written by PCWizKid on March 14th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Microsoft Windows Vista and Utility and Windows XP and powertoys and wetc and xp compatability.
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A CPU temperature monitoring software package that is now Vista 64-bit compatible.
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You can use the Microsoft IPsec Diagnostic Tool to check for common network problems on the host computer. When problems are found, the tool suggests appropriate repair commands.
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Sounds like some Ultimate Extras might really be on the way. Will they be desirable to anyone, we’ll have to wait and see.
Post from: ITsVISTA
ITsVISTA Web Links: March 7th
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Written by Joe on March 7th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on CPU and Extras and IPsec and News and Ultimate and Utility.
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ShellRunas v1.0 is for heavy Explorer users who launch programs under different accounts (similar to the Runas tool).
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Vista on a 1999 500mhz P3 with 512MB RAM? It would appear so. This week has had a lot of pro-Vista news on various fronts. Is the tide turning for Vista?
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Can Vista make you a hero by saving your company money? I doubt it, but you may want to check out the reasoning here.
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More indications that Vista isn’t as bad as the negative hype would have you believe.
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Download the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator 3.0 to assess your environment and create reports.
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Another performance test of SP1, this one showing Vista SP1 is quicker than XP SP2 in most situations.
Post from: ITsVISTA
ITsVISTA Web Links: February 27th
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Written by Joe on February 27th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Deployment and Legacy and News and Performance and Software and Utility and review and sp1.
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. (more…)
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Written by Jason on February 25th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Boot and Search and Utility and Vista-like and Web and Windows Vista and Windows XP and bootlog and computer and menu and start and start menu and taskbar.
Microsoft has increased both the power and complexity of its popular Windows operating system with the release of Windows Vista. The TweakVista™ tweaking utility helps you configure Windows Vista to meet your personal needs by improving performance and customizing system settings.
Unlike other power tools for Windows, TweakVista™ automatically prompts enhancement recommendations, offering easy “one click” updates to otherwise complex configuration changes. TweakVista™ is also safe to use. By utilizing Microsoft’s system-restore technology any changes you make can easily be rolled back. You can freely experiment with different settings without disabling your computer. (more…)
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Written by Jason on February 25th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Security and Software and Utility and Windows Vista and community and computer and computer security and configuration and internet optimization and internet settings and operating system and pc performance and performance optimization and security features and security settings and startup and system settings and tweak and tweaking and tweakvista and windows.
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