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In This Issue...
Newbies Nook - Information, Tips, and Instruction for Computer Users
Forum Favorites - Popular Questions and Threads from the Forum
Security Corner - Microsoft Security Essentials
Carol's Corner Office - Microsoft Office and OpenOffice How-To's and Tips
DCT's Recommended Software - Our Picks of the Best Software Available
Digital Photography - Learn How to Take Better Pictures
Freeware Focus - A Spotlight on Freeware programs
The Chad Files - Thoughts... by Chad Johnson
The Lighter Side - Funny, Interesting, and Thought Provoking Items Found on the Net
In recent issues we've covered how to create a Windows 7 system using features built into the OS and how to restore your computer using a system image. We've also learned that a system image can be used to restore your computer to the exact state (programs, documents, settings, etc) it was in when the image was created. Very good information to have around! What if you only need to recover one file, or several files? Restoring an image would be overkill! Can we even do that with the system image we created earlier? You bet we can!
To perform a restore of one or several files you must first have created a system image as described HERE. If you've already created an image grab the drive you stored the image on and follow along!
How to Mount a Windows 7 System Image
Windows stores system images as a vhd (Virtual Hard Disk) file. Using this method Microsoft has given us quite a few options to interact with system images. One of those options is to 'mount' the image in the operating system. Mounting the image allows Windows to see the image as if it were an actual drive connected to the computer. It's neat and might save your bacon!
Before we begin let's have a look in Computer. You'll see I have two internal hard drives and I have attached the USB drive where my system image is stored (WHS BACKUP DRIVE).
Mounting the System Image
- Open the Start Menu and type manage in the search box at the bottom.
- Click Computer Management to open the Computer Management Console.
- Click Disk Management in the left hand column.
- Click the Action menu. When the menu opens move your mouse down and click Attach VHD.
- A dialog box will open allowing you to locate your system image file. Click the box next to Read-only so we don't make any unwanted changes to our image file. Click the Browse button to locate the image file.
- Highlight your image file and click OK to close the file browser and return to the original dialog where you will need to click OK to start the attachment(mounting) process.
Computer Management should appear at, or near, the top of the list.
You may not have seen this before, so feel free to take a look around. Just remember that changes made here can have a seriously detrimental effect on your computer if you don't know what you are changing. Look, but don't touch if you aren't sure!
The center column will show all drives (physical, optical, and virtual) currently attached to the computer. This is also a good location to find valuable information about your drives, such as health, status, type, etc.
Your image file will be located on the storage device where you originally chose to create the image. It will be in the following location Drive\WindowsImageBackup\Computer Name\Backup Date Time\a long string of characters with the .vhd extension.
It may take a few moments for Windows to load the correct drivers, so be patient! Once Windows has attached(mounted) the drive you will notice a change in the Computer Management window.
There is a new drive listed in the top center window and a new Disk listed in the bottom center window. Windows has mounted your system image and it can now be used as if it were an actual hard drive on your computer!
The image is mounted as Disk 3 in my example. You will notice that it is the exact same size as my primary (C:) drive, even though the actual image was only 110GB. When the image was created Windows saw a 465GB drive, but only copied the actual used space of 100GB.
If we return to Computer you will see that I now have four hard drives! Because Windows believes the image file is a hard drive we can use it just like a normal drive - Browse files, Copy files, Drag and drop files. This is how you recover single or multiple files from your system image! Cool!
Unmounting your Windows 7 System Image
Once you have recovered the file(s) you need it is important to eject(unmount) the virtual hard drive and eject the USB drive to prevent possible corruption - we don't want a damaged system image if we really need it later!
- In the system tray you will notice the Safely Remove Hardware icon
. If the icon isn't visible click the up arrow to display the hidden icons. - Click the Safely Remove Hardware icon and Windows will display a list of available items.
- Click the Eject Msft Virtual Disk SCSI Disk Device entry to eject the virtual hard drive.
- Go back and click the Safely Remove Hardware icon. Click the item in the list that corresponds to your USB hard drive.
If you were to look in Computer or the Computer Management console the additional drive will now be gone - success!
Everything is back to normal. Well, better than normal if you were able to restore a file that you desperately needed!
The Daves Computer Tips Forum needs your help, OK I need your help! The forum has 615 members and over 4460 total posts. We desperately need your participation for the forum to thrive! The forum is not only a great place to get and give computer advice, but a wonderful place to meet like minded individuals from around the world!
Join Chad's discussion about computer cooling HERE. Maybe you can help!
Shobansen is having trouble playing videos. Share your experiences and help him solve his problem!
