Recover Your Office Key Before You Can'r

NirSoft is a utilities developer that has a large number of useful tools for recovery and utilities to help diagnose problems. Most of this stuff is free.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

• Recover lost CD keys for Windows and 1000+ major programs - including products of Adobe, Symantec, Autodesk, and more...
• NK2Edit - Edit, merge and fix the AutoComplete files (.NK2) of Microsoft Outlook.
• FileTypesMan - Alternative to 'File Types' manager of Windows.
• MyUninstaller - Alternative to the software uninstaller of Windows.

Get your keys and print them to a file using foxit pdf or just use the XPS windows format. I prefer to use the portable foxit to avoid and problems with toolbars or crapware that might get installed it you aren't paying attention to the foxit installer.  You can also copy the keys from the tool to a notepad and email them to yourself.

Lets get that bad Windows 8 taste out of our mouths with a little Speccy

 Speccy

Get your Windows Key / Windows 8 for free

Windows 8 is a great operating system. I use it everyday and haven't had a single issue. It takes some getting use to but thanks to Apple force feeding us now Microsoft feels they need to do the same. 

Speccy is a free program for home use to let you uncover your windows 8 key from Piriform (the great makers of CCleaner). With Windows 8 and Media center I ran into a lot of confusion about how this really works. You can only install with your original key and you upgrade to you media center key. So if you get your media center key it will only help you in the upgrade. You will need to find your original receipt with the Windows 8 key.

http://www.piriform.com/speccy

The Gremlin that is no trouble at all, unless you pour water on it - GIZMO

http://arainia.com/software/gizmo/

Gizmo is a toolbox of utilities most important of which is a free virtual drive manager.

You can mount and unmount ISOs to your virtual drive. The utility lets you create the ISO and load and run the ISO.

Gizmo Drive v2.7.9

•	Mount ISO, BIN, CUE, NRG files to a virtual CD-ROM drive
•	Mount VHD files, used with Microsoft Virtual PC
•	Mount password protected images to a virtual hard drive
•	Encrypt HD images using a passphrase
•	Protect vital files from hackers using encrypted HD images
•	Mount IMG files to a virtual drive
•	Mount and unmount files from the Windows Shell
•	Mount and unmount files from the command line
•	Support for compression and sparse HD images

Supported Platforms:

I'm using it on windows 8 on a laptop with no issues.

• Windows 7 (32-bit/64-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 (32-bit/64-bit)
• Windows Vista (32-bit/64-bit)
• Windows Server 2003 (32-bit/64-bit)
• Windows XP (32-bit/64-bit)
• Windows 2000

Hide in Plain Sight with BoxCryptor

BoxCryptor is a FREE for non commercial use, cross platform, cloud encryption utility.

https://www.boxcryptor.com/

BoxCryptor secures your data in the cloud – no matter if you use Dropbox, SkyDrive, Google Drive or any other cloud storage provider.
   
Access your encrypted files on all devices. BoxCryptor is available for Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone and iPad. Also compatible with EncFS-Linux.
   
Secure your files the quick and easy way. And what is best: BoxCryptor is free for non-commercial use. Download and try it now!

https://www.boxcryptor.com/

This is encryption end to end for your most important data. You may want to share your password with a trusted friend or family member if the data stored needs to be accessed in the event you can't.

Ninite - Off to a beautiful start

 Ninite

With Windows 8 and new installs on many people's minds there are some things that can make the process simple and allow us to discover new things.

Ninite looks to be a great start after a OS install. This utility allows you to install multiple application that you choose and keep those applications up to date.

This is a cross platform utility suite for Windows and Linux.

http://ninite.com/

Did you do your Windows 8 Upgrade homework, didn't think so.

Remember when that kid in school beat you up and demanded your Windows key. Well, maybe it didn't go quite like that but it will now.

Microsoft has a very enticing off with the new Windows 8 Upgrade coming at the end of October.
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows8/windows-8-tip-upgrade-previous-windows-version-143574

You will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $40 as well as get the media center for free (another $30 savings). The Win 8 Pro will retail about $200 when this promotion ends.

You will need your old windows key (not that stolen key, the real deal). Dammit.

Well if your like me you have computers everywhere. Kids, media machines, God knows what and where. Also if your like me you built your own computers from parts you stole out of the HP dumpster. No wait, that was Steve Jobs. Anyways you have either upgrade keys for windows 7 or vista or XP. You probably have different versions of just about everything. It is time to panic because like that homework you didn't do you didn't organize either. Ok I'm sure your intentions are good and I'm sure you can find what ever you need when you need it but for the other 99% of us you have no hope.

