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Freeware Rebooted


rridgely

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I've seen laptops that do not have HDD indicators.

And just as I scoffed at this I get my new laptop and Lo'n'Behold I has no HDD lite at all (instead two led tell me the thing is turned on (Toshiba Qosmio)

 

ADVICE FOR USING CCleaner'S REGISTRY INTEGRITY SECTION

DON'T JUST CLEAN EVERYTHING THAT'S CHECKED OFF.

Do your Registry Cleaning in small bits (at the very least Check-mark by Check-mark)

ALWAYS BACKUP THE ENTRY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL BREAK IF YOU DON'T.

Support at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

Pro users file a PRIORITY SUPPORT via email support@ccleaner.com

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Guest Keatah

You have no idea how much I HATE that! Is the industry so into cost cutting they can't afford to install a USD $0.024 LED to indicate your disk is conducting data transfer operations operations? Years ago, around 2000 I discovered these drive LED indicators. More specifically one from O & O software. It was freeware at the time and consumed about 1MB diskspace. I thought it more of a curiosity than anything practical. So put it on a zip disk and forgot about it. 12 years later I found use for it.

 

In retrospect I'm glad I picked it up then, for now it's a bloated oversized utility that does other things besides simulating a disk LED. It does some sort of monitoring. It's swelled and gassed its way to 30MB! And they charge $$$ for it too. The filename of my old freeware version is "oodled_1_0_74_english_win_xp.zip", if anyone thinks they can locate it on the web.. Go for it! I've seen a few other freeware things around, but they do other things too. Perhaps, though, they're not as bad. If anyone sees just an indicator and (NOTHING ELSE) - I'd like to hear about it.

 

post-25750-0-85839700-1365125795_thumb.jpg

Screenshot of the 10 year old bit of of software.

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And just as I scoffed at this I get my new laptop and Lo'n'Behold I has no HDD lite at all (instead two led tell me the thing is turned on (Toshiba Qosmio)

 

You will have to get one of the little progs that monitor HD activity which sits in your sys tray.

 

All machines should have HD activity indicators... it's such a basic need really.

 

Support contact

https://support.ccleaner.com/s/contact-form?language=en_US&form=general

or

support@ccleaner.com

 

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You will have to get one of the little progs that monitor HD activity which sits in your sys tray.

 

All machines should have HD activity indicators... it's such a basic need really.

 

DiskLED

 

Nice little tool that monitors harddisk activity. And when the computer accesses the harddisk then the DiskLed system tray icon lights up. When my laptop (Win 7) goes through the start up procedure (e.g. MS Security Essentials) then for the first 1 or 2 (3 ??) minutes this system tray icon constantly lights up revealing constant disk access/heavy disk usage.

 

When the icon no longer constantly is lit then I know that my computer is completely at my disposal and will start to respond (almost) instantly to mouseclicks.

 

http://helgeklein.com/

http://helgeklein.com/free-tools/

 

For the time being, this is the best and - above all - simplest diskmonitoring tool I came across.

;)

 

ADVICE FOR USING CCleaner'S REGISTRY INTEGRITY SECTION

DON'T JUST CLEAN EVERYTHING THAT'S CHECKED OFF.

Do your Registry Cleaning in small bits (at the very least Check-mark by Check-mark)

ALWAYS BACKUP THE ENTRY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL BREAK IF YOU DON'T.

Support at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

Pro users file a PRIORITY SUPPORT via email support@ccleaner.com

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  • 2 weeks later...
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AudioTester

 

Supports: Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista

License: Freeware

Download Website: http://www.vuplayer.com/other.php

 

AudioTester can scan for errors in encoded audio files:

FLAC (.flac), MP3 (.mp3), Ogg Vorbis (.ogg), Monkey's Audio (.ape), WavPack (.wv)

 

My Comments:

* It's a nifty tool to quickly scan the audio file types it supports for any errors.

* Create a user profile "SendTo" shortcut pointing to it and then you'll have instant right-click support for using it on single individual files, or scanning whole folders recursively.

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taskbar shuffle is awesome I used it a lot on a XP machine that I remoted into.