Jim needs to purchase a reasonably priced video card. Do you have any helpful advice?
Come join us in the forum. Join. Jump in. Ask. Help. Learn. Chat.
I have never been an apologist for Microsoft's security policies and practices; indeed, I've often criticized the firm and accused them of a laissez-faire attitude towards their development teams. I have to admit that they've been making some headway in the direction of basic security over the years, but I've wondered if they would ever get it right. Recently, I've had a love-hate relationship with Microsoft Security Essentials, their most recent attempt at complete security protection for Windows™. I'm going back to the love relationship. My reason? The combination of Windows 7 security enhancements, IE8 and Microsoft Security Essentials is very secure; it looks like Microsoft has finally done it right.
I migrated my laptop to that combination in mid-March. I have enjoyed more than two months of secure computing with no performance issues, no security issues, and the freedom from having to worry about which third-party security solution I should implement. I still use Thunderbird for email and Firefox as my main browser, but that's no longer because I'm concerned about using IE -- IE8's default settings have proven to be more than sufficient.
I'm not the only one who's noticed. Fred Langa of Windows Secrets Newsletter recently ran a 120-day test of his own under some pretty tough conditions. You'll want to read that article, of course, especially if you're an advanced Windows user, but Fred's results are worth mentioning:
Four months in, and no malware has infected my Win7 systems. I've experienced no malware-like misbehavior on my machines, and to the best of my knowledge, my systems remain clean and unhacked.
So I'm comfortable saying that the combination of the Win7 firewall, Microsoft Security Essentials, and fully current browsers and e-mail clients is proving to be a wholly acceptable security solution for routine use.
However, I'm not ready to recommend this combination to advanced users — especially those with demanding needs or who require the ability to easily customize their setup.
What's your opinion? Leave a comment for me in the Microsoft Security Essentials thread!
Ken Harthun is the Security Editor for Daves Computer Tips. He also writes about security issues for IT Knowledge Exchange and blogs on general Geek things at Ask the Geek. You can read more about Ken here.
Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial on Facebook last time. This time, however, I am going to teach you a little bit about Adobe Acrobat, a wonderfully robust piece of software that many offices cannot afford to do without!
Let's get on with the article now!
Make Your Scans Searchable in Acrobat 9
Since version 7, Adobe Acrobat has included built-in text recognition. Acrobat is far and away more efficient than most if not all dedicated OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software. OCR only needs to recognize text which isn't all that terribly difficult in the grand scheme of things. Acrobat does so much more than recognize text; it stores a list of words in an index below the visual layer of the PDF file. You can then access this indexed word list and search it using desktop search and document management tools.
Acrobat Standard and Professional Edition convert image PDF files to searchable versions one document at a time. Both Acrobat Standard and Professional Edition have the ability to make batches of PDF's searchable - via selection of multiple documents within a folder or entire folders.
To learn how to make your scans searchable, follow the steps below:
- Scan the paper document or launch Acrobat and open an existing PDF.
- Click on Document | OCR Text Recognition | Recognize Text Using OCR.
- From the Recognize Text dialog box, the option for All Pages is the default.
- Click OK to begin the process.
- A progress indicator will appear in the bottom right corner of the Acrobat display, showing the conversion of each page into a searchable format.
- When the progress indicator disappears, the process is complete.
Please remember to re-save your .PDF files.
Your file is now a searchable (or as it is called in Acrobat, an accessible .PDF), ready for you to highlight and select text that can be copied and pasted or ready to have its text found in a variety of different type of text searches.
To convert a batch of files, the process is very similar. Follow the steps below to find out:
- Rather than selecting Recognize Text Using OCR from the OCR Text Recognition menu, select Recognize Text in Multiple Files Using OCR.
- From the Paper Capture Multiple Files dialog box, click the Add Files button and select the option to either Add Files or Add (entire Folders).
- Navigate to the files or folders of choice and they will be added to the batch for processing.
- Click OK and then wait for the batch to complete.
Acrobat will automatically save the newly searchable files.
Searchable .PDF files are exceedingly useful in your day-to-day business. Whether you want to convert files individually or in batches, the ability to search and copy opens up a wide range of text-handling opportunities you do not want to be without!
Until next time, please take care of YOU!
Carol Bratt is the Office Applications Editor at Daves Computer Tips. She has authored several informative Microsoft Office books and writes the monthly Word Bytes Newsletter with more tips and tricks in each issue. Visit Carol's website for more great Microsoft Office tips and tricks! Click here to see her latest books! You can read more about Carol here.
