Mitch's Corner

October 2003

SPECIALFEATURE:

Shell-Shocked? Tired of your PC looking and acting like
everyone elses PC? Want to express a little individualism?
Start here:    http://shell-shocked.org/
Shells are alternatives, add-ons, or
extensions for improving an operating system or its GUI (Graphical User interface)
{ IE what you see+more}. In some cases, a shell can improve a PC's speed and
performance. Being this site is about shells, an article in its first issue attempts to explain shells
<http://shell-shocked.org/article.php?id=33>,
Each issue has tutorials, interviews, articles, news,
announcements, themes, and even jokes. Shell-shocked has
additional features such as comments (leaving feedback about each
article), RSS (newsfeed link), and a mailing list. Those wanting
to learn about shells or dig deeper will find this site an
excellent starting point.

SHELL ENHANCER/REPLACEMENT SOURCES (pre-made!)
http://www.Desktopian.org/
http://www.WinCustomize.com
http://www.ShellCity.net
http://www.VirtualPlastic.org

Websites for further information on the subject of replacement shells:
"Floach.pimpin.net, shellfront.org, ls2k.org*, litestep.net. and geoshell.com

For new users, the generally recommended shells as the most easy to use,
and with the most extensive support network, are Litestep and geOShell

A WARNING from an expert> (http://shell-shocked.org/article.php?id=33)
I wouldn't recommend replacement shell use for people who don't have an
interest in extended 'tinkering'. Most shells can require extensive documentation
reading and hand-editing of config files, to get upright and running. In addition,
if you don't follow the instructions properly, it is possible to mis-configure the
OS to not load any shell at all (giving Win9X users the infamous, 'Reinstall Windows' error
- Note: this issue is always easily fixable using a text editor or registry editor to correct
the improperly set 'shell' setting in the OS. The key point is to read the docs, and make
sure you follow them, before blindly jumping in).

                         ---------<<<<<<O>>>>>>--------

So there ya go. You can customize your whole PC experience the simple way or the
supergeek way. But either way you will have a unique PC environment.

This month our file collection features what one tech wizard considers to be
" the 46 best ever freeware utilities". I agree with many of his picks. Some are new to
me and some of little interest. But I'll wager everyone in the club could use some of them.
Give that 46 and the other 50 or so apps a quick look.
It's like fish'n with dynamite - just scoop 'em up.

later,

(sig)

HOMESCHOOLERS NOTE: Pay special attention to GREEN titles

               USEFUL APPS

"The 46 BEST EVER FREEWARE UTILITIES"
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_free_utilities.htm
Or so says

Ian Richards, the editor of this site.
I am familiar with most and agree on quite a few.
Here they are for ya...many may have been in my column before.

Best Free Anti-Virus Software http://www.grisoft.com
I normally recommend the Norton Anti-virus suite but I'm fully
aware that some folks simply can't afford to buy it. If you fall into
this category then you should check out AVG Antivirus 6.0 Free Edition.
It's an impressive package and a offers the financially challenged a real
alternative to the major anti-virus suites.

Best Free Browser Accelerator http://www.naviscope.com/
There are dozens of products that claim to speed up your surfing
but most have little effect. NaviScope is different - it actually works!
Not only does it speed up your surfing it also offers optional ad, pop-up,
cookie and JavaScript blocking, an extensive set of diagnostic tools and
more bells and whistles than you can imagine.

Best Free File Manager http://netez.com/2xExplorer/intro.html.
Windows Explorer is fine for simple file management activities but when
you have some serious work to do, you need a two pane file manager.
Recently I discovered 2X Explorer. It offers most of the functionality of
the $50+ variety. As a bonus, its user interface is very similar to Win Explorer,
so most users will find this tool easy to learn and use.

Best Free Software Suite http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/en/index.html
GNUWin II is a free software compilation for Windows. This huge suite
features dozens of programs including free alternatives to many expensive
commercial products. There is Abi Word as an alternative for MS Word,
OpenOffice for MS Office XP, The Gimp for Adobe Photoshop, Gzip for
WinZIP are dozens more.   Taken collectively this suite provides more than
enough software to completely set up a PC without spending a cent on
applications or utilities. The suite is available or CD or you download the
CD image and cut your own.

Best Free Notepad Replacement http://www.editpadlite.com/editpadlite.html
There are lots of text editors and Notepad replacements. Some of these
aspire to be programming editors while others try to be word processors.
What I love about EditPad is that, unlike the others, it concentrates on simply
being a better plain text editor and it succeeds brilliantly. It has a Notepad
like interface combined with tabbed document windows and the ability to
open as many documents as you like with no file size limitations.
I have EditPad but I prefer NotePadXP http://www.acsoftware.org/

Best Free Hotkey Utility http://www.digital-miner.com/hkcontrol.html
Hotkeycontrol XP is a free utility that allows you to define your own
hotkeys so that a single key press can launch an application, insert commonly
used text, change your volume, or just about anything else. Hotkeycontrol
works with all versions of Windows from 98 onwards, though some features
will only work with Win2K or XP. (Bummer)

Best Free Registry Cleaner
To keep the registries on my PCs in top running order I use Fix-It utilities and
Norton Utilities as well. Both of these are commercial products
I suggest ToniArts Easy Cleaner http://www.toniarts.com/ecleane.htm
or download the JV16 free trial version. http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/jv16powertools.shtml

The Best Bookmark Cleaner http://activeurls.com/
Check&Get scans your bookmark file for dead links or for changed content.
When I tried it on my huge favorites file I discovered 17% of my links were dead.
I've now got a much leaner set of favorites and the comfort of knowing that
the links actually work. Check&Get is available on free license but you need to register.

