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

WINDOWS WON'T START? It can happen to you and if it hasn't already there is a better than even chance that one day it will. You try to start your computer and it begins the startup process but gets stuck somewhere along the way. Your attempts to restart meet the same fate. Before putting your head in the oven, remember this tip. In fact, write it down prominently somewhere and one day you will thank heavens you did. Here's what to do if you are running Windows XP which by now most of you are, and if you aren't, make it your first priority in this new year.

As soon as Windows attempts to start and before it hangs up, keep tapping the F8 key. At the right point and early in the process, F8 will bring up a screen of startup choices. Select the choice to start Windows using the last known good configuration. Windows will then continue to start by doing exactly that. For this one feature alone, Windows XP is worth its weight in gold!

IF IT'S FREE, HOW GOOD CAN IT BE? I can verify that some of the most valuable and best software on my computer is freeware. I can also vouch for the fact that some of the very worst programs I have ever used are some of the most expensive.

CHANGING XP FILE ASSOCIATIONS. Certain program installations may attempt to hold your file associations hostage, and this usually leads to problems with opening your files the way you want. They're your files, and you should be able to reclaim your control over how they open. There are simple ways to change the association for a single file format, but it may be more satisfactory to get the entire list.

Windows XP provides you with a simple way to change how your files open. To get there, open up the Control Panel and select Folder Options. Click on the File Types tab at the top of the window to see a listing of all the registered file types on your system. Let's say that your MP3 files are opening in Windows Media Player when you'd rather have them open in iTunes. To easily resolve this format wackiness, just scroll down to the MP3 extension, select it, and click on the Change button. From here you'll see a list of recommended programs (iTunes will most likely be there if you have it installed) and other software options that are available. Since you want to use iTunes, just select it and click on OK. Continue to do this for all of the other formats that you'd like to tweak, and your files will actually begin to obey you.

UNDERSTANDING SYSTEM RESOURCES. It's a common question that is not often easily answered. The question usually arises when your computer stalls and warns you that you are running out of resources. Here's the great comuter guru Fred Langa's explanation:

What are "System Resources?" In this context, it's some very specific memory areas inside Windows: User Resources and GDI (Graphics Device Interface ) Resources. You can think of these areas as scratchpads - actually, internal tables and pointers- that Windows uses to keep track of running applications. The User area contains information about all the apps and windows currently running, including dialog boxes, the controls in dialog boxes, and so on. Every DLL, in fact, your apps use gets its own data area in the User section.

Loosely speaking, the more things you ask your computer to do at once, the more heavily used your User area becomes. The GDI area keeps track of the things Windows uses to draw what you see on screen: there are things called pens, brushes, fonts, bitmaps, regions, and palettes, for example. Roughly speaking, the more graphical objects you have on-screen - windows, icons, wallpapers, etc. - the more heavily used your GDI area becomes.

In Win98/ME, both resource areas are of a fixed size regardless of how much RAM you have - and that's the problem. If you run too many things at once or have too many graphical objects displayed at once, or if a program consumes some resources but then doesn't give them back when it's done, you can deplete the User or GDI area. When that happens, you get error messages, weird behavior or a crash. And again; this has nothing at all to do with how much RAM you have- these are fixed-size areas coded right into the OS.Win2K and XP handle System Resources differently; there, the total memory in your system- RAM and virtual memory (the swapfile/pagefile)- *does* affect the total available System Resources. In those OS's, it's much, much harder to run into Resource issues. In fact, it's normally something you don't have to worry about at all. Yet another reason for the few of you who have not yet switched to Windows XP.