Anti-spyware and Anti-malware
Webroot SpySweeper - Daves Computer Tips Seal of Approval Winner! See the test results HERE. Spysweeper provides the best protection of the seven anti-spyware programs tested! Great detection and removal rates with a small real-time protection memory footprint. This is the one you want! SpySweeper includes the ASK toolbar. Be sure to uncheck this option during installation. Free 14 day trial.
CounterSpy - Runner-up in my Anti-Spyware test. Not only does CounterSpy scan and remove spyware, it also uses real time protection. Real-time protection prevents spyware infection. Free 15 day trial. Winner of Computer Shopper Magazine's Best Buy Award!
Antivirus and Firewall
ESET Smart Security - New from the maker's of NOD32. Antivirus, Antispyware, Antispam, and Firewall all wrapped into one effective, swift, and low resource package. It is what I use to protect each of my computers!
Kaspersky Antivirus - Kaspersky is my second choice for antivirus software. A good program that is very close in performance to NOD32. Free trial.
Online Armor Firewall - You shouldn't be on the internet without a software firewall that offers inbound and outbound protection. Online Armor is the Best of the Best for those needing a firewall. Online Armor's easy to navigate interface and the protection level can't be beat!
Audio and Video
Acoustica Audio Converter Pro - This program converts audio formats and bitrates. Perfect for those with portable audio players or large music collections. 30 day trial.
Adobe Premier Elements 8 - Elements is the home version of Adobe Premiere, the best professional video editing suite today. Premier Elements costs 1/6th the price of the professional version, but is very capable of making videos that will impress everyone.
DVDFab is my favorite DVD software. I tried over 30 different programs before settling on DVDFab. It offers every function of the other programs and more! Copy, burn, shrink, convert for mobile devices, or convert for streaming. Almost all of the other programs I've tried did not function as advertised, were extremely slow, or did not have features that worked as advertised. DVDFab works, and works as advertised! It's easy to use, has a pleasant user interface, and it updated often.
Computer Hardware
Crucial Memory - Memory (RAM) is the upgrade that gives any computer the best bang for the buck. If you want to speed things up with more memory, why not purchase it from the leading source of quality RAM memory. Great selection, good prices, excellent support, and a lifetime warranty! A real winner!
CyberGuys - The place to get those hard to find cables and accessories for your computer!
HP Computers
- My current pick for new laptops and desktops. In the current market I don't think you can beat HP's combination of price and performance. Their laptop line is very cost effective and the design is absolutely beautiful!
Newegg - Newegg.com is known for great service and awesome pricing on computers, upgrades, and electronics. If you're looking for computers, computer parts, or electronics you owe it to yourself to start here! Great Products. Great Prices. Great Customer Service!
Computer Maintenance
Diskeeper 2010 - My current favorite defrag program. As files are written and erased from the hard drive they begin to leave "spaces" behind. When the drive is written to again files are broken up to fill in these spaces. This causes the drive to go to several different locations to read an entire file, which slows performance greatly. Diskeeper has several advanced features such as; automatic defrag, scheduled defrag, and the ability to defrag the MFT (Master File Table) and paging file. 30 day trial.
Registry Mechanic - A very thorough and efficient registry cleaner and defragmenter. A definite must to maintain peak performance and stabile operation. 30 day trial.
Computer Utility
Acronis True Image Home 2011 - Do you value the data on your computer? Do you value your time? How much time will you spend recovering data and returning your computer to its original state after a hardware failure or software glitch? True Image is my #1 choice in backup tools. Whether you choose file or image based backups (you should use both!) True Image will perform better than any other application I've used. Disk images created with True Image are generally 10-20% smaller than those from comparable programs. If your time and files are as important to you as mine are to me this is a must have.
Acronis Disk Director - My favorite tool to partition, format, and resize hard drives.
Roboform - This program is the next best thing since sliced bread in my book! This program integrates into Internet Explorer and firefox. It generates very secure passwords at the click of a button. How do I remember these complex passwords? Roboform allows you to save passwords and personal data in an encrypted format. A master password (yes only one password to remember!) allows access. Roboform in IE and FireFox works like a super powered bookmark. You click the site you want to go to and Roboform opens the site, enters your username and password for the site (if required) and as if by magic clicks the submit button. If you shop online Roboform can enter your personal information and credit card information, which is also stored in a secure encrypted file, in one click. A real time saver with great security thrown in to boot! 30 day trial.
WinRar - What is commonly called a zip utility, similar to the more widely known WinZip. WinRar is faster and works with more formats for about 1/2 the price of WinZip. 30 day trial.
