Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairmans Industry Comments (3/06)

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. Please also remember that in copying web addresses you must be 100% accurate!

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

WINDOWS LOGON BYPASS PROBLEMS? In a recent column I passed on a tip from PC World about avoiding the XP username and password screen when logging on to Windows. Two members have complained that the procedure created a problem that caused their computer failing to boot at all. While many, including myself, have had no problem using this helpful tip, it once again demonstrates that computers are as individual as fingerprints; no two are alike. The combination of hardware, software, registries and much more give every computer individual technical personalities that can cause them to act unpredictably. So if you are unsuccessful (or worse) in applying a tip either we, PC World, or any either entity passes along, that's life in working with computers. Any time you make any change to your computer, and often mysteriously without your making any change that you are aware of, your computer may decide to malfunction. If you are able to boot up, the best answer is usually "System Restore" which will return things to a previous date or time when your computer was functioning normally. If you can't boot at all, try booting with the Restore CD that hopefully came with your computer or booting into Safe Mode where you can do a System Restore. When all else fails, you may need to boot with your Windows CD in place, and if necessary, reinstall Windows. And if you can't do these things, your only alternative is a knowledgeable friend or a professional computer repair facility.

FREE INFORMATION. If you need a phone number and you call information (411) there is a charge for the call as much as $3+. Another sneaky way the phone company dips into your pocket! To get around it, just dial 1-800-FREE411. You may have to listen to 10 seconds of advertising, but you will get your information free.

CAT LOVER? Here's a short video you should not miss! http://media.putfile.com/Funny-Cats

SIMPLEOCR. Convert your scanned images to text files or Word documents with SimpleOCR-the only OCR (Optical Character Recognition) application that is completely free. SimpleOCR is also a royalty-free developer toolkit (aka SDK or API) that you may use to add OCR to your custom software application. A 15-day demo of Charactell's Softwriting handprint recognition engine is also included. Machine print recognition has no limitations or advertisements www.simpleocr.com/?kSite=SW.

CHEAP AIR FARES. Add this to your collection of sites for finding cheap air fares and hotel rooms: http://farechase.yahoo.com/

DBPOWERAMP will convert your digital music from one format to another. The program handles music on audio CDs to WAV or MP3 format and vice versa. Optional software lets you convert LPs to digital format, and covert audio files to Windows Media Audio v8 or OGG format. The program sports a volume normalization feature, ensuring that all tracks play at the same volume, ID-tag preservation, info popups, and the ability to send audio to your portable MP3 player. www.dbpoweramp.com/

SECURITY FOR YOUR NEW PC. Did you recently get a new PC? Before you go online, make sure your system has the latest updates and security software installed to help defend against viruses and other potential threats that await you on the Internet. Microsoft offers five steps will help you set up your new computer with the latest Windows XP security tools available. PC.http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4384845

JAIL FOR INTERNET PESTS. A new federal law states that when you annoy someone on the Internet, you must disclose your identity. Here's the relevant language. '[Whoever communicates online] ... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

VTECH'S NITRO NOTEBOOK is a learning system that helps children develop math, science, and language abilities. Because it looks like a laptop, with a keyboard and mouse, it also familiarizes kids with computers. The system has 80 games, meant to improve kids' hand-eye coordination, creativity, language, and cognitive skills through the use of animation, music, sound effects, and art. Though aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 11, the Nitro captured my imagination, too. It is available for as low as $39. For more info, go to VTech's site: www.vtechkids.com/product_page.asp?productId=291

WEATHER PULSE. Weather Pulse displays satellite weather data from around the globe. Get 10 day weather forecast by geographic region. Hourly forecast updates. Alerts for storms and dangerous weather systems like hurricanes and tornadoes. Email weather updates and satellite images to friends. Keep track of weather in multiple locales from your desktop. Add satellite photos as your desktop wallpaper. http://tropicdesigns.net/weatherpulse.php

SUNBIRD CALENDAR is the standalone version of Mozilla Calendar. The app includes appointment scheduling, recurring events, and alarms to remind you of event start times. View your appointments in day, week and month views. Downloadable themes extend the calendar appearance. Holiday files based on country are also available. Calendar sharing is possible via a WebDAV server. www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird.html

