Utilities You Gotta Love

Registry Cleaner

A few months ago I got an offer in my email telling me that I should "speed up my computer" and at that time I was struggling with resources so I checked into it. One of the areas it said I should devote some attention to was cleaning my registry, which I had never done. So I typed "free registry cleaner" in Google and it returned many results. Every site said "Free Download" so I went ahead and downloaded, installed, scanned, backed up... All this probably took me a half hour but when it came time to "fix" the problems the software had identified it would only fix the first 10 errors found (I'm ashamed to admit that I had over 900 errors). So obviously fixing the first 10 would do me no good.


This experience inspires me to discuss a "pet peeve". If a software product is not free than why to developers insist on using little tricks to make it look free. I am certainly never going to pay someone who "cons" me into downloading their shareware by advertising it as a "free download" and then limits the functions to make the product unpractical. It has to be the worst marketing move in history. Get a clue shareware developers!

On to better things... After much frustration with the fake freeware products I did find a registry cleaner that truly was freeware that operates so well, so professionally, that it is hard for me to imagine any other software doing a better job. I can't say enough good things about Eusing Free Registry cleaner. It backs up your registry, analyzes it, and fixes it all with no hassles. So use their product and avoid the shareware scams. Here is the link to download Eusing's product.

http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htm


BK Replace

In the UNIX world there is a function called "grep" that allows you to search for a string of text and replace each occurrence of that string of text with something else. It was mainly a programmers tool but in the windows world there are all kinds of other needs for this same function, BK Replace handles all those needs. Everyone should keep this tool handy because you are not sure when you will need it. Download it and be prepared, you'll be glad you did!



http://www.orbit.org/replace/







PS Hotlaunch

There are lots of “launch” programs out there. This one is the best one I've found. It’s simple, clean, and resource efficient. I think everyone should have a program launcher. It’s a centralized location to pull up your common programs and most used files.



http://www.pssoftlab.com/pshl_info.phtml





Gadwin Print Screen!

Take a snapshot of your desktop and save it as a .jpg. You can control what happens when you hit the printscreen button. I have mine set up so that when I hit the printscreen button it pulls up the picture of my desktop and when I hit continue output it brings up a window to save the file, you could also specify for it to go to a printer... There are many options and tools to help you take snapshots of your desktop screen.



http://www.gadwin.com/download/



Deskhide

As you can tell from the product name, this program hides your desktop. It works well. I couldn’t find the actual manufacturers site so I’ve pointed you to Major Geeks to download.



http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1308.html

File Management - Unbelievable Value - Totally Free

Unlocker is a great program. There are so many things running on our computers and once in a while we run into something that we know should not be there. If you can kill the process and then try to locate the file and delete it, sometimes you get a "file locked" error foiling your attempt. Unlocker is by far the most useful tool for dealing with this situation. After installing unlocker you just highlight the file by right clicking on it, then choose unlocker, and it will bring up the interface.

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/#download




Over Disk

What a great disk reporting tool. It gives you a “tree” based diagram that breaks down your drives sectors. Then you can jump to the directory where the files are stored and make the necessary adjustments. This is a must for anyone that is working to keep their disk well organized and wants to understand what is stored on your disk and where.

http://users.forthnet.gr/pat/efotinis/programs/overdisk.html





Syncback

Syncback allows you to backup or sycronize two directories. This is great if you want to backup your files to a different hard drive or if you are maintaining a website and you want to edit files in a "working" directory and have it post to permanent... It’s a nifty package that is easy to use, effective, and free!

http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html


Free Download Manager

I didn’t think that I needed a download manager. The reason I installed this was because the FireFox extension (FlashGot) required a download manager. I found this one and it’s great. Now I don’t use FlashGot any longer. I’ve never been able to figure that extension out. Free Download Manager places a transparent icon on your desktop. You just drag and drop any file you find in your browser that you want to download and it handles it. Then if you want to retrieve your download you just double click on the icon. You can schedule your downloads and do just about anything else you can think of for downloading a file. It’s a great product.

http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm


Filzip

There are many file compression programs on the free market. I tested four or five of them. This one works well when you first use it but after you get used to using it you’ll find that it works really well. It took me a while to take advantage of their extract shortcuts. The only thing I wish this would do that it doesn’t is allow you to check an option to automatically open the unzipped folder. Everything else about this software I like.

http://www.filzip.com/en/index.html


WS_FTP

This is a pretty nuts and bolts FTP program. It works well and has a good log window. What more could you ask for!

http://www.oxinet.co.uk/ipswitch/ws_ftp_le.htm


ReNamer

This is a handy program for file renaming. You can programmatically take characters off files. For example, if I have several files XXpictureofmydog.jpg and I want to remove the XX from all the files… This is the tool to help with that. I’ve also used it to put the date on a bunch of files that I downloaded at once.


http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~den4b/