Well I finally did what I always make fun of other people for doing. I deleted a file that I needed (The last 3 years of my email!) Luckily searching Google I ran into a Lifehacker article that listed a few applications and I tried this one and was very successful it just takes a while to get the files back but it is super easy to use. I have attached it to this post in-case if it disappears as software likes to do these days:
Tag Archive: Utilities
WinDirStat is a great little application that walks your file structure and then tells you the size of each folder as well as giving you a graphical representation of what files are the largest and taking up the most space. I have never been a big fan of heatmaps but in this case it actually seems to work. This is just a nice little clean up application and is available for both regular install and of course as a portable app.
Teracopy allows you to copy multiple files to another location very quickly and securely. I just recently used it to transfer 50GB from my old 100GB external to my new 500GB external drive. This did it very quickly and didn’t seem to lock up Windows at all and basically did it in the background without any interaction.
The interesting thing is that you just copy the files like you normally would in Windows and Teracopy takes over when the action happens. There is also a portal app version of this application out there so you can run it from your pen drive. If you are going to be copy mass amounts of files I would suggest using this application.
I have attached a copy of the most recent version but I would suggest going to their website to pull down the latest and greatest
This is a handy light weight application to clean up the right click function in Windows. This is really nice for things that sneak onto your context menu that you never use and a good way to only show the ones that matter.
Download Local Menu Maid: Menu Maid
So tonight Laura needed to convert a WAV file to an MP3 file because she needed to send the file via email. Well the WAV file was about 23mb while the mp3 came down to 2.5mb. This application which is an open source application will convert any audio file type to mp3, ogg, FLAC and any other encoders you want to add. This is a great utility to have. It will also rip CD’s to that format.
Website: BonkEnc
Latest version: 1.09 Local Download
I am always on the search for the best utilities for basic computer needs. This one came up as the best free CD burning software via LifeHacker. It does everything that you need it to and has a super clean easy interface. I like this one because the last free burner software I was using didn’t allow you to burn from an ISO image which was a huge pain in the butt.
Local Copy: setupimgburn_2420exe
I probably use this at least 2 times a day. It will decompress/compress any type of file .tar, .gz, .zip, .rar, .7z to name just a few of them. I almost always use it via the context menu as it is easy to get to. The application also will .zip a file at a higher compression then Windows can and is super lean and quick. There are also a host of settings that you can play with when you are creating the compressed archive. As I said this application is a must have.
So this is a nice little defrag program that is a little better than the default one that comes with Windows. I have looked at this software before and it was a little too complex for me. Looks like the simplified the interface and made it so you can just run the defaults or you can change all the options. When I just run the default file it loads immediately and starts running. I have noticed a big difference after using this application to speed up my computer.
Download jkdefrag-336
One of the great things about buying a new computer is spending the first day or so just stripping down your computer and building it back up. This software allows you to easily strip down your computer from all the crap that they like to preload on laptops/desktops.
This is a nice little program. The other day I was getting tired of looking at the same car picture in the background of my desktop. With this handy little application you can set it to look at folders, Flickr, Picasa, FaceBook, Yahoo and a few other applications for images. Then you can set your image rotation time to hours or days or just every time you log on.
It also allows you to set a different background for each monitor and you can also have it create collages on the fly. This is a lightweight application and the price is just right (Free)!
Check out their site for the latest version and as always I have attached a version to this post as well.
Download Background Switcher 3.5
