Sarasota PC Monitor
Review Chairmans Industry Comments (6/05)
The Computer Buffet
by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor
E-mail comments, suggestions, etc. to Herb Goldstein at: revieweditor@spcug.org
WINPATROL V9.0. 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. Scotty the Windows Watchdog barks if he spots trouble. Good boy!
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. http://www.winpatrol.com/ Whether you choose the free or paid version, this is one superb utility that belongs on everybody's computer!
MUSICMATCH JUKEBOX V10. Tired of cobbling together audio programs that play, burn, and organize your music files? Like RealNetworks' RealOne and Apple's iTunes, Musicmatch Jukebox is an all-in-one digital audio management tool that rips, mixes, burns, organizes, and plays music. The program has a "faster ripping" feature, which lets you extract files from CDs and save them as WAVs or MP3s; you can then burn your digital files to CD-R or CD-RW. The program lets you transfer your music files to your portable devices. Finally, you can enjoy Musicmatch Radio and, among other things, fill your office with the smooth, soothing tones of NPR's "Morning Edition."
Among other things, this version lets you buy tracks from all five major labels and more than 30 independents. Unlike the files you might find on a P2P file sharing network, these files are high quality, free of viruses, and legal to download. Within the program, you can then burn the files to CD and transfer them to your MP3 player. www.musicmatch.com/
TOP 10 WORDS Google limits searches to only the first ten words entered, so keep your search phrases as short as possible. Google searches on words in the order they are entered, so book paper would give you a different result than paper book.
FREESNAP allows you to instantly size any window edge to the corresponding screen edge. Want that window to touch the right edge of the screen? Press and hold the windows key and press the right arrow. It's just that simple. The number-pad keys work as well, regardless of the NumLock state. http://blueonion.home .comcast.net/freesnap.html
SAFE XP allows beginners and experts to quickly tweak various security and privacy-related settings in XP. The options include Media Player settings, services settings (error reporting, time synch, remote registry etc.), as well as an option to remove items from the Start menu, network security settings and more. www.theorica .net/download.htm
NO SCANDISK IN XP. If you were familiar with earlier Windows version and now are looking for Scandisk in Windows XP to check the health of your hard disk -- don't. It's not a part of Windows XP and has been replaced with a more sophisticated (much improved ?) tool, CHKDSK, which has essentially the same purpose: that is, to check for file system errors and bad sectors.
Unfortunately, error-checking in Windows XP doesn't perform on demand as did the old Scan Disk. If you go to My Computer and select your hard drive, right click to Properties and Tool tab, then click Check Now and select Scan for and Attempt recovery of bad sectors, you may be surprised to get a message that the utility has to have exclusive access to some files that are in use. You are given the option of scheduling the disk checking for the next time you boot your system, and you'll just have to wait until then.
E-MAIL FORWARDING CAVEATS. The great draw of e-mail is its immediacy and ease of use. So when you receive something that you think someone else should see, you can just forward it. It's actually very easy. Let's say you receive word that someone has had a baby. You know others who would appreciate hearing the news. Generally, you click the Forward button at the top of the e-mail. If you are forwarding the e-mail to a single person, enter the address in the To field. If there are multiple recipients, use the BCC function!
Start by putting your own address in the To field. List each recipient in the BCC field. When those people receive the e-mail, they will see their addresses and yours. They will not receive the addresses of others. In this day of identity theft and phishing attacks, they'll appreciate your consideration.
While we're on the subject, here's a pet peeve. Lots of busy people don't appreciate getting jokes or urban legends that are passed around the Internet. The supposed viruses and terrible stories are invariably hoaxes. If you plan to forward this kind of stuff, be sure your recipients want to receive it. At the very least, remove the long lists of people who previously got it.
PAINT.NET is free image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows XP or 2000. Paint.NET is jointly developed at Washington State University with additional help from Microsoft, and is meant to be a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with all Windows operating systems. The programming language used to create Paint.NET is C#, with GDI+ extensions.
Paint.NET has many of the powerful features that expensive commercial applications have, including the ability to use layers. This is the second semester that Paint.NET has been a project at Washington State University, and we have the goal of adding as much functionality as expensive commercial applications provide, but of course, for free! Please explore this website, download the software and try out many of the things you would do on those expensive commercial applications. http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/
DIVX PLAYER LITE is a free and easy to use video player that contains the software you need to watch and create videos in today's most popular video formats. It includes many advanced features, such as enhanced video quality, more effective compression capabilities, full-screen mode, hotkeys controls, and an intuitive interface, yet it is the most compact media player available and is capable of running on very old computers.
DivX Player Lite comes equipped with DivX video codec, XviD video codec, MPEG-2 video decoder, MPEG-4 video decoder, and AC3 filter and can play DivX, XviD, AVI, ASF, WMV, MPEG, VCD, MOV, DAT, and other video formats.
