Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairmans Industry Comments (1/05)

The Computer Buffet

by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

E-mail comments, suggestions, etc. to Herb Goldstein at: revieweditor@spcug.org

ACCESS MANAGER provides fast, easy and secure storage for all your passwords. You can organize passwords into types and categories for easy access and keep notes, web site links and e-mail addresses with each password, email addresses or web site. URLs can be automatically launched from within the program. The program is easy to use and uses a clean MS Outlook style interface and can be protected with a master password. Also included is an option to generate random passwords, search functions, printing of password lists and more. Very nice! Free for personal use. http://www.accessmanager.co.uk/

CHANGE TEXT SIZE in Word and Excel quickly and easily by holding down the control key while you use the scroll wheel on your mouse.

STICKIT is a Windows desktop sticky note application. Create notes and place them anywhere on your desktop. The notes will stay where you left them until you close them - they will even reappear after rebooting your computer. The notes can be customized by you. You can select from a wide range of text colors and background colors for your notes.desktop. The notes will stay where you left them until you close them - they will even reappear after rebooting your computer. The notes can be customized by you. You can select from a wide range of text colors and background colors for your notes. www.singerscreations.com/AboutStickIt.asp

MISSING THE MANUAL? Lost the manual to one of your products? If a trip to the manufacturer's website or contacting them doesn't help, try www. livemanuals.com

SAM is short for Small Application Modules, a shareware application (try for 40 days, buy for $12) at http://www.metalgrass.com/sam/sam.html . ?It features a calendar, reminder, to-do list, stop watch, timer, world times, anniversaries, jotter, unit conversion, small calculator, and Internet dialing codes.

ADAWARE is a privacy tool, that scans your memory, registry, hard, removable and optical drives for known data-mining, aggressive advertising, and tracking components. It then lists the results and offers to remove or quarantine the components. The program detects a wide range of adware/spyware related issues and can be updated with the latest signatures via the built-in update utility. You should fully read the included Ad-aware documentation before removing any files! www.lavasoftusa.com

MEDIAMONKEY (formerly Songs-DB) is a multi-featured music manager that includes many useful tools. It acts as a Music Manager, Scanner, Player, Encoder, Decoder, Converter, Grabber, Tagger, Renamer, Playlister, Locator, Cacher and more. It includes powerful scanning features of all music files, as well as a built in player and Encoder/Decoder. In addition Media Monkey can also convert among various types of files and extract (rip) data from audio CDs. Additional tools include a file renamer, ID tag editor (read/write) and a caching system that caches songs from removable media to HD and built-in support for CDDb. http://www.mediamonkey.com/

TEXTALOUD converts any text into spoken words. TextAloud reads Text, Email, Web Pages, and documents using your choice of voices. Better still, leave your computer behind. TextAloud's unique Text to MP3 conversion can save your daily reading to MP3 audio files to download to your portable MP3 player. Listen to email, online news, or important documents while you exercise, work or commute. TextAloud now supports additional speech engines for other languages and has several new free English voices. http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/

ZIPGENIUS is a powerful zip tool suite that offers a variety of features. It offers support for more than 20 different compression formats, including 7zip, ZIP64 and many others. It supports drag and drop, 5 compression levels, full customization and integration in Windows Explorer. The program also comes with a built in FTP client that allows you to download and upload files from within the software. The signature features allows you to add your signature and contact information to any zip file you create. ZipGenius also supports the creation of self-extracting exe files, complete with custom setup launch and icon. This very complete and unique tool package also comes with additional features like encryption, scanner support (acquire pictures and zip them into files), backup, statistics, download time calculator, disk spanning, file export, support for OpenOffice and more. ZipGenius can also interact with your Pocket PC device. http://www.zipgenius.it/intweb/features.htm

AVAST! HOME EDITION is a complete anti-virus package, that is is free for registered home non-commercial users. It contains an on-demand scanner with two interfaces (simple for novices and advanced for experienced users), an on-access scanner with Standard Shield (which protects against execution and opening malware programs) and an embedded e-mail scanner which scans incoming and outgoing email messages. avast! Home integrates with the Windows Explorer right click menu and also includes a special screen saver which is able to scan your system while your computer is not in use. Updates are incremental and frequently made available for manual or scheduled download. You will download a 60 days demo, if you would like to continue free usage beyond that time, you'll need to register from the home page to obtain a free activation key by email. http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

