Windows Vista does have some nice features that are a great addition but not enough to justify a purchase. That is why clever software coders stepped in and implemented those features for Windows XP. XP has the major advantage that it is a fairly stable system that is not as resource hungry as Windows Vista is.
Wordpad offers an advanced functionality in comparison to Notepad but is not able to compete against Office suites such as Open Office or Microsoft Word. Ultra-Pad is a Wordpad replacement for Windows which adds several features that Wordpad does not offer. It can be enhanced with themes for instance, an option that Wordpad does not offer.
Microsoft tried to enhance Windows XP by adding a central folder for user data which is called MyDocuments which is the default place for save games, pictures, music and everything else that is user related. The default location has some disadvantages though. First, it adds another folder that has to be backed up if you do backup your data regularly.
I have been working with the ftp client Filezilla for some time now and switched to release candidate three of the new and upcoming Filezilla 3 just recently. I have to use ftp clients on a daily basis to upload files to my websites and edit php and html files that are already on them. They are indeed useful for webmasters but on a decline when you take a look at all Internet users - my opinion but supported by the fact that most modern browsers support ftp downloads as well.
It has been a while since I posted the first part of this mini series entitled 10 Freeware Recommendations. Two months are a long time considering that I write about software almost every day here at Ghacks, that is why I decided to open my treasure trove again and present you another batch of freeware recommendations for Windows that will probably make your day.
It happens from time to time that folders are not deleted when uninstalling software in Windows. It can also happen that other applications move data and leave folders intact in the process. This happend to me when I used a new mp3 tagging software that moved all my mp3 files to a new directory leaving the old folders empty.
If you want to show of your Windows Experience Rating in Windows Vista which displays a hardware rating of your computer but have a rather weak score you should consider tweaking the results to get a better score displayed at the end. The Experience Rating is derived from five subscores which are: Processor, Memory, Graphics, Gaming Graphics and Primary Hard Drive.
I have been using Norton products in the past and was always astonished how resource hungry those products were. They surely looked professional which was the main reason why I did install them but they slowed down the system and were really hard to remove from the system.
Reports have been flooding the web that the network transfer speed of Windows Vista drops to a low level when the user plays music at the same time. While there does not seem to be a obvious connection between network transfers and sounds being played and everyone would probably consider other possibilities first it seems that a service called MMCSS, the Multimedia Class Scheduler Service.
I have written several times about the Autopatcher project which was basically providing users with the opportunity to download one executable file that contained all official patches for their Microsoft operating system. This method had a lot of advantages over downloading patches from Microsoft servers: You would save bandwidth if you had to apply the patches to more than one operating system and did not have to rely on the automatic updates website to select the patches.
From time to time, you might want to check whether the contents of certain websites have changed since the last time you visited them.This could be lots of work if you intend to check them out manually and a tool, that would check websites automatically would be really handy in this situation. Especially if we are talking about dozens or even hundreds of websites and not just a handful.
I read a very interesting comment from Roman Sharp in my article that explained how to automatically terminate hung applications in Windows XP. He recommended the software Process Lasso and guess what, it was a great recommendation.
Process Lasso can probably be described as a application that manages processes. This is however not a task manager replacement but a software that can be configured to automatically react in certain situations.
Windows can really sometimes annoy the hell out of me. Starting a new software that was recently installed and seeing it hang after the start with delayed reactions from the system can be really painful. Hitting CTRL + ALT + DEL and waiting minutes before the dialog pops up is not the number one solution to get rid of a process that is stuck in nirvana.
The Autopatcher team seems to be back on track with the release of core and update Autopatcher files for Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Server. Additionally, and for the first time, Autopatcher files for Office 2002, 2003 and 2007 have been released as well.
I don't like the Windows Vista sidebar that much and think that most applications - also called widgets and gadgets - are pretty much useless. The Windows Vista sidebar styler is a great software for those who use the sidebar and would like to have more options to customize the look and feel of it.
I decided to uninstall the old CCleaner version that I had installed on my system and replace it with the first CCleaner 2.0 beta version which was released just a few days ago. The new CCleaner version was rebuild from scratch in C++ adding Windows Vista, 64-bit and portable support to this excellent software.
XdN Tweaker is not one of those usual tweaking softwares that give you access to change hundreds of Windows settings in one tiny menu. This one is different. It concentrates on only a handful of tweaks that are not so common and supports Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 2003 both 32-bit and 64-bit versions and needs the .net framework 2.0 as well.
Roman commented on my article about removing fonts to increase system startup speed yesterday mentioning the free software Font Frenzy which could remove all non system fonts with the click of a button. This is way more elegant than the suggested manual way that I came up with yesterday which is why I would like to write about Feed Frenzy today.
A friend of mine was asking me why the boot process of his Windows XP operating system would take this long. I took a quick look at his system and found out that he had more than 700 fonts installed on his system. A in depth analysis by pc spy using a virtual xp system and Microsoft Bootvis confirmed that 1000 fonts would delay system boot time by 30 seconds compared to 5.33 seconds if only 100 fonts are installed on the system.
I regularly work with a lot of applications in Windows Vista at once which should not be a problem because I have enough RAM and a fast enough CPU to handle all of those applications with each. It happens that I experience a strange behavior which can be only be attributed to the number of applications and windows that are opened simultaneously.