DivX Player Lite is not advertising supported, nor does it require registration, and no information is collected from or about product users. It is very small and easy to use. It comes complete with full install and uninstall. In short, it is the quintessential tool for anyone who wants to play video files on their computer. http://www.openwares.org/
PICASA IS FREE SOFTWARE that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized.
Transfer, find, organize, edit, print, and share images, all with this easy-to-use product. Watch Picasa automatically organize all your pictures into elegant albums by date. Having all your photos in one place means no more time wasted searching for folders or files. The program works with JPEG, GIF, BMP, PSD, and movie files and is compatible with most digital cameras; it detects your USB driver and imports pictures into albums. Editing tools include cropping (standard or custom), removal of red-eye, and enhancing--even switching from color to black and white.
Create slide shows set to your MP3s. Integration with Picasa's free Hello instant picture-sharing software lets you share hundreds of photos in seconds and chat in real time. E-mail photos with Picasa's built-in client to take the guesswork out of compressing images, and order photo-lab quality prints or print at home with no mistakes. Picasa is owned by Google.
New features in version 2.0 include the ability to make instant backups to CD (or to other hard drives) of your photo collections, to organize your photos using labels and stars (just like with Gmail), to write captions for all pictures, and to organize videos as well as pictures.
Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips. And Picasa makes it a snap to share your pictures - you can email, print photos at home, make gift CDs, instantly share via HelloT, and even post pictures on your own blog. http://www.picasa.com/index.php
XP BOOT DISK. Windows XP gives you the ability to quickly and easily create a boot disk (unlike Windows 2000 and Windows NT). Assuming that you have the necessary hardware installed, insert a floppy disk into your computer's floppy drive. Next open Windows Explorer (Start | All Programs | Accessories). Right click your floppy drive and click Format. From the dialog box that appears, click the Create an MS-DOS startup disk option. That is all you need to do. Windows will place the necessary files on the floppy disk that are required to boot the computer.
AZAK PRO. Manage your downloads with a free, fast and powerful interface. Recover and resume broken downloads automatically. Integrated to Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+. Download files from any FTP or HTTP server up to 100% times faster. Mirroring: Download a file from multiple locations automatically. Which means an even faster download. 100% pure java, which means it will run on any machine with java 1.4.2 installed. http://www.jdgsoft.com/
FXFOTO allows you to edit, correct and improve your digital images. You can import your photos directly from your camera, or from a local folder. The editing interface is divided into several sections, and allows you to improve your image in various ways by correcting common mishaps like red-eye and improper white balance, as well as skin blemishes and more. You can also apply different filters to make your picture look older (sepia), software, sharper, textured and more. In addition, free FxFoto allows you to add text to the photo, draw objects and send optimized images by email. All these features can be used for free, however the program also offers some additional features like image collages, CD presentations, advanced slideshows and others, which require a purchase of the Deluxe version (if desired). http://www.fxfoto.com/
ESSENTIALPIM. This is an absolutely free and versatile Personal Information Manager. It can store, manage and encrypt data: day/week/month/year schedules, notes (pictures, tables, any formatted text) and contacts. Among the features: Rijndael 128 bit encryption, MS Outlook import/export, Windows Address Book import/export, powerful search, versatile printout capabilities, adjustable contacts storage with unlimited fields. http://download.lockergnome.com/download/104140
STARTUP-MECHANIC. This free security program finds data miners, adware, and tracking software and gets rid of them, protecting your system resources and your privacy. Startup-Mechanic also sniffs out obsolete programs and unused junk, helping you streamline your system. With the backup archive viewer and the recycle bin storage, you'll have a cooling-off period in which you can decide if you want your files back. Boot protection keeps unsavory programs from launching when you start your PC.
Keep your PC running faster, cleaner, and error-free with Startup-Mechanic. Startup-Mechanic will scan your system for known data mining, advertising, and tracking components, and rid your system of these tracking components, allowing you to maintain a higher degree of privacy while you surf the Web. Startup-Mechanic will hunt down and remove junk and obsolete programs running, freeing up RAM and significantly increasing your system performance.
Other advanced features include automatic recycle bin storage of removed components, a viewer for backup archives that allows you to quickly and easily review components that have been removed and stored for future restoration, and boot protection of your PC from harmful trojans, adult-dialers, and other scumware. http://www.startupmechanic.com/
SLIMBROWSER. Why rumble along in a '77 Lincoln Continental when you can zip around in a new Lotus Elan?
That's the operating question behind stripped-down, optimized programs like SlimBrowser. A multiple-site free browser based on tab-page interface, SlimBrowser central utility is its ability to open and display several sites within the single application.