SPYWAREBLASTER (free) doesn't scan and clean for so-called spyware, but prevents it from being installed in the first place. It achieves this by disabling the CLSIDs of popular spyware ActiveX controls, and also prevents the installation of any of them via a webpage. This allows you to run Internet Explorer with Active-X enabled, but it will never download or even prompt you for any of the known ActiveX controls. All other Active-X controls or plug-ins will work fine. The SpywareBlaster database contains information on these known spyware Active-X controls and can be updated with the click of a button. The application windows displays a list of all controls that it is able to detect (this is not a list of what was found on your computer). The program cannot detect if you have any of the known objects already installed, but if you do, they will be disabled. The program also allows you to take a snapshot of your computer (certain settings) in its clean state and later revert many changes made by spyware and browser hijackers. www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

WEBWASHER. This free program filters unwanted ads, crushes cookies, and prevents companies from profiling your surfing habits. You can eliminate pop-up windows, banner ads, and the new, larger "skyscrapers" and "rectangles" that increase the time it takes to view Web pages. You're even protected from Web bugs, invisible graphics hidden in documents that trigger the sending of messages to third parties.

With the cookie filter, you can classify cookies as good, bad, or neutral so that you can keep the ones you need (such as for home shopping), while classifying the ones that spy on you. And the included SecretMaker software sends phantom data in place of personal information and surfing habits. webwasher.com

BULK RENAME UTILITY. As the project you're working starts to balloon, it gets hard to remember which files pertain to what. You may want to rename some files to help you keep everything organized. With this utility, you can rename groups of files or folders in one fell swoop. You can perform string substitutions, add date-stamps, add or remove specified digits or characters, and make other useful changes. A preview shows you what the new names will be, so you can change your work before committing to renaming. Bulk Rename Utility is free, but the author accepts donations through his Web site. www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php

POWERDESK V5.0. The best file manager on the planet! Frustrated with the limitations of Windows Explorer? This freeware file management utility gives you the functionality and familiarity of Explorer and offers you the ability to encrypt and compress files from within the application. Perform file searches over multiple drives and complete file operations on the search results. Compressed files can be password-protected, and you can remove all traces of a deleted file using low-level deletion. The upgrade, V6.0 costs, but V5.0 is more than adequate and is free. www.v-com.com

ANTI-SPYWARE RUNDOWN. Here's a site that describes all the most commonly used utilities to combat spyware and offers a link to each one's site. http://groups.msn.com/TeMercInternetSecuritySite/ malwarecountermeasures.msnw

SAVE INK. Award-winning InkSaver 2.0 for Windows XP and Windows 2000 allows you to control the amount of ink used by your printer, saving you money by making your inkjet cartridges last longer, up to 400%. It works by simply allowing you to adjust the ink savings slider and print! Behind the scenes, InkSaver's patent pending technology optimizes your printer data so that you use less ink. www.wugnet.com/affiliates/default. asp?pageid=721

YAHOO TOOLBAR WITH ANTI-SPY Search from anywhere on the Web, and protect yourself from spyware and pop-ups, with this toolbar. Free Yahoo Toolbar fits snugly into your browser, right under the address field. Enter a search term, click Search Web, and you'll get pages of results. This latest version scans your PC for programs that may be spyware and lets you decide whether to delete them. The program also blocks pesky pop-ups. http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,24025,tk,hsx,00.asp COOLMON. This neat free program. helps you monitor your computer by displaying important system information. It displays the typical things you'd expect-CPU, RAM and hard drive usage. It also has unique extensions. These extensions display sports scores, news, TV information and other non-computer-related information. After installing the program, go back to the CoolMon Web page. Just click on the Extension link to find them. www.coolmon.org/

FXFOTO is a free photo organizer, editor. A single tool to organize, archive, enhance, and create collages with your digital photos. www.fxfoto.com/fxdownload.htm

WHAT'S RUNNING? In the recesses of your computer, 20-30 invisible processes run silently in the background. Some hog system resources, turning your PC into a sluggish computer. Worse yet, other useless processes harbour spyware and Trojans - violating your privacy and giving hackers free reign on your computer. ProcessLibrary.com is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to know the exact purpose of every single process. www.processlibrary.com/

GOURMETS AND NOSHERS ALIKE will find the recipe of their dreams at the outstanding site for food recipes at allrecipes.com. What's for dinner? Get your ideas here!