Best Free Route Tracer http://www.hlembke.de/prod/3dtraceroute/
3D Traceroute graphically displays Internet route information. You can use it for
technical tasks such as diagnosing slow connections or for general purpose snooping
like determining the location and owner of a web site or tracing spammers.

The Best Free Screen Capture Utilityhttp://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/?prnscr
I've used over half a dozen screen-capture utilities and none of them has really satisfied.
Until now. Gadwin screen capture does exactly what I want in the way I want. Further, it avoids
the trap of providing lots of useless and confusing features. It's the little things that count like
making the hot key PrtSc so I don't have to remember it, and automatically sequentially naming
the output files for multiple screen shots. Gadwin will stay on my PC permanently.

The Best Free Search Bar http://www.dqsd.net/
Dave’s Quick Search Bar is a free utility that gives you the same easy access to Google
searches as Google's own search bar but wait, there’s more. It also provides access to the
excellent Teoma, FAST and other search engines. Because it resides in your task bar, it's
accessible from any application. Comes with a host of other features such as dictionary/thesaurus
access and even a calculator. If that's not enough for you, it's totally customizable.
Google or whatever search engine you choose is built into MOZILLA

Best Free Web Site Ripper http://www.webreaper.net/
Whether you call it a web site explorer or offline browsing facilitator, this utility is really a web
site ripper. It will speedily download non-password sites in whole or in part to your hard drive.
There are many web rippers but WebReaper is amongst the best and yet it's free.
There is an add on that make this funtion part of MOZILLA

Best Free DLL Cleaner http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/dllarch.htm
Over time most PCs become cluttered up with the unwanted remainders of long deleted programs.
DLL Archive is a free utility that will scan your PC for DLLs that are no longer referenced. You can
then archive the unwanted programs away or delete them entirely. Archived items can easily be
restored to their original location if any problems arise.

Best Free File Cleaner http://www.danish-shareware.dk/soft/emptemp
I've tried quite a few commercial products designed to clean unneeded temporary files off your hard
disk but must say that the free utility "Empty Temp Folders" ranks with the best. It takes a few minutes
to set up but after that, all you need do is press a button to recover many megabytes of disk space.

Best Free Resource Meter http://pesoft.fr.st/
This is cute. TinyResMeter is an itsy-bitsy system monitor. Unlike many other monitors, it doesn't
consume a lot of CPU utilization in order to tell you your CPU utilization. In addition to CPU usage
you can optionally monitor cache, RAM, page file and swap file usage, running processes and threads,
disk space utilization and a number of other parameters as well.
Also built-in, is a screen grabber that saves the current screen to disk when you press PrintScreen.

Best Free Spam Filter for the Average User http://www.mailwasher.net
Mailwasher is for most folk, the easiest way of dealing with Spam. It's a free email preview utility that
allows you to check your email on your mail server before you download it to your PC. The advantage
of this approach is that you can kill unwanted messages including spam, viruses and large attachments
before they get anywhere near your computer. But Mailwasher does more. It automatically flags for you
any messages containing viruses and possible spam which makes for quick and easy identification.
It also will send a message back to the spam mail sender saying that their message could not be delivered.
Hopefully this will encourage some spammers to take your name off their mailing list. MailWasher works
with any POP email account and any email client and will also check your Hotmail accounts.
Bayesian filtering is built into MOZILLA

Best Free Spam Filter for Experienced Users http://popfile.sourceforge.net/old_index.html
When it comes to effectiveness, POPFile beats the pants off every other spam filter I've tried. But this
effectiveness takes a little time to develop. POPFile is a statistical filter so it has to be trained to recognize
your spam from your normal mail. It takes a week or so before it starts becoming accurate and best results
may take a month or more. POPFile works as a proxy mail server so that means that it can be used with any
POP email client. Setup is reasonably straightforward but beginners should stick with Mailwasher.
Bayesian filtering is built into MOZILLA

Best Free PopUp Stopper http://computercops.biz/downloads-cats-19-10-10.html
The Proxomitron is not like your average popup stopper. It operates by filtering and transforming all your
Web pages on the fly. As a result you can not only stop pop-ups but pop-unders, ads, flash animations, status
bar scrollers and just about anything else. Besides, next time you are asked what pop-up stopper you use, you
can answer; "why, I use The Proxomitron" and how cool is that.
Popup stopper is built into MOZILLA (also stops banners and even pics if you want...)

