Image your hard drive with DriveImage XML.

I remember a time when a new computer purchase included the OS disks.  That's becoming a thing of the past.  So what do you do if you want a really good image of your current system in case it crashes?  I recommend creating a drive image using DriveImage XML.

Here's a scenerio of how it works.  Last week I decided to replace the 40 GB HDD in my kid's computer with a   80 GB HDD.  The issue was that I didn't want to start the install process from scratch mainly because I no longer have the original Windows XP cds.  I have no idea where they went to.  So I installed the new 80 GB HDD and simply imaged the 40 GB HDD to it using the Drive to Drive option in DriveImage XML.  Once it completed I removed the main 40 GB HDD and made sure the 80 GB HDD was set to be the main drive.  Worked perfectly.

Another way to use DriveImage XML would be to create an image and put that image on a separate hard drive for back up.  That way if my hard drive crashes I can simple put in a new one and re-image from the back up.  Of course in order to do that you may need to create a bootable cd with DriveImage XML on it.  I recommend Ultimate Boot CD for Windows.

DriveImage XML comes in two flavors.  Free for home and persona use and Pro for commercial use.  I could see where DriveImage XML would be incredibly handy at work where I maintain over 30 computers and 5 servers.  I could create pc images as backups to a central server in case a hard drive goes out.  It's also a great way to get a computer back to it's original "new" state.

Another great feature of DriveImage XML is that you can browse the image just like it's a folder.  Very handy!

Remove programs with Revo Uninstaller

When you install software on your computer you may, or may not, realize that a lot goes on in the background.  Folders are created, registries are made or updated, DLLs are put in hiding places and much more.  That's all ok because that stuff is needed for the program to run.  The issue is what happens to all that stuff if you ever need to uninstall the software?

Well, not everything gets removed during an uninstall with normal uninstallers or even the uninstaller that came with the software.  Sometimes a lot of it gets left behind on your system.  Most of the time that's ok too.  The left overs may never do any damage to your system at all.  However, for me it's a mind game.

After being in the programing field and in computer technology I know what's going on inside my computer better than the average user.  I know there are crumbs and junk left under the sofa cushion...if you know what I mean.  And even though those crumbs aren't doing anything it still bugs me knowing they're there.

That's what I really like about Revo Uninstaller.

With its advanced and fast algorithms, Revo Uninstaller Pro analyzes an application's data before uninstall and scans for remnants after the uninstall of a program. After the program's regular uninstaller runs, you can remove additional unnecessary files, folders and registry keys that are usually left over on your computer.

Incomplete or corrupted uninstalls?  I've had those before too.

Revo Uninstaller Pro has a very powerful feature called Forced Uninstall. This feature allows you to remove leftovers of programs that are already uninstalled, incomplete installations and uninstall remnants of programs! It does not matter if the program, you want to remove, is not listed in Revo Uninstaller Pro or in Windows Add/Remove Programs Control Panel applet. Forced Uninstall gives power to the user but still keeps the safety and the accuracy of the results. It is very useful when the installation is corrupted and cannot continue further. 

Once I've ran the first portion of the uninstall I can get much deeper and see what leftovers are there to get rid of.  Does it REALLY matter that every last remnant of a software be removed?  Perhaps not in 99.9% of the  cases. But if you're having trouble uninstalling something it's worth giving Revo Uninstaller a try.  There is a free version available.

LIberkey: 165 free programs.

I love the portable apps movement that's popular right now.  As an IT guy in charge of over 20 computers at work it's nice to have some good software that can be used where you need it.  Yeah, I know it's easier to just create a network drive and access it from each computer. I do that too but for those of you who don't have that kind of access this is a very good solution.

There three flavors of Liberkey.
Basic: 12programs using 120 MB
Standard: 90 programs using 442 MB
Ultimate: 168 programs using 587 MB

I've been using Liberkey Ultimate for a few months now.  It easily fits on a 1 GB flash drive which means I don't have to break the bank to get it portable.  I saw 1 GB drives at Target over the weekend for $5.  I've installed it on a 4 GB drive that I got at Best Buy for $13 so I have room to have additional documents and installations.

Liberkey allows for customized additional software and has it's own "My Documents" where you can store files accessible through Liberkey.  Here's what the default tree looks like. I've added an autorun.inf file which can be created within Liberkey.

 Here is what the Liberkey Tools section contains.

 

This what the main program window looks like.

