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ClifNotesNewsletter050206

Reviews

Grahics 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!


 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.


 Grahics 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.


 System 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. 


 Grahics 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.


 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 ]


 System 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

 Grahics 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!


 Security 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?


 Security 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

 Website 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!


 Website 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.


 Website 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

 System 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.

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