Best Free Download Accelerator http://www.stardownloader.com
Star Downloader 1.32 is not only free of charge, it's free of ads, spyware and other undesirable extras
packed into most free download accelerators. On top of that, it is blindingly fast and has a raft of features
including automatic mirror site detection, automatic resumption of failed downloads, download scheduling,
anti-virus integration and more. If you are not yet using a download accelerator, go get this product and start
counting the time you save. The faster your internet connection, the more you will gain. Users with slow
modem connections will, unfortunately, benefit least. (1.3MB)

Best Free Sticky Notes Utility http://www.turbonote.com
Some people hate these programs others swear they can't work effectively without them. I used to be
in the first category but with so many things on my plate these days, I'm slowly being converted. The
function that I find really useful is the reminder that pops up at a designated time and date. Simple
things like "put up the latest issue on the web site." Turbonote
is a freeware utility that provides me with just about every function I need. The same company sells
an enhanced version but the free version (v3.9) will suit most folks, me included.

Best Free Secure Erase Utility http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/
Eraser is a free, GNU license utility that will securely erase files, folders or even whole
disks from any Windows or DOS PC. Eraser overwrites data area with selectable random
data patterns and also wipes data in the paging file, Internet cache, temporary files, Internet
cookies, unused disk space and a number of other places where data can secretly lurk.
It handles FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS partitions as well. Erasing files with high security will
always be a difficult and time consuming task and can never offer absolute 100% safety.
However Eraser makes the task about as easy as it be, with a security level beyond most
conceivable requirements.   (NOTE: The ONLY sure way is physical destruction ogf the drive).

Best Free Outlook Express Backup http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
This free utility allows you to do a full or selective backup of OE's critical files including mail folders,
newsgroups, address book and identity settings. (NOTE: If you use OE you better use this!)

Best Free Process Viewer http://www.teamcti.com/pview/prcview.htm
PrcView displays detailed information about all running Windows processes including memory used,
threads and DLL usage. For each process and DLL, full path and version information is also displayed.
Individual processes can be killed or their priorities changed. It even allows you to automatically run a
script to check if a process is running and kill it. All this is crammed into a tiny 100KB package.
Works for all versions of Windows.

Best Free Inventory Tool http://www.aida32.hu/aida-features.php?bit=32
AIDA32 is arguably the best system inventorying tools I've used regardless of price. It will document just
about every aspect of your hardware and software configuration. Throw in the fact that it checks out
networks, gives memory benchmarks and that it is totally free, and you end up with a product that should
be in everyone's toolkit. Download from the link below but remember to download the documentation as well.
Corporate users need to register - there is no charge.

Best Free Adware/Spyware Remover http://spybot.safer-networking.de/
Spybot Search and Destroy quickly hunt's down all those odious applications that are secretly bundled in
with many "advertiser-supported" utilities. It also provides active protection against browser hijackers,
auto-dialers and other surreptitiously downloaded scumware products. Some folks don't care about
revealing their surfing and consumption behavior to advertisers.

Best Free Search and Replace Utility http://www.silveragesoftware.com/handytools.html
I've been a long time user of Funduc Software's excellent Search and Replace utility, now in version 4.
This feature also provides a degree of safety. If you need to do text file replacements over multiple files.

Best Free Outliner http://www.tranglos.com/free/index.html
Its major design attribute is its ease of use. Words like "natural" and "seamless" come close to the mark
but really don't capture the essence of what is really a great design. What do you do with it?
Well to quote the web site “KeyNote is used by screenwriters to draft screenplays, by medical doctors to
keep patient databases, by developers to store source code snippets - and to everyone it serves as a
place to put all the random pieces of information that have no particular structure of relationship to other
data, and do not fit easily in task-specific applications such as word-processors, databases or spreadsheets.”

Best Free Rename Utility http://www.geocities.com/lupas2000/zips/lupasrename.zip
Lupas Rename 2000 is a small Windows utility that globally renames all the files in a directory and
its subdirectories. It can convert names to upper/lower case, change the case of the first letter, add text, left crop,
right crop and just about anything else you can think of. And unlike DOS based utilities, it will work on
hidden files as well. Add in a nice GUI interface, an undo feature, full preview of changes and the fact that it's free
and you have a utility that should be in every toolkit.

Best Free Windows Driver Backup http://www.jermar.com/wdrvbck.htm
WinDriversBackup is a nifty free utility that identifies all your Windows driver files and saves them to a
nominated location. This utility is great for simplifying operating system reinstalls, particularly for
PCs whose exact hardware configuration is not fully known or documented. Works across a network as well.

Best Free Digital Image Utility http://www.irfanview.com/
Irfanview is a free multimedia viewer and editor that supports a huge range of file formats.
Each new version seems to add more capabilities but to me, its most powerful features are its
speed and its batch processing capability. If you want to resize sets of digital images for the
web or for transmission by email, Irfanview is the best free solution available. It's also a mighty
fine image viewer as well.

Best Free File Comparison Utility http://winmerge.sourceforge.net/
WinMerge is a free Windows utility that compares two files and identifies the differences.
The differences can then be merged from one file into the other. This is the sort of product that
is ideal when you have several different versions of a file and are not sure of how they differ.
The product is geared to text files so it won't be much use to you with Word Processing or other
complex formatted documents But for text reports or computer programs, WinMerge is ideal.

Best Free Email Accessory http://yahoopops.sourceforge.net/
As well as my normal POP email account, I have multiple Yahoo webmail accounts.
Managing the latter used to be easy until Yahoo started charging to forward webmail to
my POP account. To overcome the problem, I now use a nifty free product called YahooPOPS!
that allows you to collect your Yahoo webmail from within your POP email client such as
Outlook or Eudora. I use Outlook and must say YahooPOPS! works seamlessly from within the
program. I just press "Send/Receive" and collect all my email at the one time.