Other features include pop-up ad stoppers, blacklist/whitelist filtering, multiple search-engine queries and an auto-login feature for logging into your frequently used Web account with one click. Also: in-window access to online dictionaries, thesauri and text translation. Sacre Bleu! http://www.flashpeak .com/
LOST & FOUND. If you like estate and yard sales, how would you feel about going through other people's baggage? Or, how about things stolen from others? You can, and it's all legal. The Unclaimed Baggage Center buys items from airlines that have never been claimed. The Scottsboro, AL, company runs a store where tons of items are sold. You can sign up to be notified by e-mail when certain categories of goods arrive.
Or, check out The Property Room at StealItBack.com. It auctions goods seized by police departments. Stolen items that police have been unable to return also are sold. And if you lost goods in a burglary or robbery, it will check its database for those items.
If they're there, they'll be returned to your police department, and then to you. You can find these sites at: http://www.unclaimedbaggage.com and http://tinyurl.com/4rla9
GOVT. SURPLUS SALES. On the U.S. government's Web site, you'll find new, seized and surplus merchandise for sale. There are books, movies and other kinds of publications. Looking for something more exciting, like a house, commercial building or a car? It's there too. http://firstgov.gov/shopping/shopping.shtml
QUICK STARTUP allows you to view the list of programs that run automatically whenever you start your computer. You can edit an entry, add a new entry, disable items that you do not want to run automatically, and also launch a Google search to find out details about a selected entry. http://www.glarysoft.com/
UK KALENDER is a free straightforward calendar and ToDo application with a solid set of features and an easy to use interface. It provides weekly, monthly and yearly views, and allows you to create simple or recurring reminders with optional alarm and custom color choice. Events can also be associated with a document, or launch a command. UK Kalender can optionally export selected calendar views to CSV or nicely formatted HTML (based on customizable templates). Additional features includes customizable snooze settings, custom event categories, hidden events, integrated backup and more. http://www.8ung.at/ukrebs/
LANSPY is a free network security scanner, that allows you to gather information about machines on the network. This includes Domain and NetBios names, MAC address, Server information, Domain and Domain controller information, Remote control, Time, Discs, Transports, Users, Global and local users groups, Policy settings, Shared resources, Sessions, Open files, Services, Registry and Event log information (Administrative access is required to gather all information). In addition, the program runs a port scan, using a customizable list of TCP/UDP ports and returns header information from web servers. http://www.lantricks.com/
KEEPASS PASSWORD SAFE is a free secure password manager that allows you to store your sensitive login information in an encrypted database. It allows you to organize your entries into categories and offers several ways to conveniently enter your username/password; you can use drag and drop, copy to the clipboard, or create auto-type sequences that can enter the login information with a single click. The program also includes support for TAN passwords and allows you to create TAN lists which automatically expire a password once it has been used. Other features include password generator, auto-lock, database search, import/export, and more. KeePass Password Safe supports a plugin framework. that allows you to extend the functionality using various (free) plug-ins.http://keepass.sourceforge.net/
OMNI MEDICAL SEARCH will help you find the health information that you need when you need it. It will query 15 medical search sites and give you the best results. Best of all, there are no sponsored links here! You can search for articles, news stories or images. There are other useful tools as well. Since the medical industry has its own language, you can find definitions of terms and acronyms. You can find links to databases and medical journals, too. This site is great for anyone -- doctors included! www.omnimedicalsearch.com
WINAMP FULL V5.06. There are lots of MP3 players available, but this popular free program saves playlists and equalizer settings. The special skins and dozens of color schemes keep it looking good.
In addition to playing CDs and most other digital audio formats (.wav, MID, MOD), it has a spectrum analyzer and oscilloscope that will jump and dip with the rhythm of your song. What sets Winamp apart from the pack is the smooth, intuitive way it's designed--how it allows you to easily create and save playlists, for instance. Want to play at the best fidelity for jazz tunes as well as bass-heavy rock songs? Winamp lets you save equalizer settings for specific songs.The program also has a minibrowser that lets you view biographies and photos, and you can sign up for 3GB of free Internet music storage. Integrated internet TV & radio round out the functions.
You can burn to CD with Winamp. It burns at 2x--if you want to get the best speed out of your burner, consider buying the Pro version, which can support burning up t0 48x.
