Driver Magician Lite lets you backup your drivers

Driver magician lite lets you backup your currently installed drivers to your hard disk, it displays a list of the currently installed drivers pointing out the ones that don`t come with windows by default, those should be the ones that you backup first.
when the program backups a driver it backups all the files that makes the driver work instead of a self contained EXE file, that means that it will take some advanced technical knowledge when is time to install the drivers again.
Driver magician lite is a handy utility for all versions of windows.

Get it at http://www.drivermagician.com/Lite.htm

Resize your pictures with VSO Image Resizer

VSO image resizer can resize a bunch of pictures using an easy to use and straight to the point interface, when you run the program you will have to select the images you want to resize , after that you will come a screen that offers several option for resizing like the format, resolution, destination,Etc. all of these options can be saved so that you don`t have to mess with them every time you want to resize the program, finally you can press ok to begin the resizing.
i liked the program but i encountered a couple of details that bothered me, the first one is that it will install an entry to your context menu without an option to remove it, if you wanted to get rid of it you will have to uninstall the program or use a context menu editor, the other thing is that after resizing a set of pictures there is no way to return to the resizing settings screen, basically you have to close the the program and run it again if you wish to do more resizing.
I think in overall VSO image resizer is a great program, sure it has a couple of problems but it gets the job done and is really easy to use, available for windows 2000/XP/Vista.

Features:

• Convert between different graphic formats
• Configurable compression/resolution ratio
• Support file formats: Jpeg, gif, bmp, tiff etc
• Support Digital Camera RAW formats: Canon .CR2, Nikon .NEF , .MRW Minolta
• Handle single picture or batch mode
• Customizable templates for renaming files
• You can add your own watermark file
• Reduce size photos perfect for web publishing/share photos by email
• Integrate in windows explorer or works as a stand-alone application
• Fast processing
• Import directly from your memory cards
• Save history of destination folder
• Variable options and settings for advanced users
• Multilingual support (available languages...)
• Optimized for Windows 2000 / XP / Vista

Get it at http://www.vso-software.fr/products/image_resizer/

Snap pictures with MWSnap

MWSnap is a screen capture utility, with it you can take pictures of your current screen selecting the full desktop or just a small rectangle.
since the program can hide in the system tray and uses configurable hotkeys it is unobtrusive specially using the auto save feature that places the taken pictures automatically in a previously selected folder without going to the trouble of selecting picture names, formats, Etc.
MWSnap is a great program that can be run from a pendrive making it even more attractive, available for all 32 bits versions of windows.

Features:

• 5 snapping modes.
• Support for BMP, JPG, TIFF, PNG and GIF formats, with selected color depth and quality settings.
• System-wide hotkeys.
• Clipboard copy/paste.
• Printing.
• Auto-saving, auto-printing.
• Auto-start with Windows.
• Minimizing to system tray.
• An auto-extending list of fixed sizes, perfect for snapping images for icons and glyphs.
• A zoom tool for magnifying selected parts of the screen.
• A ruler tool for measuring screen objects lengths.
• A color picker showing screen colors with separated RGB parts.
• Fast picture viewer.
• Adding frames and mouse pointer images.
• Multilevel configurable undo and redo.
• Multilingual versions.
• Configurable user interface.
• And more...

Get it at http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html

Piky Basket replaces the standard copy/paste method

Piky basket is a mainly a replacer for the standard copy/paste method of windows, it places the selected files in a "basket " which allows you to move or copy the files in it, truthfully i thought this feature was worthless because there wasn`t much difference between using the standard copy/paste method until i realized you could select a bunch of related files and cherry pick which one goes where, for example you could put a lot of of videos, images and music in the piky basket and put each type of file on their respective "my documents folder" without having to go back and copy each type of file separately. unfortunately there isn`t an option to sort the files currently in the basket by type which makes cherry picking a drag if you have lots of files in the basket.
the other two features are more interesting and useful if you ask me, one lets you copy the route of the selected files to the clipboard which is great i guess if you do a lot work in the command prompt and the last feature complements the previous by allowing you to open the command prompt from the context menu anyhwere.
Piky basket could have been great, unfortunately it needs more work and it doesn`t seem like its gonna get any since the last version is from 2004, available to all versions of windows.

