Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairmans Industry Comments (2/06)

The Computer Buffet

by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

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

Please Note. The software references in the Computer Buffet are gathered from and recommended by a wide variety of usually reliable sources. Although I personally use and can vouch for some of the software mentioned, most are presented for your own individual perusal. For a wide variety of reasons there will obviously be some that meets your own interests and criteria, and some not. In any event, they are offered entirely for your own selection and personal investigation. You may occasionally find links that are not valid. They usually represent changes that have occurred between the time of investigation and the time they appear here in print.

Most of the software in the Buffet is freeware. You may have already discovered that being free does not imply inferiority to software that is costly. Read, enjoy and look into what seems interesting to you.

INTERNET EXPLORER OR OTHER XP COMPONENTS NEED REPAIR? On rare occasions, Windows XP may need fixing. Perhaps Internet Explorer or some other key component isn't working right or at all. What probably happened is that you accidently (or maybe by overambitious registry cleaning) corrupted or deleted some of Windows XP's system files. Here's how to restore your operating system files that may have become compromised for one reason or other. This procedure will not harm any good files, only fix those that need fixing. Your original XP installation disk should be inserted so that the process can find and restore any files it needs to:

  1. From the Start Menu select Run.
  2. Type in sfc /scannow (note the space between sfc and /scannow).
  3. Select OK.
  4. Follow any prompts during the system file checking process. Be patient. The procedure is slow
  5. Reboot when the check is complete
  6. Go to Windows Update and check to see if any newly corrected files need updating.

I suggest you save this info where you can get to it when someday you may very well need it

WINPATROL 9.8 (updated 12/05) allows you to get a better understanding of what programs are being added to your computer. It monitors important system areas that are commonly altered by many malicious programs. This includes the startup groups (registry and startup folder), cookies and active tasks. You can terminate processes and enable or disable startup programs. The cookie monitoring option allows you to automatically delete cookies based on a keyword found in the cookie name. Additional features include a WHOIS lookup tool and an option to alert you on changes. WinPatrol is easy to understand, yet quiet powerful. Optional upgrade to a Plus version available. This is one of my most frequently used programs! www.winpatrol.com/

GREAT SEARCH ENGINE! Next to email, the most frequently used component on the Internet is a search engine. Google is the leader of the pack, with Yahoo and Ask Jeeves picking up the slack. Now you can get all 3 at the same time, covering all the bases with Jux2, available at jux2.com. Enter your seach text and Jux 2 will simultaneously list results for the three in order of relevance. Try it. Chances are you will like it!

ICON RESTORE. Icons don't stay put like they should. With Icon Restore, you can order them back to their places. After installing Icon Restore, you can save the icon layout. Then even if you change the screen resolution, you can call your icons back from their wanderings. http://users.rcn.com/taylotr/icon_restore.html

TIMELEFT is a countdown, reminder, clock (also Windows tray clock replacement), alarm-clock, stopwatch, timer, sticker, and time-synchronization utility. TimeLeft uses Winamp skins to show digits and text. The main feature of TimeLeft is a customizable reminder, which can alert you at a specific moment or run periodically. It can also remind you before a specified event or keep on reminding you after it. The reminder can show a message, play music, open a link or document, or shut down your PC. The Countdown feature lives on your desktop and shows the amount of time left until (or that's passed since) the specified event. You also can put your countdown on a Web page.Version 3.11 allows replacing Windows system clock with skinnable TimeLeft clock. www.nestersoft.com

THE FREE DICTIONARY.COM is an incrdible web reference resource that includes nine dictionaries, including medical, computing, legal, and financial, as well as idioms and acronyms and a lot more. Try it. You won't be disapponinted. www.thefreedictionary.com

A9 TOOLBAR. Pretend you're a process efficiency expert, and take a look at this Web search process: Open browser, go to search engine, search, find something interesting, bookmark the URL, jot comments on a sticky note and slap it on the monitor bezel. Room for improvement, eh? Try A9 Toolbar, which sits in your browser so you can search from any page. With the Diary feature, you can leave notes on any Web page and later access them from any computer-not just the one you browsed at when you found the page.