DUPKILLER finds duplicate copies of files across every hard drive on your computer. The software compares file name, modified date, file size or contents of the file. You can set a percentage match for updated versions of old files and include or exclude files based on a variety of filtering criteria. Manually choose which files to eliminate as part of the duplicate removal process. http://dupkiller.bira.ck.ua/en/index.shtml

WITH SUPERKEYS, just a couple keystrokes or the press of a function key can trigger any sequence of text you assign, saving you from the repetition of typing frequently entered phrases, passwords, signatures, and documents. Unlike other programs where you're limited to simple text, SuperKeys makes it easy to add control codes such as CTRL, ALT, and TAB, enabling a few keystrokes to trigger a command or a series of commands in any Windows program. You even can use SuperKeys to launch programs quicker than you can say "double-click." Version 5.5 adds the ability to use the Windows Key in your shortcuts, allowing you to create shortcuts that do such nifty things as minimizing and un-minimizing all windows, opening dialog boxes such as System Properties or Search for File, and even such things as logging out, restarting or shutting down the system. www.vellosoft.com

PICASA. Yes we have mentioned them before, but anything this good that's free also is worth repeating! If you still have a drawer stuffed with photo prints waiting to be placed in albums, chances are your hard drive is equally full of digital photos waiting to be placed in albums. Picasa automatically finds photos on your camera or photo CDs and organizes your pics. This photo organizer lets you browse photos and watch slide-shows. You can touch up red-eye and other imperfections without any danger of saving over the original. And if you'd like to share your photographic wonders with the world, e-mailing a photo is made much easier. http://picasa.google.com/index.html

SYNCTOY is a free simple program from Microsoft that can help you Synchronize folders. Synchronization ensures that two folders in different locations, even on different computers, each hold the newest versions of your documents. It can be a lifesaver to people who bring work home from the office on a laptop. SyncToy performs similar to the Windows Briefcase. However, SyncToy can synchronize multiple pairs of folders. It shows them in one place so you can easily work with them. It's also much more customizable. For example, you can set SyncToy to keep two folders up-to-date, or keep old and new versions of documents. You can also set SyncToy to synchronize only specific types of files such as .JPG pictures or .DOC documents. You can download it at: http://tinyurl.com/7pdrq

XP SUPPORT EXTENDED. Microsoft recently revealed that it has extended support for XP Home (and a few other XP editions whose support was also scheduled to be terminated this year) to "2 years after the next version of [Windows Vista] is released," according to the company. If Vista ships on schedule at the end of the year, that means that Microsoft will continue supporting XP Home through late 2008.

ESSENTIALPIM is a visual appointment and information manager that allows you to organize your daily, weekly or monthly schedule. It includes an address book to manage your contacts, as well as tree-style notes manager with support for rich text notes. The address book supports pictures and lets you add/remove fields to customize it for your needs. The schedule provides a very convenient way to mark your appointments in different colors, and allows you to simply drag an appointment to reschedule it. EssentialPIM supports single and recurring events, priority settings, color coded categories, completion indicator and reminder alerts. In addition it can export to HTML, RTF and other formats, and supports password protection with strong encryption. A very nice and easy to use PIM, it is surprising that it's free. www.essentialpim.com/

NOVAPDF PRO enables you to convert any printable document to PDF format, including emails, MS Office documents, web pages, text and anything else that can be printed. The program installs as a virtual printer driver and is available from the Print dialog of any application. Instead of your regular (paper) printer, just select the newly added novaPDF Printer and save it as PDF file. Additional features include customizable output resolution and quality settings, PDF security (40/128 bit encryption), embeded fonts, document permissions, compression, custom profiles and more. This program is shareware and costs about $40 (free trial), but that's still a few hundred less than Adobe Acrobat. www.novapdf.com/

