Tech2know » {How To}

[How to] Analyze/Clean Hard Disk Space with Free Disk Analyzers JDiskReport and FilePro

Tech2know — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:35:48 +0000

Friends, it is a reality that secondary storage space is not a major concern now a days. The days are over when we use to pay too much for a ok sort of hard disk in terms of capacity. And because of the high cost, one had to take care of every bit of space.

The era has changed. Now, almost every laptop come with at least 160GB hard disk which is quite enough for our requirement. But, it doesn’t mean that we don’t have to take care of the usage of our hard disk. At times, we may encounter a situation wherein we have to delete unnecessary files,which are taking a lot of space, from the system . For this, first we need to analyse that which are the culprit files that are eating up space. Obviously, we cannot do it manually. So what to do?

Well, there are two tools which can help you analyse the distribution of the space on your hard disk. The names are JDiskReport and FilePro. And believe me guys, these tools serves the purpose very well. The best part is, both the tools are absolutely Free!

JDiskReport

Below is a screen shot of JDiskReport

JDiskReport enables you to understand how much space the files and directories consume on your disk drives, and it helps you find obsolete files and folders. The tool analyses your disk drives and collects several statistics which you can view as overview charts and details tables.This is ad-free uncrippled no-charge binary multi-platform software that never expires.

Supported operating systems

I tested JDiskReport on Windows XP and Windows Vista. It worked fine.

Prerequisite

JDiskReport require Java 5 or later, Java 6 is recommended.

Features

The feature which I personally liked is that JDiskReport show the list of 100 largest files, least recently modified files, and most recently files. This is a good place to find large and obsolete files. Apart from this there are many other features as well.

Size Perspective : The size perspective shows you how much space the files and folders consume on your disk drives. The size pie chart is probably the best to find monster files and folders. You can switch to the table view and toggle the display of files to get more detailed information about a folder.
Size distribution : The size distribution views help you to learn more about the different file sizes that exists on your hard disks. Look at these views to check whether the size distribution is what you expected it to be.

FilePro

Saleen FilePro is a powerful disk and file management utility that offers multiple features and tool which makes the task of analysis quite easy.

Below is a screen shot:

Supported operating systems

Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7

Features

Generate disk tree maps for local or network volumes.
Search and locate files in tree maps by automatic zoom-in and positioning.
Save entire or partial volume snapshots.
Compare snapshot against current disk state or past snapshot
Copy/Move/Rename/Delete files or directories.
Tool: Compare files and/or directories
Tool: Find duplicate files
Batch renaming of files

Download

Click JDiskReport and FilePro to visit the respective official pages.

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[How to] Update Google Calendar with Text Message or SMS

Tech2know — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:35:47 +0000

Whomsoever uses Gmail, must be aware of Google calendar. This is a very useful tool which you can use to maintain your appointments and other important schedules. You can also share the schedules with your friends. Sharing of schedules makes it very easy for you to plan an outing with friends.

You can activate Google calendar via Settings—>Labs tab—>Google calendar gadget.

Well, the calendar gadget is now activated in you Gmail account and you can view the same at top left corner in your Gmail account. . But, this post is not about how to activate calendar. Its about how you can update your Google calendar via text message. Yes, this can be done very easily. First you have to configure Google calendar for this feature. Below are the steps :

1) Login into your Gmail account

2) Click on ‘Calendar’ at top left corner. This will open the calendar.

3) Click ‘Settings’ at top right corner.

4) Click on ‘Mobile setup’ tab.

5) Now you need to select country, your mobile number and carrier. Carrier is your mobile number service provider.

You can see full list of supported carriers for your country by clicking here. For India below is the list of supported carriers :

Aircel Cellular Limited
Bharti Airtel Limited
BPL Mobile Communications Ltd
IDEA Cellular Limited
Reliance Telecom Limited
Spice Communications Limited
Vodafone

6) On clicking ‘Send verification Code’, you will receive a code on the mobile number which you have mentioned in ‘Phone number’ field.

7) Fill that verification code in ‘Verification code’ and click on ‘Finish setup’.

How to send event updates

Send a text message to “GVENT” (48368) with information about an event, like “3pm cappuccino at Borrone’s,” and this event will be added to your calendar. Just like the “Quick Add” feature in Google Calendar, GVENT will pop the event into your calendar in the right place. You’ll get a text message back confirming the details of your event. Or, send the word “day” to “GVENT” to get a text message response containing all of your scheduled events for today, “next” for your next scheduled event, or “nday” for all your events scheduled for tomorrow. You can learn more about GVENT in the help center

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via Gmail Blog

[How to] Split and Merge PDF with Free Gios PDF Splitter and Merger

Tech2know — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:35:14 +0000

We all are aware of the word PDF. Well its a quite famous format for storing text documents. At times we encounter a situation wherein we need to either split a PDF file or merge PDF files into one. This may be a bit problematic because changing a PDF file in this manner will require a full software. Some of the free softwares are not efficient at work and other are paid.

