Sarasota PC Monitor

Review Chairman's Industry Comments (10/02)

The Computer Buffet
by Herb Goldstein, Review Editor

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

BAD HYPERLINK?? Occasionally for reasons beyond our control, a hyperlink provided here will not work. After carefully checking your typing (needs to be 100% accurate), the only suggestion we can offer is that you go to Google and enter the name of the software. If a more current hyperlink is available, this is the best place to look for it.

Please also note: Most of the software mentioned below is freeware. It is gathered through researching usually reliable sources. I do not personally try most references, time being the obvious factor.

Is your system ready to handle Windows 7? Even  if they meet the Windows 7 minimum system requirements on paper, there are a variety of other issues you could run into with existing software and peripheral hardware devices. Microsoft created the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor tool to scan your hardware and software and analyze it for known compatibility issues. The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor report also provides guidance to help resolve any identified issues. If a critical accounting application you rely on won’t work in Windows 7, its better to figure that out up front. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15 

WINDOWS 7 SYSTEM REPAIR DISK. If you have Windows 7... Stop—before you do one more thing with your PC, dig out the box it came in. Do you see a Windows 7 disc or a system-recovery disc? They’re less common these days, so chances are it falls to you to create your own. And it’s vital that you do, because if your system ever becomes unbootable, a recovery CD or DVD might be your only recourse. Thankfully, Windows 7 makes the task exceedingly easy. Just pop in a blank, recordable CD or DVD, click Start, type repair, and choose Create a System Repair Disc. Follow the instructions from there, remembering to label the disc when you’re done. If you ever run into trouble, boot your system with the repair disc. It includes a variety of recovery and diagnostic tools, and also lets you choose a System Restore point to help get your PC back to a previous, working state. Make this disc now. If you wait until after you encounter a problem, it’s too late.

IMAGE ANALYZER. Need to correct colors, remove red-eye, or change the format of an image? ImageAnalyzer is freeware, and light, and it does many functions that the big apps do. For quick-and-dirty correction of a scanned photo or document, ImageAnalyzer works wonders. http://meesoft.logicnet.dk/ 

PHOTOFILMSTRIP. Popularized in many of the highly acclaimed PBS documentaries produced by filmmaker Ken Burns, the technique of slowly panning across still images, and fading in to new ones has become a common technique for videographers with limited budgets. PhotoFilmStrip provides a one-stop application you can use to generate just such a video montage. www.photofilmstrip.org/home.html 

COPY AND WIPE YOUR HARD DRIVE. Your hard drive really is your computer. That data is everything. But every computer user has to switch hard drives at some point. And moving all that data can take a lot of effort. Maybe your hard drive is on its last legs. Or maybe you just need some extra space. You must backup important files. Install your operating system and important programs on the new drive. Then you can give your files their new home. That’s if everything goes smoothly. Free CopyWipe might be a better solution. It can copy one hard drive to another. That includes more than just your files. It includes your programs and Windows installation. It creates an exact, bootable copy. Don’t just throw away your old drive. The data on it could be stolen. CopyWipe will also help you securely erase your old drive. It’s wiping options exceed governmental standards. (Back up your important files before using this program. Better safe than sorry.) www.terabyteunlimited.com

WINMACRO is a simple Macro recorder/player for Windows. It can record whatever you do on your computer, and then ‘replay’ it. It doesn’t record video, instead WinMacro uses Windows hooking mechanisms to monitor your mouse and keyboard events, and allows you to re-execute those same commands by automoation. This is a huge time saver if you ever need to do repetitive tasks. http://senthilthecoder.com 

REGISTRY LIFE helps correct errors in the Windows registry, increasing the working speed and stability of the system. It’s a compact, simple to use, and free solution for servicing your system registry. NOTE: we recommend that you always backup your system before using this or any program that makes changes to the registry. www.chemtable.com 

A BETTER WAY TO DEFRAG. Your hard drive has a lot in common with your attic. You can only store so much in each. And over time they can get pretty cluttered. Finding things in a cluttered attic can be difficult. The same is true for a hard drive. Files can be fragmented across different sections of your drive. This makes them harder call up. That means a slow computer. You may have your files organized in tidy folders. But that doesn’t really affect the underlying file system. Defragmenting is the only way to fix this. Windows has a built-in defragmenting tool. It works well. But it can be pretty slow. Defraggler is a better alternative. It can defrag your drive quickly. But it can also defrag specific files separately. You can be running faster in mere seconds. www.defraggler.com