Well just like that nerd getting beat up I'm going to do that homework for you. Ok maybe not but these guys will.


SIW (System Information for Windows) Portable

the link appears to be a moving target

http://www.gtopala.net/download/oc/siw-setup.exe
This link has a toolbar that I would avoid at all costs. Just don't choose the express option. Besides when has the express option been a good idea after about 1998 when installing anything. They always hide bad stuff in the express option. I remember Nvdia and ATI dumping links to world of warcraft or other games.
Express should imply that it won't install anything that you wouldn't need /want to make a choice on.

I had a free treminal emulator that about 300,000 people downloaded. I never got a donation. I guess the internet won't be free for long if people don't know how let go of a few dollars now and then.

Oh, No, a lecture. I admit I'm guilty of the same thing (This is High Tech on a Budget after all)
Besides when people hide this kind of thing they don't desrve our money.

This software will let you pull your Windows key.

The system information is divided into few major categories:
 •Software Inventory: Operating System, Installed Software and Hotfixes, Processes, Services, Users, Open Files, System Uptime, Installed Codecs, Software Licenses (Product Keys / Serial Numbers / CD Key), Passwords Recovery.
 •Hardware Inventory: Motherboard, CPU, Sensors, BIOS, chipset, PCI/AGP, USB and ISA/PnP Devices, Memory, Video Card, Monitor, Disk Drives, CD/DVD Devices, SCSI Devices, S.M.A.R.T., Ports, Printers.
 •Network Information: Network Cards, Network Shares, currently active Network Connections, Open Ports.
 •Network Tools: MAC Address Changer, Neighborhood Scan, Ping, Trace, Statistics
 •Miscellaneous Tools: Eureka! (Reveal lost passwords hidden behind asterisks), Monitor Test, Shutdown / Restart.
 •Real-time monitors: CPU, Memory, Page File usage and Network Traffic.

Look both ways before Backing Up, Time to stop playing with Toys

http://www.gfi.com/downloads/mirrors.aspx?pid=bkupf


I was recently working with SYNC TOYwhere I had Visual Studio files stored in a directory the Visual Studio application created for me when I started the project. I tried to used sync toy, a backup utility also from Microsoft that simply synchronizes or echos files from one directory to another. The problem was I had a project folder with the same name as the subfolder with the same project. SYNC TOY would only dump the contents of the second branch of the tree into the first branch. This made a real mess that I couldn't clean up and I wanted the project to maintain the same file and folder structure as the original project because if things go wrong I want to put it back the way it was before the failure.

I found a free utility that seems to work out well. It creates a full tree and ultimately folders containing files from what ever branch of the tree you select. You can also create backup projects and add the individual backups to a single project to back up with one click. If you want to speed things up and you only have one folder needing backing up then you can run the backup for just that folder.

http://www.gfi.com/downloads/mirrors.aspx?pid=bkupf

The backups can be batched together as shown below with the task group VS Projects.

You can do a large backup or simply synchronize files.

You select the first location then where you want it to end up and the method to get it there so you have a choice of date or date and CRC. You can also tell it which way to echo or to synchronize.

Finally you can put this on a schedule.



This is a full featured backup / files sync utility.

Rename Files - Another fine mess

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php

Don't think you are going to use DOS because you are as old as these guys and know what you are doing. If you need to rename files and the file extensions are tied up in your mess you will either have to do a copy then wait and hope you did it right or try bulkrenameutility



The utility has a interface that is more confusing than programming in FORTRAN.

So what.

Select the files you want to rename. In the RegEX(1) box put what you want to match on, extension and all.

In the Repl (3) box put what you want it to be. Extension and all.
















You can explore other options but I would read the PDF manual first. Don't be a STOOGE.

Lost and Found

WinDirStat creates a directory tree if you file and folder usage. This is useful for hunting down heavily populated folders. The graphical representation is the most impressive part in that is sorts both by file type which is color coded and disk realestate usesage. If you hover over a large file or group of files it will show you where that file is in the lower left.

Find stuff you lost, find stuff you didn't know was there, and get rid of unwanted files.

Before you start crashing in games run CD check

http://www.kvipu.com/CDCheck/

CDcheck was made for CDs or DVDs but it works great with files or folders full of files.

In AOC I had crashes which led to my reinstallng the game. If I had a good CRC check I would have known if my files were corrupted. You need to run the CRC check once the game is installed. It will create a file with every the CRC for every file in a folder or set of folders. Later when you run a check to verify if your files are corrupted you will compare this check to the previous check. Some values will change and show up as errors. For example your profile might change which will have a different CRC. This can be used when backing up data or cloning data as well. Run the check then move the data and compare the check.