Desktop Utility
LogonStudio - Change the screen that appears when you log into Windows (where you enter your password). Hundreds of skins available online. It's free.
CursorFX Plus - Change the cursors on your computer, add interesting effects. Hundreds of cursor packs are available online for free.
IconPackager 5 - Icon Packager puts you in control to change every icon with the click of a button. Tired of the plain icons built into Windows? There are hundreds of Icon Packs available online for free, which will add a truly personal feel to your computer.
WindowBlinds 7 - WindowBlinds changes the look and feel of Windows. By changing the appearance of the task bar, start menu, and any other window or program you open. It adds transparency, shadows, alpha blending, and animations. Hundreds of themes are available online for free.
Internet and Email
Hostgator has provided Daves Computer Tips with excellent service and wonderful support! Easy to understand support team, great value, and more features than you can imagine! What more can you ask for?
Google Gmail - The best internet based email(webmail) available and it's FREE. Each mailbox has a 7.3GB limit, which is very generous. The interface is superb, and the spam filter is top notch. You will never need to delete an email again! It has a great search function and a feature called thread view, which makes finding emails easy. A Gmail account offers several advantages including not being required to change your email address if you change service providers. Gmail also allows pop3 and IMAP access so you can using it with your favorite email client if you choose.
Microsoft Outlook 2007 - Outlook is the current email client of choice for corporate America. I get well over 200 emails a day. Outlook has a few features I really need such as a plug in for automatic backups, office sounds which offers me some audible feedback, and the ability to change headers. I've used Mozilla Thunderbird and liked it a lot. With the amount of mail I go through I really need the features of Outlook. If you aren't a heavy user, or don't need the features I do then Thunderbird is a great alternative.
Firefox 3 - An amazing, free, web browser. If you aren't using it you should be! Highly customizable through addins called extensions. There are thousands of extensions which can allow FireFox to do just about anything you can imagine. More importantly, Firefox is not subject to ActiveX, which is a large part of Internet Explorer, AOL, and MSN. No ActiveX means much less chance of getting spyware! Firefox also conforms to web standards more closely than Internet Explorer, which means you will see what the authors intended, not Microsoft.
Mozilla Thunderbird - A great free email client, from the same folks that brought us FireFox. Easy to use and highly customizable through extensions.
Photo and Picture
Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 - Photoshop Elements is the home version of Adobe Photoshop. If you are serious about digital photos you will find Photoshop Elements a great program to have at your disposal. Elements provides all the functionality most will need at 1/6th the price of the full Photoshop version.
Picasa - A great (FREE) way to organize, edit, and share your digital photos.
HDR and RAW – Image Manipulation from RAW Files
HDR – High Dynamic Range Imaging
In the last few years, a technique known as HDR has become a creative outlet for many photographers. Essentially, it consists of combining several images, identical except for exposure, to create a uniquely vivid rendering of a scene. The technique requires using special software to combine the separate images properly. While possible in high-end editors like the CS series of Photoshop, a stand-alone software is easier to use. There is one important requisite for HDR: RAW image files are required.
Not all digital cameras will save an image in RAW. Only a few point-and-shoot cameras have this capability. Panasonic LX series and the Canon G series are among those few. RAW is commonly supported by most dSLRs. The settings are found buried in menus for any camera that does save in this format. Before spending much time discussing HDR, it’s important to know the difference between RAW and JPEG files.
What is Raw Mode?
Raw format is the uncompressed and unprocessed data file captured from the image sensor of a digital camera. It is considered as digital photography's equivalent to a negative in film photography. One key advantage of RAW format is allowing the photographer to postpone applying several adjustments, therefore giving more flexibility to later on apply the adjustments themselves in such a way that best suits the image. RAW files give the photographer far more control when it comes to picture settings.
To get a better understanding of what this file format is, we need to start by looking at the capture part of the digital photography process. Digital cameras contain a sensor that is made up of a very fine grid of light sensitive sites. Each site responds according to the amount light that strikes its surface. The camera’s software (firmware) analyzes these signal (or responses) and assigns a tone to that sensor position. The collective responses for each image results in a digital image file saved to the card by another software routine in the camera. Since the sensors only record the amount of light, the result is a monochrome file in tones of black through white.
In order to produce a color image, very small filters are added to each sensor site. They consist of the primary colors red, green, and blue. The layout of the filters is called a Bayer pattern. Adding these filters allows the sensors to respond to both the color and brightness of a scene. They are recorded as a matrix of red, green and blue pixels of varying brightness. Greatly enlarging a digital (raster) image will let you see this more clearly.