FAVBACKUP. In the age of Google we depend on our Web browsers—and on all the features which make them so efficient to use. Personal settings and data such as bookmarks, history, cookies, and saved passwords are essential to productivity. FavBackup recognizes the importance of such data and offers an easy and comprehensive way to back it all up. www.favbrowser.com/backup/ 

RSS BANDIT. RSS Bandit makes it exceedingly easy to subscribe to and read RSS feeds, and organize them as well. Subscribe to any RSS feed and add it to a folder, and the program will automatically update the feed for you. Feeds you haven’t read yet show up in bold, so that you can see what’s new. It displays full graphics, and even lets you play videos directly inside the program as well. http://rssbandit.org/ 

HELP FOR CAR OWNERS. Most of us drive our cars on a daily basis. We use them to run errands and take the kids to school. We also use them to get to and from work. So, it is important to keep our cars well maintained and in good running order. After all, a poorly maintained car is a safety threat. Unfortunately, it can be difficult finding a mechanic to service your car. That’s because it is difficult to comparison shop. You probably know how much you should pay to get your oil changed. But, when it comes to repairs, things aren’t so easy. That’s where RepairPal can help. It will provide you with estimates for car maintenance and repairs. You’ll know if a mechanic is giving you a good price! Of course, there’s more to RepairPal than estimates. It will also help you locate mechanics that specialize on your make of car. You can also post your car questions. Or, visit the Encyclopedia to learn more about cars. You’ll find plenty of money-saving tips! www.repairpal.com 

BITTORRENT. The BitTorrent protocol has become extremely popular for file-sharing of all types, whether it be games, movies, software, or music. If you’re looking to get started with torrent downloads, this software is an excellent place to begin, because it’s easier to use than other clients.

You get full controls over your download, including pausing, resuming, moving downloads up and down your queue, and so on. www.bittorrent.com/ 

PEERBLOCK. They’re lurking out there—sleazy spyware companies, unscrupulous advertisers, and just people you don’t want looking at what your computer is doing. PeerBlock offers part of a solution—low level blocking of packets coming from, or going to, a long list of hosts. While any decent firewall program will let you block hosts one by one, PeerBlock does much of the work for you, by providing lists of host addresses. www.peerblock.com/ 

NETWORX. Operating System: Windows 2000,Windows XP,Windows Vista,Windows Server 2003,Windows Server 2008,Windows 7. If you’re looking to monitor your network and Internet speed, track overall bandwidth usage, and get several other very useful utilities, you’d do well to download the free NetWorx. With easy-to-read graphs and in-depth reporting tools, it’s a great way for anyone—regardless of technical expertise—to track Internet use. www.softperfect.com/ 

PAINT.NET is an image and photo editing software. The software contains an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plug-ins. http://download.cnet.com/windows/dotpdn/3260-20_4-6265418.html?tag=mncol 

SHOWTHEOFFER helps you discover money-saving vouchers, coupons, and discounts on any Web site that offers them. While this program is not without its flaws, it could help you keep money in the bank. Never miss a voucher code again. Our clever little application alerts you to available money-saving coupon codes at the time you visit a relevant retailer. It’s so simple. If a voucher code is available when you visit a retailer you will receive an alert with the voucher code ready for you to cut and paste to claim your discount. Plus on visiting certain retailers you will also be invited to enter the free monthly prize draw. http://download.cnet.com/ShowTheOffer/3000-2381_4-10914912.html?tag=mncol;lst 

ATP PLAYER is a slick and simple all-in-one solution for viewing videos and photo slideshows. With built-in video and audio codecs ATP Player will play MOV, AVI, FLV, MPEG, DivX, Xvid, and other video formats. Whether the files are on a hard drive or on a flash memory chip, quickly find them with the familiar, explorer-like file browser. Select multiple photo and video files, or even folders. Create a playlist simply by pressing a button and enjoy gap-free playback as a single video, slide show or both, in a windowed or full-screen mode. With ATP Player you can browse through a playlist manually, viewing one video frame at a time, and save your favorite frames as JPEG files. You can also rotate photos, copy and delete files, save and load playlists, and use various sorting and filtering options. Portable copy of ATP Player can be installed on a thumb drive or a digital camera memory chip so you can play your videos on any computer. http://download.cnet.com/windows/pimex-group/3260-20_4-81284.html?tag=mncol 