If your using it on a game you are going to want to re-run each time the game patches assuming it is a MMO.

The program is free. Just register on the site. Get the key and follow the instructions.
If your crashing and you didn't get a chance to run the file check you can have someone else run the check on their system and send you the file.

CDCheck is a utility for the prevention, detection and recovery of damaged files on CD-ROMs with an emphasis on error detection. With CDCheck you can check your CDs and discover which files are corrupted. By using the program proactively, you can insure that your data on CD-ROMs are safe -- before it's too late! CDCheck provides the following features: readability verification, binary compare, CRC file creation (and verification) and file recovery. For more information

New Exterminator for those Windows bugs

Everyone has those little crashes or annoying little bugs that we deal with over time. The problem is most of us can't hunt those buggers down and eliminate them. I hate to say it even a Phd in computer science doesn't have much of a chance without the right tools.

I try to provide links and post to many tools and solutions to help you get to the root cause of your problem. In this case I'm going to leave this arsenal to the experts.

Debugging Tools for Windows - Overview

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx

This link has the tools, how-to's, and the resources to get you started covering all of the current and past Windows operating systems.

Competition isn't always a good thing.

You don't want to compete with your neighbors over wireless spectrum. Sometimes there is noise being generated by outside sources. Maybe you just want to position that wireless router just right. Here are your free tools to to give you insight to that invisible world of 802.11.


http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider
inSSIDer is an award-winning free Wi-Fi network scanner for Windows Vista and Windows XP. Because NetStumbler doesn't work well with Vista and 64-bit XP, we built an open-source Wi-Fi network scanner designed for the current generation of Windows operating systems. inSSIDer was discussed by Lifehacker and Tekzilla!

These are my 2 wireless routers.


Here I am with my neighbors. I actually have my signal strength turn down to limit the range my networks can be picked up. You can see the fluctuations in my neighbors signals since they are transmitting a much greater distance.


Here is a capture of MeteGeeks chanelizer lite
http://www.metageek.net/products/chan-lite

We realize these don't look like inSSIDer reviews, but we've clipped them and you should be able to jump straight to it when you click play. Enjoy!

All is Quiet, or is it?

http://www.wireshark.org/
The bad guys want to use your PC for there illegal activity so they won't get caught. Have you ever had that feeling that your being watched? How about being used? This much I can tell you, everyone is being watched and more people than you can imagine are being used. I hear the numbers are as high as 40% of all windows based PC may be hijacked.

Wireshark is a network sniffer that will capture everything off your local LAN. I wouldn't use this at work or anywhere you invade the privacy of others. You need to get your ip address of your machine and monitor activity or capture activity when the machine is idle and not in use.

If nothing is happening you can generate some activity such as web browsing to get a feel for what you should expect to see. If you leave it running during times when you are suspect you can confirm your suspicions one way or another.

http://www.wireshark.org/

You can install a firewall to help give you an idea of what is leaving you PC but these guys are good at turning these tools off without your knowledge.

So you have to fight these guys from the trenches.

This is what they say about the program:

Wireshark is the world's foremost network protocol analyzer, and is the de facto (and often de jure) standard across many industries and educational institutions.

Wireshark development thrives thanks to the contributions of networking experts across the globe. It is the continuation of a project that started in 1998.

Features:
Wireshark has a rich feature set which includes the following:
Deep inspection of hundreds of protocols, with more being added all the time
Live capture and offline analysis
--Standard three-pane packet browser
--Multi-platform: Runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and many others
--Captured network data can be browsed via a GUI, or via the TTY-mode TShark utility
--The most powerful display filters in the industry
--Rich VoIP analysis
--Read/write many different capture file formats: tcpdump (libpcap), Catapult DCT2000, Cisco Secure IDS iplog, Microsoft Network Monitor, Network General Sniffer® (compressed and uncompressed), Sniffer® Pro, and NetXray®, Network Instruments Observer, Novell LANalyzer, RADCOM WAN/LAN Analyzer, Shomiti/Finisar Surveyor, Tektronix K12xx, Visual Networks Visual UpTime, WildPackets EtherPeek/TokenPeek/AiroPeek, and many others
--Capture files compressed with gzip can be decompressed on the fly
--Live data can be read from Ethernet, IEEE 802.11, PPP/HDLC, ATM, Bluetooth, USB, ---Token Ring, Frame Relay, FDDI, and others (depending on your platfrom)
--Decryption support for many protocols, including IPsec, ISAKMP, Kerberos, SNMPv3, SSL/TLS, WEP, and WPA/WPA2
--Coloring rules can be applied to the packet list for quick, intuitive analysis
--Output can be exported to XML, PostScript®, CSV, or plain text

Increase the clarity of text in XP

Do your fonts look blocky or washed out? Are they too small to read? Here are some suggestions.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/personalize/screenimage.mspx

The article show step by step how to modify the clear type properties that will help improve the clarity of most fonts.