But Win98/ME users do have to worry about Resource issues. The basic idea to avoid problems here is not to have too many things running either up front or invisibly in the background at the same time. Fortunately, those operating systems have been around so long, they hold no further surprises. System Resource problems- and solutions- are all well known. These articles can help a lot: www. infor mation week.com/story/show Article. jhtml?articleID = 17200587

WIPER WIZARD. Wipe junk files and PC traces. A lot of people do not realize that their PC stores information about what they have done, what documents they have used, what web sites they have visited, and various other activities they have performed. Subsequently, anyone else using your computer can see what you have been doing and where you have been. Furthermore, this activity information takes up valuable disk space, and recovering this space can be very beneficial. Wiper Wizard scans and removes traces of your Internet and computing activity as well as deleting a variety of junk files that litter your hard drive. Wiper Wizard also wipes those files from your hard disk without the possibility to recover them. http://www.pcprivacysoftware.com/wiper_wizard.html

FRESH UI is a fresh, free solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings in Windows XP/2000/NT/ 98/95/Me, this software covers the customizing and optimizing techniques that you'll be glad to know, such as: customizing Windows User Interface (UI), optimizing system settings, optimizing hardware settings, customizing Windows application settings, controlling user environment with policies. Fresh UI is organized by section for easy navigation and completed with detail descriptions for easy reference. www.freshdevices.com/freshui.html

PC PITSTOP. Their free, quick and automated tests can perform a complete checkup on your PC. You'll get a report summarizing the condition of your PC, including any problem areas. Then, they will provide you with instructions on how to fix the problems and get your PC running up to speed. www.pcpitstop.com

CPICTURE LE. cPicture LE is free software to view and work with your digital photos. It offers support for thumbnail browsing, EXIF display, histogram view, as well as various features to resize, rotate, crop, and more. You can also remove red-eye effects, create an HTML gallery or picture index, and batch process images to perform selected operations on multiple photos at once. The program supports all popular images formats, and even view/convert various RAW formats as well (including Canon CR2), which is not often found in free image viewers. The interface is easy to use and provides access to the features with non-technical commands (I want to...) and a modern look. cPicture LE offers several other handy features like mouseover image zooms, lossless rotation, image slideshow, command line options, color profile support, and more. The program comes as standalone executable, and does not require installation. http://cpicture.de/en/

TRUSTYFILES v2.3 [1.39M] [Win98/2k/XP] [FREE]. Download Kazaa and you risk being hit with tons of spyware and adware. Tech support professionals even have a tool called KazaaBegone created by Merijn. But what if you don't want to give up your file

sharing/downloading capability? Try this one. Imagine a rich universe of music, movies, games, and software. Hot mp3 tunes, killer videos and photos, and rad software. Explore new tastes and genres. Rediscover forgotten pleasures. Revel in 10 billion titles and choose from among thousands of search results. Enjoy a single click to share with friends or save for the fastest downloads. TrustyFiles promises NO spyware, NO bundled software, unlike Kazaa and others... You can even issue your own branded version of the software and use it to market your own products; they have a complete online step-by-step guide: Got Files? Are you an artist, distributor, content developer, or a fan who likes to create and share his own files? Promote your work to an untapped market of 80 million people looking for hot entertainment just like yours. http://www.trustyfiles.com/

FREE CREDIT REPORT. You are entitled to a free annual credit report from each of the three major credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. To facilitate this process, the Annual Credit Report Web site will handle all three requests. You have the option of requesting the reports online, over the phone or through the mail. Due to rising concerns over identity theft and privacy, steps are taken to ensure your identity before sending a report. Today, residents in 13 states are eligible to receive this information. To avoid overwhelming the system, availability will be rolled out over different dates and regions. By next September, everyone will be eligible. https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

X-SETUP PRO. Tweak more than 1500 functions in Windows, Internet Explorer, and other common programs with simple button clicks. Free X-Setup allows you to change the appearance of your desktop or browser, modify memory settings, or bump your security up a notch. The Explorer-like interface makes navigating the tweak options a snap. Optional Record Mode and log files make it easy to retrace your steps and even reproduce your work on thousands of computers. You can view the source code of every plug-in before installing it, or you can set X-Setup to automatically update with new plug-ins. http://www.x-setup.net/

WINUSCON. If someone told you your OS was full of buried treasure, wouldn't you want a treasure map? Winuscon (short for Windows User Console) unearths many Windows's most useful features and sets them neatly on your desktop. Whether you want a multi-panel internet browser, to run an internet trace, or just to find out what time it is in Singapore, Winuscon has you covered. The main form is divided into six areas: Menu, Internet, Internet Utilities, Office, Accessories, and Settings. This favorite used to be a shareware program. Now, it's freeware. www.matirsoft.com/