Microsoft released a total of nine security patches yesterday fixing six critical and three important vulnerabilities on its August Patchday. Those updates were available on both my Windows XP and Windows Vista system and Microsoft in Windows Update but can also be downloaded as single updates from the Microsoft website.
Not many Windows users now what the Custom Notifications are or where one could take a look at the elements hidden there. Microsoft describes Custom Notifications as the way in Windows to display active and urgent notifications. These icons show if you have new mail for instance.
Microsoft Port Reporter is a handy application that can be installed as a service in Microsoft Windows to log port usage data. The application logs port activity on Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 server systems. A preciser description would be that it logs which ports are used, which process is using the ports, which modules are loaded by the process, if the process is a service and which user account is running the process.
The Windows taskbar is not only useful for showing which programs and folders are currently active on your system but can also he customized to store permanent shortcuts to applications and folders as well as links to Internet websites. I would like to show you how to configure your taskbar to add your favorite websites as well as links to your most commonly used applications and folders to it.
A colleague was asking me if I knew of a problem that he experienced after he setup his new computer. He was using the Internet Explorer 7 and witnessed that some of his favorites would apparently lose the url field after a while. The favorites were still there, the description was there but the url was gone and just a blank field remained.
Toolbars are a plague; Every other software, especially free software asks the user if he wants to install a toolbar on his system. This is most of the time not that useful and clutters only the browser window. Some toolbars do not offer an uninstallation routine at all which means that it is problematic to remove them completely from your system.
A copier machine is basically a scanner and printer in one device. The clever folks that coded iCopy thought that it would be equally nice to use two machines - that is a printer and a scanner - to emulate a copier. You can use iCopy to scan a document with your scanner and print it afterwards on your copier, all in one task and hassle free.
Power Off is a freeware for Microsoft Windows that makes it easy to control the power state - that is on, off, standby and so on - on a local or remote computer. You could for instance configure it to set a certain power state when a process ends or scheduled for a day or time.
A friend of mine installed Linux next to Windows XP a few weeks ago and did not like it that much and decided to get rid of it. The problem that he faced was that the Linux bootloader was still showing up when he started his system. He was not able to figure out what to do about it and asked me if I knew a way to remove the Linux bootloader from his system so that Windows XP would start immediately.
Would you be able to write down the serial number of your Windows operating system if I would ask you to do it ? Or of Microsoft Office ? This is normally not a problem because you have the serial number in written form and can look it up if it is needed. But what if you can't find it anymore because it somehow got lost during the last move ?
Slickr is a Open Source screensaver for Flickr which gives the user a multitude of possibilities to display images which are pulled from Flickr in realtime. The only real hassle that could get into your way is that Slickr requires a Flickr api key to work. Everyone with a Yahoo account can get one without problems though.
What happens if your antivirus or antispyware software does not detect a malicious application ? One of the things that will most likely happen is that the malicious application will add itself to the system startup most likely in the registry to make sure it is always executed when the system starts.
Drivers that have not been removed from the system after uninstalling the device and software can have a serious impact on system stability. You could for instance be in a world of trouble if you have been using a Ati card and Ati drivers and switched to a Nvidia card and drivers. Driver leftovers could affect system performance and be the reason for crashes and bluescreens.
Microsoft released a preview of an upcoming Vista Performance and Reliability Pack to its beta testers while everyone else will have to wait until August, the 14.th to download the pack. That is, unless you have read the Neowin announcement which linked to download locations for the Vista Performance and Reliability Pack for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista.
Microsoft introduced the .docx file format in its new Office and Word applications and wants it to replace the commonly used doc format. The problem with the change from doc to docx is that many users are still working with prior versions of Word or no Microsoft product at all and face the problem that they can't load the docx file because it is not supported in their application.
I rarely check if updates are available for the majority of softwares that I have installed on my system. The reason behind this is simple. It takes a lot of time to check the websites of the developers - if they are known - and compare versions. I had to check for updates regularly which means that I would be occupied and could not do more important tasks. My estimation would be that it would take roughly between 6 and 10 hours a month to keep all of my software up to date.
Rainbow Folders is a sweat little freeware for Windows which lets you colorize selected folders. The software has a size of roughly 600 Kilobytes and does not need to be installed at all. Just run it from the location that you unpacked it to. The application offers a folder browser on the left side and several options to change the selected folder on the right.
Nifty Windows is a compilation of dozens of Autohotkey scripts in one application that are all aimed at providing the user with a better way of interacting with windows. The compilation offers 28 new ways to interact with the user interface of Windows by using either hotkeys or the mouse.
Traffic Shaper XP is a free software that is able to limit the upload and download speed of your applications and ports. This is done by creating rules similar to those known from software firewalls. You select a network adapter, choose if the rule limits upload, download or both, select a protocol and specify local and remote ports.
I have been writing about the sweet little tool Junctions before but it got somehow lost among more popular articles back then and I decided to give it another try. A Directory Symbolic Link is a link from another drive or directory to an existing directory. NTFS Junctions could be used for instance to access the folder d:\mp3 from a symbolic link in c:\mp3.