I just came across a free software which makes process of splitting and merging of PDF files very easy. The tool is called as Gios PDF Splitter and Merger.

Below is a screen shot :

Gios PDF Splitter and Merger is a handy tool that will help you merging and splitting PDF documents with ease. Its an Open Source PDF Split and Merge utility for Windows and require .NET Framework version 2.0.

Supported operating systems

I tried this on Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 7 (All 31 bit).

Installation

Its a very small standalone application and doesn’t require installation.

Prerequisite

.NET Framework version 2.0.

Features

It is a very simple application. The GUI is quite comprehensible. You really don’t have to think on how to use it. Its straight forward. You can simple drag and drop files and Gios PDF Splitter and Merger will do the job.

I have used it around 14 times and didn’t encounter any problem.

Download

Visit official page to download.

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[How to] Securely Communicate Online with Free RetroShare

Tech2know — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:35:08 +0000

Well, we all communicate online with our friends, relatives, girl friends by using various means. For example, messengers. Be it Yahoo, Gtalk, or MSN. All serves same purpose of letting us communicate online.

There is another free communication platform about which many of us don’t know. Its called as RetroShare.

RetroShare is a Open Source cross-platform, private and secure decentralised communication platform. It lets you to securely chat and share files with your friends and family, using a web-of-trust to authenticate peers and OpenSSL to encrypt all communication. RetroShare provides file sharing, chat, messages, forums and channels.

Below is a screen shot :

Supported operating systems.

Windows(I tested it on Vista), Ubuntu, Mac.

Installation and prerequisite

You must install GPG4Win v1.1.4 in you are installing RetroShare under windows. Well, you don’t have to search for GPG4Win separately because win32 installer of RetroShare automatically installs it but you will need to first remove any more recent version of gpg4win.

Features

Serverless, encrypted Chat & File transfer
Multiple simultaneous downloads / uploads
Search Friends
Messages
Forums
UPnP / NAT-PMP port forwarding support
GnuPG Authentication
OpenSSL Encryption
DHT support
Plugins support
Graphical User Interface written with Qt4 toolkit
System tray integration

One of the feature which I personally like about RetroShare is that

RetroShare is serverless, which means – unlike other messengers, you don’t* need to register, complete annoying registration forms and receive tons of ads. Sending a key to your friend by e-mail is enough to set up your own IM network. This also means no IM spam, because people you didn’t invite absolutely cannot connect.

Download and more information

Visit official page to download and explore more about RetroShare.

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[How to] Extend Right Click Menu of Windows 7 With Free Right Click Extender

Tech2know — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:35:48 +0000

Let us take an example of a situation wherein you want to move a particular file or folder to other in Windows operating system. What you will do? Well its quite simple and everyone knows that. Just cut the file/folder and paste it in destination folder. But how good it would be if this option exists in right click menu itself.

Here comes a free utility called Right Click Extender with which you can add a number of options in right click menu which are present as such.

Below is a screen shot :

Right-Click Extender is an intuitive application that will offer you the possibility to add several important items to the context menu of Windows.

Supported operating systems

I tested it on Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Installation

Its a standalone application and doesn’t require installation

What you can do with Right Click Extender

File and Folder Options:

Option to add or remove Copy To
Option to add or remove Move To
Option to add or remove Admin Command Prompt
Option to add or remove Encrypt/Decrypt
Option to add or remove File List Create
Option to add or remove My Computer God Mode
Option to add or remove Hide File
Option to add or remove Unhide File
Option to add or remove Hide Folder
Option to add or remove Unhide Folder
Option to add or remove Take Ownership

Desktop Options:

Option to add or remove Flip3D
Option to add or remove Desktop God Mode
Option to add or remove Control Panel
Option to add or remove Task Manager
Option to add or remove Administrative Tools
Option to add or remove Registry Editor

Download

You can download Right Click Extender from The Windows Club Website.

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[How to]Tweak Windows7 to Explore Faster With Free 7plus

Tech2know — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:35:17 +0000

Friends, the word Windows doesn’t require any introduction. Most of the home PCs run on Windows family of operating systems. All of us who have Windows installed in their PC or laptop are very well aware of its functions. How good it would be if you are able to tweak some of the functions of Windows to enhance your navigation/exploring experience.