This data can be saved at this point as an unprocessed (RAW) file. The file contains information about the color and brightness of the image, but has not been compressed into a format for normal editing or enhancement. By default, nearly all digital cameras process this data into the familiar JPEG or TIFF files. Its part of the capture process as defined by the camera firmware in order to create a full-color image. The Bayer-patterned data is changed to a standard RGB form using an interpolation to fill in the colors from adjacent sites. (We’ll let it go at that to keep your eyes from glazing over.)
The resulting file contains only the unprocessed image and the EXIF or metadata (camera type, lens, aperture, shutter, etc.) Any camera settings such as contrast, saturation, sharpness, and color tone do not affect the data recorded for the image. They do, however, become the defaulted values during raw conversion, unless you elect to change some or all of them. Only ISO speed, shutter speed and aperture settings are processed by the camera.
How can RAW files be used?
Now that you have this special data file to make into high quality images, data conversion software must be used to employ an image editor. Conversion software consists of the well known programs, such as Lightroom, DxO Pro, Capture One, and Adobe Camera Raw which is part of Photoshop CS and higher. Excellent freeware programs like Raw Therapee can be used as well, although they tend to lack some of the automated features of the commercial products. Basically, they all take a raw image file and convert it to a JPEG or TIFF for editing. The commercial products enhance your workflow by converting groups of related images, etc. After conversion, the file can be manipulated by a regular editor, commercial or free. Generally, these converters can support any proprietary raw format, such as NEF (Nikon) or PEF (Pentax), as well as the standard Adobe DNG format. If your camera permits a choice between the manufacturer’s format and DNG, I recommend using the latter. DNG works with every converter I know of.
So Where Are We?
Let’s stop and review:
Reasons to Shoot Raw
A raw file is comparable to the latent image contained in an exposed but undeveloped piece of film. It holds exactly what the imaging chip recorded. Nothing more. Nothing less. This means that the photographer is able to extract the maximum possible image quality, whether now or in the future. A good analogy with the traditional world of film is that you have the opportunity to use a different type of developer or development time at any point in the future if one comes along that you think might do a better job of processing the image.
Raw files have not had while balance set. They are tagged with whatever the camera's setting was, (either that which was manually set or via auto-white-balance), but the actual data has not been changed. This allows one to set any color temperature and white balance one wishes after the fact with no image degradation. It should be understood that once the file has been converted from the linear space and has had a gamma curve applied (such as in a JPG) white balance can no longer be properly done.
File linearization and color filter array (Bayer) conversion is done on a computer with a fast and powerful microprocessor. This allows much more sophisticated algorithms to be used than those done in a camera with its slower and less powerful processor and with less space for complex conversion programs.
The raw file is tagged with contrast and saturation information as set in the camera by the user, but the actual image data has not been changed. The user is free to set these based on a per-image evaluation rather than use one or two generalized settings for all images taken.
Possibly the biggest advantage of shooting raw is that one has a 16 bit image (post raw conversion) to work with. This means that the file has 65,536 levels to work with. This is opposed to a JPG file's 8 bit space with just 256 brightness levels available. This is important when editing an image, particularly if one is trying to open up shadows or alter brightness in any significant way.
One important thing to remember about RAW files: their size. RAW files are big, 10-16 Mb each or more, depending on your camera. Have plenty of storage cards for shooting and plenty of storage space on your computer to hold these files.
Next time we’ll use these RAW files to create HDR images with both commercial and free applications.
(click the image for a larger view - 700kb)
Ron Moore is the Digital Photography Editor at Daves Computer Tips. A retired professional photographer living in California, Ron starting with Windows 3.11 in the early 90's. He's a computer geek who manages his home network and several off-site machines for friends. Currently, using XP and Windows 7, he has extensive knowledge of Photoshop and many other, more consumer friendly, editing and enhancement programs. You can read more about Ron here.
Top Dozen ‘Essential’ Freeware Programs
This issue I would like to hopefully start some fun and possibly learn a little something along the way. Here’s what I am proposing: I would like everyone to post a list on Daves Computer Tips Forum of their top twelve ‘essential’ freeware titles. Not software which is associated with a favorite activity or hobby. Rather, those essential products that would be added to a bare bones operating system immediately in order to strengthen security and enhance functionality.
Here is the scenario: You have just clean installed Windows, you have established internet connectivity and are about to commence downloading and installing your essential applications; which 12 freeware products would you choose, in order?
