-
If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.
-
Finally, you can manage your Google Docs, uploads, and email attachments (plus Dropbox and Slack files) in one convenient place. Claim a free account, and in less than 2 minutes, Dokkio (from the makers of PBworks) can automatically organize your content for you.
|
ClifNotesNewsletter050206
Reviews
2005 Planner -
realistic looking personal planner e-book |
When I saw a
screenshot of this program, I just knew I had to
try it. I use a very similar planner at work.
This planner is easy to install and easy to use.
I enjoyed trying it out because it looks so much
like a real planner. It works a little slowly on
my old system but I'm sure it's fine for newer
PC's.
Website - This software is no
longer available
Quote from the
website 2005
Planner - A computerized daily
planner that includes an editable address book as
well as editable daily entries. Keep track of
your friends, customers and daily appointments
easily from your desktop!
|
4t Tray Minimizer Free
- minimize programs into the system tray |
Recommended by Me2 Why
would I use a tray minimizer program? The Windows
Task Bar quickly fills up as you open programs.
Using a tray minimizer will allow you to move
rarely used windows from the task bar to the
System Tray to help you work with the
applications you really want to see. 4t Tray
Minimizer will add two new buttons in front of
the typical Minimize, Maximize/Restore,
and Close buttons in the title
bar of most Windows applications. These two
buttons, Hide and Tray, allow
you to quickly hide an application or minimize it
to the system tray. I've seen listings for many
freeware programs that do the same thing. This is
the first one I've tried. So far, it works very
well with no big drain on my system resources.
Website - LiteWare
(some features only available in paid version)
Quote from the
website 4t Tray Minimizer lets you running
applications minimized as System Tray icons,
which helps in adjusting free space on your
taskbar. To minimize any application to the task
bar, simply left click the minimize button as
usual or press keyboard shortcut. You can
configure 4t Tray Minimizer to automatically
hide/restore specific applications by pressing
specific keyboard shortcuts.
|
Extract Icons -
icon extractor program |
Have you ever
wanted to extract the icons from a DLL or EXE
file? What would you do with them if you did?
I've extracted a bunch and posted them at my
image hosting service so I can use them in
tutorials or help groups. I used Irfanview to convert them to gif format so I
could display them on the web. I used this
program to extract over 100 so far. It works very
nicely. No install needed. Just unzip to a folder
and run the program.
Website - No longer
available - Suggested
Replacement
Quote from the
website Extract Icons extracts icons out of
exe and dll files.
The Extract Icons exe file is 549 KB, the zip
file is only 284 KB so it downloads fast.
Extract Icons is FREEWARE not SHAREWARE.
Extract Icons should work fine in Windows
95/98/2000 and XP.
|
Hex Editor -
Free Binary File Editing |
Alexander
Bessonov has done a great job on this
program. I have never seen a hex editor
with an MDI (multiple document interface). In the
past, I have always used the XVI32 hex editor and this editor
competes well against it. I think the ability to
have more than one file open will really come in
handy. The program installed easily but the
installer pops
up their website page when it
finishes. I think they could do without that. The
interface will be immediately familiar to anyone
who has used hex editors. Lately it seems that
I'm seeing more and more high quality
freeware from Russia. Hexedit is an excellent
program and a prime example of Russian
generosity. Thanks to Vasiliy Vasilyev for
recommending this freeware. Be sure to check out
the home page at their website for more freeware
programs.
Caution: It's a
good idea to make backup copies of any file
you intend to change with a hex editor. Any
hex editing tool can foul up your
programs or Windows OS if you don't know
what you are doing.
Website - LiteWare
(some features only available in paid version)
Quote from the
website - ---- Features ----
* Loads files up to 2 GB in a couple of seconds!
* Multi-document, multi-window interface. You can
open as many files as you want, as well as open
as many windows per file as you want. Later you
can use Copy(Cut)/Paste operations between opened
files.
* Autorestore feature that helps you restore
opened files after system failure.