Yes. There exist a freeware which will help you in achieving this. The application is called 7plus. In short, 7plus allows you to perform various tasks faster. For example, you can create new folders by pressing function key, Paste text or image from clipboard as file, quickly upload file to an FTP server with a single hot key and many more.

Below is a screen shot :

Written in Autohotkey, 7plus is a project which tries to make working with Windows much more comfortable by adding features to explorer, window handling, and lots of other small tweaks. For example it allows you to quickly upload files to an FTP server directly from explorer with a single hotkey, navigate to your favourite folders with numpad keys, keep windows always on top, etc

Supported operating systems

Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7. I tested it on 32 bit versions.

Installation

Its a very small(approx 432 KB) standalone application which doesn’t require installation.

Features

Explorer features for all Windows

Store favourite folders and recall them for very fast navigation.
Upload files, screenshots and clipboard content directly to an FTP server with just one hotkey.
Create new folders and text files by pressing F8/F7.
Paste text or image from clipboard as file.
Open any file in your favourite text/image editor by pressing F3.

Windows 7/Vista specific

Show favourite folders in the explorer folder band bar like Web Browser favourite bars.
Make Backspace go upwards again.
Show free space and selected file size in status bar.
Automatically check “Apply to all further operations” checkboxes in file operation dialog boxes.
Activate Aero Flip 3D by moving the mouse to the top left corner of the screen.
Change the desktop wallpaper by middle clicking on the desktop (Win7 only).
Cycle through windows by clicking on a task group button (Win7 only)

Miscellaneous

Paste previous clipboard text entries by pressing WIN+V.
Use a Joypad/Gamepad to remote control the mouse, keyboard and zoom.
Open current folder in CMD by pressing WIN+C and enable CTRL+V to paste and ALT+F4 in CMD.
Rotate images in Windows Picture Viewer by pressing R and L.

More information and downloading

Visit official page to download and explore more about 7plus. You can also find a number of video tutorials on the page.

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via Windows Club

[How to] Convert Video From Any Format To Any With Free Any Video Converter

Tech2know — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 18:35:59 +0000

There are many instances when we want to convert out favourite video from one format to other. For example, if you want to convert a video to MP4, MOV, M4V format supported by iPhone so that you can watch the video any time on your beautiful handset. You may also want to convert other formats also which I’ll cover later in this post. I came across a software which is pretty good at this work

Any Video Converter is superb piece of application which enable you to convert videos from multiple format to many other format. It is one of the best in class video converter with fast converting speed and excellent video quality. And you don’t have to pay anything. Its absolutely FREE!

Below is a screen shot :

Any Video Converter is a professional video converter which can convert video files from various formats with fast converting speed and excellent video quality . It can convert almost all video formats including DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb, MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV, AVI to MPEG-4 movie format for iPod/PSP or other portable video device, MP4 player or smart phone. It also supports any user defined video file formats as the output. It has an unmatchable speed and high quality. Any Video Converter makes it easy for anyone to enjoy the any format video with your iPod, PSP, mobile phone or MP4 player.

Supported Operating systems

Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7

Installation

Its quick and require a few clicks on well known ‘Next’ button.

Features

Supports input formats like avi, asf, mov, rm, rmvb, flv, mkv, mpg, 3gp, m4v, vob, YouTube videos. Well, not impressed. Just click all formats to see the huge number of formats supported by the application.
Support output format like avi, mp4, wmv, swf, flv, mkv, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, mpg (PAL or NTSC), mp3, wma, ogg, aac, wave, m4a.
Download and convert online videos from YouTube, Google and NicoVideo.
Merge video clips into a single file.
Supports video trimming to convert any part you need of the original videos.
Convert video to audio formats like MP3, OGG, WAV, ACC, WMA.

Output formats

Below screen shot shows the profiles in which you can convert a video.

Download and more information

Visit official page to download and explore more about the converter.

The user interface is very simple and comprehensible. You don’t have to search for options here and there like we might have done in many other video converting softwares in the past.

I already converted some of the videos from one format to other and believe me friends, the quality is awesome! The newly created file will be stored in different location leaving the original file untouched.

In simple words, This is A must have utility.

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[How to] Kill/Remove Stuck Print Jobs from Queue with Free Stalled Printer Repair

Tech2know — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 07:30:18 +0000

Well, we all use printers to convert soft copies of our our favourite tutorial, images etc into hard copy. You must have encountered a situation wherein a printer job stuck leaving behind all other jobs waiting in the queue. The worst part is that the culprit job cannot be deleted. Be it a personal printer or a shared one. This kind of situation is really frustrating because one need to restart the printer or by stopping the spooling service manually to take care of the situation. Obviously you have to go to printer to restart it and this may be a bit painful if you are not in a mood to get up from your place and don’t want to dig in the procedure to stop print spooling service.