 

ADVICE FOR USING CCleaner'S REGISTRY INTEGRITY SECTION

DON'T JUST CLEAN EVERYTHING THAT'S CHECKED OFF.

Do your Registry Cleaning in small bits (at the very least Check-mark by Check-mark)

ALWAYS BACKUP THE ENTRY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL BREAK IF YOU DON'T.

Support at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

Pro users file a PRIORITY SUPPORT via email support@ccleaner.com

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Snap MD5

 

License: GPLv3

Website: http://dan.hersam.com/software/snap-md5/index.html

Mirror: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/Snap-MD5.shtml

 

 

Portable Software:

Requires no installation and is completely portable, meaning it doesn't read or write to the registry and doesn't require any configuration. It can also be used via USB Thumb Drives, etc.

 

about:

Snap MD5 is a simple utility to validate the MD5 and SHA-1 checksum of downloaded files.

 

Tip:

Also works via the 'Send To' right-click menu if you create a shortcut pointing to SnapMD5.exe, doing that will completely negate having to manually browse to files to verify them.

 

My Thoughts:

It's a good small sized verification tool that's very easy to use. I liked it enough to give it a home on all my USB Thumb Drives.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello,

 

One of the forum members recommended Picture 2 as a picture viewer

in stead of the Windows version in Windows 7.

After downloading it, I tried to install it but Windows came op with a pop-up screen:

"Component 'mscomct.ocx' or one of its dependencies not correctly registred: a file is missing or invalid"

What am I doing wrong or what else do I have to do to let this program run correctly?

My O.S. is Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64 bit.

Joe.

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Have a read through this 3 page thread. Although the software the original poster was trying install was not the same as you, the problem can occur with other softwares.

 

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vbgeneral/thread/a6d06695-87b8-4fa6-8b9c-a3547829ab76

 

Support contact

https://support.ccleaner.com/s/contact-form?language=en_US&form=general

or

support@ccleaner.com

 

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After several trial and error sessions getting all kinds of errors

like 'The module "mscomctl.ocx was loaded but the call to DllRegisterServer failed with

error code 0x8002801c.

For more information bla, bla bla",

and looking on forums where one member says the file must be put in 'system' and

another one say it must be put in 'system32',

I finally gave up.

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I did put that file in SysWOW64 as well as in System32: the problem persisted.

 

Found another alternative for 'Picture 2' software: 'Irfan view'.

This program could be installed without getting those nagging insolvable problems.

I just wanted to have an alternative for the build-in 'Windows Photo Viewer' in Windows 7.

I was accustomed with the XP 's 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer' which is far better

than that 'Photo Viewer' regarding the zoom function.

The now installed 'Irfanview' matches the performance of the 'Picture and Fax Viewer'.

There is no longer need for that 'Picture 2' program.

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For those who frequently use screen savers (I rarely use them) and like beautiful pictures on their screen. There's also (music) software available for iPhone & iPod.

http://www.zendogsoftware.com

 

I like the program "Zen Chimes Classic" very much. I like how the program "fiddles".

http://www.zendogsof.../About_beta.asp

System setup: http://speccy.piriform.com/results/gcNzIPEjEb0B2khOOBVCHPc

 

A discussion always stimulates the braincells !!!

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  • 1 month later...

plugins for Windows Explorer anyone?

 

QTTabBar. I've made use of it for years, and I think I mentioned it in the older freeware thread.

 

It tabs windows explorer (and captures new windows as tabs)

 

http://qttabbar.sourceforge.net/

 

Clover: Similar to QTTabBar, but it's basically Chrome. Supports chrome themes too.

 

http://ejie.me/

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hello folks,

 

I just thought to share this wonderful product with you.

 

It's called PicPick and as the name suggests : this is a screen capturing program, but one with a vast array of functions.

 

Its entirely free and works like a charm.

 

As the one of the reviewers says...

 

"This program makes us think of a Swiss Army Knife, or perhaps a well-stocked, well-organized desk drawer. There are all kinds of helpful tools here, and we think PicPick would be useful to Web designers, graphic designers, and even the average computer user who occasionally needs to work with graphics.'

 

I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a tool that offers more functionality than Windows built in 'Snipping Tool'

 

http://www.picpick.org/en/

 

There is even a portable version available for download from here.