ALEXA TOOLBAR. Google aficionados may prefer the Alexa Toolbar, a service of Amazon.com. Besides including a Google input box and a pop-up blocker, the Alexa utility also can suggest related links and help you search the Wayback Machine, a huge repository of billions of Web pages as they looked in the past, some as far back as 1996. http://download.alexa.com/index.cgi

MICROSOFT PHOTO STORY 3 IS FREE. Show off your favorite photos in a memorable way. The new Photo Story 3 for Windows makes it super easy to breathe life into your photos and it's a free download for genuine Windows customers. Just transfer photos from your digital camera to your PC, use smart touch-up features to enhance them, then add narration, an original soundtrack, motion, your own captions and titles, and special effects and transitions. When you're done, you can easily send your story to family and friends in e-mail or post it to the Web. Better yet, view it on the big screen with a Media Center PC, take it on a road show with the latest Windows Mobile-based devices, or burn it to a CD and make a gift out of it. www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

WINDOWS XP HOW-TO CENTER. Check out this one-stop shop for learning how to use the features and technologies that come with Windows XP. The How-to Center is organized by topics for all the things that you can enjoy and explore with Windows XP. Within each topic, you'll find what to do if you're just getting started, helpful tips and tricks if you already know your way around a little, and more advanced content to give you that expert edge. www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/default.mspx

INCREDIFACE enables you to easily turn pictures of your friends and family into into funny movie poster, celebrities, animals and many other things. You simply select a picture (portrait works best) of a person, and insert it into one of the many templates that are provided. IncrediFace lets you fine tune the result to adjust angle, size and skin tone of the inserted photo, so that it closely matches the template. You can then add additional objects like expressions, cartoon elements, speech bubbles and much more by simply dragging them from the provide library of objects. It also includes sound effects, and you can even record your own audio and add background music. The result is saved as a show that can be exported to standalone EXE file, interactive CD, image file, screensaver, web page and several other options. The program is extremely easy (and fun) to use, and produces professional quality results. www.incrediface.com

EXPRESS BURN is an easy to use free CD burner that lets you create data or audio CDs, by simply dragging the files or folders onto the interface. It integrates with a free audio conversion tool from the same author, that will automatically convert files to AudioCD format if required, so all you have to do is select your files (WAV, OGG, MP3, WMA and others), and the software will automatically create a CD that can be played in your stereo. This auto-conversion feature makes creating an AudioCD fool-proof, even for beginners. Express Burn supports Jolliet and CDA formats, as well as Apple extensions and more. It can also be used to create an ISO images from a CD, or to write an ISO image to CD. www.nch.com.au/burn/

HOW THINGS ARE MADE. If you've ever wondered how things are made - products like candy, cars, airplanes, or bottles - or if you've been interested in manufacturing processes, like forging, casting, or injection molding, then you've come to the right place. AIM has developed an introductory website for kids and adults showing how various items are made. It covers over 40 different products and manufacturing processes, and includes almost 4 hours of manufacturing video. It is targeted towards non-engineers and engineers alike. Think of it as your own private online factory tour, or a virtual factory tour, if you wish. http://manufacturing.stanford.edu/

DO IT YOURSELF, but you need to know how. When you have a job to tackle and you need some input, try www.ehow.com. You will find loads of projects in different categories there. One of them may be just what will put you in the right direction.