Best Free Outlook Accessory http://www.xintercept.com/pkpeek.htm
I hate opening HTML email. Despite multiple layers of protection I just know that one day some
cunning new exploit is going to get me. That's why I'm so enthusiastic about PocketKnife Peek,
a small free Outlook add-in that allows you to preview your HTML email as text.

BEST OF THE REST
These specialist free utilities don't fit into any particular product category
but are great products that fill a real need:
Restore Missing Toolbars http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/ToolbarRepair.Exe
Inexperienced PC users just always seem to be losing their Windows and Internet Explorer toolbars.
I've never quite worked out exactly how they do it but they sure manage it somehow.
Luckily, this free utility makes recovery a snack.

Locate Required DLLs http://linos-software.com:23/Depend.html
This free utility can be a lifesaver. It identifies all the DLL and OCX support files required to
operate any Windows 32 bit executable file.

Free NFO Viewer http://www.damn.to/software/nfoviewer.html
Many freeware files are distributed with descriptive NFO and DIZ files as part of the distribution package.
These are just plain text files so you can view them with Notepad or other text editor but often the
formatting is lost. Try this tiny little viewer that's built for the job. It's free and once associated with the
NFO and DIZ file types, works seamlessly, a true "install and forget" product.

Lock Down Your Icons http://www.sillysot.com/
Sick of Windows moving your icons around on the desktop? Lock them down with this nifty free utility.

Monitor Your User's Backup Needs http://bw.rippletech.com/
BackupWatcher is a free tool that allows LAN administrators to measure the backup requirements of
network users. It does this by monitoring the file churn rate on each PC since last backup. Full
reporting facilities are provided that allow problem areas to be easily identified. Quite a neat way of
reducing unnecessary backups and ensuring necessary ones are actually carried out.

Kills Instant Messaging Viruses http://www.bitdefender.com/html/instant_messaging.php
If you use IRC or instant messaging then you should check out SOFTWIN, a company that
provides a number of totally free anti-virus utilities than scan all data transfers associated with
IM products. All the utilities make use of the virus signature databases from the BitDefender
Professional anti-virus product so signature file updating is simple. There are versions for MSN
Messenger, NetMeeting, ICQ, mIRC, and Yahoo! Messenger.

Oriens Enhancer http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=26013&db=win
Oriens Enhancer is a graphics processing program similar in function to Photoshop and Paintshop.
The big difference is that it's free, the others cost big bucks. But don't think free means limited.
On the contrary this product can read more than 40 file formats, has filters, textures and color effects
to burn and can even handle layers. If that's not enough for you, let me say that on my PC it was both
fast and stable. I'm giving this one Gizmo's JCBTIF certification.

Free Utility Stops Browser Hijacking http://www.wilderssecurity.com/bhblaster.html
There's a browser hijacking plague at the moment. All it takes is a visit to a pushy web site or a loaded
shareware install and next minute your Internet Explorer homepage has been changed, your default search
setting altered or phantom bookmarks added to your favorites. This free monitor will let you know when
something's trying to change your settings and pass control back to you.
MOZILLA is not subject to hijacking...at least I have never heard of it...

Batch Process Digital Images http://www.oriens-solution.com/enhancer.asp
ThumbNail Refinery LE is a free utility that will quickly process and resize your digital images so you can
send them by email or mount them as thumbnails in a gallery. It can write all popular formats including
JPG and PCX and allows control over a variety of parameters including rotation, size, color depth,
sharpness, brightness and contrast. It's fast, it's stable, and it’s free.
Editor's note: Looks like this is now shareware. Pity. If anyone can locate an old free copy send it to us!

Hides Personal Files from the Boss http://arxspace.com/Camouflage/
Camouflage is a free utility that will hide your personal or confidential files within another file. The neat thing
is that the container file looks and works like a normal file of that format. So, by way of example, you could
embed a secret message in a Word file which could be opened by anyone and appear to be just a normal
Word file. The intended recipient could use their copy of Camouflage to open the file.

Share Bookmarks between Browsers http://bookmarkbridge.sourceforge.net/
BookMarkBridge is a free open source utility that allows you to share and synchronize your bookmarks
between several browsers. I've got 3 browsers installed at the moment: IE 6, Opera 7 and Netscape 4.7.

The CD "read only" Problem Solved http://www.sente.co.uk/downloads.htm
Anyone who has restored data from a CD onto their hard drive has faced the problem that all the restored
files are marked as "read only" and cannot be modified. Changing these settings in Windows is a real
pain particularly if a large number of files is involved. With this free utility you can change the file settings
for dozens of files or even whole folders with a single click. Actually while the product is free of charge,
the developer requests your feedback. None-the-less, ReadOnly should be on every PC.

                COLLECTIONS
       (FREE stuff from generous programers)

Resplendence SP FREEWARE
http://www.resplendence.com/download

Irnis.net Programs    W9x/2k/XP    FREE
http://www.irnis.net/free.shtml
{File compression and IP locator} The eXpress IP Locator v1.2.0
(484k) can retrieve country information from an entered IP address
or hostname. It doesn't require being connected to the Internet to
use. WinBZip2 v1.0.0 (259k) can zip and unzip files in bzip2
format (.bz2 extension). WinGZip v1.0.0 (255k) can compress and
uncompress gzip files, which usually have the .gz or .tgz
extension. Both zip programs have the ability to test the
integrity of the file. There are other free programs on the site
that might be of interest.