Custom resource cd

A computer's life cycle is about 3 years. That's what I hear anyway. We have some computers here (still working) that are over 5 years old. When we get new computers for users here there is a set of software that goes onto each machine. Acrobat Pro6, Acrobad Reader, In-Out Board, Outlook Messenger, printer drivers, fonts and more.

What I've done in the past is just install these softwares from a network "drive" called Software which, if you think about it, is where all the software is located. Makes sense.

Then I got the idea of creating a cd that has all that stuff on it already. I used to make photo web sites on a locale computer then burn the "site" to a cd and have it autorun when loaded into a cd drive. It was very handy when I wanted to send a bunch of pictures to a relative. they load the cd and up pops a web site that they can browse and see pics of my kids. That was about 10 years ago.

So that's what I did for my Resource CD.

First I needed a web template. There are some great sites that provide open source web templates such as Open Source Web Designs, freewebsitetemplates.com, Open Web Design and a great list at DesignVitality.com.

So I pick a nice CSS design from freecsstemplates.org and rework it to list all the software I need to install on a machine. I also add serial codes to the main "page" to make life easier.

Here's where i had some trouble. I wanted to be able to "run" programs from the html page. I didn't want to be asked where I want to save the file to. I just wanted it to run. After a while of searching the internet I found that all you have to do is rename the index.html file to index.HTA. This will open the file into a different window and allow you to run the files you want.

After I get it looking just the way I want I copy the autorun files from another cd and tweak them to point to the new index.hta file.

I made two versions. One has basic software that is on all the computers here. All the data fits easily on a cd. I made another version that has more software to choose from which needed a DVD to fit it all on to.

Try to download an ISO I made here.

UPDATE: link is broken. sorry.

ZipGenuis does almost everything with compression

You gotta have a compression app these days.  I've been using ZipGenius for years. With 

ZipGenius is the absolutely free software for Windows® that lets you compress files to almost any kind of archive. ZipGenius supports more than 20 compressed archive formats, including CD/DVD-ROM image files in ISO9660 standard. This is the file compression suite you were searching for: it is free and easy to use, plus it supports more than 20 formats of compressed archives, including RAR, ARJ, ACE, CAB, SQX, OpenOffice.org documents and the excellent 7-zip. ZipGenius now can precompress executable files going to be added to a ZIP archive through the UPX compressor.

ZipGenius I can right-click a file (zip or rar is what I deal with mostly) and select whatever I want to do with the contents.  This picture below is a screnschot of the options I have on my machine.

I can do the same with multiple selected files.

ZipGenius is fast and easy to use.  Once you try it you'll love it.

CDBurnerXP Pro is my cd burner of choice

I burn cds almost every day either at work or at home. I prefer CDBurnerXP for several reasons first of which is that it's free. It's also been very reliable.

CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components.

Key Features

• burn all kinds of discs
• audio-CDs with or without gaps between tracks
• burn and create ISO files
• data verification after burning process
• create bootable discs
• multi-language interface
• bin/nrg → ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more!
• Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

Create Data-CDs/DVDs

• burn any Data on CD-R/CD-RW/DVD+R/DVD-R/DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM/BD/HD-DVD, including double layer mediums
• burn mp3-CDs to store many audio files on one single disc
• create bootable discs
• verify written Data automatically after burning process
• use either the internal browser to add your files or the intuitive Drop-Box to drag and drop files directly from any Windows Explorer window
• save your compilations for creation of backups
• burn on-the-fly and with buffer-underrun protections
• import previous (ISO 9660) sessions and edit existing file structure on CD/DVD
• quick- and full-erase disc
• copy data discs (possible copy-protection is not bypassed)
• retrieve recorder and disc information

Create Audio-CDs

• create Audio-CDs from mp3, wav, ogg, flac and wma files
• add single or multiple tracks from existing audio-CDs directly to your new compilation without ripping tracks before (add cda-files)
• play audio-files with integrated audio player
• gapless audio-CDs supported (disc-at-once-mode)
• import M3U or WPL playlists
• support for ReplayGain
• import CUE sheets
• create mixed-mode discs

ISO features

• burn ISO files to CD
• create your own ISO files
• convert bin- and nrg-files to ISO
• save CDs/DVDs as ISO file to disc

Other features

• simple cover printing feature for data- and audio-discs
• LightScribe integration
• Command line version
• supports most IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives
• integrated option to enable access to drive for restricted users
• multi-language interface
• online update
  

I've created ISOs, burned them, made DVDs, audio cds, data cds, data DVDs, erased rewritable cds and the list goes on. It just does the job and looks great doing it.