RENAMER is a free, small, yet very flexible file and folder renaming tool, that offers all the standard renaming procedures, including prefixes, suffixes, replacements, case changes as well as advanced options. In addition, it can also remove brackets, add number sequences, remove digits or symbols and change file extensions. The program allows you to combine multiple renaming actions as a rule set, applying each action in logical sequence. Other features include support for (some) EXIF, ID3 and meta tags, that can be used as part of the new file name. www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~den4b/

SCREENSHOT CAPTOR is a screen capture tool that offers some unique features in addition to the standard screenshot options. You can capture active windows, selected regions, fixed regions, or the entire desktop. The capture can then be enhanced with several blur and shadow effects to emphasize parts of the capture, and you can also add a drop shadow to the entire image. Additional features include automatic saving of files, support for external tools, and more. Screenshot Captor can save images in gif, png, jpg, tiff and other formats. www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/screenshotcaptor/index.html

OLDVERSION.COM. If you are using an older PC, you might find that some of the newer versions of common programs won't work properly. This is a case where you actually need an older version of the program in order to run it on your computer. You can get early versions of free programs (such as AOL, QuickTime, ZoneAlarm, Limewire, etc.) at OldVersion.com.

SEND A PICTURE OF YOUR SCREEN TO TECH SUPPORT. Here's a great tip from Scott Johnson, "The Computer Tutor:"

Did you know that your PC has the ability to take a picture of itself? It's called a screenshot, and it is a very handy tool to use when you are trying to figure out a problem. For example, if a certain program starts coming up with a long error message or doing something unusual, you might call for tech support. You can try to describe verbally what the program is doing, but it would be a lot easier if the tech support person could actually see your screen. The error would then be more easily interpreted, and that will speed up the finding of a solution. Here is how you send a screenshot:

  1. When the error message (or whatever is showing itself as a problem) is on the screen, hit the button in the top right area of the keyboard that says "Print Screen" (in spite of the name, it really doesn't print anything).
  2. Open MS Word (WordPad will also work) to a new blank document.
  3. Hold down the Ctrl key, and tap the letter "V".
  4. You should now see the picture of your screen as an image in the Word document. Save this document on your desktop, or a location where you can find it easily.
  5. Now, create an email and attach that document to the email. The tech person can then open the attached document and see exactly what your screen looks like.

Note: when you send an attachment such as this, be sure to tell the recipient to expect it ahead of time. I don't open attachments unless I know exactly what they are (and you shouldn't either).

HOW TO USE THE XP SYSTEM FILE CHECKER (SFC). Sometimes when you install third party software, it may overwrite important operating system files. This can cause instability - or worse. Windows XP includes a command line tool that you can use if you think this may have happened (for example, if you get a message box warning that there is a problem with a .dll or the system just seems unstable). Here's how to use it:

Click Start | Run. In the Run box, type: sfc /scannow Windows will scan all protected Windows files to verify that they are intact and in their original versions. If they're not, corrupt, missing or incorrect files are replaced. You may be prompted to insert your Windows XP installation CD if your Dll cache folder (where Windows keeps a copy of essential system files) has become corrupt or has been deleted.

160G LAPTOP DRIVE. Seagate recently announced shipment of a new 160G laptop hard drive. It incorporates a new technology that places data in vertical layers on a drive, rather than horizontally as in common usage. Look for hard drives of greater capacities as a result in the immediate future.

PICKING A BETTER AIRPLANE SEAT. visit SeatGuru before your next trip. Select the airline and the type of plane. You'll get a floor plan showing all the seats on board. They're coded to show you which are best and which are the worst. Plus, you'll get a brief description explaining why. www.seatguru.com/index.php

CUSTOMIZE YOUR XP START MENU. Is the XP Start menu too "busy" for you? Don't use Outlook Express and want to remove it from its top left "pinned" position on the Start menu, or even better, replace it with the email program you do use? Want to get rid of the links to My Documents and/or other folders on the right side? Want a permanent link to the Administrative Tools on the Start menu? Luckily, you can easily customize it to fit your own needs and preferences. Here's how:

