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Manage startup programs with AutoRuns

admin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:00:18 +0000

In a previous article, we’ve talked about Startup Optimizer, a great freeware program for managing startup applications. Startup Optimizer is good for the average user because it only displays the basic programs and also labels them as safe or harmful (although not 100% accurate). If you are an advanced user, then you will need to know even more programs that start at the same time with Windows. This is when AutoRuns comes in handy.

AutoRuns is a free of charge startup manager that will display all startup applications. The program doesn’t require installation, just a simple double-click on autoruns.exe.

You are able to see the applications in your startup folder, Services, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. In fact, you can enable/disable each driver, DLL file, Internet Explorer add-on and more.

Activate the Hide Signed Microsoft Entries option to hide images that are signed by Microsoft; those don’t pose any threat. After some tweaking and tuning, restart your PC. Your computer’s bootup time should improve.

AutoRunsc is the command-line version of AutoRuns.

The download is less than 1MB. Available for all Windows versions.

Download AutoRuns

Download AutoRuns and AutoRunsc

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Backup your hard drive with DriveImage XML

admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:56:03 +0000

Windows is not a perfect operating system and in time, you might experience a system crash. If this has already happened or you just want to backup your hard drive, then use DriveImage XML.

DriveImage XML screenshot

With the help of this freeware application, you can create hard drive backup copies fast and easy, using XML image files. Later, you can restore the content of the image file using the Restore option. The backup process can be automated using the Windows Task Scheduler. In order to do this, follow the instructions within DriveImage XML (Tools –>Task Scheduler).

When creating a backup, DriveImage XML can use Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Services (VSS), meaning your are able to backup files that are currently in use.

You can extract only the files you need from the created backups. Use the Browse option from within the application’s interface. Push the Load Image button and select the desired backup.

DriveImage XML is compatible with Windows XP/2003/Vista. DriveImage XML is available free of charge only for personal use.

Download DriveImage XML (Private Edition)

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Revo Uninstaller – correctly uninstall your software

admin — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:44:34 +0000

If you know one or two things about the Windows Operating System, then you’ll know that you should uninstall your programs using the built-in Add/Remove Programs function in Windows, right? Well, this doesn’t always work because some files or registry entries might still remain after the uninstall process.

Revo Uninstaller is a freeware utility that lets you uninstall and delete all the files and registry entries that a particular program is using. The download is less than 2MB. As soon as you run the program you will enter Uninstaller mode where you are able to see all the installed software on your computer. Simply click an icon, then press the “Uninstall” button on the toolbar; you can now choose from 4 types of uninstall modes:

Built-in: simply runs the uninstaller of the selected program
Safe: Built-in mode + registry scans + hard drive scan
Moderate: Safe mode + extended scans to find other application files – my personal favorite
Advanced: Moderate mode + deep scans (slow)

Revo Uninstaller screenshot

Revo Uninstallers features:

Hunter Mode – this is a great feature that lets you uninstall or stop a program by dragging an icon (Hunter icon) on a program shortcut that can be located on the desktop, system tray, quick launch bar and other locations
Autorun Manager – enable/disable start-up programs
Evidence Remover – previously “deleted” files remain deleted
Unrecoverable Delete – permanently delete files
Windows/Browsers/MS Office Cleaner – lets you delete unnecessary history files and more (I recommend you use CCleaner for these tasks)

What’s new in Revo Uninstaller version 1.75:

Improved listing of the installed programs
Improved user interface of the uninstalling wizard
Improved scanning for leftover shortcuts
Extended “Exclude” list of the junk files cleaner
Fixed minor bugs

What’s new in Revo Uninstaller version 1.80:

VeriSign Inc has digitally signed and certified Revo Uninstaller
Revo Uninstaller’s setup package is faster and much smaller
The freeware uninstaller starts faster
The safety and accuracy of the scanning for leftover items after uninstall has been improved
Some bugs have been fixed and other languages have been added

Compatible with Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista

Download link for Revo UninstallerDownload Revo Uninstaller

Publisher’s homepage

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CDBurnerXP – burn CDs/DVDs

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:47:19 +0000

CDBurnerXP is a free of charge alternative for commercial CD/DVD burning software like Nero Burning ROM. Although being a freeware, this application offers many advanced features; some consider it to be the best burning software available at no cost.