The main site is full of great resources and information. Here's the features, the screenshots, the awards, the downloads, the list of compatible drives and the shop.

Password manager KeePass

Keepass is a free tool to help you manage all the password in your life. Here's a better pitch from the main site.

Today you need to remember many passwords. You need a password for the Windows network logon, your e-mail account, your homepage's FTP password, online passwords (like website member account), etc. etc. etc. The list is endless. Also, you should use different passwords for each account. Because if you use only one password everywhere and someone gets this password you have a problem... A serious problem. The thief would have access to your e-mail account, homepage, etc. Unimaginable.

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).

Keepass has a HUGE list of features and because it's open source there are 3rd party plugins you can install to extend the functionality of the software.

Oh you want downloads? How about:
KeePass 1.14 (Windows Installer EXE)
KeePass 1.14 (ZIP Package)
KeePass for PocketPC and Smart Devices
KeePass for Linux / MacOS X (KeePassX)
KeePass for J2ME (Symbian, ...)
KeePass for BlackBerry
KeePass for PalmOS (Converter) (also see 2.x To KeyRing)
KeePass for PortableApps Suite™
KeePass 1.14 for U3 Devices
KeePass for Preinstalled Environments (PE)

Need it in another language? 42 languages!!

Screenshots

I suggest that if you aren't currently using a password manager that you download and use Keepass today!

Keeping clean with CCleaner

Keeping junk files out and caches clean is a must for all computers.

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

Cleans the following

Internet Explorer Temporary files, URL history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat.

Firefox Temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history.

Opera Temporary files, URL history, cookies.

Windows Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files.

Registry cleaner Advanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more... also comes with a comprehensive backup feature.

Third-party applications Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and many more...

100% Spyware FREE This software does NOT contain any Spyware, Adware or Viruses.

You can even take an online tour here and there are plenty of reviews and awards to look at.

I install this on all the computers at work and run it at least once a week on them. This helps keep the internet caches from getting too large and bogging down the computer.

I suggest you install this on your machine and use it every week to keep your computer from getting out of shape.

The Dude: Network Topology

There are more than 20 computers in my network at work and keeping track of who is using which computer and if it's "up" or not is important. Using a Network Topology can be very helpful. I've been using The Dude for 2 years now and I find it increases my network organization 100 fold. It also makes me look really cool when people walk by my office.

(Click image for larger view)

The Dude network monitor is a new application by MikroTik which can dramatically improve the way you manage your network environment. It will automatically scan all devices within specified subnets, draw and layout a map of your networks, monitor services of your devices and alert you in case some service has problems

Some of it's features:

• The Dude is free of charge!
• Auto network discovery and layout
• Discovers any type or brand of device
• Device, Link monitoring, and notifications
• Includes SVG icons for devices, and supports custom icons and backgrounds
• Easy installation and usage
• Allows you to draw your own maps and add custom devices
• Supports SNMP, ICMP, DNS and TCP monitoring for devices that support it
• Individual Link usage monitoring and graphs
• Direct access to remote control tools for device management
• Supports remote Dude server and local client
• Runs in Linux Wine environment, MacOSDarwine, and Windows
• Best price/value ratio compared to other products (free of charge)

Scanning your network is a simple as clicking the "Discover" button. This software is very customizable as you can see from the photo above. The Dude is definitely worth looking into.

Recover lost files with Recuva

Sometimes people delete files when they don't mean to. This can happen to anyone. I've installed Recuva on the main file server in an effort to not have to deal with a restore from the backup tapes.

Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!

Like all other Piriform products (including CCleaner), Recuva is free for both commercial and personal use.

This software isn't much more complicated than it sounds. If a person has deleted a file and lets me know about it as soon as possible I can usually recover it. If, however, the file has been deleted for a few days or longer there is a possibility that the system has written over that file during a defrag or other file write. The sooner you search for a deleted file the better your chances of a full recovery.

There's a nice Wikipedia article about Data Recovery here.