Features:

* Piky Basket is a replacement for Windows file copy/paste operation

* Piky Basket can save lot of time when organizing files on your hard drive

* Piky Basket can be very useful when copying same set of files to different locations

* Piky Basket can be used when taking backup of files and folders from different locations

* Piky Basket can be used when burning a CD which requires copying of files and folders from different location


Update: Piky basket is now part of piky suit and it cost money now so therefore is not freeware anymore. What a shame.

Get it at http://www.conceptworld.com/Piky/piky_features.asp

Glary Utilities free edition is a swiss knife of useful tools for windows

Glary utilities is basically swiss knife with all the most useful utilities you can think of, it comes with a disk cleaning tool, registry cleaner, uninstaller manager, startup manager, windows, context manager, spyware removal and so many other stuff that would take me a long time to write it all.
this program has a clean and easy to use interface that separates each tool in a different category making finding what you want a breeze, the one click maintenance section is specially useful for a quick tweaking of your system, plus the auto updater is most welcome in any program.
Glary utilities free edition is a great program to have, it combines most of the necessary tools for windows in one neat package, available for all versions of windows.

Features:

Category	Modules
Clean Up & Repair	Disk Cleaner Removes junk data from your disks and recovers disk space Registry Cleaner Scans and cleans up your registry to improve your system's performance. Shortcuts Fixer Corrects the errors in your startmenu & desktop shortcuts Uninstall Manager Uninstalls programs completely that you don't need any more
Optimize & Improve	Startup Manager Manages programs which run automatically on startup Memory Optimizer Monitors and optimizes free memory in the background Context Menu Manager Manages the context-menu entries for files, folders...
Privacy & Security	Tracks Eraser Erases all the traces,evidences,cookies,internet history and more File Shredder Erases files permanently so that no one can recover them File Undelete Quick and effective way to retrieve accidentally deleted files File Encrypter and Decrypter Protects your files from unauthorized access and use.
Files & Folders	Disk Analysis Shows you the disk space usage of your files and folders Duplicate Files Finder Searches for space-wasting and error producing duplicate files Empty Folders Finder Finds and removes empty folders in your windows File Splitter and Joiner Splits large files into smaller manageable files, and then rejoin them.
System Tools	Process Manager Monitors programs that run on your PC and stop spyware and Trojans. Internet Explorer Assistant Manages Internet Explorer Add-ons and restores hijacked settings Windows Standard Tools Provides direct access to the useful windows default functions.

Get it at http://www.glarysoft.com/gu.html

Make searching easier with firefox extension SearchWith

Searchwith is a firefox extension that adds a context menu allowing you to search highlighted text in a variety of search engines, like for example wikipedia, google websearch, web dictionary,Etc.
unfortunately there is not an easy way to add a custom search engine except to import the ones you already have in your search bar.
searchWith is a handy utility that will work with all versions of firefox.

Features:

* Simple context menu
* Edit before search
* Paste to Address Bar
* Import Search bar search engines
* Use Browser's default web service
* Search All services simultaneously
* English and Italian locales

Get it at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2194

Rotate your wallpapers with Background Boss

Background boss is a donationware wallpaper manager, with it you can select a bunch of your favorite images and put them as your desktop wallpaper and make them rotate between each other using a space of time selected by you.
BB doesn`t use lots of memory when idle, in my system its between 1MB and 3MB which makes BB lightweight enough for keeping in the system tray.
Background boss is a great utility for people that just can`t decide on a single wallpaper or want to spice their desktop by changing it every day, available for windows 98/ME/2000/XP .