That bears repeating: A9 lets you access the same information from any computer. Your bookmarks stay on A9's server, so there's no need to worry about syncing your bookmarks between different PCs. You can check your browsing and search history from the server, too. www.a9.com

YANKEE-CLIPPER is a powerful Windows clipboard extender/memory. The program handles Pictures, (Rich) text and URLS with no size limitations. Everything you copy to the clipboard is automatically sorted into the responding category, where it can easily be reviewed, deleted, saved or sent to other applications via the "Shoot" feature or drag and drop. Additional features include printing, optional permanent storage of clippings (boilerplate) and more. Yankee Clipper comes with a familiar Outlook-style interface. www.intelexual.com/products/index.aspx

FASTSTONE IMAGE VIEWER is a free image browser, viewer converter and editor with an easy to use interface and a nice array of features, that include resizing, renaming, cropping, color adjustments, watermarks and more. It also includes an intuitive full-screen mode that provides quick access to EXIF information and thumbnail browser via hidden toolbars that emerge when you touch the edge of your screen with the mouse. Other features include a high quality magnifier and built-in slideshow with 60+ transitional effects, as well as lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image frames, scanner support, histogram and much more. FastStone Image Viewer supports all major graphic formats including BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA as well as digital RAW formats including CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF and DNG).www.faststone.org

WEGA2 is a free image viewer for digital photos and other graphics, that offers a variety of additional features that can assist you with file management, emailing of images, resizing of images and more. It integrates a handy pixel magnifier, as well as EXIF data display and sorting, histogram, thumbnail navigation and a customizable interface. www.wega2.vandel.nl/

SENSORSVIEW is a small utility, that monitors the temperature of your CPU, motherboard and hard disks, as well as voltages and fan speeds (as supported by your motherboard). It can alert you if the values reach a critical level, and also provides a complete overview of the measurements. www.stvsoft.com/

A-TOOLBAR is a useful internet and desktop tool bringing you 36 useful tools that are accessible from an attractive toolbar that runs at the bottom of your screen or in the system tray (when not in use). It includes tools for any type of Internet user, including Search throughout 40 different search engines at once, Language translator, Free SMS message sending, Latest news, Spam remover, Links manager, Applications manager, Agenda with world clock, Clipboard history, Password keeper, Password revealer, Weather forecast, Backup utility, Currency converter, Quotes (stock symbols). For more advanced users, it also includes several networking utilities: Ping, Trace, DNS lookup, Port scanner, Finger, WhoIs as well as webmaster tools to submit and rank your site: Submit url, Url info, Link popularity, Position analysis, Keyword density. Very nice, easy to use, attractive. www.metaeureka.com/

ACEMONEY LITE makes it easy to manage a checkbook, create and manage budgets, juggle finances in multiple currencies, track spending habits, record expenses, transfer among accounts, and even do on-line banking. The account information can be shared or password protected. The program offers an easy to use interface that is straight forward and much easier to use than most commercial packages. Yet it offers everything you need to balance your personal bank account and keep track of where your money is going. The free version is limited to one bank account. www.snapfilespro.com/a/php/morefrom.php?aid= 49824334

WEATHER WATCHER is your personal Windows desktop weather station. Automatically retrieve your local weather from the Internet and store it in your Windows system tray. With one click of your mouse button, the most current weather update is in your view.

Weather Watcher provides an attractive interface with detailed information, hourly and daily forecast, as well as access to satellite maps, international weather and more. www.singerscreations.com/

COBIAN BACKUP is a small and simple utility to backup files and directories from some place in your computer to another place in the same computer or to a shared drive in another machine.You can set the program to automatically make a backup within regular intervals of time, for example daily, weekly etc. Cobian Backup offers additional support for PKzip compressions and can be run as a service under NT/2000/XP. www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/index.htm

ICONS FROM FILE allows you to extract icons from files (EXE, DLL, OCX, etc.) and save them as individual ICO, BMP, JPEG, EMF files or as a single contact sheet. You can also copy icons to the clipboard or print the icons. The program includes a small file browser that allows you to easily find files that contain at least an X number of icons. www.vlsoftware.net/exico/

SMARTFTP allows you to transfer files across the Internet via FTP. It offers a Windows XP look and feel and features including SSL (Implicit/Explicit), FXP Support, Multiple connections, Proxy Firewall support, Drag and Drop from Explorer, and Remote

Directory caching and more. SmartFTP offers support for Unicode/UTF8/MBCS, IPv6, and UPnP. (Installer will download between 1mb and 6mb of additional files.) The free version has an annoying reminder dialog. www.smartftp.com/

