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Essential Windows Utilities

Submitted by Mike on Mon, 12/18/2006 - 11:45pm
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Here's a shortlist of utilities I think are essential for regular users of Windows-based systems.
Most of these are aimed at keeping your system running cleanly, eliminating problems, or checking the status of hard disk drives or memory hardware.
If you have a suggestion or find a broken link, please use our contact page to let us know.

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New WhyReboot version (1.0.1) released

Submitted by Mike on Mon, 12/18/2006 - 7:46pm
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December 18, 2006 News flash: Version 1.0.1.537 of our popular free utility WhyReboot is now available for download.

As before, it helps you determine whether you need to reboot your Windows computer after running an installer.

This version adds several UI enhancements requested by users: copy to clipboard, window resizing, word wrapping in log output, and several other UI enhancements.

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Fast User Switching and Welcome Screen in Windows XP

Submitted by Mike on Sun, 12/17/2006 - 12:29am
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Originally published 8/15/02

If you are having problems in Windows XP Home or Pro, with Fast User Switching enabled and you are using the "Welcome Screen" feature, check this out.

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Block MySpace.com on Windows: zero cost, no additional software

Submitted by Mike on Tue, 12/12/2006 - 11:11am
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I've been asked how to prevent access to myspace.com on Windows systems without having to purchase or install blocking software. Well, there's a free and simple way to do this.

Here's a quick trick to block myspace.com on a Windows system. Basically, you are editing a text file on your computer, adding an entry to it. This file is known as the 'hosts' file, and it allows you to block sites using a very simple but effective method.

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Keep your icons out of my system tray!

Submitted by Mike on Mon, 12/11/2006 - 5:10pm
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Related topic: System Tray Scan Utility - identify programs that have icons in the tray.

I don't know about you, but I am saddened whenever I use a non-techie friend's computer and see more than two or three active tray icons in the Windows taskbar "system tray"*. (Usually I see six, seven, eight or even a few dozen!)

Why does it bother me? Because, most of the time, the computer owner has no idea what those icons are for, or how they got there.

It means that third-party installers (or worse, computer integrators or 'manufacturers' like Dell) have hooked more stuff into the auto start chain, which also means: more memory used, longer startup times, another prime opportunity to break the user's system with even more bloated, buggy software.

Brand new Dell 1501 system tray loaded with with an obscene number of running tasks

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Windows System Tray Scan Utility

Submitted by Mike on Mon, 12/11/2006 - 4:44pm
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What programs are running your system tray?

Download it now!

0.0.9.2b - Second beta release

This command-line utility for Windows XP or Server 2003 will tell you which programs have inserted themselves into your "system tray"*.

It generates a list of PIDs, the program's location, and the number of visible and hidden icons for each program that has inserted itself into your system tray.

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PMMon - Monitor Win32 Power Management Events

Submitted by Mike on Mon, 12/04/2006 - 7:18pm
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Mentioned on Daily Cup of Tech 1/10/2007
PMMon monitors your system for Win32 power management events that are sent to all application windows, under the WM_POWERBROADCAST window message. These messages are then decoded and displayed in a log window. Where possible, the delta between previous and current values are shown. The current battery power level (if available) is shown in a colored bar at the top of the window.
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Find compressed files on NTFS filesystems

Submitted by Mike on Fri, 12/01/2006 - 12:58pm
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Locate NTFS compressed (or uncompressed) files on your system

Overview

I was interested in locating all the compressed files in my \Winnt (%SYSTEMROOT%) directory, as I was concerned that the Disk Cleanup utility had compressed often-used system components, which could result in a significant performance degradation.

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Internet Explorer Forensics - extract browser history and cache data with IECacheList Lite

Submitted by Mike on Wed, 11/29/2006 - 9:52am
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Display the contents of Internet Explorer's index.dat files, including 'lost' and hidden content

Current Version: 1.0.2.0

Overview

Have you ever wondered about the contents of the Internet Explorer ("IE") cache? Wanted to know if the cache is really empty when you tell (or ask) IE to delete temporary files? Want to know what's kept in those INDEX.DAT files that are stored in your user profile?

IECacheList Lite is a command line utility that will examine the contents of Internet Explorer's index.dat files and display them for you. The method used by IECacheList is designed to ensure that no 'hidden' or lost information escapes detection.

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Antivirus software runs wild; damages user files.

Submitted by Mike on Sun, 03/12/2006 - 10:00pm
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Yes, Virginia, anti-virus software has bugs too!

For over five hours Friday, McAfee's anti-virus software erroneously flagged hundreds of legitimate executables as a malicious virus, leading some customers to quarantine or delete the offending files and render applications such as Microsoft Excel inoperative.

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