With the help of this program, you can burn any type of data on CD-R/CD-RW/DVD+R/DVD-R/DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM and also on more advanced media support such as Blu-ray, HD-DVD and double layer mediums. CDBurnerXP can also be used to burn and create .ISO files (image files), audio CDs or even bootable CDs.

CDBurnerXP offers an easy-to-use multilingual interface, thus being accesible to people of all levels. Most freeware cannot be used by companies, but CDBurnerXP is an exception; everyone can use it for free!

You can set the program to improve the quality of your audio files (volume change). In order to do this, select Options –> Audio Options.

An useful function of CDBurner XP is that you can print covers for your CDs / DVDs. From the File menu, select Print cover…, then choose the cover type that you want to use and the background image. The application will automatically generate the list with the elements on your CD/DVD.
Please note that CDBurnerXP requires that the .NET Framework minimum version 2.0 be installed on your machine (see .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1), which can be downloaded free of charge.

CDBurnerXP

Some of CDBurnerXP features:

can burn all types of discs
BIN/NRG to ISO converter
audio-CDs with or without gaps in between tracks
data verification after burning process

CDBurnerXP supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000 and above

Download CDBurnerXP

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Spybot – Search & Destroy – free antispyware protection

admin — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:45:08 +0000

Spybot – Search & Destroy is an antispyware application that improves your computers security. This freeware is able to detect and remove this new threat, called spyware. Spyware is different from viruses, because it doesn’t spread itself. Anyway, both of them are bad for your computer.

Spybot - Search & Destroy screenshot

What is spyware?

Spyware is a form of malware that can be installed by a virus or by downloading software that you’ve decided to install. This type of malicious software is designed to collect personal information like web surfing habits, passwords, credit card numbers and more. If you experience strange advertising messages, excessive pop-ups or all of a sudden your homepage is set to an adult website, then there is a big chance that you have spyware installed on your PC and should take a look at a spyware removal product.

How to get rid of spyware?

Spybot – Search & Destroy can help you. The program will delete adware files (the annoying advertisement I was talking about before) or other unnecessary files. If you know one or two things about computers, then you might want to try out the System Internals tool that will try to fix important registry entries. The new version of Spybot – S&D benefits from improved scan speed and protection for a wide range of applications.

Features

Removal of keyloggers
Permanent blocking of known tracking cookies for IE
Often backups
Removal of trojans
Safe removal of malicious files by shredding them
Weekely updates
Top class support – free of charge

News in 1.6:

tweaks in TeaTimer - appropriate order of white and blacklists
improved Mozilla Firefox support
fixed an issue with delzip179.dll
fixed usage with tracking cookies for Firefox 3
SDFiles.exe are now auto-registering

Download Spybot – Search & Destroy

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Clean your PC with CCleaner

admin — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:27:06 +0000

If your PC is acting sluggish, then you must have all kinds of unused temporary files, log files, registry entries and so on. Those files are called “crap”. Yes, you’ve heard me. After some time we all have crap on our computer. Stay calm, there’s a solution for everything.

CCleaner (also known as Crap Cleaner) is a free of charge software that gets rid of all those useless files on your computer. Sometimes, when your computer is running slow, you might need to format your HDD and reinstall your OS. After that, you have to reinstall all the important software (browsers, office suite, messengers…). This of course takes a lot of time. CCleaner helps you in your quest for optimizing your system. This freeware is fast and efficient. Most of the applications create temporary files and log files that are not important. CCleaner will free up space, repair registry errors and more.

CCleaner screenshot

Supported OS: all Windows versions

Whats new in version 2.13.720:

Added support for Firefox 3.1.
Added right-click cleaning and analysis for individual items in the tree.
Added icons to tree parent items.
Added cleaning for Windows Error Reporting files.
Added Include/Exclude list editing.
Improved TypeLib registry cleaning.
Fixed Index.dat bug that could cause a crash.
Fixed bug with INI warning messages.
Internal architecture improvements.
Fixed minor GUI errors.

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