Free Software List for Vista

[MilesAhead]

By default Vista makes shadow copies of your system that you are not able to see if you have the Home Premium or Basic versions.

With this program you are able to restore from the Volume Shadow Copy
ShadowExplorer.com - About

+1. That's a nice little utility. Similar to using an undelete app afa the user interface.

 

[jmruperto]

Hi MilesA:

I read the documentation for ShadowExplorer and can't find where it is relevant to file shredding. Am I missing something?

Thanx

 

[ilikefree]

By default Vista makes shadow copies of your system that you are not able to see if you have the Home Premium or Basic versions.

With this program you are able to restore from the Volume Shadow Copy
ShadowExplorer.com - About

What is the difference between System Restore and ShadowExplorer? I have Vista Home Premium and when I need to go back in time I just pick a restore point. I can see the advanage of seeing what is on the system and I guess from the features you can pick a file or folder that maybe got deleted and restore just that. I am interested in this and will add it after I do some research.Thank You.

System restore will restore your whole computer shadow explorer lets you restore just the files you want. Similar to recover but it is part of Vista with a better user interface.

 

[ilikefree]

Hi MilesA:

I read the documentation for ShadowExplorer and can't find where it is relevant to file shredding. Am I missing something?

Thanx

Shadow Explorer is not for file shredding if you want to do that I recommend Glary Utilities.
Glary Utilities - Free Utilities to Clean Registry, Fix PC Errors, Clean Privacy

 

[jmruperto]

ilikefree:

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out.

 

[ilikefree]

ilikefree:

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out.

I use it myself The paid version is the same but gives you the option to schedule scans.
If you use the one click option I would uncheck the option
Tracks Eraser and use CCleaner for that As you may have to re-enter your passwords for sites again after Glary's.

 

[ilikefree]

Password recovery tools. FREE Download word password recovery, excel password cracker, office password recovery ...
Password recovery tools

XMedia Recode
Replace Handbrake also can rip from DVD to AVI

directedge.us | Brian Mathis
Backup your activation code and security certificate

TestDisk - CGSecurity
Data recovery

Process Lasso, the Windows process optimizer!
Process lasso take back control of processes

Avidemux - Main Page
Video editor


Just a few programs I have used this year I have even more TOOLS but not so easy to give sites of where to download them from

 

[reptoslicer]

O: Oh my god! That has got to be the longest list on the internet!

 

[ilikefree]

GSpot is a good program if you are having a problem playing a video file.
Normal way to use it is to start the program and drag the file to it.
I put it in a tools folder and don't move it, then add it to the send to menu.
When you have a file you are unable to play send it to GSpot and it will search your computer for the codecs you need to play it and give you options to try.
Get it from here.
GSpot Codec Information Appliance


EDIT: Adding send to, to the send to menu is a quick way to do this.

 

[MilesAhead]

GSpot is a good program if you are having a problem playing a video file.
Normal way to use it is to start the program and drag the file to it.
I put it in a tools folder and don't move it, then add it to the send to menu.
When you have a file you are unable to play send it to GSpot and it will search your computer for the codecs you need to play it and give you options to try.
Get it from here.
GSpot Codec Information Appliance


EDIT: Adding send to, to the send to menu is a quick way to do this.

I think that was my all time favorite Leo Laporte tip/trick(at least he's the one I got it from.) You go into the folder above SendTo, right click the SendTo folder and click copy. Then go into the SendTo folder and click Paste. Rename the shortcut Send To SendTo. Now you can right click on any shortcut, go into Send To and click on Send To SendTo and it will be added. Neat sort of recursion.

 

[MilesAhead]

BD Rebuilder

BD Rebuilder Beta - Bug Reports Only - Doom9's Forum

Be sure to download the recommended supporting software from the first post in the thread and follow the setup instructions. If it fails to encode the most common cause is an incorrect version of FFDShow or Matroska Splitter. Use the ones from the thread rather than the latest versions.

 

[MilesAhead]

TicTac Lite

I did another version of my TicTac program. This one I call TicTac Lite. It doesn't even use a Tray Icon. Also I coded it in vc++ as a win32 app with no resources to make it small. You can download from this page:

Hotkeys

See the readme for usage. Or just run it and press Alt-F1 for an about box.

edit: just to update.. I changed the default margin from edge of desktop work area to 0. Most users probably have newer monitors than I use. If you wish to have a pixel margin just put a number from 0 to 12 on the command line, or make a shortcut with that number. I like 4 so my shortcut would have a target of:

c:\utils\TicTacLite 4

If there's an error making a number from the command line arg, it just reverts to zero, meaning flush to the edge.

 

[ilikefree]

Registry Cleaner - RegVac
This is a registry cleaner for people that know what they are doing.
If you only think you know, don't use it.

 

[niemiro]

Registry Cleaner - RegVac
This is a registry cleaner for people that know what they are doing.
If you only think you know, don't use it.

I don't like any registry cleaners. They have been known to cause big problems, and their speed increase percentages are slightly phoney, and often banking to slow registry search times, and search for files from orphans. They almost always do more harm than good.

The closest thing to a registry cleaner, and something which I will use, is NTREGOPT, which is pretty near to a registry defragmenter. ERUNT and NTREGOPT This is safe.

Richard

 

[ilikefree]

Registry Cleaner - RegVac
This is a registry cleaner for people that know what they are doing.
If you only think you know, don't use it.