FIRETUNE is a tweaking tool, designed to optimize the performance of Mozilla Firefox. The tweaks are based on a collection of optimization settings, which can be time consuming and difficult for the novice user. FireTune allows you to automatically apply these tweaks based on your computer and Internet speed. It offers a backup and Undo option to restore your original settings as well. We noticed some speed improvements when loading pages after applying the tweaks. We were using a fast (3ghz) PC and DSL connection, the improvements were minor but noticeable. www.totalidea.com/frameset-products.htm

SAFETY SCAN. Microsoft is offering a free safety scan for your computer It's like taking your PC in for a tune-up and oil change at the service station. Windows Live Safety Center is a free, Web-based service that gives you quick, on-demand PC health and security scans. It also has straightforward explanations about online threats and a vibrant online community where you can get answers to questions about your PC. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4314395

FLIGHTAWARE. The Future Of Flight Tracking Has Arrived. A free and powerful flight tracker that will change how you think about flight status, tracking, and analysis. View schedule and track activity for any private (IFR) or commercial flight. See scheduled, enroute, and recent flight activity for any airport. http://flightaware.com/ Thanks to Janice Hinkley for this tip.

BULLZIP PDF PRINTER works as a Microsoft Windows printer and allows you to write PDF documents from virtually any Microsoft Windows application. www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php

KEYTWEAK is a free keyboard remapper. It lets you quickly change the mapping for any key. For instance, if your laptop is missing a Windows key, you can fix the problem. KeyTweak uses Microsoft's Scancode Map registry key to remap your keyboard. VB6 Runtime files are required, but are already present on Windows 2000/XP. http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/

THE GOTVOICE MESSAGE CENTER automatically retrieves all of your voicemail from a cell phone or landline telephone service to your computer's desktop. The service automatically dials your voicemail service and downloads any available messages. Scheduling will also delete messages from your voicemail queue on a custom schedule. www.gotvoice.com/gvmc.php

TOPAZ MOMENT. Enhance image quality, clarity and resolution of captured video frames. Tired of noisy and blur frame grab from video? Topaz Moment uses multiple neighbor frames and advanced spatial-temporal enhancement technology to let you capture a picture, from video, that is cleaner, sharper, and at high resolution. This is the tool to capture priceless moments on video and turning them into photo-quality prints. Topaz Moment! FE is a freeware edition. www.topazlabs.com

TOP SECRET CRYPTO GOLD includes Top Secret Chat and Top Secret Journal, with file and e-mail encryption. RSA key sizes 480 to 16,384 bits. Insert 180 smileys in e-mail, journal entries, and chat sessions. Free for personal private use. Commercial use requires an inexpensive license. New! Now easy to use with any e-mail program including Yahoo! Mail, MSN Hotmail, Gmail, IncrediMail, or FoxMail. www.topsecret crypto.com

TOMAHAWK PDF+ gives you a complete PDF file creation suite right on your computer. Tomahawk can also be used as an advanced editor for rtf, txt, tmd (our own format) and other file formats: www.nativewinds.montana.com/software/tomahawk.html

TEXAS HOLD EM POKER. Take on the masters of the game in this high quality, No Limit Texas Hold 'Em game based on the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament TV Show. Helpful tips for beginners, challenging computer opponents for experts, and great fun for everyone!

Play against Doyle Brunson, Howard Lederer, Johnny Chan, Gus Hansen, TJ Cloutier, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, David Hasselhoff, and Chip Reese (okay, maybe we were lying about David Hasselhoff. But, still)! Can you go up against eight poker champions and beat them at their own game? http://windows.fileoftheday.com/archives/games_poker _superstars_invitational_tournament.html

FREECOMMANDER is a dual-panel file explorer with many additional features. In addition to the standard file management features, it can be used to compare directories, display folder sizes, synchronize folders and more. The program can also open/create ZIp and CAB files, and open RAR files, as well as search inside those archives. You can set view filters, create folder list (for printing), change file attributes, launch a command prompt, take a desktop screenshot and more. www.freecommander.com/ RESPONDING HEADS enables you to launch programs, commands and actions via voice commands spoken into your PC microphone. The program uses the MS Speech recognition engine and is very easy to configure. It places a small animated head on your desktop that confirms that spoken commands and adds some animation to the process (this can be turned off). Responding Heads supports program launching, e.g say 'Open Mail' to run Outlook Express, as well as several system and keyboard commands, text-to-speech conversion, and even typing of pre-configured keystrokes. http://www.adsa.tk/ SEND VIDEO BY E-MAIL. Windows Movie Maker lets you compress video so that it won't overload the recipient's inbox: Select Send in e-mail on the program's Finish Movie menu, and follow the prompts to compress your video and attach it to an e-mail message. For more, visit Microsoft's Movie Maker tutorial: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/videos/share.mspx