GOOGLE SCHOLAR is a free service that helps users search scholarly literature such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports. http://scholar.google.com/

FIREHAND EMBER is a free graphics viewer, organizer and editor. You can thumbnail an unlimited number of images in multiple folders simultaneously (video and audio files too, if the optional Media Xtension Add-In is installed). The program allows you to organize, share, and embed your graphics by dragging and dropping them into place. Firehand Ember is a software, designed for people that work with graphics,websites, use a digital camera or scanner, or collect picture files from the interet. www.firehand.com

FREE SCROLLING NEWS TICKER FOR YOUR DESKTOP! eNewsbar.com offers a scrolling news ticker for your desktop. It's completely free, easy to setup, and no personal information or email address required. The latest up-to-date scrolling news from over 7,500 managed sources. View from categories like Headlines, Sports, Health, Entertainment, and business, or simply enter a keyword. Customize your eNewsbar.com ticker with the color, speed, text size and content of your choice, or have multiple, different tickers displayed. Includes the ability to read RSSnd ATOM feeds.

CRYPTAINER LE. Data encryption fends off snoops, but its perceived ease of use (or lack thereof) also scares off the good folks who want to use it. Free Cryptainer LE makes encryption as simple as dragging and dropping files into a password-protected vault. Any kind of file-from Word documents to video files-can be dropped in a 128-bit vault, where its automatically encrypted. You can also use Cryptainer LE to send secure e-mail attachments.

Features: Creates an encrypted container (vault) to store any type of data; 128 bit strong encryption; Simple drag and drop operation; Easy to use, Impossible to break. ?Works on all versions of? Windows; Works on all? Media including removable (USB Drives, etc); Send Secure E-mails; The best part - It is FREE - Never Expires, No Nag screens. www.cypherix.co.uk/cryptainerle/index.htm

A 400 GB HARD DRIVE is the latest offering from Seagate. It may sound like gross overkill to someone with plenty of room left over on an 80 GB drive, but to multimedia fans it may be questionably enough. Graphics, video and audio files take up gobs of room. If you don't believe it, just try downloading a movie on the net.

FREE SECURITY FEATURES FOR AOL SUBSCRIBERS. America Online released AOL 9.0 Security Edition recently. It includes free anti-virus software from McAfee, and an anti-spyware program. This edition, known formally as 9.0a, replaces 9.0. When you download the Security Edition, it is added alongside the older 9.0. You can remove 9.0, along with any other older versions, by clicking Start>>Control Panel. Double-click Add/Remove Programs. Find AOL in the program list and click Change/Remove.

America Online previously offered anti-virus software, but members had to pay for it. The company continues to lose subscribers by the thousands, so this is probably an effort to stop the bleeding. This upgrade obviously is most valuable for those who do not have current anti-virus and anti-spyware software. If you do, don't bother upgrading.

ADVICE ON BUYING A PRINTER OR SCANNER. You'll find some really good stuff at http://printscan.about.com/od/buyingadvice/a/BuyersGuide.htm

FREE CLIP ART. Select from a collection of 140,000 graphics and download free at http://office.microsoft.com/clipart.

FREE FILES. "Free" always has a nice ring to it, but is unfortunately getting scarcer on the Web. Check out http://www.freewarefiles.com for downloadable - and free - Windows software, conveniently categorized by business, games, MP3, and Internet tools. While you're in the "free mode" a stop by http://www.freewarepro.com is worthwhile as well.

MICROSOFT PARTNER PACK FOR WINDOWS XP is a free package of products for the XP platform that are supplied by Microsoft partners. You can download the full Partner Pack or individual applications in it at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/partnerpack/default.aspx?prereq=true.

The applications in the pack are:

AUTO-MAXIMIZE OUTLOOK EXPRESS AND IE WINDOWS. This free program automatically maximizes new Internet Explorer and Outlook Express windows. It includes a function for hiding/closing all IE windows with a user-defined hotkey, open new IE windows and have them sent to the background, and close popup windows. http://www.jiisoft.com/

CDCHECK is a free utility for prevention, detection and recovery of damaged files with emphasis on error detection. It can check each of your CDs and DVDs and indicate which files are corrupted. http://www.elpros.si/CDCheck/helplink. php? helpfn=overview SCRUBXP is a free utility that cleans a computer from temporary files and registry keys resulting from opening files and or using the Internet; removes IE history, temporary files, cookies, documents list from Start Menu; deletes contents from the Recycle Bin; clears Autocomplete entries and turns this feature off; and, clears Recent File lists for Run, Common Dialogs, Recent Documents, and Search Assistant, Typed URLs, Paint, Find Computer, Printer Ports, Find Files, Media Player, Previous Tasks, and Real Player. This and a host of other excellent free utilities is well worth your visit to www.elpros.si/CDCheck/helplink.php?helpfn=overview