Sharing files with WWW FileShare PRO

At work we have clients that span the globe. Some times we need to share large files much larger than a normal email client can transmit and hold. We're talking about files above 50 megs. Many of our clients are not allowed to install custom programs on their work computers due to their company's IT rules. This makes it impossible to use an online file server. I also didn't want to be in charge of FTP servers and the potential security that can be associated with them. So I use WWW File Share Pro.

WWW File Share Pro is a software that can help you share files with your friends or share files in the office. They can download files from your computer or upload files from theirs. What you need to do is to simply specify a directory for downloads and a directory for uploads. Your friends can download/upload files via browser (IE/Netscape/Opera/etc.) They will not be required to install this software or any other software because an internet browser is enough.

WWW File Share Pro supports password protection (for all directories or for individual directory). If you enable password protection, only authorized user can access your service. This software supports virtual directory and default document. It can be installed as NT service. You can easily customize the html page as your wish. WWW File Share Pro also supports resuming downloads and multiple downloads.

There is also a nice collection of plug-ins here with instuctions on how to write your own plug-ins here.

License for a single user to register WWW File Share Pro on one computer is only $39.95 (USD). You can try a 30 day demo beofre you decide to purchase. I've dedicated an older computer as our FileShare server. I then shared the FileShare Folder with everyone on the network so they can copy files to the directory they desire. I can set up an account for a new client in under 5 minutes.

This method of sharing large files with our clients has worked perfectly. All the end user needs is a browser such as IE, our FileShare web address and their password is emailed to them.

StExBar is a must for all IT

StExBar is a small program that could easily be classified as an Explorer Plugin. In fact that's part of the sales pitch for it. "What Microsoft forgot to implement in the explorer."

I've used this extra toolbar in my explorer at least once every day since I installed it. New folder creation is now a single mouse click. I highlight a file and Copy Path for pasting in an email. And I'm sure I'm only scratching the surface of it.

Here's some explanation from the site.

The StExBar provides many useful commands for your everyday use of Windows explorer. And you can add as many custom commands on your own as you like.

StExBar screenshot">

Have you ever needed to open a console window while you were using the explorer? And to have that console already set to the directory you're showing in explorer right now? Well, StExBar provides that with one simple mouseclick. There's also a hotkey defined for this: simply press Ctrl-M to open the console.
A 'lightweight' console is also available. Simply enter the command you like to execute into the edit box on the right of the StExBar and hit enter. The command will be executed in the system console.

Have you ever needed to have the name or full path of one or more files in another application? Ctrl-C doesn't work here, that won't copy the file path but the file itself. StExBar comes to the rescue. It provides two commands, one to copy all selected file/foldernames to the clipboard, the other copies the whole paths of all selected items. To make it even more easier to use this, a hotkey is defined Ctrl-Shift-C which copies the selected paths.

Creating new folders is a common task in explorer. But to actually do that, you have to right-click on a folder background, choose "New" from the context menu, wait until the submenu finally appears, then choose "Folder" from that submenu. Not anymore! StExBar provides you the same with one easy click. Or even faster with the assigned hotkey: just press Ctrl-Shift-N and you have a new folder created in the current directory.

StExBar can also help you renaming multiple files at once. It uses Regular Expression strings to do so.

You can add your own commands to the StExBar and define hotkeys for them.

I strongly suggest you install this on all the computers you use including servers! You won't regret it one bit.

See where IPs are located with Visual Route

I've taken some time to study the incoming IP addresses that are logged on our router to see who's using ports 40784, 50225 and 23827. One tool that's fun to use is VisualRoute which places the IP trace points on a map of the world. Below are some examples from the site's Live Demo.


Keep in mind these screenshots are from the demo that's run in Java so the actual program looks different. I chose to show these screenies because I am using the free version which doesn't show data on the world map. However, this software gives the user great ways to display the data.

There are 5 versions of this software including a free version which I use.

Honestly I rarely use this software because there are other traceroutes out there and the only appeal this one has for me is the cool mapping of the planet. It makes me look like one of those geeks in the movies that have some super software to trace an IP to a doorstep of a person and show a satellite picture of the kids playing in the backyard.

Compare folders with ViceVersa

One of the problems of sharing project folders with 20 people is that everyone has their own way of organizing their files. This can lead to multiple files that may be out of sync. ViceVersa Free helps me look at 2 directories and see where there are differences and decide what to do about it.

I use the free version because it works great and helps keep costs for my department down. There are other versions that you can choose from however.