                 USEFUL SITES

United States Chamber of Commerce
http://www.uschamber.com/
Useful tools for the small business owner on
starting, managing, and expanding a business. In the resources
section, there is also a section on International and Trade
Programs. Under Government & Legal is an issues index, which gives
a summary of the issue and the Chamber's stand on the issue. In
the same section is Legislation, you can view a table of current
legislation with a link for more details and the Chamber's
position.

LOST YOUR PASSWORD FOR YOUR SYSTEM???
                        WINDOWS XP NT   2000
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
OR   http://www.webattack.com/get/123pwrecovery.shtml
OR   http://www.webattack.com/get/nttoolkit.shtml

Turbo10
http://www.turbo10.com/
{Search engine} Here's another search engine that operates
differently than your average engine. Enter keywords, and it looks
up ten sites and highlights your search keywords. On the left
side, there is a list of topic clusters. If the search results
weren't exciting, you can click on words in the topic cluster list
and get different results. Beneath the topic cluster list is a bar
for relevance and speed. Click the arrows to increase or decrease
relevance and speed, which will narrow or add to the results list.

Whichbook.net
http://www.whichbook.net/
Choose which book to read, info and reccomendations.

Computer Crime Research Center (CCRC) http://www.crime-research.org/
{Cyber crime resource} CCRC is a non-profit organization focusing on cyber-crime,
cyber-terrorism, and other computer crime issues and research. Its members work to
research and raise awareness of unlawful acts related to computer and information
technologies. I was pleasantly surprised to see the red and blue AU logo on the Web site.
This logo belongs to American University, where I attended college. Apparently,
AU operates TraCCC (Transnational Crime and Corruption Center), a research center
that concentrates on teaching, researching, training, and formulating policy advice on
transnational crime, corruption, and terrorism. CCRC's up-to-
date news covers viruses, crime-fighting tools, laws, and committed cyber-crimes.
Take a bite out of cyber-crime with the latest information from CCRC.

Bushido Online http://www.bushido-online.com/
{Martial arts} Judo, Karate, Aikido... what's the difference between
these forms of martial arts? The Martial Arts section briefly explains each one.
The dictionary covers martial arts terms like shiro obi (white belt) taiso (warm up
exercises). Kids can play games and learn about martial arts (larger print) in Kids
Dojo. There are contests, but don't bother, as the last contest was 2001. The site
has obviously not been updated since 2001, but it's worth a looky-loo. The women
and martial arts section is nice because it contains interviews with six women and
a handful of interesting links.

Brain Pop http://www.brainpop.com/
Pick a subject - any subject! - from health to science. This is a good
one to help kids learn, as each subject has movies and quizzes. To use this site,
it requires signing up for a free account. However, a free account allows you to play
just two movies a day. Each section has Experiment with Bob (the ex-lab rat, who
provides puzzles to do offline); Ask questions; Timelines explaining the history of the
section; How to, which explains the topic using visuals; and Activity Page, which can
also be done offline by printing the page. It's a colorful and entertaining site that should
be able to retain children's interests, and completing two activities a day should be
just about right. The non-movie/quiz sections have no limit. Those with hearing loss
won't benefit from the movies because there is no accompanying text.

Google Indicateur   http://google.indicateur.com/
Yahoo!-style guide to Google with its directory listing the main categories and
sub-categories. A plain-looking search engine equipped with such powerful features
and lots of other goodies. Get news, statistics, tools, patents, and more about Google.

             TWEAKS - FIXES - PATCHES

SysTray Indicator                                  W2k/XP FREE
http://home25.inet.tele.dk/bramsing/
Keyboard status and monitor shortcut
The SysTray Indicator puts three icons in the system tray: Caps
Lock, Scroll Lock, and Num Lock

      SHORTCUTS - UTILITIES - SECURITY

AxCrypt    W9x/2k/XP    FREE
http://axcrypt.sourceforge.net/
It can encrypt, decrypt, compress, wipe, view, and edit files.

TempCleaner W98/2k/XP                   FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=106838
TempCleaner is a simple little tool that will automatically delete
Windows Temp files whenever you start your computer (or also on
demand). It automatically detects the correct system Temp folder,
regardless of your Windows operating system, and you can also add
additional folders that should be cleared.

Virtual Dimension    W98/2k/XP                       FREE
http://virt-dimension.sourceforge.net/
{Virtual desktop manager} The program enables you to have several
windows with specific applications running, and you can switch
between groups. For example, you could have chat windows running
on one virtual desktop, your e-mail client and browser running on
another, and your text editor and debugger on a third one.