  1. Click an empty space on the Start menu and click Properties.
  2. Click the General tab. Here you can select whether to include your Web browser and/or e-mail client on the Start menu, and even better, which program to use for each.
  3. Click the Advanced tab.
  4. Under Start Menu Items, you can select which items to display on the right side of the Start menu, and you can also control how each is displayed. For instance, you can choose to display Control Panel as a menu instead of just a link. On this tab, you can also select whether you want newly installed programs to be highlighted, whether submenus should be opened when you pause on them with your mouse (a feature that can be very annoying), and whether to list your most recently opened documents. 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 a free 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

OUTLOOK EXPRESS TWEAKER. Outlook Express makes it hard to find some of its own best features. Outlook Express Tweaker helps you customize Outlook Express with some of OE's hidden features and a few of its own. With this plug-in, you can unhide invisible accounts, hidden dialog boxes, and undocumented settings. You can also send unwanted items packing: Outlook Express Tweaker can hide Windows Messenger and enhance the Blocked Senders list interface. www.qwhale.com/products/outlook_express_tweaker/

IESPELL. Of course you use a spellchecker on your word documents...you may even use one on your e-mail...but what about when you enter data on the web? IeSpell checks the spelling on text you enter into boxes on the web. If you're using web mail, posting to a newsgroup, or blogging, you could make your point come across more clearly-and save yourself a lot of embarrassment-by making sure you've spelled everything in good English. IeSpell stores your own personal word list across all your applications, so you don't need to teach every web app you use how to spell your unusual name. www.iespell.com

SCRUBXP cleans your computer from temporary files and registry keys resulting from opening files and or using the Internet. It removes IE history, temporary files, cookies, and your documents list from your Start Menu. It also empties your Recycle Bin and clears Auto Complete Entries. Finally, it clears recent file lists that appear in all types of applications (Word, your image editor, media player, search, etc.). The program runs automatically when your computer starts. You can also invoke panic mode by double-clicking the icon in your task tray. www.bartdart.com

ANT MOVIE CATALOGUE is neat piece of free software that lets you organize your collection of movies. Now you can laugh at the way video stores organize their movies and show them how it's done. You can organize by title, genre, director and more. User interface is easy-to-use and available in over thirty languages, including English. Also features import capabilities so you can get details and notes from IMDB, Allocin and more. Search options let you find the film you want quickly. Easy install does it all; you just add the popcorn. ww.antp.be/software/moviecatalog/

GNU IMAGE MANIPULATION PROGRAM. Too much of a cheapskate to buy Photoshop? You're in good company, and luckily there are a lot of free tools that do a good job of manipulating images. The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. You can resize images, feather edges, erase, fill, magnify, and select portions of your images using the lasso tool. You can also create layers and add text to your images. To install the program, first run the runtime file and then the installer. www.gimp.org/

EPROMPTER automatically and simultaneously checks and retrieves your e-mail messages from up to 16 password-protected e-mail accounts, such as AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, POP3, Earthlink, Excite, Juno, GO, Gmail, Email.com, Mail.com, Mindspring, MSN, MyWay, OneBox, Rediffmail, USA.net, and hundreds of other e-mail domains. ePrompter not only lets you compose, forward, and reply to your retrieved messages, but also gives you the ability to delete unwanted spam or suspicious-looking mail without having to launch your e-mail program or having to go to your Web mail's site. ePrompter notification features include a unique rotating tray icon and a choice of five screensavers that let you know at a glance the number of new messages in each account, as well as audio alerts for new messages. ePrompter also includes autodial for automatic message retrieval. www.eprompter.com

WEB PICTURE CREATOR allows you to create photo albums that can be published on the web as thumbnail galleries. It offers customizable HTML output that you can edit to match your site design, and also save the design as a template, so it can be applied to other galleries. You can add titles and descriptions to each image, specify the thumbnail size and output quality as well as several general layout details and more. It can generate all the pages and HTML code, or optionally only create thumbnails of your images. Web Picture Creator is easy enough to be used by a beginner, but also offers enough flexibility to accomodate specific needs. www.webpicturecreator.com/

V-Com System Suite 6

The leading Multifunction Utility

It's nice to have a comprehensive utility suite that combines a number of individual utilities designed to find, fix and prevent computer problems. The 3 most prominent of these suites are published by V-Com, Symantec and Iolo. Of the lot, by far the leading contender is V-Com's System Suite 6 (SS6). We have been following and reviewing this utility suite since its earliest days under Ontrack, now under V-Com which itself is currently part of the software conglomerate, Avanquest. It has always been our powerhouse utility suite of choice and Monitor readers have strongly agreed with our evaluation.