* Powerful Find feature.
* Drag&drop and other shell integration
features.
* Goto (or jump) feature that allows you to move
to any absolute or relative location in the file.
* Fill feature that can fill tens of Megabytes
with undo support!
* Full Undo support. (The only limit is your hard
disk free space).
* Expanding (inserting several parts) files,
deleting parts of files etc. with full undo
support.
|
MWSnap - get a
snapshot of your pc |
This is a very
nice little screen capture program. Simple to
install, easy to use.
Website - Freeware
Quote from the
website MWSnap is a small yet powerful
Windows program for snapping (capturing) images
from selected parts of the screen. Current
version is capable of capturing the whole
desktop, a highlighted window, an active menu, a
control, or a fixed or free rectangular part of
the screen. MWSnap handles 5 most popular
graphics formats and contains several graphical
tools: a zoom, a ruler, a color picker and a
window spy. It can be also used as a fast picture
viewer or converter. MWSnap
does not require installation and does not need
any special dlls, drivers or system files which
can mess up your system.
|
Partition Logic
- freeware hard disk partition tool |
I created a
floppy boot disk with the Partition Logic disk
image. When I booted it I was greeted with a
slick looking GUI and tons of options. I didn't
have the time or need to test it out thoroughly
but it sure looks like I've got a great tool for
my hard drive the next time I need to slice it up
into partitions. If you are not familiar with
hard disk partitions, check out Bootdisk.com for older PC's and Microsoft for WinXP.
Website - Freeware
Quote from the
website Partition Logic is a free hard disk
partitioning and data management tool. It
can create, delete, format, and move partitions
and modify their attributes. It can copy
entire hard disks from one to another.
Partition Logic is free software,
based on the Visopsys operating system. It
boots from a CD or floppy disk and runs as a
standalone system, independent of your regular
operating system. It is intended to become
a free alternative to such commercial programs as
Partition Magic, Drive Image, and Norton Ghost...
A bootable .iso CD image file includes
the full Partition Logic distribution, including
source code. You can burn the ISO file to a
CD using your favourite burning
application. A bootable floppy disk .img
file includes a minimal distribution, and should
be written directly to a 1.44 Mb floppy
disk. [ Windows users will need a program
such as RawWrite (203K) to create the
disk. Linux/UNIX users can use the built-in
'cat' or 'dd' commands ]
|
Rampage - ram
management tool |
Yet another
memory freeing tool. I like this one better than
CleanRam.
Website - Freeware
Quote from the
website Features:
Frees memory automatically, on demand, or after
an application finishes running
Very low active memory footprint, and very low
resource and CPU usage
Can run "hidden", which further reduces
memory and resource usage
Can be run from a batch file, or via a shortcut,
to free memory on a "once off" basis
Easy to install, configure and automate
|
|
TIPS
E-Mail Icon Generator
- make a cool button for your email address |
I don't know for
sure, but I'm hoping I've told you all this.
Don't post your full email address in a forum or
on a website without some type of protection
against the spam bots. Spam bots surf the web
looking for email addresses so they can spam
you or sell your address to a spammer. There are
ways to avoid that and posting an image of your
address is a great way to do it. Instead of
typing in your address at a website, you can send
or post one of these "icons" that shows
the address. Another way to do it is type in the
address in a way that the bots won't recognize.
Example: clif__notes AT hotmail DOT com. A human
can read it but a spam bot shouldn't be able to.
Yet ...
Website - Tip
Quote from the
website
E-Mail Icon
Generator
For GMail,
Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo!, AOL and many more!
|
Reviews of Spyware Removal
Programs - PCHell.com |
Here's an
excellent, detailed and very thorough review of
the big top 3 free antispyware applications.
PCHell reviews and compares MS AntiSpyware, Adaware SE, and Spybot S&D. Their conclusion: Use all
three of them. None of them remove everything.