Windows Memory Diagnostic                                     W9x/2k/XP    FREE
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
{Test RAM for errors} The utility includes memory tests to test the computer's RAM
(random access memory) for errors. If you are experiencing problems while running Windows,
you can use the diagnostic to determine whether the problems are caused by failing
hardware, such as RAM or the memory system of the motherboard. To run Windows
Memory Diagnostic, you must reboot your computer with the disk or CD-ROM on which
you installed Windows Memory Diagnostic in the drive. After the reboot, Windows
Memory Diagnostic loads and its interface appears. After loading, the first test pass
begins, using the default standard test suite, and continues until complete, unless
Windows Memory Diagnostic pauses or exits. Once the first test pass is complete,
Windows Memory Diagnostic will begin a second test pass using the same settings
as before. Windows Memory Diagnostic will continue to run test passes until you exit.
I suggest pressing "T" to do the full. Save time, and go right to the full diagnostic.

Process Explorer            W2k/XP            FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=102763
Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have
opened or loaded. The Process Explorer display consists of two sub-windows. The top always
shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts,
whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process
Explorer is in. If it is in handle mode, you'll see the handles that the process
(selected in the top window) has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode, you'll see the
DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded. Process Explorer also has a
powerful search capability that will quickly show you which processes have particular handles
opened or DLLs loaded.

SAProxy W98/2k/XP              FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=107038
SA Proxy (Spam Assassin Proxy) is based on the open source software, Spam Assassin.
It runs as a local proxy server that sits between your e-mail program and your POP3 mail
account. All you need to do is start SAProxy and configure your e-mail program to connect
to it instead of the normal incoming mail server (documentation shows how to do it). The
next time you check your email, all spam messages will be tagged with ****SPAM**** in the
subject line, allowing you to easily recognize them, or to create a rule in your e-mail program
that will move those tagged messages into a separate folder. Spam Assassin uses Bayesian
filtering, which is highly accurate and can learn from new spam as it is detected. The program
does not delete any spam, but only marks it, leaving it up to you what to do with it.
Bayesian filtering is built into MOZILLA

NetSignet                                                                W98/2k/XP                                           FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=106143
NetSignet is a simple cross-browser bookmark manager that runs in the system tray and provides
quick adding of new bookmarks based on the current browser window. You can organize your
bookmarks into custom folders, add comments and export them to HTML format. NetSignet works
with any browser and provides optional toolbar integration for Internet Explorer.
The "Personal Bookmarks" of MOZILLA are even easier to use than this.

Bulk Rename Utility    W98/2k/XP              FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=104588
Bulk Rename Utility allows you to easily rename multiple files and directories, based upon flexible
criteria. For example, if you have a whole load of files prefixed with "2002," you can quickly rename
all these to "2003." Similarly, if you have lots of "HTML" files then you can quickly rename them all to
"HTM" or something else. In addition, you can also add incrementing numbers to the file name, add a
suffix or prefix, change case, replace characters, +++. I use this all the time - for digital cam shots

          WORK - WEBDEV - PRODUCTIVITY

DHE Editor                                    W9x/2k/XP                   FREE
http://www.hexagora.com/en_details_dhe.asp
DHE Editor is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you
get) editor. This editor probably falls between FrontPage and
Dreamweaver in terms of complexity. FrontPage is probably easier
than DHE Editor because of its similarities to Word and other
Microsoft programs, which reduce the learning curve.

Morphon CSS-Editor                           W9x/2k/XP    FREE
http://www.morphon.com/csseditor/
CSS in Web design that is growing more popular. Also known as
cascading style sheets. CSS makes it easy to change the style of a
page. An example, goto WWW.z123.org, play with the 1,2,3,4 buttons.

CSS Zen Garden
http://www.csszengarden.com/
There are beautifully- made designs using CSS and XHTML that are
sure to relax you and encourage you to try to create your own design.
Every design shown has sample HTML and CSS files for downloading and
learning.

Personal Salary Calculator                W9x/2k/XP               FREE
http://litebyte.tripod.com/
Enter the hours worked - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, for example.
Enter the salary and tax rate. The calculator produces the
amount of money made for any number of working days entered.

MetaCollection
http://www.metacollection.com/
Collection of PHP and CGI scripts archives for Webmasters to boost an
interactive and dynamic Web site. It links to all the sites that provide scripts.
Instead of bookmarking all these sites, use MetaCollection.

Website Mentor        W98/2k/XP FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=106902
Website Mentor allows you to easily create a personal or business
website with little or no HTML knowledge required. It provides a
set of templates that you can use as a base for your site, and
then fill in further details and content with the included editor.
To create the site, you start by providing same basic details
about the site (name, slogan, logo, etc.), choose a template
design and select the pages to generate (contact page, about page,
gallery, etc.). Website Mentor will then generate the entire site
with all pages and navigation menus, ready for you to upload to
your Web server. Free registration available.

Siren                                  W98/2k/XP FREE
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/rplr/scarabee/en/Siren.htm
Bulk renaming - Siren can help you rename an entire directory of
files. A great way to use it is renaming your digital camera
files, which often uses meaningless names like IMG123.

DeskNow Mail & Collaboration server W98/2k/XP         FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=106879
DeskNow Lite is a free mail and collaboration server. In addition
to standard SMTP and POP3, it offers Web-based collaboration
tools, such as advanced Web mail with spam filtering, document
management to let users store and share documents online,
unlimited Web calendars with sharing and combined views, shared
address book, and message boards. DeskNow is easy to use. The initial
configuration wizard will guide you through the setup and you will
have a fully functional collaboration server up and running in
about five minutes. It even includes a Java-based instant
messenger that allows you to chat with other users that are
currently logged in.