The suite is comprised of a wide number and variety of highly competent and functional utility applets that offer a broad range of assistance in keeping your computer up and running. Lets take a look at some:

* Jet Defrag- Defrag and optimize your hard drive.

* Registry Defrag- Defrag and optimize your registry.

* Clock Sync- Set your computer's clock to a super-accurate atomic clock.

* Size Manager- Control oversized files and folders.

* Registry Editor- Find and edit registry settings.

* PC Diagnostics- Diagnose your hardware to find prob lems.

* Error Tracker- Track and view Windows error messages.

* Media Verifier- Be sure removable media can be read without errors.

* System Monitors- Monitor system resources.

* Smart Check- Hard drive failure early warning system.

* System Explorer- See what's happening in your system right now.

* Disk Fixer- Find and fix disk problems.

* Registry Fixer- Find and fix errors in the Windows registry.

* File Undeleter- Recover deleted files.

* Startup Repair Manual- Solve booting problems

* Rescue Disk- Create a bootable rescue CD.

* Create Checkpoint- Creates a checkpoint copy of system files for recovery.

* Disk Snapshot- View key disk information.

* Uninstall- Delete a program and its files.

* Backup- Backup an application and its installed files.

* Move- Move and install an application.

* Transport- Copy an application to another computer.

* Cleanup- 8 applets to get rid of things you don't need or want on your computer.

* Zip- 7 applets for working with zip files.

There are others, including 3 one-stop solutions that combine several applets in one to cover a wide range of categorized fixes. Included in SS6 are a collection of individual programs, each of which is outstanding on its own:

  1. PowerDesk 5- A file manager and my most frequently used program. It's Windows Explorer on steroids.
  2. PC-Cillin Antivirus/Anti Spyware- The best of the antivirus programs.
  3. GhostSurf- Surf the net with privacy and anonymity.
  4. MailWasher Antispam.
  5. V-Com Autosave- Automatic backup of selected files.
  6. Recovery Commander- Recover deleted or corrupted files
  7. Sygate Firewall- A leading 2-way firewall.

There are many programs that offer extras whose usefulness is questionable. They are thrown in to give the allusion of higher value. SS6 to the contrary offers the above 7 apps each of which is highly desirable as a standalone product and offers value to make this suite an unbelievable value

In our tests, SS6 ran flawlessly in every module. The PC Diagnostics in particular offers a very complete and intensive series of tests for just about every hardware component and peripheral. In addition to making sure all your hardware components are working according to specs, it will help you differentiate hardware from software glitches when your computer isn't working right and you can't figure out what's wrong.

You would have to agree that SS6 is a shotgun application that covers all the utility bases and does it in greater substance than its competitors. Among those, Iolo System Mechanic is a disgrace for its totally unresponsive tech support which they promise in 48 hours whose translation is "never." Symantec's Norton System Works suffers from the same problems for which its other software is famous. It is a resource hog from a company infamous for its consumer relations.

If you decide to get SS6, I suggest you buy only the boxed product which is available on the net for around $50. I do not recommend the download version. It will take you all night to do it on a dialup connection and even several hours on broadband via Avanquest's unbearably s-l-o-w server. Opt only for the boxed CD that includes a very handy manual.

All in all, SS6 is the undisputed leader in "shotgun" utility software. It's something that every computer user should have and I very highly recommend it. It is commonly available for $49 and is more than worth every penny of it. Occasionally you may find it for $40 at V-Com's website, http://www.v-com.com, as well asa other places on the Internet. :

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Copyright 2005. This article is from the March 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.

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