I’ll start the ball rolling:
Since I am going to be connected to the net almost continuously whilst bringing my bare bones operating system up to speed, the first obvious choice would be something to strengthen security... a good anti-virus program. Choices in this category are very subjective and, in my opinion, discussions which involve ‘this program is better than that program’ are pretty fruitless. Truth be known, any of the top 3 most popular free anti-virus programs will do an adequate job. Actually, I reckon we could now make that a top 4; Microsoft Security Essentials has been receiving very favorable reviews. Even the well respected Fred Langa has recently written about MSE is glowing terms. In the end though, people tend to stick with whatever has worked successfully for them in the past, and I am no exception. Avast has been really good to me, I’ve been using the free version for over four years now and can’t even remember the last time my machine was infected.
1) Anti-virus = Avast Free
I receive between 50 and 100 emails per day so I would be keen to install my favorite email client as soon as possible. I am not a fan of web based mail, although I readily admit that method does have its advantages. I am a fan of the Windows native email clients, from Outlook Express in XP to Windows Mail and through to the current version (Windows Live Mail). Windows Live Mail supports multiple email accounts through different servers so, considering I have 4 different email accounts, it would be my first choice.
2) Email Client = Windows Live Mail
Replacing Internet Explorer as default browser used to be automatic for me but these days I do believe good old I.E. is near enough to on par with most alternatives. So, these days I give it due consideration and then replace it. I’ve also tried out Google’s Chrome browser, on several occasions, and am impressed. Now that add-ons are available and that list is growing I may even give Chrome an extended tryout... one of these days. In the meantime I’ll stick with the devil I know oh so well and install Firefox with my favorite add-ons, including the LinkExtend site advisory service.
3) Browser = Firefox + favorite add-ons
Now I have my email client up and running I would be looking toward something to deal with unwanted emails, including spam. I am fortunate my Internet Service Provider includes a spam filtering component free of charge but there is more to ‘unwanted’ emails than spam. Do you have a bevy of friends and associates who insist on continually circulating the same old joke emails over and over, many with very large attachments? I do!! (I hope none of them read this).
I cannot see any value in spam filtering software which allows spam to be downloaded to the client (the computer) and then merely plonks it in a different folder…that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I want something that will delete any spam and unwanted emails on the server, before it is actually downloaded. Fortunately there is a standout in that department. MailWasher has been with me for years and I would not be without it. I like it so much in fact, last Christmas I treated myself to the Pro version which supports and manages multiple email accounts. It is one of the very few commercial products I have ever deemed worthy of purchasing.
MailWasher Free supports just the one email account but that is sufficient for many users. Installation places an icon in the notification area of the taskbar which flashes when new mail arrives plus a sound is also played. Audio notification can be customized via the Settings menu. Access to the program’s main interface is via simple right click menu from the same icon.
Information displayed in the interface includes; name of sender, subject line, date and time email was sent, total size (including attachments) and more. There is also a Preview panel present so you can get the gist of the subject matter for any selected email. When you first install MailWasher Free, all contacts in your existing address book are automatically imported to a White List of friends. From then on, any spam emails will be identified by MailWasher and automatically marked for deletion. You can easily change MailWasher’s classification between “Good” and ‘Spam” as required. New addresses can easily be added to either the White List (as friends) or to a Black List (of banned senders). Any emails from addresses in the Black List will automatically be marked for deletion and any other unwanted emails can be manually marked for deletion also. The beauty of MailWasher is that it deletes any unwanted emails on the server so they are never downloaded to the computer... Highly recommended!!
4) Spam/Email Manager = MailWasher Free
I guess the next thing I would look at would be some sort of enhancement to security; something to compliment the existing anti-virus software. I am a great fan of PCTools Threatfire (HIPS based security) and have used it for quite some time. Threatfire is a particularly good addition for the less experienced user; it is pre-configured to start protecting right out of the box and does not require very much user input at all. However, I recently decided I would like to keep an eye on outgoing connections emanating from installed software so changed over to Online Armor Free Firewall, which also includes a very good HIPS component.
5) Extra security = Online Armor Free Firewall
OK, so by now I’ve been on the net for some time downloading and installing applications and my thoughts turn to maintenance. My first and foremost choice here would definitely be CCleaner. It may not be the most thorough of cleaning tools available but it is certainly proven safe and among the very best. I also like to have one of the maintenance and tweaking suites onboard and my selection there would be TweakNow Power Pack 2010. There are some nice tools and utilities included in the Power Pack and the feature to automatically save any ‘changes’ to a built-in Restore Center is a nice addition.