I don't like any registry cleaners. They have been known to cause big problems, and their speed increase percentages are slightly phoney, and often banking to slow registry search times, and search for files from orphans. They almost always do more harm than good.

The closest thing to a registry cleaner, and something which I will use, is NTREGOPT, which is pretty near to a registry defragmenter. ERUNT and NTREGOPT This is safe.

Richard

I have used Regvac to remove all the unwanted language files

Normally I just defrag the registry and defrag the ram

 

[jmckeeco84]

Avira is a great anti-virus program, it's definitely my choice when my computer goes to hell. Just be sure to keep your definitions up to date or it won't be as effective. MalwareBytes is also an awesome program to have handy for malware removal, AWESOME list!

 

[niemiro]

Avira is a great anti-virus program, it's definitely my choice when my computer goes to hell. Just be sure to keep your definitions up to date or it won't be as effective. MalwareBytes is also an awesome program to have handy for malware removal, AWESOME list!

Good, sound, advice

 

[MilesAhead]

Avira is a great anti-virus program, it's definitely my choice when my computer goes to hell. Just be sure to keep your definitions up to date or it won't be as effective. MalwareBytes is also an awesome program to have handy for malware removal, AWESOME list!

The other thing I would suggest, before doing Malwarebytes scan, empty the recycle bin. If you use scripting languages where the script is wrapped up in an exe, if they are in the recycle bin, Malwarebytes tends to scarf them up so you can't delete them. You have to delete on next reboot. The only thing drives me nuts about Malwarebytes is they make you add items to the ignore list individually. If you get 30 or 40 false positives, that can be a lot of mouse clicking!

edit: just for grins I put a suggestion on MWB forum to add features:
"empty recycle bin before scan"
and
"add all checked to ignore list"

You never know.

 

[ilikefree]

Avira is a great anti-virus program, it's definitely my choice when my computer goes to hell. Just be sure to keep your definitions up to date or it won't be as effective. MalwareBytes is also an awesome program to have handy for malware removal, AWESOME list!

The other thing I would suggest, before doing Malwarebytes scan, empty the recycle bin. If you use scripting languages where the script is wrapped up in an exe, if they are in the recycle bin, Malwarebytes tends to scarf them up so you can't delete them. You have to delete on next reboot. The only thing drives me nuts about Malwarebytes is they make you add items to the ignore list individually. If you get 30 or 40 false positives, that can be a lot of mouse clicking!

edit: just for grins I put a suggestion on MWB forum to add features:
"empty recycle bin before scan"
and
"add all checked to ignore list"

You never know.

Good, hope they come to the party

 

[MilesAhead]

MD5Hash 2.8

MD5Hash 1.1

This is an x64 application I wrote requiring 64 bit Windows.

It's good for calculating MD5 sums to check your downloads.
Speaking of download, you can download it here:

Faves Downloads

It's free for you to use at your own risk. It's
totally stand-alone x64 exe. It does not make
registry settings or write .ini files. See included
Readme for the dirty details.

It's free for you to use at your own risk.



edit: updated to 1.6. Now both 32 and 64 bit exes are included in the download. Also changed the Browse Button to handle multiple selections. Also if the job queue is running you can still add more files to the queue using drag & drop. The About Button is gone. Now has a Clear Button to clear the output EditBox. Press F1 for About Box instead of a button. Also I need to quit typing "also" ... sorry about that.

edit2: updated to 1.7. I've fixed a few small bugs. Now single file processing no longer blocks. Even if the app is busy you can add files to the job queue using drag & drop.

edit3: updated to 1.8. Added logic so that OK Button is only enabled if some text is in the Edit Line. Updated About Box and Readme files.

edit4: updated to 2.0. Now a filename or folder name may be specified on the command line. Currently it does not recurse into subfolders. I may change that and just set a maximum on the size of the job queue. Also included are AutoIt3 scripts so that you can add and remove MD5Hash from the Explorer Context Menu. Right click a folder or file and launch MD5Hash that way. Drag & drop also accepts folders in the drop.

I think I will go with some recursion so that subfolders will be included. I'll have to play around with it to set a reasonable max. Obviously it's insane to right click on the Windows folder and compute MD5 sums for 50,000 files. I'm thinking a max of 1000 may be reasonable.

The AutoIt3 scripts require you have the latest AutoIt3 installed on your system. But if you don't care about Context Menu then MD5Hash is totally portable.

edit5: 2.2 bug fix release. Progress bar not used on small files. Fixed caption bar update. Sub-folder processing is enabled with a max job queue size of 4096 files.

Yet another edit: Version 2.3 now has /main switch for single instance control. You can have a main or master instance do all the processing when launching from Explorer context menu, instead of multiple copies each with one result. See the Readme in the x64 folder for details.

edit: v. 2.4 Updated label on dialog to reflect the fact you can enter a folder name.

edit: v. 2.8 As of v. 2.7 the "/main" command line switch is no longer used. The first copy to run tries to set itself as the "main instance" of the app. As of v. 2.8 if you subsequently open an additional copy of the app with nothing on the command line, it will remain open so you can process something as a separate job. For example, if you have a file on a separate physical drive, there's no need to wait for the jobs on the main instance to complete. Just drag & drop the file onto the 2nd copy etc..