Mail Box Dispatcher    W98/2k/XP FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=106834
Mail Box Dispatcher allows you to control incoming e-mail messages
on server side, before downloading them to your e-mail program. It
acts as a simple, hands-on spam filter and allows you to specify
criteria (from, subject, text, etc.) to select unwanted messages
and then delete them. The program can also download a specified
number of lines, allowing you to quickly preview part or all of
the message. The optional auto-selection feature lets you pre-mark
certain messages for deletion, so all you have to do is click a
button to remove them from the server. None of your e-mail is
deleted automatically, so it is safe to use without risking to
lose an important message.

Unison File Sychronizer    W9x/2k/XP       FREE
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
{File synchronization} Unison is a file-synchronization tool that allows two replicas of a
collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on
the same host), modified separately, and then updated by propagating the changes in
each replica to the other. Unison is a user-level program that can deal with updates to
both replicas of a distributed directory structure. When there are conflicting updates,
they're detected and displayed while non-conflicting updates are automatically propagated.

MyOE       W98/2k/XP                                     FREE
http://www.myoe.org/modules/news/
{Email and newsgroup reader} Developed as a GPL (open source) program with the .NET Framework,
MyOE is a customizable e- mail/news-reader client. The interface looks similar to Microsoft Outlook
with its built-in contacts and calendar. To modify a folder, right-click on it and select Properties. You
can change the colors, size, location, fonts, lines, and more. The client isn't without flaws since it's still
in alpha stages, and they're still working out the kinks, but it's worth a look so that you can follow the
progress and assist in the development with your feedback. Since the creator is French, the English
isn't perfect.   MOZILLA can do most of what this does....

            ART - MUSIC - FUN

Silent-Bob Basic                         W9x/2k/XP                      FREE
http://www.silent-bob.de/en/
Sound recording - This is not the Silent Bob as in "Jay and Silent
Bob" of Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Mallrats fame. Silent-Bob records
sound from the recording channel of a soundcard. MP3 and other
digital file types do not fall in this category, but Silent-Bob
can record MP3s if you connect the line-in and line-out channel of
the soundcard with an appropriate cable.

SwingPix W9x/2k/XP FREE
http://swingpix.sourceforge.net/
SwingPix is Java-based photograph organization
system where the user can create digital photo albums and modify
them. The program allows a user to easily import digital
photographs into albums. It's effortless to get started with the
photo album wizard. Once the photos are imported, you have the
option to rename the picture, print it, rotate it, save it for e-
mail, or write to a CD.

Speak WinXP                           FREE
http://pogrelz.com/index.php?request=speak
Get your computer to speak a few lines of
text on start up. The author must be a little jokester since he
says he hides it on people's computers and insult them with it. It
could be a harmless prank on a co-worker, family, or friend.
If you have WinXP, then you have the text-to-speech engine
installed and only need to download the smaller file (7.6K).

myHTPC alpha24                      W98/2k/XP FREE
http://myhtpc.net/
{Media manager} HTPC stands for Home Theater Personal Computer.
Even if you're not a heavy-duty multimedia user, this is a good
program to use to view photos, movies, and listen to music. To learn the
other things it can do, read the forums and documentation or add its RSS
feed to your feedreader.

Web Picture Creator                               W98/2k/XP              FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=106836
Web Picture Creator allows you to create photo albums that can be
published on the Web as thumbnail galleries. you can edit to match your site
design, and also save the design as a template, add titles and descriptions to
images, specify the thumbnail size and output quality, as well
as several general layout details and more. It can generate all
the pages and HTML code, or optionally only create thumbnails of
your images.

Rostrum Camera                          W9x/2k/XP                       FREE
http://www.price-media.demon.co.uk/rostrum.html
You can take a photo and make a video that looks like a
camera moving from left to right, up to down, or whatever. This is
the tracking function. The zooming function starts far and zooms
in on a selected area of the photo. After making the frames, you
convert the BMP to AVI and have your video.

SVG Factory    W9x/2k/XP                   FREE
http://www.svgfactory.com/
SVG is a vector graphics file format that enables two-dimensional images to be
displayed in XML pages on the Web. This utility that allows almost any
Windows drawing or graphics program to export SVG and SVGZ files.
It can also be used as a metafile (WMF) to SVG converter. This requires
installing a free converter from Adobe
(http://www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/install/auto/).
You can learn more about SVG at Adobe's SVG Zone
(http://www.adobe.com/svg/main.html) and the SVG Basic Tutorial
(http://dhtmlnirvana.com/svg/).

Mandolux
http://www.mandolux.com/
{Desktop pictures} Mandolux has
unique desktop wallpaper for your use. You'll find color, art, and
photos covering landscapes, money, nature, world maps,
impressionism, and military.

LameFE                                     W98/2k/XP                        FREE
http://lamefe.sourceforge.net/
{Lame encoder} LameFE is an interface for supporting the LAME
encoding engine. The help file provides step-by-step instructions
for encoding, decoding, and CD ripping. The program supports the
following audio formats: CD Digital Audio, Wave Audio, and APE.
Supported encoders include LAME, Ogg Vorbis, Monkey's Audio, and
WAVE. For albums, just click on the freeDB button to connect to
the service that provides CD album information. Other features
include CDText, CDPlayer.ini, ID3 tag editor, CD-backup and
cuesheet, and logging.