Defraggers fall into this category also and I must admit to being in somewhat of a quandary over selection for that one. Windows built-in defrag tool is, by all accounts, quite effective but it is far too slow for my liking. I’ve used JKDefrag for a long time and always been happy with the results. That application has now been supplanted by MyDefrag (from the same developer) which has continued on with the good work. The latest version of Auslogics Disk Defrag has seen major improvements and garnered some glowing reviews too. Seems we are spoiled for choice here. In the end I shall opt for MyDefrag because I know it will do a very good job and, most importantly, it is available in a portable version.
6) Hard Disk Cleaner = CCleaner
7) Maintenance suite = TweakNow Power Pack 2010
8) Defrag and Optimize = MyDefrag & MyDefrag GUI
Unlike the native Windows email clients, I have not been a fan of their image viewer software since my XP days. Thankfully there are some very good alternatives available. Choices here are also very subjective; I believe Dave is an XnView fan while our Ron fancies IrfanView. I am not ‘right into’ photography and image editing so all I really need is a simple image viewer with some basic editing functions.
Some years back I downloaded and installed all three of the main contenders; IrfanView, FastStone and XnView. All I did was simply look at each interface, without going into any of the options or settings. The one with the interface which appealed most to me was FastStone so that was the one I decided to keep. Familiarity would prevent me from changing now... so FastStone it is.
9) Image Viewer = FastStone Image Viewer
A little application which I have always found to be invaluable is Unlocker. It has been especially useful since the advent of the newer operating systems. Unlocker helps you get past those annoying “This file is cannot be deleted because…” messages when trying to delete an unwanted/unnecessary file. The application adds an option to the right click context menu which allows the user to, well... ’unlock’ the file and successfully delete it. I’ve never had a failure with this one.
10) File Utility = Unlocker
Because I am continually downloading and testing freeware, Sandboxie is something I most definitely would not be without. Sandboxie lets the user run any application in an isolated environment (a sandbox). Of course, the main usage is for those applications associated with internet activity. For example: You start a sandboxed browser session and navigate around web sites, maybe download a file or two, a couple of videos perhaps. At sessions end you just can right click on the Sandboxie Control icon (in the notification area of the taskbar) select Delete Sandbox and everything is gone, including any possible malware... without ever getting near the system... brilliant!!
11) Sandboxie
Last but certainly not least, perhaps the most important of all….backup software. I am an unabashed fan of imaging software and admit to using yet another commercial product here, Acronis True Image. I would, however, have absolutely no qualms about recommending or using Macrium Reflect Free. Macrium Reflect is a standout among the free offerings; it’s a product which is so good, it’s difficult to believe it is free. Here is what I would do immediately after I had the operating system all up and running with all my favorite programs installed, everything up to date and configured satisfactorily:
Create a full system image and save that to external media (in my case, an external drive). Now if disaster strikes and subsequent images are unsuitable/unusable/whatever I can go back to the very beginning with everything already installed and configured. This presents huge advantages over the clean install or Restore to Factory Settings options.
12) Backup = Macrium Reflect Free
Now, it's your turn!
OK, I’ve shown you mine, now let’s see yours! I do not expect you to be anywhere near as verbose as I have been, in fact we would prefer if you weren’t. Just a simple list of 12 titles will suffice, along with a few succinct comments if you like.
After a couple of weeks I’ll review all the posts, tote up the statistics and compile a list of the ‘Ultimate’ essential freeware, as chosen by you. I’ll publish the results in a future issue!
This whole project is heavily reliant on your participation; please do get involved! If you are not already a forum member; registration is very simple and completely free.
Post your list HERE!
Freeware Finds
Delete Your Account – Is not actually freeware, it is a relatively new online service which provides information on how to delete an unwanted or no longer required account from all major social networking, blogging and shopping sites; including links to any available options.
It doesn’t actually delete the account for you but provides information and links in a sort of ‘How To’ format.
Stalled Printer Repair – I thought this one may come in handy for many of you. It can be a right pain in the you know what when the printer stalls due to incomplete or mishandled print jobs. Yes, we can often rectify the problem ourselves manually, but this software handles the chore easily and very quickly.
The software is a small download (346kb zip) and is also portable!! There is an installer version available (542kb), but... portable rules, especially for this type of application.
There is some neat information of the home page... check it out.
FileSecrets - includes options to: Deny Access to File or Folder. Deny Modify to File or Folder. Hide the File/Folder.
a lightweight, simple but effective tool for protecting your files from any unauthorized access. Windows might have an ability to protect files, however, this can be easily altered by users in your computer that have the right access privileges. The aim of FileSecrets is to “secretly” protect your files, which means that other users will not even have an idea of how your files are protected or even notice that your files are there.