Features :

- List of Wallpapers with corresponding Layout and background color

- Flexible rotation options for when to change the Wallpaper

- Letterbox Layout option for stretching without skewing

- Context Menu for System Tray icon allows quick access to frequent tasks

- Create and save different Wallpaper lists

- Supports popular image formats: JPEG, JPE, JPG, BMP, GIF

- Option to Hide and Show Desktop icons

- User friendly interface


get it at http://qsoftworld.com/backgroundboss/

How to get musikcube report your songs to last.fm

I dunno if this is gonna help anyone but anyway....if you use musikcube and want it to report the songs you play to last.fm you need to follow the following simple steps:

1- download cubeScrobbler from the following link

http://www.divshare.com/download/3855589-28f

2- extract the contents

3- locate where you have installed musikcube, at default it gets installed in the programs file, you should find a folder there called musikcube

4- locate the plugins folder

5- copy all the files extracted to the plugins folder except for libcurl.dll

6- copy libcurl.dll to the main folder of musikcube

7- run musikcube

8- go to file>settings>plugins or press CTRL+M

9- cubeScrobbler should be listed there, select cubeScrobbler and then click on configure, put your last.fm username and password and you should be ready to go, in addition you can fill your proxy information if required.

10- you can see what songs are being send to last.fm in the about screen of cubeScrobbler plus you can know if its connected to the server.

Traffic Shaper XP shapes your network traffic

Traffic shaper XP is a network utility that can shape the traffic of your network, for example you could give priority to P2P applications and give lower priority to all other kinds of traffic, plus it monitors your traffic in real time.
this is a powerful application that is best suited for advanced network experts because it directly changes the server, that means all the rules applied to your network connection will continue to run even if the manager is not running.
Traffic shaper XP could be a useful utility if you know what you are doing with your own network, available for windows 2000/2003/XP

Features
# Speed limiting for bandwidth-intensive applications and protocols
# Flexible address and port filtering
# Acknowledgement prioritization to speed up congested links
# Real-time traffic monitoring and stream statistics

get it at http://bandwidthcontroller.com/trafficShaperXp.html

MusikCube is like a lightweight version of Itunes

MusikCube is an audio player that is really lightweight and really fast, think of Itunes but without all the bloat, with it you can organize your library by artist,albums,songs, Etc.
you can also install plugins for extra funcionality like last.fm tracking of songs and such.
there isn`t really much to say about MusikCube except that is fast and lightweight, i would recommend it.

get it at http://www.musikcube.com/

GPU-Z shows you all you need to know about your video card

GPU-Z is the perfect companion to CPU-Z since the latter can`t give information about your video card, with GPU-Z you will know everything there is to know about your video card like its name, default clocks, display information, driver name, Etc.
in addition you can upload your results to an online database showing all the results uploaded so far, unfortunately i couldn`t run the program because of the crappy savage integrated card that i have in my computer, but don`t let that let you down since the program supports most mainstream cards from ATI and Nvidia plus since its being constantly updated you can be sure it will support future cards too.
GPU-Z is a great little utility for windows 2000/XP/Vista.

Features

* Support NVIDIA and ATI cards
* Displays adapter, GPU and display information
* Displays overclock, default clocks and 3D clocks (if available)
* Validation of results
* No installation required
* Support for Windows 2000 / XP / Vista (both 32 and 64 bit versions are supported)

get it at http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

CPU-Z helps you being more informed about your hardware

CPU-Z gathers information about your computer`s hardware, with it you can know information about your CPU, cache, motherboard and memory. you can know very detailed data about your hardware like the CPU revision, latency of the RAM, core voltages, speed of the CPU, number of cores, Etc.
it supports most current and old hardware and its constantly updated so all new hardware will supported as well, even my crappy Pentium 4 with a 478 socket is supported as shown in the above screenshot (Yes my computer sucks...a lot).
CPU-Z is a simple but useful utility that will let you know more about your hardware, available to all versions of windows.


List of information you can know with CPU-Z:

CPU

• Name and number.
• Core stepping and process.
• Package.
• Core voltage.
• Internal and external clocks, clock multiplier.
• Supported instructions sets.
• Cache information.

Mainboard

• Vendor, model and revision.
• BIOS model and date.
• Chipset (northbridge and southbridge) and sensor.
• Graphic interface.

Memory

• Frequency and timings.
• Module(s) specification using SPD (Serial Presence Detect) : vendor, serial number, timings table.

System

• Windows and DirectX version.