      For PROPHEADS & UBERGEEKS

Skrub the Web    W9x/2k/XP    FREE
http://www.skrubbeltrang.com/Tools.aspx?Tool=SkrubTheWeb
Search the Microsoft Knowledgebase. Skrub the Web searches in
both the Knowledge Base and Google.

HijackThis Quick Start                 W9x/2k/XP FREE
http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/
HijackThis examines certain key areas of the registry and hard
drive and lists the contents. Legitimate programmers as well as
hijackers use these areas. This program logs items that could be
suspicious or otherwise perfectly fine. There is a link on the Web
site that takes you to a forum where others will examine your log
and explain what looks fine and looks suspicious.

KiXtart                                       W9x/2k/XP FREE
http://kixtart.org/
The KiXtart free-format scripting
language can be used to display information, set environment
variables, start programs, connect to network drives, read or edit
the registry change the current drive and directory, and more. The
application can read and write to the registry, read and write to
ini files, manipulate COM objects, and interact with WMI (Windows
Management Instrumentation). KiXtart was started in response to
the many requests for logon scripting for the Microsoft LAN
Manager environment. It is popular with LAN Manager network
administrators. There are many discussion forums and an excellent
help file available on the Web site.

NetPing util                                 WinXP                        FREE
http://www.sliver.com/dotnet/netping/
NetAdmins, ever have to ping hundreds of addresses on a network ?
This can save you time. It can ping a range of IP addresses up to 25
threads, remotely connect to a machine from the context menu,
display system information, manage a machine with Windows Computer
Management, and monitor a machine for changes in availability.

WhosOnline                      W98/2k/XP FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=106888
WhosOnline is a simple server/IP address-monitoring tool with
messenger-style interface. It resides in your system tray,
monitors the specified IP addresses, and alerts you when one of
them goes offline. It also keeps a history of events, so you can
catch up with them if you were gone. You can also open the entries
via HTTP, FTP, or File access. Easy to use; basic monitoring.

SecureIIS - Personal Edition    W98/2k/XP    FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=106871
SecureIIS provides IIS web server protection against known and
unknown vulnerabilities. It works as an application-level filter
to prevent attacks from penetrating the Web server, and will guard
even unpatched servers from malicious attacks. The program
provides a user-friendly interface that allows you to configure
the protection options, by selecting from the available lists of
vulnerabilities and potential risks. You can specify maximum query
lengths, header lengths, etc., and limit various other request
methods. In addition, you can protect IIS from high-bit data and
certain keywords found in requests (e.g., root.exe, cmd.exe) and
more. You can also enable protection against several known
exploits, limit folder access and even monitor error statistics,
view server log activity, and monitor the file system.

WebSpy    W9x/2k/XP    FREE
http://ic.net/~kusluski/
{IP numbers} Click on IP and enter a domain name to find out the
IP address for the domain. Got an IP address, but don't know the
domain name? Click on Domain to enter the IP address to find out
the domain name. Scan the 'Net to find IP addresses by entering an
IP address in the Start and Stop boxes, and let it go. The
addresses are logged for printing, copying, or storing in a file.

BackupPC                       W9x/2k/XP FREE
http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
{Backup Linux or Win PC to a server} To use this program, you need
to have a Linux, Solaris, or UNIX-based server with a ton of disk
space. The doc file explains the space issue, which is more of a
concern for admins dealing with multiple PCs. This is not a
solution for the average home user. Settings allow machines connected
via slower WAN connections (e.g., dial-up, DSL, cable) to NOT be
backed up, even if they use the same fixed or dynamic IP address
as when they are connected directly to the LAN. Users can receive
e-mail reminders when their PC has not recently been backed up.

PCI                                                Win9x    FREE
http://members.hyperlink.net.au/~chart/pci.htm
{Peripheral Component Interconnect information} PCI produces a
report of the PCI, AGP, and CardBus devices fitted to a PC,
including the system chipset. It reports on system resource usage
(IRQs and memory ranges for example), capabilities (busmastering
and caching), setup data (device latencies, and general
capabilities, features, and subsystem info). The text-file,
PCIDEVS.TXT, lists known vendors, devices and subsystems from
which PCI will refer to and display the information. PCI covers
all PCI device derivatives. The site is a stand-alone resource of
information on PCI and AGP buses.

HTTP File Server                 W98/2k/XP    FREE
http://www.rejetto.com/sw/
{HTTP server file transfer} This is way cool. It's an HTTP server for transferring files.
It took a moment to figure it out, but once you figure it out, it's a great tool. I added files
into the interface and sent the URL link to Paul. He loaded the URL and could download
the files I put into the program. It also has a bandwidth graph to show how much is used
as well as a log listing the activities. It's a standalone utility that doesn't write itself into
the registry or anywhere else. You can modify the Web page interface to your liking.

GGSearch           W98/2k/XP FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=104113
GGSearch (formerly Google SearchTools) is a handy tool for people who spend
a lot of time searching the various newsgroups posts, images, and links in Google.
It provides quick access to all of those functions without having to load the Google
Web page first. In addition, GGSearch makes it much easier to select advanced
search options, filters, and more.

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