The home page is a veritable font of information, including screenshots. Well worth a look see.
SpyBHORemover – Apparently this one used to be called ‘BHORemover’. I must admit to not having heard of it before. The title is pretty much self explanatory but here is part of the description from the home page:
SpyBHORemover is an advanced tool to explore and eliminate malicious BHO's from the system. BHO stands for 'Browser Helper Objects' which are plugins written for 'Internet Explorer' to enhance its capabilities. Often this feature is being misused by many spyware programs to monitor user's browsing habits and to steal the users credentials silently. Also some of the BHO's slow down the system considerably.
SpyBHORemover helps in quick identification and elimination of such spy BHO's present in the system. It not only performs heuristic based threat analysis but also provides online threat verification mechanism.
There is a lot of useful information on the home page, including a list of features, a ‘how to’ and more. Best of all... yep, it’s portable!!
Partition Assistant – I must preface this item by saying; using any 3rd party partition manager software should always be treated with extreme caution. This type of software, in the wrong hands, has the ability to cripple an operating system and/or cause the loss of important personal data and is therefore recommended for experienced/advanced users only.
That said; Partition Assistant Free offers features to: create, delete, format, resize, move, extend and shrink partitions. You can check out all relevant information on the home page, including full feature set. A comparison chart between available editions can be viewed HERE.
MyPaint – Is another for those with an artistic bent... which definitely leaves me out! This from the site:
MyPaint is a fast and easy open-source graphics application for digital painters. It lets you focus on the art instead of the program. You work on your canvas with minimum distractions, bringing up the interface only when you need it.
MyPaint comes with a large brush collection including charcoal and ink to emulate real media, but the highly configurable brush engine allows you to experiment with your own brushes and with not-quite-natural painting.
Features include:
- supports pressure sensitive graphic tablets
- extensive brush creation and configuration options
- unlimited canvas (you never have to resize)
- basic layer support
Jim Hillier is the Freeware Editor at Daves Computer Tips. A computer user with over 25 years of experience, his love of freeware is expressed through his Freeware Focus column in each issue of the Daves Computer Tips Newsletter. You can join Jim at the Daves Computer Tips Forum for other discussions on Freeware. You can read more about Jim here.
I want a Droid. That's right, I said I want a Droid. I ignored the iPhone hype because it was an Apple product on AT&T. Since AT&T barely works on my front porch and not at all in my house, it was relatively simple to ignore the beauty that is the iPhone. Yes, it's a nice looking phone, and the iPod touch is fun to play with (no, I don't own one of those either), but there is enough negative-ness around it for me to safely ignore the iPhone.
Not so the Droid. I want a Droid. There is a problem though -- I still have 14 months left on my Verizon contract on my Blackberry Storm (which I geeked out over too, granted, but that's in the past). So I'm faced with the prospect of either:
- Shelling out $600 for a new Droid.
- Taking a chance on eBay and hope that I don't get burnt.
- Waiting 14 months for my contract to expire.
So here's where I am. I had the graphics department whip up a diagram to visualize what I mean. Well, I would have if we had a graphics department. So I hit Google, found something close, and used Microsoft Paint to add some labels. Either way, bear with me. The green arrow represents where I've felt about the iPhone for the past several years it's been out. The black arrow represents my feelings for the Droid. And that line is dropping quickly.
I know, I know. It's just a phone. But the struggles I've had with my Storm have led me to want something different for a while now. And I got to play with a Droid about a month ago and I've been Droid-lusting ever since.
I've spent the past month searching eBay daily looking for the absolute best bargain I can find on a Droid. I even got my wife convinced that this would make a great birthday gift for me, provided I sell my Storm (anyone want to buy a Blackberry Storm?). So, step one accomplished, I moved on to eBay with a vengeance. I've learned something though, eBay is a scary place. 10 years ago it didn't feel this scary.
So I haven't found a Droid yet, but I have permission to buy one. Now I have to convince myself to spend that much money on a phone (sorry, sorry, a mobile experience in the palm of my hand).
Chad moonlights as a computer system technician, website designer, father, and lover of pickles. Originally a hobby, computers became a career when no other usable skills were discovered within his abilities. Chad's antics can be followed on his blog outsidethefire.org. You can read more about Chad here.
Three young tenors - These young men may to famous one day!
National Geographic was some wonderful images from around the world. Click a location on the map and enjoy. If you're daring download the photosynth software and be prepared for an amazing view!
Looking to play a prank? Check out this video and see what you can do with a Microsoft Office box!
All I can say is "Wow"! This is an amazing display of technology! Watch the whole video to see what this machine can do!
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