If that doesn't do what you need try this application:
Download Font Changer.exe



It is a simple executable app that requires no install. My only problem with both of these applications is that they don't display the fonts before you make your selection.

The developer has a application that will show all the fonts installed on your machine.
Download Font Query

Push it to the limits, Stress me out.

Whenever I buy new components such as memory or build a new rig I stress test it. This lets me know early on if I have parts that are marginal or might be prone to failure under stressful hard core gaming or video decoding. For overclockers, Prime95 has a feature called "Torture Test" that allows maximum stress testing on the CPU and RAM. There are several options allowing the stress test to focus on the memory, processor, or a balance of both. Usually Prime95 will detect an error within a matter of minutes if an overclock is not stable, however many people like to let the system "burn-in" overnight to ensure long-term stability.
Author:	Mersenne Prime Search
Version:	24.14
OS:	Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
File Size:	1.1 MB
MD5:	469d8bd50780d948929a03e2dcee42ab

Stress can be a good thing.

When things go wrong how do you know and can you prove it.

I wanted to publish a list of benchmark software sites. The idea here is not to show that you have the most UBER machine ever created, you aren't even close if you read this blog. Actually I practice what I preach and my machines stay in the top 2% in the world.

If you think you have a failing video card or memory or even a CPU you can run benchmarks and stress tests to find the problem. I recommend multiple tests because some issues don't show up in certain tests. BFG video cards have caused me major issues in the past and customer support was so bad I would rather go to the dentist. At least at the dentist you feel like your accomplishing something.



http://extremeoverclocking.com

extremeoverclocking.com has compiled a list of benchmarking utilities to stress test you machine. I like aquamark, and 3D mark for the graphics. Even the newer cards can show signs of weakness under these tests.

I found a new link at:
http://freestone-group.com/video-card-stability-test/

for memory testing see my post:
Microsoft Online Crash Analysis - FREE
System Information and Performance Testing

Out of the Dark into the Light with RightMark

RightMark CPU Clock Utility


http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml

RightMark CPU Clock Utility (RMClock) is a small GUI application designed for real-time CPU frequency, throttling and load level monitoring and on-the-fly adjustment of the CPU performance level on supported CPU models via processor's power management model-specific registers (MSRs). In automatic management mode it continuously monitors the CPU usage level and dynamically adjusts the CPU frequency, throttle and/or voltage level as needed, realizing the "Performance on Demand" concept.

So what does all that mean?



Basically this application allows you to see how your CPU is performing and how it is configured to perform, taking the guess work out of it. This isn't just a benchmark application. It is a very light weight utility that gives you control over CPU and battery profile settings.



My Laptop was extremely slow. I did some serious investigation and determined the processor speed was running at 600mhz on a 1.6Ghz CPU. This was a Intel stepping processor. The Stepping feature allows you to conserve battery life when unplugged. The Windows OS power scheme controls this feature. When I set the feature for maximum performance when on batteries I was still seeing problems with performance when docked and on battery.



RightMark allowed me to see the current clock setting and allows me to force maximum performance at all times. You can tweak this as you see fit. Maybe there is an application you use on the road. You can tweak the processor stepping to meet you minimum requirements.

This is a free utlity and when running it can show a status in your system tray. For some CPUs you can monitor temperature as well. This may not be something you need to actively run all the time but I would have it in my tool chest until needed.

Life isn't always a two way street

SMP Seesaw
http://www.mlin.net/SMPSeesaw.shtml

Remember that big kid dominating the SeeSaw in the playground. Now its time to throw your weight around and take control of your processes. Install the MSI then in task manager you have a new option to "set affinity". Here you can choose what processor does the heavy lifting.

This is interesting on the surface but I can see where the practical applications might be limited. Partially because you would really need to manage all processes that might get allocated to that resource. Just forcing a process to use one CPU doesn't keep others from using it. I can see the benefit in video playback while downloading. This might be good for core testing. In some cases it could allow you to troubleshoot a bad core.