I came across an application that enable you resolve this issue without restarting printer. Its called as Stalled Printer Repair.

Below is a screen shot :

A print request sent to the printer spooler can become stuck in the spooler queue and cannot be deleted. Subsequent print or fax jobs sent to the spooler will not print until the first job is cleared from the spooler queue. Also known as printer spooler restoration.

Supported operating systems

Windows XP, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Vista.

Installation

Its a standalone application and doesn’t require installation.

Features

Well, it frees up printer queue so that the print jobs can be sent to printer.

Download and more information

Visit official page to download and explore more about Stalled Printer Repair.

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[How to] View and Edit Images and Videos With Free STOIK Imagic

Tech2know — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:35:18 +0000

Friends, we all have a huge collection of favourite images and videos which we obtain from various sources. At times, we encounter a situation wherein our media player doesn’t support a video or we want to improve the quality of a video or an image. There are a number of softwares through which we can achieve the editing feature. But, majority of then support only one feature at a time i.e either you can view and edit images or videos. The other hitch is that even if you find a software that cater to all of you needs, you will have to pay for it.

Now we have an excellent piece of software which can be used to View and Edit Images and Videos. That too FREE! The software is called as STOIK Imagic.

There is another version of the software which is STOIK Imagic Premium. Its paid version and contains additional features. For the first 30 days you can enjoy all the features in Free addition. Click comparison chart to compare both the versions.

I personally feel that even the free version is worth trying.

Below is a screen shot of STOIK Imagic.

STOIK Imagic is powerful and very easy-to-use combination of photo album, organizer, media viewer, image and video editor with exhaustive set of tools for all your media needs and tasks. It has unique list of modern desired features: convenient organizing and cataloguing through fast media indexing; browsing by folders, calendar, tags; powerful search by file and EXIF attributes; automatic batch enhancement; panorama and HDR stitching; RAW file conversion; video authoring; creation of games and paint-by-numbers and many more

Supported Operating systems

Windows® XP (SP2 and above), Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Installation

Its very fast and just a matter of few clicks on ‘Next’ button.

Features

Built-in Video Editor

Unlike other photo manipulation software STOIK Imagic has built-in video editor, and you can easily create and edit videos.
Brightness/contrast correction (Premium version), Cut, trim, rotate media clips.
Function to apply effects and transitions between media clips – manually or automatically.
Recording and adding voice-over narration, track for external audio.
Preview and export of movie in multiple formats

Built-in feature rich image editor

You can remove red eye, crop and rotate, adjust brightness and color, retouch photos.
STOIK Imagic offers the easiest-ever Horizon tool to straighten and align your photos

and many more.

More information and downloading

Just visit the official website for more information and downloading Imagic.

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[How to] Generate Strong Passwords With Free Random Password Generator from Iobit

Tech2know — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:35:22 +0000

Friends, some time ago I wrote an article Choosing Secure Passwords-Simple Mathematics which dealt with making everyone understand the mathematics behind strong passwords in a very simple way.

It is utmost important to choose strong password because passwords are the keys to access personal information. Be it mails, Facebook account, Orkut account and the most important, bank account. It the password which is a barrier between your data and the one who can accesses it illegally i.e passwords are the guards or locks who restrict illegitimate access to your personal and sensitive information.

How to generate strong passwords

Well, any password with length 8 or more with the combination of alphabets, numerals and special characters is quite strong.

If you don’t want to think about the string which you can use as your password then there is a free tool from Iobit called Random Password Generator which generates strong password for you and relieves you from the job.

Below is a screen shot of Random Password Generator.

Random Password Generator is designed to help you create secure Random passwords that are extremely difficult to crack or guess, with a combination of random lower and upper case letters, numbers and punctuation symbols. And these random generated passwords will be saved for memo. You can give a mark to the generated random password for later check.

Supported operating systems

Microsoft® Windows® 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) Starter/ Home Basic/Home Premium/Professional/Ultimate
Microsoft® Windows® Vista (32-bit and 64-bit) Starter/Home Basic/Home Premium/Business /Ultimate
Microsoft® Windows® XP (32-bit and 64-bit) with SP2/SP3 or Home/Professional/Media Center
Microsoft® Windows® 2000 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Installation

Its quite fast and just a matter of few clicks.

Features

Password Manager : Manages your passwords and IDs with editable remark to keep your passwords safe and orderly.

Password checked : This feature can tell you how strong the newly generated random password is. It also marks out the weak passwords for you.

Privacy Protected : You can set a password for opening Random Password Generator. Then only you could access your passwords on your computer.

Download

Click download random password generator for downloading.

Do give it a try and share your thoughts through comments.

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