PROCESS EXPLORER. Windows Task Manager tells you what applications and processes are running, but some process names aren't very clear to the casual reader. Process Explorer (free) helps you get to the bottom of things by digging down to see which application started a process and which resources that app is currently using. This excavation can be a big help when you're trying to figure out which background processes you dare shut down, and it can even help sniff out spyware, too. http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp.shtml

WINPATROL V8.0. Don't you hate it when you press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and find a dozen mystery programs running you didn't even know were running? WinPatrol gives you greater control over what can run on your machine. You can set it to display additional information about-and approve of-startup programs. You'll also be alerted when something tries to load an IE plug-in or set a cookie. And to get rid of a particularly nasty piece of spyware, you can use the "Delete File on Reboot" feature, so Windows will get rid of it before any other program can protect it or relaunch it. If you'd like to try a more full-featured version of this program, consider WinPatrol Plus. It uses an online database to give you more information about what programs are running on your computer. It costs $19.95. If you'd like to download the regular, free version, click the following link. http://www.winpatrol.com/

BHODEMON. Internet Explorer has a nasty habit of allowing so-called Browser Helper Objects (or BHOs) to install themselves into IE. Some BHOs are helpful, like the Google Toolbar, but others (especially those planted by viruses or spyware) can be malicious and harmful. BHODemon gives you a quick look at the BHOs installed on your PC, tells you whether a specific BHO is known to be safe or harmful, and gives you the ability to enable or disable individual BHOs with a single mouse click. http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm

SENIOR DISCOUNTS. According to Kim Komando, if you're over 50, you've probably pitched in to help others most of your life. Isn't it time someone pitched in for you? At Senior Discounts, you can "Find the Gold in the Golden Years." Get reduced rates on entertainment, shopping, travel and everyday services. Go to the site and pop in your city or ZIP code. Out pours a pile of senior discounts in 22 categories. This is better than Vegas. Details include the name and address of the business, the amount of the discount and the minimum age required. Yes, you may be too young for some things. But isn't that nice for a change? www.seniordiscounts.com/cgi-bin/redirect/Searchform.epl

PICSORT is an easy to use free program to view and above all to sort pictures. It can load files in GIF, JPG, JIF, TGA, PCX, PNG, DIB, BMP, ICO, WMF, EMF format and save them as GIF, JPG, BMP, TGA or PCX. Besides copying and moving, PicSort also supports standard file operations like deletion (to recycle bin or to nirvana), renaming and the ability to create directories. Includes:

PC INSPECTOR SMART RECOVERY . Free PC Inspector Smart Recovery can restore your lost photos or videos from a number of different storage drive and file types. It works on flash cards, SmartMedia, Sony Memory Sticks, IBM Micro Drives, MultiMedia Cards, Secure Digital cards, and any other common data storage devices for digital cameras. Supported photo file types include .jpg, .tif, .bmp, .gif, Canon .crw , Fuji .raf , Olympus .orf (E-XX), Olympus .orf (C5050), Kodak .dcr, Minolta .mrw, Nikon .nef (D1H/D1X), Nikon .nef (E5000/E5700), and Sigma-Foveon .x3f. Supported video files include .avi and QuickTime .mov. You can recover audio files in .wav and .dss format. PC Inspector Smart Recovery. http://www.pcinspector.de/smart_media_recovery/uk/demo.htm

STICKIES. With Stickies, you can set your notes to nap in the background until you set them to wake. Using styles and colors, you can change their appearance to color-code your work or suit your aesthetic. Bullets and changeable title bar text help organize your notes. Track your work by making Stickies change from transparent to opaque when edited. Paste URLs into Stickies and open the Web site by clicking right on the sticky note. You can send Stickies over a network, or over e-mail. http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/