ViceVersa is a utility which compares, mirrors, synchronizes and backups folder trees. You can choose from three different ways to compare your files: timestamp, CRC or both. Differences will be shown side-by-side, in a graphical, easy to understand manner. ViceVersa compares folders between floppy drives, hard drives, CD-ROM drives, zip drives and network drives (UNC paths supported). It can compare only files and folders that match Include and Exclude filter pattern lists which you define. In addition, the program offers a choice of six synchronization methods, supports Copy and Delete operations for manual synchronization as well as action preview and more.

This program was critical when we reorganized our project folder structure earlier this year. I was able to compare older folders to newer folders and make sure all the files were where they needed to be. It saved me weeks of time that would have been spent examining the folders manually.

Defrag with JkDefrag

I had a server with only 5% free on the C: drive that was massively fragmented. Unfortunately Windows built-in defragmentation program needs at least 15% free space. JkDefrag didn't care how much space I had left and did a great job of defragmenting it.

JkDefrag is 100% FREE which is the part I love best. There's also NO install. The download is a ZIP file that contains the main application, a command-line version, a screensaver version and the entire main web page as a Help. Download version include 32 bit and 64 bit. Works with Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008. You can even download the source code if you like which is in Microsoft Visual C++ 2005.

There 3 ways to use JkDefrag right out of the box.

JkDefrag.exe

Windows version. This is what most people will use. No installation or configuration necessary, it's ready to run and will automatically process all the mounted, writable, fixed volumes on your computer

JkDefragCmd.exe

Commandline version. Specially designed to be run automatically in the background, or from administrator scripts. See the "Commandline" chapter below for a list of commandline options, and the "Frequently Asked Questions" on how to run it automatically with the Windows Scheduler.

JkDefragScreenSaver.scr + JkDefragScreenSaver.exe

Screen saver version. Move (or copy) these two files to the "windows" folder on your harddisk (usually "c:\Windows\" or "c:\Winnt\"). It will automatically become visible in the list of screen savers as "JkDefrag screensaver" and can be used just like any other screensaver (right-click somewhere on your desktop and select Properties/Personalize, then select the Screen Saver tab).

JkDefrag is extremely customizable and the web site and help file breaks the whole thing down.

I've created shortcuts with specific commands in each. One just analyzes a drive, one will defragment and optimize and another just optimizes by sorting all files by name (folder + filename).

JkDefrag is gentle enough to use on a daily (or nightly) basis for keeping some of the more used computers in my arsenal in tip-top shape.

This software has a growing following and there is plenty of 3rd party versions to help make JkDefrag one of the favorite defragmenting programs out there.

Rarely use the Star Menu with Launchy

With over 100 installed applications on my computer at work I can spend a lot of time finding what I need in the Start Menu's Program List. The FREE program I use to find and launch programs faster is Launchy.

"Launchy is a free windows and linux utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.

Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!"

Too true. Once installed, Launchy runs as a process in the background. All you do is press Alt+Space Bar to bring up the search box. It comes up on top of other open windows so you can start typing your search right away. Once open Alt+Space Bar hides it.

I know there are other programs like Launchy out there and some others may have more features and search deeper in the system but this program works perfectly for me.

Here are some ways (from the official web site) to use it.

• Search Google
  • Type in google, then tab, then your search query and press enter
• Check the Weather
  • Type in Weather, then tab, then your zip code or city,state and press enter
• Search other sites
  • Other sites you can search include wikipedia, msn, yahoo, amazon, netflix, imdb, and more.
• Browse your computer
  • Type in c:, then tab, then a folder or file, hit tab, and continue
• The Launchy Calculator
  • Did you know that Launchy has a built in calculator? Type in some algebra and see what happens!
• Index your Bookmarks & Folders
  • Directory: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Favorites
  • File Type: .url
• Index your Music
  • Directory: My Documents
  • File Types: .mp3 .aac .ogg
• Index your Pictures
  • Directory: My Documents
  • File Types: .jpg .gif .bmp
• Index your Documents
  • Directory: My Documents
  • File Types: .doc .pdf .xls .ppt
• Index custom Commands
  • Directory: Your Custom Folder
  • File Types: .exe .bat .lnk

Once I got used to using Launchy I had to install it on my laptop. And while I am working at someone else's computer I naturally want to Alt+Space to open Internet Explorer or Paint or whatever.

There are also some great skins for it so you can make Launchy look like it's part of your OS. I hid all my icons and my desktop has never looked better!