Tech2know » Windows

[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] 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] 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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Firefox – Update could not be installed. Make sure no copies of Firefox running

Tech2know — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:35:13 +0000

Yesterday, checked for updates in Firefox. I got a message that new updates are available and downloaded the same. But after downloading I noticed that the updates refused to install.

I tried numerous times but ended in restarting Firefox all the time. Its kind of deadlock situation wherein when I tried to install the updates from within Firefox (Menu option Help—>apply downloaded updates), it asked to restart the browser. On restarting Firefox, I got a message that updates couldn’t be installed.

Every time I restarted Firefox to install the update, I was presented with a following nice message

The update could not be installed. Please make sure there are no other copies of Firefox running

Things which I tried.

Well, anyone would try these

1) I checked Task Manager to see if any session of Firefox is still running. As expected, didn’t find any.

2) Restarted my laptop but in vain.

The solution

Then I found the answer in Mozilla support. Its quite simple. Just run Firefox as administrator in Vista by right clicking the shortcut—>Run as administrator. It worked and the updates were installed successfully.

I am not sure if this method is going to work for all operating systems but it worked for Vista.

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STP SysTrayPlay – A Small System Tray Based MP3 Player Software

Tech2know — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:35:13 +0000

Word MP3 doesn’t need any introduction. It is a digital audio encoding format. This technology allows us to compress the size of an audio recording without to a great extent without compromising on its quality part. Obviously, if its a special encoding format then we require special software to play these audio files which are commonly called as MP3 Player Software or simply MP3 player. Winamp is one of the most knows MP3 players. Window Media Player also supports MP3 format.

I just came across another MP3 player which is not as well known as others but its quite unique in terms of its size and the computer resources consumption. It is called as STP or SysTrayPlay. As the name indicates, its a System Tray based MP3 player. Below is a screen shot

I fully agree with the below description of SysTrayPlay on its official website.

SysTrayPlay is an MP3 and CD playing application that is based on being light-weight on both design and on impact on system resources and provides a simple yet fully functional way to enjoy music as it is meant to be, heard not seen.

Supported operating systems

I tried it on Windows Vista and Windows XP but it should work on all operating systems in Windows family.

Installation

Well, its a very small(approximately 200kb) standalone player which doesn’t require installation. As soon as you double click the exe file, the player will appear in system tray as shown in above screen shot.

Features

The most impressive feature is very low on resources and plays MP3 files very efficiently. Though its does not come with fancy graphical effects which offers a variety of features which might be useful in terms of accessibility yet I personally feel that its quite easy to use SysTrayPlay.

Despite of its very small size, its loaded with features which are required in a good MP3 player. Below are the same :

Optional Minibar

Right click SysTrayPlay icon in system tray –> windows –> Minibar

and here comes a small minibar at your service which can be used to play, pause, stop the current track or jump to next track if you have created a playlist.

Playlist Editor

Wondering if such a small application gives a facility to create playlist? Then no more wondering. Yes, it does have this feature.

Right click SysTrayPlay icon in system tray –> windows –> Playlist

and playlist editor will appear which allows you to add or remove individual songs or complete folder with many other features via menu options ‘Tracks’, ‘File’ and ‘Arrange’.

Equalizer

Yes friends. It gives you equalizers for setting song beats according to your taste. It has four preset modes namely Classic, Loudness, Pop and Rock. Apart from these you can created your own as well. Just adjust the equalizers and save the setting by clicking on Save button.

Right click SysTrayPlay icon in system tray –> windows –> Playlist

Hotkeys Controls

Right click SysTrayPlay icon in system tray –> settings –> Advance –> Hotkeys

and the screen will allow you to customize almost every function for a key combination.

More information and downloading

Just visit the official website for downloading SysTrayPlay.

There is a well known saying that Big Things Come in Small Packages and SysTrayPlay is that sort of package.

I would definitely say that SysTrayPlay is a quite powerful MP3 player despite of its small size. Do give it a try and share your thoughts through comments.

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