 

http://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_pictures/picpick-portable

 

Works with all versions of Windows from XP to Windows 8

 

Cheers

 

Q

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  • 2 months later...

Here are some utilities that I use a lot, are installed on my machine (or USB), and are free!

 

Rufus (v1.3.4)

Download: http://rufus.akeo.ie/

Description: An easy to use and versatile utility to create a bootable CD, DVD, or USB stick from an ISO image. Works with DOS, Windows XP SP2 through Windows 8.1, many Linux distros, Hiren's Boot CD, Parted Magic, Trinity Rescue Kit, and Ultimate Boot CD. Supports 32 and 64 bit OS, supports FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, UDF, and exFAT filesystems. Supports MBR (for BIOS or UEFI boot) and GPT (UEFI boot only) partitioning schemes. Options to check USB for bad sectors before starting write, quick format, and creating label and icon file on USB for easy identification.

Comments: I've only had one image fail to boot, and I traced it back to the image itself - my fault for using it!

 

Mini Tool Partition Wizard (v8.0)

Download: http://www.partition...on-manager.html For install to hard drive

http://www.partition...m/download.html For install to CD or USB - scroll to bottom of page

Description: Probably the most complete and full featured partitioning tool available as freeware. So many features I will not attempt to describe them all here. The most powerful one: the ability to resize or move a partition while maintaining the integrity of the data on that partition. Works on Windows XP through Windows 8, 32 or 64 bit. Can be installed on hard drive, CD, DVD, or USB stick (this is what I use and the reason I mentioned Rufus first).

Comments: I admit I have not tested or used every single feature, like partition copying or recovery for instance. I'll play with that at a later date.

 

Linux Live USB Creator (v2.8.24)

Download: http://www.linuxliveusb.com/

Description: If Rufus is so great, why do I use this utility? Two reasons: First, it supports more Linux distros than Rufus does. Second, if you use a distro based on Ubuntu, it allows you to enable a feature called "Persistence" prior to the creation process. This installs a second partition on the USB stick after the ISO is installed, allowing you to download and save files while running in live mode. For Linux ISO only, does not support Windows or Mac OSX.

Comments: Between this app and Rufus, you've got a lot of operating systems available.

 

WinMD5Free (v1.20)

Download: http://www.winmd5.com/

Description: Why do you need this utility? It's simple - CD's and DVD's make lousy beverage coasters - there's a hole in the middle! Use this to verify the MD5 Checksum first, waste less money on useless media, have more money for beer.

 

TreeSize Free (v2.7.0.168)

Download: http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/

Description: A great analysis tool if you're trying to figure out why the available space on your hard drive is evaporating into thin air. Displays the size of directories, folders, and files in descending order so you have a clearer picture of where to look first.

Comments: I give credit where credit is due, Alan_B recommended this one to me and it's been on my machine ever since.

 

TCPView (v3.05)

Download: http://technet.micro...s/bb897437.aspx

Description: Displays all processes using a TCP/IP connection on your machine in real time. Displays process name, I.D. number, TCP/IP protocol, port number, I.P. address, and more. Run this and Task Manager(click the Details tab) simultaneously, then sort both by process I.D. number, and then compare the two. What are you looking for? A process that is displayed by TCPView that is NOT displayed by Task Manager, and has accessed a port and I.P. address. Why are you doing this? It could indicate the presence of malware or spyware installed on your machine. A good article to reference is here: http://www.bleepingc...acing-a-hacker/ Also, once you have the I.P. address in hand, go here to get a good idea of where it is: http://cqcounter.com..._ip_address.php

Comments: I haven't had any cause to use this, but it's nice to know anyway. ;)

 

Zemana Antilogger Free (v1.6.2.293)

Download: http://www.zemana.co...-free/overview/

Description: Very simple to configure, loads when Windows starts, and encrypts your keystrokes.

Comments: When I tried to download the keylogger simulation test app from their website, Norton blocked the download. I would assume that Norton views this app as a threat.

 

That wraps it up for now. It's getting late, but I do have a few more to add at a later date.

Start every day with a smile and get it over with. - W.C. Fields

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