Get it at http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Replace the crappy windows calendar with Desktop Calendar

Desktop calendar is a desktop utility that places a calendar in your desktop, its unobtrusive and according to the developer it will only use less than 600KB of memory when idle (however in my system it uses 3MB to 4MB, maybe it only happens on my computer...), you can move the calendar freely to anyplace in your desktop, change its font, colour, size,Etc. plus you can add simple reminders that will be displayed in the calendar itself like the screenshot above shows.
a thing to note is that if you want to uninstall it you have to erase the calendar folder from the programs file folders and delete the shortcut located in the start menu, after that it will be completely erased since the program doesn`t install files somewhere else and it doesn`t alter the registry files.
Desktop calendar is a great program only available for windows 2000/XP.

get it at http://www.glenn.delahoy.com/software/

Get high perfomance with PIM Archiver

PIM archiver is a file compressor that has high performance using a new PIM file format, this format according to the developers can rival commercials file compressors like WinRar , unfortunately other than compressing files using the PIM format and reading files PIM archiver doesn`t do much more, i wouldn`t recommend it for every day use but nevertheless i think is interesting enough for people to check out, available for windows.


FEATURES

* Extract support for several archive formats, including ZIP, JAR, PK3, PK4 and PAK
* High performance executable and multimedia compression built-in
* 64-bit file and archive sizes, allowing for arbitrarily large archives
* Integrity checking of archives
* Compatible with removable devices such as USB flash and U3 smart drives
* Freeware

get it at http://www.encode.ru/

Quit, Check and monitor your processes with Process Controller

Process controller is a system tray utility that lets you control each and every one of the processes currently running, with it you can do several things to a process like change its priority, make it quit, check its memory usage, view all of the windows created by it,Etc.
after installation you will notice two small bars in the system tray, these let you know the current load in real time of both your processor and your RAM. the left one is for your processor, if you have a double core processor the bar will be divided in two small bars, the right one is for your physical memory.
luckily it seems it doesn`t use that much memory, in my system it uses like 3MB to 4MB which is reasonable by my standards.
Process controller is a great program available for most versions of windows.....except vista, bummer, anyway process controller is still worth a download.




get it at http://www.k23productions.com/products/process_controller/index.htm

Can`t burn a BIN image because the CUE file is missing?, don`t worry, just use BIN2ISO Converter

So for whatever reason you downloaded a CD/DVD image in the form of a BIN file, however you realize that the CUE file is missing meaning that you can`t burn your pirated game *cough* i mean your totally legit download, bummer, but don`t despair that`s where Bin2Iso comes in.
it will take any BIN image and will convert it to a clean ISO image, ISO images are the most supported types in burning software so you will have no trouble burning files.
BIN2ISO converter is a great tool.

get it at http://www.weethet.nl/english/cdrw_bintoiso.php

Third poll results

So the third poll is over and the results are in, in response to the question "Have you ever pirated commercial software?" 3 of you voted yes and only one person voted no, which leads me to the conclusions that lots of pirates visit this blog......but oh well you are all here and want to start using free software right?, maybe i can help you all with your wicked ways, its just more motivation for me.
anyway thanks to all the people that voted.

Recover any PC with Ultimate Boot CD

Ultimate boot CD is a bootable recovery CD that comes with dozens of free programs that will help you diagnostic and recover your system, for example you could check if your RAM is working , remove or recover your BIOS password, backup your entire hard disk, partition your disks, use an antivirus scanner, boot from a DOS image, Etc.
Every conceivable tool is gathered together making this one of the most useful boot CDs ever!, you can even use it on your pendrive using a tool on the CD, in conclusion this is a must have download, available for all intel-compatible machines.

get it at http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

PS: WOW!, this the 100th post of the blog, can i be showered with confetti now please.....no, umm ok , anyway thanks to all the people that makes this blog possible, thank you anonymous mass of random internet people that ended up on this blog, i truly appreciate your silent and most of the time invisible support. here is to another 100 posts!.

Angry IP Scanner scans IP addresses

Angry IP scanner is an open source network analyzer, it pings each IP address to see if its alive then it can resolve its MAC address , host name, scans ports, in addition it has a NetBios option , favorite IP address ranges, web server detection, customizable openers, etc.
All of this functionality can be expanded using custom made plugins.
Angry IP scanner is a great tool for network administrators or any other person that needs to scan IPs, be sure to use the latest beta version if you have Mac osx or linux.

get it at http://www.angryziber.com/

PS: sorry for the lame title, i couldn`t come up with something better :(

Duplicate File Finder does just that

Duplicate file finder searches for identical files using a bit for bit comparison that is 100% accurate or you can use a faster but less accurate search mode with 99% of success.
a handy utility for windows.