NOTEPRO. If you need to create or edit text files and want something with more options than the default Notepad or WordPad programs that come with Windows but don’t need the power and complexity of a full-fledged word-processor, check out NotePro. Although it has many powerful features typically found in a word-processor, it’s very simple to use. NotePro has a clean, attractive interface that puts nearly all the options you’ll need right on the well-designed button bar. NotePro handles standard text files, and also creates and saves Rich Text Format, Word, Windows Write, and HTML files used by Microsoft Word and other word-processors. You can have multiple documents open at one time. NotePro also has a built-in Spelling Checker, and lets you import text from existing files. http://download.cnet.com/windows/crystal-office-systems/3260-20_4-66505.html?tag=mncol  

VIDEOGET is a tool for downloading your favorite video clips from more than 850+ video Web sites. It supports such Web sites like YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, Yahoo Video, and AOL Uncut. Most of these video Web sites are keeping video in FLV format, and a lot of people dont know how to playback these files. VideoGet also provides you with ability to convert each video in most popular formats for more comfortable video playback. VideoGet supports AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, WMV, FLV, MP4, 3GP, MP3 file formats, so you will be able not only to view it, but also put it into your iPod, mobile phone or any other portable device. Furthermore you can set up video/audio quality, set up video frame rate, width / height and audio sampling rate. With VideoGet you can create a list with videos you want to download and download them later. These lists you can save and load later. http://download.cnet.com/windows/nuclear-coffee/3260-20_4-6287600.html?tag=mncol 

WINSPLIT REVOLUTION. WinSplit Revolution makes the task of shuttling and resizing windows around your desktop quick and automatic. It assigns a hotkey for nine different window placements, which correspond to a keyboard’s number pad layout. The handy little tool runs out of the system tray, and can be set to launch with Windows. www.winsplit-revolution.com/home 

GRIDY. Gridy gives your program and other windows marching orders and makes them line up on an invisible desktop grid. As you move windows, Gridy snaps them into place along invisible lines, much like that used by the "Align to Grid" option for arranging your desktop icons. http://sector-seven.net/software/gridy 

THE MIRO VIDEO PLAYER can do practically anything: It can download or play streaming video, download and play BitTorrent video, and even set up searches for video from within the player. With this recent update, however, Miro has added several new tools to its kit—most having to do with downloads. It essentially turned your PC into a Swiss army knife for video: It can download or play streaming video, download and play video hosted in the BitTorrent file sharing network, and even set up searches for video from within the player itself.

Several of the big new features have do to with downloads: Miro can download videos directly from YouTube with a single button-click, download audio as well as video podcasts, and downloads videos automatically if you add the RSS feed of that video source. Sharing is the other new theme. You can now share videos (or links to streamed videos) with friends and family by e-mail, social networking posts, or by exporting lists of feeds to a file which you can share.

As with previous versions, Miro can play video encoded in virtually any format, including HD video. It can also remember where you were in a video when you stopped watching it, so you can resume playback later from the point where you stopped. If you use your computer as part of a home theater, the program has keyboard shortcuts for all playback commands so you can easily set up a remote control to issue commands to Miro player from across the living room. www.getmiro.com/ 

PANDORA RECOVERY is a powerful free tool that provides its users an effective way to attempt recovery of permanently deleted files. And that does not mean restoration of a file from Recycle Bin. The software recovers files removed from Recycle Bin, deleted using Shift + Delete keys bypassing Recycle Bin and files deleted from DOS prompt. Pandora Recovery lets its user browse, search, preview and recover files deleted from NTFS and FAT volumes, supporting hard drives, flash drives and memory cards. It successfully handles archived, hidden, encrypted and compressed files and recovers Alternate Data Streams (ADS). Pandora Recovery features classic interface wizards, hints and context-sensitive help. Pandora Recovery allows user to browse and search the tree of deleted files where show deleted items only button comes handy. Finally, it has ability to scan drive clusters, picking up files whose MFT record has been reused by OS, damaged or recreated (it can restore files on formatted drives). www.pandorarecovery.com/ 

TRANSLATE CLIENT. Get an instant translation via Google Translate Service by simply selecting text in your web browser and using Translate Client. Usually, translating a webpage or a piece of text can be a tiresome process: you need to visit Google Translator website, copy/paste the text, then choose the language. Using Translate Client is a much quicker and more convenient solution. www.translateclient.com 

DVD KNIFE is a simple tool for extracting DVD clips from your DVDs. Only three steps are needed to extract a clip. www.vcsoftwares.com 

