Archive for the ‘Software’ Category

CCleaner AKA Crap Cleaner

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

One of the biggest slow downs for computers is the crap that you accumulate while just browsing the web.

CCleaner combines a system cleaner that removes unused and temporary files from your system and also a fully featured registry cleaner.

I have been using CCleaner for 6 years or more and it’s the second thing I install after a new install of windows. The first being Firefox. Not only does CCleaner, clean up your temporary internet files, cookies, history, recently typed URLs, Index.dat files, last download location there is more but I am feeling a bit lazy…


CCleaner also comes with a registry scanner that will fix and or remove files that are no longer being used as well as removing left over application paths from removed programs.

It also comes with a program uninstaller, while I recommend using revo’s uninstaller this program is better than the standard windows uninstaller

CCleaner is a user friendly application that allows you to make a back up before you remove any files in case you are unsure about a certain file. This way if something does go wrong you can easily return your computer back to the state it was in before running the Cleaner. I have never had to do this however it is nice that it is there.

Download CCleaner from here

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Tim Fehlman list of 24 Open source Media Centers

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

I have not posted much on software, since I seem to be caught up with politics for some odd reason. I have been watching Daily Cup of Tech’s 24/24 post on open source media Centers. Below you can see some of the detail Tim Fehlman went into on these programs. If your into open source (free) programs and are looking for a good media play check out Tim Fehlman list of 24.

Daily Cup of Tech
Plex Media Center for OS X

Plex bridges the gap between your Mac and your home theater, doing so with a visually appealing user interface that provides instant access to your media. Plex can play a wide range of video, audio and photo formats as well as online streaming audio and video. The real power of Plex is found in its library features: Organize your media into versatile libraries, automatically retrieve metadata from the Internet, and display your libraries using one of the visually stunning skins.

Remedie

Remedie is a perl based media center application with pluggable architecture. You can subscribe to videocast feeds, watch local folder with media files and keep track of your favorite video sites like YouTube, Nico Nico Douga or Hulu. See Supported Sites for details. It runs as a web server so you can use your favorite browser (Firefox, Safari) to browse your video collection, playback videos using your favorite player. If you’re familiar with Plagger, Remedie is a fork of Plagger, optimized for media downloading and viewing, and comes with an HTTP web server with JSON APIs and web-based frontend built with jQuery and CSS.

These are just 2 of the 24 that I grabbed at random.

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6 tips to protect yourself from virus and spyware

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

1. Be wary of unexpected IM messages and emails urging you to open or run an attachment or download
2. Run up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware software with behavioural protection, Keep it running in the background at all times.
3. Ensure you run Smart Updates and Microsoft updates regularly.
4. If you are asked to update to a new version of a flash player or any other program go to producers’ website and download the update directly from it.
5. Organisations usually contact you by phone or mail, so when you get an email call them back instead of clicking on any links or attachments.
6. Never let your guard down, it’s better to be too cautious then sorry.

Those tips are from PC Tools. I recommend that you all sign up for their newsletter or another security software company’s newsletter. The good ones come out once a month and have the latest threats as well as some tips to avoid them. You can sign up for PC Tools Newsletter by visiting their site PC Tools

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Everything local search engine

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

Everything is a local search engine. It helps you locate files and directories based on their filenames. You can’t use Everything to search based on file contents, but it more than makes up for this shortcoming with the speed it demonstrates. The secret is that it automatically indexes all the files and directories on your system, so that when it’s time to search for something, you’ve already got a database of the contents of your hard drive, so you’re just looking things up, rather than having to run through your entire directory structure at search time. It supports wildcards and regular expressions, so you can make your search queries very specific when you enter them.

Everything is a Windows application. It runs under Windows 2000 and later, and will only index local NTFS volumes—no FAT volumes, no network drives.
I have been using Everything for awhile now, and love it. I have 4 hard drives on my main computer and it makes finding files a breeze.
You can download Everything
If your looking for other great free software check out Free Download a Day

WordPress Tags: engine,files,contents,system,database,directory,expressions,index,computer

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Autoruns

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

One of the hardest things a new computer user or a person who has limited knowledge of computers is knowing what is running at start up. Autoruns is a pretty simple program that shows you what’s there. Keep in mind that a lot of programs like to add themselves to auto start up at your system boot.

From the developers site; Autoruns shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP. Autoruns’ Hide Signed Microsoft Entries option helps you to zoom in on third-party auto-starting images that have been added to your system and it has support for looking at the auto-starting images configured for other accounts configured on a system. Also included in the download package is a command-line equivalent that can output in CSV format, Autorunsc.

You can download it here Autoruns

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PortableApps Suite

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

From download site PortableApps Suite™ is a collection of portable apps including a web browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, antivirus, sudoku game, backup utility and integrated menu, all preconfigured to work portably. Just drop it on your portable device and you´re ready to go. All versions of the PortableApps Suite include the integrated PortableApps Menu and the PortableApps Backup utility along with a set of custom icons, an autoplay configuration, folders and a quick start shortcut. Features: * Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition (web browser) * Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition (email) * Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition (calendar/tasks) * ClamWin Portable (antivirus) * Pidgin Portable (instant messaging) * Sumatra PDF Portable (PDF reader * KeePass Password Safe Portable (password manager) * Sudoku Portable (game) * Mines-Perfect Portable (game) * CoolPlayer+ Portable (audio player) * OpenOffice.org Portable* (office suite) o Writer (word processor) o Calc (spreadsheet) o Impress (presentations) o Base (database utility) o Draw (drawing) All runs comfortably from a 512MB drive.

I love this suite since it gives you everything you need and you can carry it on a USB drive. Portable Apps download

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Tired of not knowing how to hope an attachment or file?

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

OpenWith.org Desktop Tool 1.0.1 can help. Nifty tool and a great idea.

This is from the publishers site

Do you have a file that you don´t know how to open? The OpenWith.org Desktop Tool will tell you what type of file it is, and can automatically download a free program to open it!

You simply right-click on file, and select “How do I open this?” The OpenWith.org Desktop Tool will show you details about what type of file it is, and recommend one or more free programs that can open it. You can select what program you want to use and the OpenWith.org Desktop Tool will automatically download it.

You can double-click on the file type or program in the OpenWith.org Desktop Tool and you will be brought to our website where you can find related files and even more detail. We´re here to help you, so feel free to e-mail us if you need any help!

OpenWith.org has a large and constantly growing database of file extensions and free programs to open them. If we don´t know about the file extension you are trying to open, don´t fret! We will be automatically notified and will research and add it to our database shortly! (Usually within 24 hours).

Openwith website

Patrick Budowski

Maryland

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