Features and Details:

• Multithreading operation to provide extremely fast search results.
• FASTER Duplicate File Searching than any other program of its kind!
• Fast Search mode allows extremely fast byte comparisons on large files.
• Search Across Multiple Directories and Drives.
• Search for All File Type or Narrow your Search to Specific File types only!
• Also can locate and delete empty files.
• Double Click a file in the tree list to display a detailed information dialog.
• Ability to Delete Selected Original Files.
• Tip: Original Files are determined by creation date, if it was created first, it is considered the original file.

get it at http://brooksyounce.byethost13.com/soft/dupfinder.htm

Download everything with Orbit downloader

Orbit downloader is a download manager for windows, it has many of standards features from other download managers like a scheduler, browser integration (Firefox, Opera, IE) , proxy support, drop target , anti virus virus scanner but what makes it special is that is focused to media sites like youtube,pandora, xanga, yahoo music, Etc. and file hosting sites like rapidshare, megaupload,zhare filefront,Etc. basically with orbit you can download pretty much everything.
Orbit downloader is another great download manager for windows.

get it at http://www.orbitdownloader.com/

Chat in IRC with firefox extension Chatzilla

Chatzilla is a firefox extension that allows you to chat in IRC networks using a separate screen, it is very easy to use tough you still need some knowledge of how IRC channels work in order to use it, the official site has some tips in order to get you started here.
Chatzilla is a great extension if you would prefer not to download a separate piece of software in order to chat in IRC.

get it at https://addons.mozilla.org/es-ES/firefox/addon/16

Official site http://chatzilla.hacksrus.com/

Opera is a great cross platform browser

Opera is a cross platform browser, it has neat features like mouse gestures, page zooming, bittorrent downloads, built in email messaging and much more!, firefox doesn`t comes with as much many features out the box!, unfortunately while firefox can expand its capabilities using extensions opera can`t except for the widgets that are available but are not as powerful as the firefox extensions, opera`s focus is on speed and stability which makes it a great alternative to firefox if you appreciate those things more.
Opera is free and available to most operating systems.

get it at http://www.opera.com/

Rename thousands of files at the same time using ReNamer

ReNamer is file renamer utility for windows, with it you can rename thousands of files and folders at the same time using a set of preset rules that rely on logic and sense which makes renaming files very simple, you can even make your own set of custom rules using a pascal script. with this program for example you can change the name, file extension, date, brackets, tags and more. in addition it supports metatags like ID3v1, ID3v2, EXIF, OLE, AVI, MD5, CRC32, and SHA1.
ReNamer is a great program for windows, the ease of use and the power of the renaming feature makes it a program that can appeal to both novice users and advance experts plus its portable, available to most versions of windows.

btw if you found this program useful please consider donating some money to the author of ReNamer here.

Get it at http://www.den4b.com/projects.php

Download Status Bar is a better way of checking your downloads

Download status Bar is a firefox extension that replaces the standard download interface with a more useful status bar in the lower left corner, the reason is better that the default manager is because it doesn`t open its own windows, it hides automatically, has a mouse hover preview and more much more.
make your life easier and install this extension, i am sure you will like it.

Features:

* Auto-hides when not in use
* Single-click pause and resume
* Pause all, Resume all, Cancel all, and Remove all finished - available from the context menu of the bar itself
* Run a completed file with a double click on its finished box. Open containing folder, remove, and rename from the context menu
* In-line view of percent done, speed in KB/sec, KB downloaded so far, and remaining time, can be customized in the options.
* Updating tooltip provides a more detailed view of the current download, including source, destination, size of the download and the remaining time
* Option to automatically clear files after a specified number of seconds
* Copy source URL from the context menu
* Stop downloads and save them for the next browser session.
* Delete a file from your system from the context menu
* Localized strings for translation
* Download history can be viewed and configured to only keep the last # download items
* Option to start virus scanner when a download completes
* On browser close, option to continue downloads in download manager

