Tips, Tricks, and Great Information:
How to Undelete Photos on your memory card
Vista Driver Site
Here's a nice find: a site
that list all Vista drivers as they become available, with direct download links
to the drivers. It's free and updated daily.
http://www.radarsync.com/vista
Recovering Data from a
Corrupted Hard Drive
Data recovery is a very
complex issue with many different kinds of problems and many possible solutions.
However I was impressed by this detailed guide that shows you how you can use a
Knoppix live CD to recover data from a Windows disk. It's not the only solution
of its kind but the excellent instructions make it worth bookmarking.
http://www.shockfamily.net
How to Permanently Wipe a Hard
Drive
Most users are aware they
can securely erase files and drives using free utilities like "Eraser" and
"Boot and Nuke" that overwrite the data multiple times. At this site, they
show how you can securely wipe a drive using a little-known feature built into
many hard drives.
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
Portable Software Lists
There are lots of these
lists; none is complete but here are two of the best. The first covers free
software while the second includes commercial products as well.
http://www.portablefreeware
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
How to Save YouTube and Other
Streamed Video Files
There are lots of ways to do
this but one of the easiest is to use the free KeepVid web service. Just paste
the video link into the KeepVid site [1] and then download the video to your PC
as an avi file, Flash file (flv) or as an MP4 for your iPod or PSP. Firefox
users have another easy option by using the free DownloadHelper extension [2]
that allows you to save YouTube, MySpace, Google videos, DailyMotion, Porkolt,
iFilm, DreamHost and many other streams by simply clicking the special
DownloadHelper toolbar icon. Thanks to Hopper for the latter suggestion.
[1] http://keepvid.com/
[2]
http://www.downloadhelper.net/
More Free Support Sites
Subscriber Richard Yores
writes, "Gizmo, just about the friendliest tech support forum I've seen on the
net is CyberTechHelp [1]. Most user problems are answered quickly including
analysis of HijackThis logs." I agree, Richard. It's both friendly and active.
So too is D-A-L Computer Help [2], another forum-based support site. I suggest
you try both the next time you have a PC problem.
[1]
http://www.cybertechhelp.com
[2]
http://www.d-a-l.com/index.php
Free .ISO file burners from
Microsoft
If you download a CD or DVD
image as an .ISO file, perhaps for a Linux installation, you need a quick way to
burn that image to a disk. CDBURN.EXE and DVDBURN.EXE are two command-line
utilities that are about as simple as they come, and they're part of Microsoft's
free Resource Kit tools for Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. Also check out
ROBOCOPY, an incredibly powerful file copying and backup tool, in the same
package.
http://tinyurl.com/6csco
(microsoft.com)
The Best Collection of Free
Software
The OpenCD project was set
up to provide a huge collection of free Windows Open Source applications and
games in a single downloadable ISO file or CD. It was a great idea but updates
were a bit slow coming. OpenDisc is a follow-on project with a similar
objective, but it aspires to be more up-to-date and responsive to user needs.
The early signs look encouraging, with an impressive download package [1] and a
reasonably active blog and forum [2]. This is an extraordinary collection of
software containing everything you could want to fully set up your PC. Do note,
though, that the ISO download [3] is 555MB.
[1]
http://theopendisc.com/programs
[2]
http://www.theopendisc.com
[3]
http://theopendisc.com/latest
Free Tutorials from Microsoft
http://office.microsoft.com/en
http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.microsoft.com
Repair or Upgrade Your Laptop
Yourself
This useful site, should be
a first port of call next time you have problems with your laptop. There's lots
of practical information, including disassembly, trouble shooting, where to get
spare parts and upgrades and more. Some laptop brands and models are better
covered than others but the coverage is generally quite comprehensive. There is
a commercial slant at times but hey, everyone is entitled to earn a living.
http://repair4laptop.org
The Uninstaller You Have Been Waiting For
Sooner or later every user encounters the situation where they try a program, decide they don't want it, and proceed to uninstall it only to find the uninstall goes wrong, or worse still, no uninstall program was included with the original program.
Normal uninstall utilities are of little help in this situation. That's because they work by taking a snapshot of your system before and after installing a software product and use the difference to uninstall that product if required. This is a useful capability but its weakness is that the uninstaller program must actively monitor every software product you install. Often this is not the case.
Revo is an uninstaller that works differently. It can uninstall a program without the need to monitor its installation. It works by automatically doing what an experienced user would do manually. It removes all the program's files, autostart entries and removes all obvious registry entries.
This process can never be
better than an inspired guess, but it's sure better than nothing at all. I ran
some tests by getting Revo to uninstall a product whose installation I had
monitored using ZSoft Uninstaller, a before and after uninstaller.
By and large Revo did a fine
job, though not quite as good as a skilled user would do manually. There were
still some remains left over, notably files stored in the user/local settings
folder.
That said, the leftover files did no harm other than take up disk space, and they certainly would not interfere with the normal operation of the PC.
Note that when you ask Revo to uninstall a program, it first looks for the product's uninstall program and will run that program if it is found. Only if the search fails will it try to remove files and registry entries itself.
Note, too, that Revo can also act as a before and after uninstaller, but frankly this is not its forte. The freeware utility ZSoft Uninstaller [2] is a better choice for this particular application.
Overall I was very impressed by Revo. It is the only freeware product I know of that will make a decent job of cleaning up a failed install. It's not perfect in its un-installation, but it does a fine job in the circumstances and offers a lifeline to average users. Next time you encounter a failed uninstall, remember Revo. You will be glad you did. Thanks to subscriber Dieter Callens for the suggestion. Freeware, Windows 2000-Vista, 1.27MB.
[1]
http://www.revouninstaller.com/
[2] http://www.zsoft.dk/
More Vista Features for XP
Users
Google has just released
version 5 of Google Desktop, their all-in-one product that includes desktop
search, web search, Gmail access, search security, desktop sidebar, widgets,
streaming feeds and more. What catches your eye is the new Vista-like look and
operation of the sidebar and gadgets. It's very attractive, so attractive that
XP users might want to use the product just to add a bit of Vista pizzazz (and
functionality) to their desktop. If you use Google for web searching
Gmail, Desktop Search or any of Goggle's other products, you'll find Google
Desktop integrates them nicely and improves your productivity and security in
the process. Be aware though that this product, like all products with desktop
search, can eat up a big chunk of your computer's resources while indexing your
files. Tuning the indexing process helps but don't bother trying this product on
your old P3. Freeware, Windows 2000 SP3+, XP, Vista, 1.7MB.
http://desktop.google.com/