KERIO PERSONAL FIREWALL is designed to protect your PC against attacks from the Internet as well as other computers in the local network. The program controls all data flow in both directions-from the Internet to your computer and vice versa-and it can block all attempted communication, allowing only what you choose to permit. The firewall protects against information theft, Trojan horse applications, spyware, denial of service attacks, and unauthorized access from within the local network. Among other things, the program is free and suitable for notebooks that travel in and out of the corporate network. www.kerio.com

FOLDER VIEW is a free Windows Explorer add-on that enables you to access your favorite folders from a new Explorer toolbar (similar to the Internet Explorer Link bar), that shows icons for each added folder (and sub-folder), and allows you to access them with a single click. You can also directly jump to sub-levels of the folders by accessing them directly from the folder menu, rather than clicking your way through the Windows Explorer. The program can also integrate with standard Open/Save dialogs, allowing you to access your favorite folders from other applications as well. The Folder View concept is remarkably simple and convenient, and integrates nicely with Windows Explorer. www.folderview.com

PIKY BASKET is a handy free utility that extends the copy/move capabilities of Windows by allowing you to collect files into a virtual basket, and then copy, move or paste them at once. It makes file management and organizing easier, rather just add all the files via the new Explorer right-click option (Add to PikyBasket) and then process them later. This can be a great time saver when you want to collect files for backup, sharing, CD burning and so on. In addition, the program allows you to copy file paths to the clipboard and allows you to launch a command prompt from any folder. A nice add-on for Windows, that is there when you need it, and does not use up any resources otherwise. www.conceptworld.com/piky

ABIWORD is a free word processing program similar to Microsoft Word. It is suitable for typing papers, letters, reports, memos and any other document. The program has an attractive, professional interface and all the features you need. In addition, it offers various plug-ins that can be added to further enhance the functionality. Currently available plug-ins include several imaging tools, encyclopedia, Babelfish translation, scripting support and various others. AbiWord comes with a built-in spell checker, auto-text macros, save as web page option and much more. A very nice and well established open-source alternative to commercial word processing programs. www.abisource.com/

WINK IS A HANDY FREE TEACHING TOOL. It allows you to record desktop action or application windows and create smooth, animated Flash demonstrations from the result, which can be saved in SWF format or as standalone EXE file with integrated playback. Simply press a keyboard key every time you want to capture a frame; when you are finished, you can annotate each frame, using a variety of comment shapes. You can also include Next and GoTo button, allowing the viewer to navigate the animation or jump to specific frames. The frames are then rendered into a smooth Flash animation that can be played in the user's browser or the standalone EXE file with viewer. Wink is easy to use and lets you create quality Flash demos with no further experience needed. www.debugmode.com/wink/

CAM2PC is a free solution for digital camera owners that helps you transfer pictures to the PC and provides image viewing and management features. It also makes transfer of images from your camera easier by automatically creating folders and sub-folders based on date or description. It can optionally rename the files as well, either by date, incremental numbers and more. Once the images are transferred, it can immediately start a (full-screen) slideshow, open the built-in image browser, open the folder etc. Additional features include favorite folders, EXIF reader, RAW viewer, image rotation, conversion and resize and more. www.nabocorp.com/cam2pc/freeware.php

FLIGHTGEAR IS A FREE FLIGHT SIMULATOR. And you don't need a mega-bucks computer for liftoff. Based on open code, the program lends itself to tweaking from the flying community. You can choose from over 20,000 airports. Runways and topography are accurately displayed. Try a night flight; you'll see headlights glow on the highways and airport lights intensify upon approach. Choose your aircraft, too - from a 1903 Wright to an A320 airliner. While in the cockpit, watch the instruments update. They'll behave like the real thing! www.flightgear.org

STAR DOWNLOADER FREE is a download accelerator that can increase download speeds by up to 400 percent. The acceleration is achieved by splitting the file being downloaded into several parts and downloading these parts at the same time. Download speeds are further increased by downloading the file from the fastest mirror sites. You may automatically resume broken downloads if your connection is lost or if your computer accidentally shuts down. With the scheduler, you may download files at certain times of the day. Star Downloader may also automatically connect to your ISP and hangup upon completion of downloads. An integrated unzipping utility can automatically unzip and install downloaded files. Star Downloader also integrates with your antivirus program to automatically scan files upon completion of the download. Star Downloader supports FTP and HTTP. Proxy is also supported. www.stardownloader.com