And of course, there are the skins: Winamp has an endless supply of classic and modern ones. You can dress up the player so that it shows the interior of a fancy car, photos from your favorite TV show, a cubist geometric design, or any of the more than 25,000 other looks created by fans. The program also lets you substitute its standard visual effects with dozens of plug-ins: One we saw showed an animated girl in black leather pants, dancing on a stage of purple and red Valentine hearts. http://www.winamp.com/
PC INSPECTOR SMART RECOVERY. PC Inspector Smart Recovery is a free data recovery program. It will scan your computer or memory card for deleted or formatted media files. It recovers picture, sound and video files. It can read CompactFlash, SmartMedia, SONY Memory Stick, Secure Digital and other portable memory cards. http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm
LOST PASSWORDS. There comes a time when we simply can't recall a password. NirSoft to the rescue where you'll find a collection of free utilities designed to recover that forgotten password. www.nirsoft.net/password_recovery_tools.html
PRESCRIPTION DRUG HELP. For many people, the cost of prescription drugs is a daily worry. With skyrocketing prices, some simply can't afford them. Well, help might be right around the corner. Helping Patients joins doctors, social service groups and pharmaceutical companies. Together, they help uninsured and low-income individuals get prescription drugs. They provide information on assistance programs you might not even know exist. Be sure to check out their partner listing. You'll find information on a wide range of social service organizations. Many of them provide information on disease prevention and treatment. https://www.helpingpatients.org/Intro.php
VISUALIZER PHOTO RESIZE. In most cases, the images that we capture on our cameras or receive through other means need some tweaking. Whether its resizing, compressing, or anything else for that matter, images sometimes require a little elbow grease to make them satisfactory. It's important to note that you don't necessarily need to open up Photoshop to handle these tasks. Programs like Visualizer Photo Resize exist for the sole purpose of viewing and making quick edits to your images in a simple way.
This program works with all of those JPG images that you have stored away on your hard drive. Besides the functions listed above, Visualizer Photo Resize can also add watermark protection to your photos and work with one or more images at a time. You'll find that this program does what it needs to do, and instead of running to open up the higher-class image manipulation software, you just may reach for Visualizer Photo Resize instead. http://www.freeimagebrowser.com/article2608 .html
WHOLOCKME. Have you ever been bored by this Windows message: 'Error Deleting File or Folder... there has been a sharing violation. The source or destination file may be in use.' When you try to delete, move, or rename a file?" WhoLockMe is a freeware Windows Explorer shell extension that will tell you what processes are locking a file.
You can then attempt to stop the processes, making it possible to delete the file. This would be particularly useful in fighting persistent spyware. http://www.dr-hoiby.com/WhoLockMe/index.php
DON'T LOSE YOUR KEY. Okay, losing your Windows product key might not be a catastrophe. Most people probably don't worry about it. But it could cost you money if you need to reinstall Windows. A lost key means you'll probably need to buy a new license for Windows. Since you've paid for it once, that hardly seems fair. Well, you can download Magical Jellybean Keyfinder locates your Windows product key for you. This key will allow you to reinstall Windows. It also finds your product key for Microsoft Office - in some cases. Find your key now before you need it. Print it out and keep it in a safe place. If your computer crashes and you have to reinstall Windows, you'll need it and you'll have it handy! www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml l REALACCOUNT is a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook XP and 2003 that enables you to specify a default signature and mail account for each of your mail folders. For example, if you reply, forward, or compose an e-mail from your Orders folder, you could automatically use your Sales signature and a specified mail account. The program integrates with the Outlook properties dialog, and all you have to do is right-click on a folder and specify the desired account and signature. www.realpopup.it/ YAGOOHOO!GLE. Finding the best search results on the Internet is a task made easier by using multiple search engines. I don't know what you personally like to use, but I default to Google and Yahoo! for my searching needs. Google always comes first, but if it doesn't give me exactly what I'm looking for, I'll give the query a spin in the search engine that yodels. You can obviously open up two browser windows or tabs to use both at the same time, but a site called YaGoohoo!gle gives you a side by side result comparison.
The name alone is funny enough to motivate you to visit the site, but the actual functionality of what it has to offer is really useful. The site started as an April Fool's joke, but once people used it, they kept coming back for more. Type in a random search string to see what both Google and Yahoo! have to show to you. You can browse separately within each frame, and this makes you twice as productive. Double your pleasure, double your fun. http://yagoohoogle.com/
EZBACK-IT-UP doesn't ask you bewildering questions--it just backs up your data where and when you tell it to do it. It can compare thousands of files in mere seconds. Check EZBack-it-up's logs to see what it's done. If even this much attention to backup is more than you can stand, just install the program and schedule regular backups. EZBack-it-up is donateware. If you like the program, you may want to send the developer money to cover the cost of further developing EZBack-it-up. http://www.rdcomp .net/
ATOMIC CLOCK SYNC free utility can help you keep your local computer up-to-date with the exact current time. This program will reference an atomic clock server to get the current time with the greatest accuracy available and update your PC's information. It even can be set to automatically check the time once a day to keep your PC's time accurate forever.
Atomic Clock Sync will connect to one of the time servers operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States, and will compare the time of your computer with the time on the servers operated by the NIST. This program will then display the difference between your system and the servers and if it is greater than 15 seconds, it will offer you the option of adjusting your PC by the displayed amount. The overall uncertainty in this comparison should be no worse than plus or minus five seconds under all circumstances and will be substantially less than this value in most cases. www.chaossoftware.com :
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Copyright 2005. This article is from the June 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/
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