Website - Tip
Quote from the
website With the overwhelming majority of
computers infested with spyware and adware, most
people want a way to remove these pests without
reformatting the computer so they turn to spyware
removal programs. In fact, within the last month,
Microsoft themselves have purchased and rebranded
Giant Company's AntiSpyware program and are now
distributing the Microsoft Windows Antispyware
(beta) program for users of Windows 2000, XP and
later. There are currently so many spyware
removal programs on the market, which ones really
work?
|
What is Intrusion Detection
Software? - techsupportalert.com |
Now days it's
becoming more and more important to use IDS
(Intrusion Detection Software) to safeguard your
PC from attacks. If you need an excellent
description of IDS and the software
available to you, check out this great article at
techsupportalert.com. Thanks a million Gizmo,
your newsletter is priceless. I've been
using WinPatrol and I didn't even know it
was IDS. In addition to WinPatrol, I recommend Startup Monitor.
Website - Tip
Quote from the
website These products detect malware trying
to get into your PC by its behavior rather than
by looking for a characteristic signature. Kind
of like a detective catching a thief using his
modus operandi rather than his fingerprint. Any
of you who use WinPatrol or SpyBot's TeaTimer are
actually using a form of IDS.
|
|
COOL
WEBSITES
Arrange-a-Room
@ Better Homes and Gardens |
My wife fell in
love with this website. If you like moving
furniture around now and then, you'll love it
too.
Arrange-a-Room - Cool
Website
Quote from the
website - Welcome to Arrange-a-Room - Use the
menu above to add furniture and architecture to
your room. When you're done, click
"Save" below to save your room. You can
create up to 25 different rooms!
|
ForumForFree.com
- create you own place to talk |
Sounds nice, I
really haven't tried this, I'm just too busy. It
doesn't look as nice as MSN Groups to me but
there are thousands of these free Invision Power
Board forums out there and some of them are worth
visiting.
Website - Directory of Forums hosted
here - Cool
Website
Quote from the
website ForumForFree offer free Forum
hosting, with automatic, easy creation. All
forums are created using the full version of
Invision Power Board V1.3 Final. Instant
activation message forum - all that is required
is your email address, it takes about 1 minute to
sign up, and a further 30 seconds to have your
forum fully functional! 100% Free - nothing to
pay, ever. 100% Pop Up Free.
|
Free-Webhosts.com
- a great search engine for webhosts |
Here's an easy
way to find a free webhost. I've used it and so
far I've been pretty lucky. Sometimes free
webhosts vaporize and suddenly your site is gone.
Always keep a full backup of your website on your
PC.
Website - Cool
Website -
requirements
Quote from the
website - find free web hosting, compare free
webspace, and search free webhosting service
providers to get a free website
|
|
SPECIAL
OFFER
RegmagiK - a
registry editor for advanced users |
I received an
"alert" from TightwadTech in December 2004 and
I found a cool new program I could get for free.
A free activation code was offered for a limited
time and I tried it out. It's a great program and
it's better than the one I was using. It's
smaller and easily installed. I especially liked
the ability to create shortcuts that jump
right to a registry key. If any of you want
to try out this software, Boris (the author) has
offered everyone who reads my newsletter a chance
at a free activation. You have to run the
software and press F1 to
see the serial number. Send an email to Boris with the
serial number.
Mention Xanga in your e-mail and get a free
activation code. For those of you who aren't sure
what a registry editor is, you can read about the Windows
registry
here.
Website - RegisterWare
(Free promotional offer, the author may not honor
it anymore, but you can still try.)
Quote from the
website RegmagiK is a Windows Registry editor
for advanced users. Familiar regedit.exe user
interface with unique enhancements like explorer
shortcuts, fast search, and address bar with
autocomplete make it the tool of choice for
system administrators, software developers, QA
and technical support professionals. It was
tested on Windows 98, NT, 2000, XP, and Windows
Server 2003.
|
|
ClifNotesNewsletter050206
|
Tip: To turn text into a link, highlight the text, then click on a page or file from the list above.
|
|
|
|
|