TRUECRYPT. When you encrypt files on your hard disk, sometimes you want to prevent others from discovering that the files even exist. Truecrypt use strong encryption when it creates encrypted volumes, and it creates hidden volumes that are indistinguishable from random data. www.truecrypt.org/ 

SPYBOT SEARCH & DESTROY. Spybot Search & Destroy is a good program to have around for those trying times when you think someone is lurking behind the browser curtain tracking your every Web move. Fire it up and it’ll spot all sorts of tracking cookies and the like, then remove them if you choose to do so. www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html 

SEAMONKEY is a great free all-in-one tool. It’s a Web browser built on code similar to that running Firefox. But it also integrates an e-mail client, RSS reader and chat program. The program also doubles as a quality HTML editor. You can surf and build sites in one program. It’s a great way to get everything you need. www.seamonkey-project.org 

PROCESS MONITOR is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, registry and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such as session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more. http://technet.microsoft.com 

OKAYKEYBEES is a freeware keyboard remapper with a twist. You define what keys are always replaced or what keys are replaced only when a user-defined modifier key is held. You can effectively "move" keys to either side of the keyboard or even effectively disable keys. www.joejoesoft.com 

KEEP YOUR PRIVACY ONLINE. Online tracking is invasive to many Web surfers. To reduce the privacy risks of online tracking, you should protect your IP address. A proxy is an effective way to obscure your IP address. The proxy fetches Web pages and other online communication for you. Web sites see the proxy’s IP address rather than yours. Privoxy is a combination proxy and filter. Its filter features can be set to block cookies and Web page advertisements. Privoxy is relatively easy to set up, but filters may require some know-how. www.sourceforge.net 

INSTALL SUGARSYNC FREE on your computers, then on each PC tell it what files and folders you want to keep synchronized. SugarSync uploads those files to your free online backup, and synchronizes them between your machines—including PCs and Macs. Whenever you make a change to a file that you want to keep synchronized SugarSync uploads the changed file to your online backup, and also synchronizes the file on your other computer. https://www.sugarsync.com/ 

PDF TO WORD. Convert PDF files to Word documents free. PDF files are a popular way to share documents. That’s because document formatting doesn’t change from machine to machine. And, you can open the files with free PDF readers. Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to edit PDF files. Adobe Acrobat will do the trick. But, many people don’t want to shell out hundreds of dollars for it. That’s why I recommend the free PDF to Word. It will convert your PDF files to .DOC or .RTF formats. You can then edit the files in Word or another word processor. PDF to Word is a snap to use. Start by uploading your file to PDF to Word’s Web site. Select the format you’d like. Then, specify your e-mail address. You’ll receive an e-mail with your document! In most cases, the conversion is almost instantaneous. Other times, you may need to wait 10 minutes or so for your file. www.pdftoword.com 

WINDOWS VISTA AERO TWEAK (VISTA). Here’s a good tip from Adam, Editor, Windows Tips & Tricks:

The transparent glass in Windows Vista (called Aero) can look very nice. But on computers that have underpowered video adapters, they might see a performance hit when running the transparent glass effect. One way to speed up Windows Vista and still get the benefits of Aero, such as flip 3D and taskbar thumbnails, is to disable the glass transparency.

  1. Click anywhere on your desktop, right-click, & select Personalize.

  2. Select Windows Color and Appearance.

  3. Uncheck Enable Transparency.

Now your Windows Vista will run a little faster and all you’ve given up is a little glass transparency that you probably never noticed in the first place. Sounds like a good trade-off to me!

DISKPIE PRO 2. Hard drives are getting larger and larger. Many new machines come loaded with 1 TB drives. Amazingly, it’s never enough space. Users always manage to fill up every available nook and cranny. DiskPie Pro 2 makes it easy to visually find your overweight folders, files, and even see which filetypes are eating up your precious drive space. www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354473,00.asp 

VIEWTHRU. Even with today’s widescreen desktops, there’s still not enough real estate to see all the windows you have open. ViewThru allows you to assign a global hotkey that makes the foreground window become transparent, allowing you to easily see what’s behind it. www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2353257,00.asp 

VISTASWITCHER is an elegant and powerful task management utility for Windows OS. Once installed, it replaces the default Windows Alt-Tab dialog with a nice box that shows a list of all running tasks, with their names and preview snapshots, and enables the user to take actions on them using the mouse and keyboard shortcuts. With just one click, you can switch tasks, minimize, maximize, restore the main window, or close the process. www.ntwind.com/software/vistaswitcher.html 