ANTI TRACKS shareware (free trial) enables you to erase your internet tracks, computer activities and other tracks with the click of a button. It supports Internet Explorer, AOL, Netscape and Opera browsers, as well as more than 80 third party applications (ACDSee, Acrobat Reader, KaZaA, PowerDVD, WinZip, iMesh, Winamp etc.) via plug-ins. A plug-in wizard also allows you to create your own plug-ins for files, folders and registry entries to be deleted. You can perform clean-up operations manually, as needed, or automatically using the built-in scheduler. In addition, the program offers secure deletion options that comply with DOD 5220.22-M, Gutmann and NSA secure erasing methods, as well as custom methods. Other features include IE Home Page protection, Netscape Profile Manager tool, password protected interface and detailed reporting after clean-up actions. http://www.rightutilities.com/

DEEPBURNER is free CD/DVD burning software that lets you create Data Cds, Bootable CDs, and Audio CDs as well as data DVDs. In addition, it lets you burn ISO files, create ISO images and includes a tool to create and print CD/DVD labels, and also lets you design an auto start menu to launch documents or programs from the CD. The interface is easy to use and organized in several steps and supports drag and drop of files into the burning queue. DeepBurner supports all certified formats for burning, as well as BurnProof and Overburning technologies (if supported by your drive) and should work with all Works with all IDE (Atapi), SCSI, USB and FireWare CDR/W DVD/RAM drives. www.deepburner.com/

PAPER NOTES is a free basic sticky notes application that is easy to use and comes with a few useful features. For one, the notes can be made transparent (custom level), and you can also choose to anchor them on the desktop, which allows you to click through them and access items (e.g shortcuts on your desktop) that are below the note. This feature is actually quite handy to add additional comments to a shortcut on your desktop, to mark a link you want to visit or to save desktop space. The tray icon allows you to hide all notes, save them and create a new one. www.vladware.com

FRESH DOWNLOAD is a free download manager that supports multiple connections, scheduling as well as pausing and resuming of broken downloads. The program is easy to use and can integrate with Internet Explorer and Netscape, automatically taking over any download of user specified file types. You can configure the maximum number of connections to use, a default download directory as well as some other aspects. Additional features include a built in scheduler and Antivirus support, which allows you to scan downloaded files, using your current antivirus software. www.freshdevices.com

FLIGHT INFO. Here's where you can check real-time flight arrivals and departures. But more importantly, you can verify delays, schedule changes and airport status. Search by airline, airport or city. As a bonus, the weather at 71 major airports is also included. www.flightarrivals.com

IPNETINFO allows you to easily find all available information about given IP address free. You can check multiple IP addresses at the same time, convert host names (if you don't have the IP) and also paste email headers and let the program automatically extract the IP addresses. It will then display the country/city, owner information, address and any other information returned by the whois server of RIPE, APNIC or LACNIC. The results can be exported to text or HTML. http://www.nirsoft.net/

AGENT RANSACK is a very powerful and easy to use free tool for finding files and information on your hard drive fast and efficiently. You can search for file names or text in files with support for Regular expressions. When searching the contents of files Agent Ransack displays and highlights the actual text segments found in a separate window so you can quickly browse the results without having to open each file! The program features several wizards that can help you if you are not familiar with the use of expressions. Agent Ransack integrates into the Windows Find menu, so it is readily available to be used instead of the common Windows search dialog. The program also includes a very detailed help file. www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/pageloader .aspx?page=home

STARTER IS A FREE STARTUP MANAGER, that allows you to view and manage all the programs that are starting automatically whenever Windows boots. It lists all the hidden registry entries, as well as the common Startup Folder items as well. You can choose to safely disable selected entries, edit them or delete them altogether (if you know what you re doing). Expert users can even add their own entries. Very nice interface, easy to use, no documentation though (but hardly needed). http://www. snapfilespro. com/a/getapp.php?id=104732 :

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Copyright 2005. This article is from the February 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.

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