SEAGATE TO BUY MAXTOR. Hard drive manufacturer Seagate will buy rival Maxtor for $1.9 billion in stock. Seagate expects to save $300 million in operating costs in the first full year after the deal. The sale should be completed late this year. MICROSOFT'S TEMPLATES. Microsoft makes available numerous templates designed to make your life easier. A template is just a document in a sort of "starter" format. It might be an Excel spreadsheet configured to act as a checkbook, a Publisher greeting card with a Christmas wreath, or a Word document for a teacher to use as a field trip permission slip. The basic premise is that the template is already designed for a particular purpose, and you just have to add your own content.

Microsoft's templates available are in the following general categories:

All of these templates are available free from Microsoft. However, you must use Internet Explorer to download them. Get in the habit of checking the Microsoft site for templates whenever you need to create a new Office document, and your creations will look very impressive! They are available for download at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx

CLIPBOARD HELP+SPELL is a free clipboard utility that automatically captures and stores all text content that is copied to the Windows clipboard. It automatically organizes entries by new and old and can remove entries after X days, back up the database, and filter the list by keyword.

In addition to clipboard management, the program also includes tools to process the captured text. You can spell check, convert case, remove and format characters, trim line breaks, find/replace, and more. An all-around clipboard utility helps you maintain an organized list of frequently used text snippets for quick pasting to the clipboard, keep track of clipboard history, process text, spell check text in any application and more. www.donationcoder.com/

WINAUDIT allows you to perform a detailed audit of the hardware and software configuration of your computer. The resulting audit report contains details on installed software, license information, peripherals, memory usage, processor model, network settings, startup programs and more. It can be viewed from within the application, or optionally exported to text, nicely formatted web page, XML and spreadsheet formats, or sent by email. WinAudit also supports ODBC connections and can export audit data to an existing database. Very small, standalone program that works well. www.pxserver.com/WinAudit.htm

4UONLY is a secure password manager to store all your passwords and logins. It offers a time saving feature that allows you to access the passwords without having to type a master password each time. 4UOnly uses the Windows account credentials of the current user and encrypts the password list based on that information. As a result, the passwords can only be accessed from user account that they were created in. In addition, it also provides the option to set a master password, in case that you need to transfer the password list or open it outside of your Windows account. It includes a password generator, an option to expire passwords, add comments as well as file or web links. Additional features include print support (print a list of all logins), enhanced encryption, clipboard clearing and system tray support. 4UOnly provides a convenient way to store your passwords, however it is only secure as long as nobody else can use your Windows user account. If you frequently leave your PC unattended and do not lock access, then this one is not for you. http://dillobits.com/

SURE DELETE. Sometimes "delete" means "kinda sorta delete." When you drag a file to the Recycle Bin, you only move it to a new location. Even when you empty the bin, your files are still retrievable by Undelete utilities. Sure Delete permanently deletes that data from your drive. Whether you want to shred sensitive information or free up resources on your hard drive, this program ensures that it's done permanently. Rather than simply deleting file references on your computer, the program actually destroys the data itself. Sure Delete offers a wizard-style interface that guides you through the process of deleting files, cleaning up your hard drive in minutes. Sure Delete is free and supports the FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS disk formats. www.wizard-industries.com/index.php

TAXCUT 2005 DELUXE

Painless Tax Preparation.

It's the least happiest time of the year! You've heard the music, now you need to prepare yourself to face it. Yes, it's tax time and for many people it's a choice between what's worse...paying taxes or preparing a return. I can't help you with paying, but I can perhaps offer some very useful advice about preparing a return.

There I was at the office of my accountant waiting for my appointment with an envelope full of documents in hand. I watched the professionals at work feeding info into computers and grinding out tax returns. It did not look like anything an average computer user couldn't do with a little guidance. I promised myself that next year I would give it a try solo and save the $450 it was currently costing me for professional efforts (I'm sure it's a whole lot more currently).