______________

SMP Seesaw is a utility for dual-CPU or dual-core computers that controls how Windows balances the compute load between the two processors. By default, Windows balances the processing load to both CPUs as evenly as possible among all programs. SMP Seesaw provides a convenient means to change the processor affinities for all running programs at once. In particular, the most common use is to dedicate one of your processors to a single program, thereby improving the performance or responsiveness of that program.

Full-screen games, software-based DVD playback, PVR programs like SageTV and BeyondTV, and VMware are examples of applications that might benefit from having exclusive access to one of your CPUs. Of course, not all programs would benefit: multi-threaded programs that are designed to take full advantage of several processors would actually be impeded. However, relatively few desktop applications are designed like this.

System Requirements: To use SMP Seesaw, your computer must have exactly two processors or cores, and you must be running Windows NT, 2000, 2003, or XP.

Why does it have to be so hard? Or does it?

Windows Vista’s hard disk imaging utility, Complete PC Backup, allows users to create an image file that contains the complete contents and structure of a hard disk.

I have tried free utilities such as drive image XML but I never seem to get a working bootable image written back in Windows XP. Norton Ghost works real well and is a bit pricey. It's probably worth it just for the time savings. So what other options do we have?

If you have a Seagate or Maxtor hard drive, you can get a free OEM version of Acronis True Image. Seagate makes available a tool for migrating your files from an older Seagate or Maxtor hard disk to a new one. You can also use the tool as backup utilities simply by downloading either the Seagate DiscWizard or Maxtor MaxBlast software.

After you complete your XP build and apply all patches, updates, and drivers as well as any software you always install (not including games), you need to make a disk image. The games put too much data on your hard drive which prevents you from storing your disk image to DVD.

In a previous but not so obvious article I mention CloneMaxx:
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/clone_maxx/info.htm?Language=1

Data can be copied from hard drives in high speed mode with speeds up to 3.3 GB per minute.

I saw a post: "SATA drives are not supported...damn!"
I'm not sure if this is true. It may be the motherboard manufacturer. Another option would be to get a SATA to ATA converter which run about $12. I'm not sure if at that point you are better off buying Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image. Your best bet would be to buy a Seagate or Maxtor Drive to begin with.

************************

Professional hard disk cloning HDClone 3.2 Copy. Backup. Rescue.



Free Edition
Download


http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html#free


The Free Edition of HDClone offers all necessary abilities to copy a entire hard disk onto another, larger hard disk. This can be utilized to migrate an existing installation to a new hard disk as well as for data rescue. The Free Edition is real freeware without obligation to buy and is intended for the short-term usage at no costs. But in case of more frequent usage, we recommend using one of the higher editions since they offer higher performance in the first line but also support a wider range of hardware as well as additional options which are optimized for regular or professional usage. HDClone Free Edition supports IDE/ATA
and SATA/eSATA hard disks and is able to copy up to 300 MB/min.




Notice this says larger disk. What the hell. Well what if we partition our current drive to be a bit smaller. (more headaches)

**************
So if you don't have a Maxtor or Seagate then it is worth the few extra dollars to get the real deal.
http://store.purplus.net/actrim90cd.html

Acronis True Image 9.0 CD
UPC: 625904487506 Mnfg. Part No: PCO48750MB Manufacturer: Acronis Packaging: CD w/ Key Platform: Windows Availability: Out of Stock Product ID #: 9530
Regular price: $29.95Sale price: $9.95


Two things to comment on:
1.) The home edition doesn't support dynamic disks.

This is bad if you like to make a software raid which I always do. The good news here is the way I build my PC. I use 2 drives of equal size.
I partition 25% for the OS on one drive, a 25% partition on the other drive for important data. Then I partition the rest to be used in a software raid. The software raid is done with the Windows XP disk manager. You set both disks to dynamic then create a striped array with the remaining 2 partitions. If you create your OS image before you start the dynamic process you can restore it as a non dynamic and complete the same process after you get your OS up and running again.

2.) The home edition lets you exclude folders which would mean you could do a backup anytime avoiding those huge game directories.

Hamsters Eat Their Young

http://www.mogware.com/filehamster/

FileHamster provides real-time backup and archiving of your files while you work. It enables you to monitor specific files on your hard drive and automatically create incremental backups whenever those files are modified. It also enables you to store notes about the changes that have been made, allowing you to quickly locate a specific revision or provide a detailed account of the work you've done on a project.

It has many features, but is very easy to use and does not require any technical expertise - just point it to the directory or file you want to monitor/backup and it will do the rest.

• Designed for Artists
• Real-time Backup
• Plugin Support
• Simple Interface
• IT'S FREE!!!