AGENT RANSACK. It's not always easy to remember the exact file name of your document, and opening each file to look inside wastes a lot of time. Agent Ransack displays the text found inside each file. You can also search for text inside of documents. Free Agent Ransack integrates into the Windows Find menu, so it can easily replace the File Search function included with Windows. http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/pageloader .aspx?page=home

ABIWORD is a word processor similar to Microsoft Word, only it doesn't cost a penny! Programmers who encourage free software (called Open Source) created AbiWord. Using this software, you can read and write Word documents. You can create tables, lists, images and styles. You can even mail merge. Best of all, AbiWord is multi-platform- use it on Windows, Linux and other operating systems. A Mac version is on the way. At a wee 4.9 megabytes, AbiWord works on geezer computers. www .abisource.com/download/

AN EXCEL TIP. If you are working in Excel, there is a good chance that you are dealing with numbers. Sometimes you may need access to the Windows Calculator while you are number crunching in Excel. Normally you would you open the calculator from the Start Menu. However, here is a nifty little tip that puts an icon for the calculator on your toolbar in Excel: Open Excel. From the Tools menu, click Customize. Under the list of Categories, select Tools. Scroll through the list of Commands and select Custom (it will appear with a calculator beside it). Drag the Calculator onto your toolbar. An icon will appear that you can now use to launch the calculator instead of having to access it from the Start Menu. Click Close.

STICKY NOTES FOR YOUR COMPUTER. Stickies 5.0 is a free simple text-based tool that will not mess with your system files or write to your Registry. And it looks just like a little yellow sticky. Once on the screen, Stickies remain where they're placed, even through reboots. You can hide them, e-mail them or have them act as reminders. And unlike paper sticky notes, your office will never run out of them! Stickies is freeware. You may use this software on any number of computers for as long as you like, and you don't have to pay a penny. www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/

GRABCAPTURESCREEN. GrabCaptureScreen is a free full-featured screen capture program that supports seven different capture modes, as well as fully automatic image saving. You can perform interactive captures, or simply use a keyboard hotkey to capture the area, window, or selection, and automatically save the file to a specified folder (with auto-numbering and prefix). GrabCaptureScreen supports the following capture modes: desktop, single (sub-) window, multi-monitor desktops, alternate monitor desktop, active window, rectangular area, and fixed rectangle. The captures can be saved in different formats, including GIF and JPEG with additional compression and resizing features. Overall, this a very well-designed screen capture tool, with excellent features and an easy-to-use interface. www.boumchalak.net/content/view/18/39/

DOUBLEKILLER V1.5.2.65. If you have a partitioned hard drive, you may be wasting precious disk space harboring the same files in different areas. DoubleKiller hunts across single or multiple partitions and folders for identical files. It skips over files with important extensions like .dll, but it scans other files for duplicates. It checks the files' names, sizes, dates, and CRC32-checksums to see if any of them mirror one another. Once DoubleKiller locates the duplicates, it shows you a list of all of them so you can decide which ones to keep and which ones to delete or move. www.bigbangenterprises.de/en/doublekiller/

BELARC ADVISOR (free) gives you the scoop on what's installed on your desktop or notebook. It scans your computer and generates a profile of everything installed on it, from your main circuit board to software. Version, manufacturer, and serial numbers are listed, as well as statistics such as available memory slots and hard drive space. www.belarc.com/free_download.html

SYNCBACK simplifies the process of backing up your files while offering a number of options and features. The program integrates with Windows Scheduler so you can schedule automated backups easily. You can back up or sync your files to another drive, directory, or network. SyncBack creates detailed HTML log files for your review and (using MD5) verifies that files are copied correctly. It lets you run simulations, include and exclude data based on file types, exclude specific files, and select which subdirectories to back up. Version: 3.2.4, Price: Free. www.2brightsparks.com/ :

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Copyright 2005. This article is from the January 2005 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/

The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.

See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.