And so with considerable trepidation, I purchased tax preparation software the following year and was shocked to discover that it did not take a Phi Beta Kappa to prepare a tax return and save a healthy sum. The net result is that I have been preparing my own tax returns ever since and saving a bundle in what turned out to be a surprisingly easy procedure.

Is preparing a tax return for you? If you are running a business, have an unusual personal situation or are an investor with a complex tax situation, an accountant may save you a lot more than his fee. If you don't fall into that category, be assured that anyone of average intelligence can easily prepare an accurate return using tax prep software. How do you find out? It's easy and inexpensive. Buy tax prep software and give it a try. It is so inexpensive that in the very unlikely instance you are disappointed, you can chuck it and return to your friendly accountant or H&R Block office without a sense of loss.

Many Floridians in particular have a relatively simple tax picture consisting of retirement and some investment, social security and savings income, perhaps with some employment W2's thrown in. The simplest of tax return packages would readily do it for you. Let's look at TaxCut, the software offered by H&R Block as a prime example.

TaxCut comes in three different varieties, a Standard, Deluxe and Premium edition, each for successively complex tax situations. Visit hrblock.com for detailed descriptions of each or read the exterior of the box at your favorite location for purchasing software and decide which most interests you. We shall focus on the Deluxe package for this review.

The software installs easily and then checks for the latest tax updates and incorporates them into your installation. It then proceeds to do exactly what your accountant would do, asking questions, category by category, and recording your answers. Categories include income, expenses, and personal info as they apply to federal income tax. TaxCut will determine whether you are better off itemizing your deductions or applying the standard allowance. It will question you and appropriately factor in any and all diverse elements pertaining to your IRA, 401K, investments, losses, and all other pertinent categories. You can import applicable financial info from any personal finance package such as MS Money or Quicken, as well as tax info from last year's tax prep software.

As you proceed through the step-by-step interview, your taxes are continuously calculated in the background. If you are interrupted during your work, TaxCut keeps track of were you left off and need to commence again when ready. When you have answered all the interview questions, your return is audited by TaxCut for any error or discrepancy in accuracy or that might raise IRS eyebrows. When completed, you can print out your return on the official IRS forms and format that will look like it came directly from a professional preparer and mail it off to the IRS. Your tax due or refundable, as well as your payment schedule each quarter will be calculated and presented to you. Free E-filing is offered for your return in the TaxCut package, is preferred by the IRS, and results in a quicker refund if one is due you. If you are required to pay state taxes, preparation is included in the Deluxe + State package (vs. the Deluxe alone package at slightly less cost).

TaxCut offers a plethora of help during your preparation procedure. Context sensitive help is available at any point using info provided either directly in IRS publications or in H&R Block professional guidance, tips and advice. TaxCut provides 100% accuracy and will pay any penalties and interest resulting from any error on its part. Block is so sure that you will like TaxCut that it offers a complete refund within 60 days of purchase if you are not completely satisfied. If you are a habitual worrier, H&R Block will review your return before submission or represent you in the unlikely event of an audit, either at some additional cost

The software can be downloaded from the H&R Block website and is readily available in boxed product wherever software is sold both locally and on the Web. Although inexpensive enough by list price, discounts are commonly available. I found Wal-Mart to be the not-unusual low price leader. TaxCut represents excellent value regardless of price.

If you have never used tax prep software before, it's likely you will become a confirmed convert. If you are a previous TaxCut user, it's also likely you will return for your 2005 return. I found (thankfully) no radical changes but some additional smoothing of the already very straightforward interview process. Nobody enjoys paying taxes or preparing a return, but TaxCut makes it as painless as it gets!

Questions often arise about the competition tax prep software (TurboTax). TaxCut and Turbotax basically do the same job in the same way without one being outstandingly better than the other. There are 3 main (among other) reasons however that I prefer TaxCut. Firstly, TurboTax costs 30% more without offering any additional advantages. Secondly, TaxCut is published by an income tax specialist, H&R Block. I trust the tax advice of H&R Block a lot further than that of a software publisher, Intuit. Thirdly, and very important, I have found Block's customer relations and service significantly surpass Intuit's.

In the several years I have been using TaxCut to prepare my return, I have never had a return questioned by the IRS for any inaccuracy. When refunds were due, I received them promptly. All in all I am happy with the results and so is the IRS. What's more, I have a much better understanding of my tax picture and what I might do to properly minimize my tax liability. TaxCut has my enthusiastic recommendation! :

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Copyright 2005. This article is from the February 2006 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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