CALIBRIZE 2. Calibrate your screen in seconds. This free app will walk you through simple contrast, brightness, and color calibration in three steps and should take about as many minutes to complete. It’s definitely not the most detailed calibration software out there, but it’s enough for the average user. Calibrize may not be as thorough as DisplayMate, the program we test monitors with, but if you simply want to make sure your brightness, contrast, and colors aren’t completely out of whack, you’re better off downloading Calibrize. http://computershopper.download.com/Calibrize/3000-2086_410462709.html    

SPEEDFAN. Check your cooling components. If your computer keeps crashing when doing labor-intensive tasks like playing 3D games, your system could be overheating and in need of a new CPU or video-card cooler. (Or you might just need to open your PC and clean out the dust.) The best way to find out for sure is to run SpeedFan, which will display the system temperatures from your internal sensors. Overclockers use SpeedFan to monitor voltage and fan speeds, but it’s also useful as a quick way to see if your PC is running a little too hot. www.almico.com/speedfan.php  

SYSTEM SPEC. Know your PC inside and out. System Spec organizes all your system info. It launches its own tabbed window with labeled icons like CPU, Network, and Software. It isn’t flashy, but it’s fast, and finding information about your hardware or software couldn’t be much simpler. We especially like System Spec’s ability to print a full spec sheet or export the info to HTML. System Spec is a simple executable, making it a good diagnostic tool to keep on a flash drive if you’re the sort of person who frequently gets asked to troubleshoot other people’s PCs. www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/System-Spec.sh 

WINDIRSTAT. Visualize your files. If you’re running out of storage space and considering adding a new hard drive, run WinDirStat first. It will scan your drives and give you a revealing, colorful mosaic layout of all your files, so you can see what’s taking up all that space. Maybe you have a few old backups you forgot about or home movies you’ve already burned to DVD. This program is a great way to recover drive space long occupied by unnecessary files. After a few minutes poking around with WinDirStat, if you don’t find anything you’re willing to delete, it’s probably time to take the plunge and buy another hard drive. www.sourceforge.net/projects/windirstat/files/ 

FREE RAM OPTIMIZER. Make the most of your memory. If you frequently find your system sluggish when you have a lot of windows and apps open, you may need more RAM. (Or you could just be running selfish software that doesn’t like to give up the memory it’s no longer using.) Free RAM Optimizer sits in your system tray, monitoring memory use and forcing unruly apps to return your resources. If you run this program and still frequently run low on memory, it’s probably time to add more RAM to your system. www.download.cnet.com/Free-Ram-Optimizer-XP/3000-2086_4-102 

GLARY UTILITIES. Manage startup programs and improve performance. Glary Utilities lets you manage those pesky startup programs, so your PC won’t spend so much bootup time loading programs you never use. It’s also a powerful all-purpose app for cleaning and speeding up your system. It will clean your Registry, root out junk files, and tidy up broken shortcuts, thus freeing up extra space and helping your PC run smoother. If you’re concerned about privacy, Glary can wipe your traces from Windows and Internet Explorer; it’s also a government-grade file shredder. www.glaryutilities.com/ 

IKNOW PROCESS SCANNER. Know what Windows is running. If you’ve ever scratched your head in puzzlement at the assortment of processes running on your PC, iKnow’s freeware Process Scanner is for you. A helpful alternative to the all-but-useless Process tab in Windows Task Manager, iKnow’s Process Scanner gives you easy access to information about every process running on your system. Double-clicking on a process opens a browser tab with a simple description in plain English. It will also tell you whether the process is a security risk and, if so, how to remove it. The program may fail to recognize a process here and there, but it knows most of them, and its library is updated with input from users via e-mail and forums. www.tipdownload.com/IKnow-Process-Scanner_13044/ 

DRIVEWAY MANAGER 1. Share large files with friends. Most e-mail services have file-size upload limits for attachments, which can be a real pain if you’re trying to send a video or a zipped folder of vacation photos to a friend or family member. Driveway Manager is a plug-in for the excellent Driveway.com, which makes uploading large files (up to 500MB) as easy as right-clicking what you want to upload and selecting Create Driveway Link. The app will even automatically zip entire folders into one convenient file before uploading. You’ll get a link to the uploaded file that you can then send to anyone you want to share the file with. Just be sure you tell your friends to grab the files fast because the links expire after 30 days. www.download.cnet.com/Driveway-Manager/3000-2196_4-10729202   :  

Return to Herb Goldstein's Index

Return to Columnist's Index

Copyright 2010. This article is from the February 2010 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.