get it at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/26

Official site: http://downloadstatusbar.mozdev.org/

Fix your internet connection with WinSock XP Fix

Winsock XP Fix is a networking utility for windows XP, it will restore registry settings that were damaged or erased by uninstalling certain software, like adware programs or any other program that changes the networking of windows XP, before repairing the registry keys a backup option is available so you don`t need to worry if something goes wrong just install the old registry keys and try again. unfortunately this program is no longer updated, the last version is from 2003.
Winsock XP Fix is a great program if you have ever been considering reinstalling windows XP because your network setting were damaged and all other methods didn`t work. a great reccomendation.

get it at DivShare File - WinsockxpFix.zip

Get better access to your bookmarks with 2 Pane Bookmarks

2 pane bookmarks is a firefox extension that gives you better access to your bookmarks trough a side panel very much like in opera, just hit ctrl+b and a sidepanel will display your folders and links in two panels respectively, this makes browsing bookmarks much more easier, plus it has a handy search bar. 2 pane bookmarks is free and works with all versions of firefox.

get it at https://addons.mozilla.org/es-ES/firefox/addon/1928

Audacity edits and records audio

Audacity is an open source audio editor and recorder, with it you can record sound from a variety of devices at a maximum of 96 KHz, also you can edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files using lots of the implemented tools available for cutting ,pasting and mixing sounds.
unfortunately you can`t export mp3 unless you use an external library (Damn proprietary licenses!) the audacity page has guide showing you how to download and install the lame mp3 encoder here.
Audacity is a great download available for most operating systems.

Main features:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
• And more! See the complete list of features.
  

get it at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Check your web browser security with Jason's Toolbox Browser Security Tests

The following link will run a series of test that will rate the security settings of your current browser like if active X is installed or java is enabled, stuff like that. this is useful if you don`t know the possible dangers that you could face by browsing the web.

Test your browser at http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/BrowserSecurity/

Powerful image editor Paint.net fills your artistic needs

Paint.net is an open source image editor, with it you can apply filters, special effects, work with layers, unlimited undo and many more things. it comes with an auto updater so you will always have the latest version.
Paint.net is a great image editor for windows, is small too with only a 1.6 MB download, if you would like mess with some images (no animations tough) i recommend Paint.net.

System Requirements
Minimum System

* Windows XP (SP2 or later),
or Windows Vista,
or Windows Server 2003 (SP1 or later)
* .NET Framework 2.0
* 500 MHz processor (Recommended: 800 MHz or faster)
* 256 MB of RAM (Recommended: 512 MB or more)
* 1024 x 768 screen resolution
* 200+ MB hard drive space
* 64-bit support requires a 64-bit CPU that is running a 64-bit version of Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2003, and an additional 128 MB of RAM

get it at http://www.getpaint.net/

Access your bookmarks from anywhere with Foxmarks

Foxmarks is a firefox extension that uploads your bookmarks to an online server so that can be available to you from anyplace with an internet connection, after installation it will constantly check for any change in your bookmarks and update the changes to the online server. Foxmarks is very easy to use and it gets the job done, a great extension.


get it at http://www.foxmarks.com/

Better web browsing with Firefox

So today i checked my blog visitors using google analitics (yes i monitor my website, i hope you don`t mind that) and i found that 60% of the people visiting this blog yesterday used firefox the other 32% and 8% use internet explorer and opera respectively, this post is addressed to that 32% . why do all of you still use internet explorer?, if you think internet explorer is the best browser is only so because you haven`t tried any alternatives, lets face it internet explorer is poop, smelly warm poop , you don`t wanna use poop right?, so hang with the cool kids and use a better alternative like i dunno....FIREFOX!!! , i don`t want to make you feel bad but firefox is the one i use and i can`t say enough good things about it.
things like changing the default theme for another one custom made, the ability to install thousands of useful extensions, built in spellchecker , automatic updates, tabbed browsing, phishing protection, session restore and many more features. just give a firefox a chance and i am sure you will love it as much as me.



get it at www.mozilla.com/firefox/