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

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.

Toying with Text

Searching for text and creating reports from large text files in windows can be a bit of a pain. In Unix you can use GREP and EGREP with limited success. So here we have 2 free tools to find and replace text and to create reports from large and multiple text files. I wrote RAMPART REPORT to help me do my job (check it out below). I use EDIT PLUS for most of my text manipulation needs but here is a free solution for find and replace which you will find more difficult in Vista and Windows7.

http://www.digitalvolcano.co.uk/content/textcrawler

TextCrawler is a fantastic tool for anyone who works with text files. This cool utility enables you to instantly find and replace words and phrases across multiple files and folders. It utilises a powerful Regular Expression engine to enable you to create sophisticated searches, preview replace, perform batch operations, extract text from files and more. It is fast and easy to use, and as powerful as you need it to be.

Also:

http://rampart-ssh.com/

http://rampart-ssh.com/downloads/download_report.asp

Rampart Report
A program that allows you to do Boolean searches of log file. This is really a much more powerful GREP for windows.

You can search for lines in a file containing any combination of up to 5 search terms. You can search any combination of AND / OR. You can also filter your search.

The program allows you to search multiple files in a directory. You can specify which lines you would like to pull above and below the line you are searching for. You can do 3 layers of sub searches. Search and filter any combination to get the results you are looking for.

Now GREP on Steroids (Windows Only)

Windows 7 can't fail? Well back it up anyways for free.

Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Edition

NEW 10.2 Edition - Total PC Protection for Serious Users!

Take complete control of your PC’s safety. Based on solid commercial backup and recovery software from Paragon, the new Backup & Recovery 10.2 Free Edition will give you a rich set of features that you can trust.

Smart people backup; Backup & Recovery is smart backup.

A professional backup solution for home/non-commercial use for free and it supports Windows 7.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/

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!

Sometimes its hard to see clearly

WinMerge Might Just help. This is no easy task to develop a program to do this kind of data comparision.

Features:
Visual differencing and merging of text files
Flexible editor with syntax highlighting, line numbers and word-wrap
Handles DOS, UNIX and MAC text file formats
Unicode support
Difference pane shows current difference in two vertical panes
Location pane shows map of files compared
Highlights differences inside lines in file compare
Regular Expression based file filters in directory compare allow excluding and including items
Moved lines detection in file compare
Creates patch files
Shell Integration (supports 64-bit Windows versions)
Rudimentary Visual SourceSafe and Rational ClearCase integration
Archive file support using 7-Zip
Plugin support
Localizable interface via resource DLL
Online manual and installed HTML Help manual

http://winmerge.org/

I guess my brain doesn't work so well.

I know what your thinking, no I don't. Now Im lost and confused.



Patience is a virtue but Im not virtuous. This is a tool to help you organize you thoughts. With most tools like this you have to be dedicated to using it all the time. I would hate to see what happens to you when they pull the plug.

I had a very hard time getting this to work with the massive amounts of data I deal with daily. It may just be a learning curve. Look at my leading comment. With me there is no learning curve because I don't have time for it. It look like it could be useful to many people. It could be useful to planners and organizers, possibly management with many employees. If I'm not that excited about this they you might ask why did I post this?

It is likely the wave of the future and it could be useful and it is free.

Free organization software:
http://www.thebrain.com/tutorials

Finally Grep for windows

Just Added: Rampart Report - A program that allows you to do Boolean searches of log file. This is really a much more powerful GREP for windows. This is a Beta since I just created it and I could use feedback to make it better for everyone.


http://rampart-ssh.com

So you use Linux or Unix how can this help you? It is simple. Do a grep on what you are looking for and save the file to a windows machine. You can use my emulator to do this quickly. Then use the report generator to get the results that aren't so easy to obtain using Linux, GREP or EGREP.

You can search for lines in a file containing any combination of up to 5 search terms. You can search any combination of AND / OR. You can also filter your search.

The program allows you to search multiple files in a directory. You can also specify which lines you would like to pull above and below the line you are searching for. I have also included 3 layers of sub searches.

You should be able to search and filter any combination to get the results you are looking for.

Now GREP on Steroids (Windows Only)

The top box is a search or multiple files where you choose a wild card.

The next box is to search a single file. All of the features work for both search types but the multi file search annotates the report with what file the lines came from in 2 possible ways. The first is marking each line with the file name. The other is inserting a break between the results of each file.

You have 5 search boxes A- E. The check box to the left allows you or AND the search boxes such as (A and B) or C or (D and E).

The list boxes to the right allow you to pull any combination of lines above or below the line you specified in your search. You use click and drag or ctrl click to select or de-select multiple selections.

The with comments checkbox tells you which line was pulled above or below your search.

The exclude search line only pulls the lines above and below and leaves out your search line.

The spaces ckeckbox puts a space 0r newline between each search result.

The sub searches allow you to search again on the results you just search to further filter your results.

You can load a filter from a file. I do this to generate reports and filtering to see the data that is important to me from SYSLOGs.

Its time for you to enjoy the moment

Mihov Gallery Creator
http://www.gallerycreator.net/

This program will automate the process of creating image galleries. It creates a thumb nail view and a slide show browser. You could code this is ASP pulling file names from the source directory but this is much simpler.

See the end results.

Are your photos organized? Do you keep all of them no matter how bad they are? Does anyone look at your photos? Do you have a system to deal with your digital photos?

This might be a great place to start.

Are You a Control Freak, You will Be

Remote Infrared Control 1.0.4

This is a nice application because you can adapt a Windows Media remote to handle PC control when not using media center. You don't have to have a IR port built in to take advantage of this. Try using IR that comes with TV tuner cards or old remote PC keyboards, etc.

If you have an IR (Infrared) port in your computer, you can use RIControl to control your applications using an ordinary remote control from a TV or stereo. IRControl is completely configurable (even contains its own scripting language), and with the integrated Artificial Intelligence, you can teach the program what the remote control buttons are. This means that the program does not have to have the buttons programmed inside it, but you can use any remote control you want!

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!!!

Burn Baby Burn

CDBurnerXP

I needed a quick and simple CD/DVD burning software that is of course free. CDBurnerXP gets the job done without all the bells and whistles to trip you up.

CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components.

Are you into world domination or do you simply need to burn an image (ISO):


How about a free burner with a bit more power:

http://www.imgburn.com/

ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit!

It has several 'Modes', each one for performing a different task:

• Read - Read a disc to an image file
• Build - Create an image file from files on your computer or network - or you can write the files directly to a disc
• Write - Write an image file to a disc
• Verify - Check a disc is 100% readable. Optionally, you can also have ImgBurn compare it against a given image file to ensure the actual data is correct
• Discovery - Put your drive / media to the test! Used in combination with DVDInfoPro, you can check the quality of the burns your drive is producing

Now go play with your power toys - Virtually

Extend your Desktop with Power Toys for Windows

The link below allows you to choose your version of XP (Tablet, Standard, Media Center)
XPhttp://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/default.mspx?wt_svl=20404a&mg_id=20404b

The purpose of this blog entry is to point out a nice virtual desktop manager for XP. This allows you to have linux style virtual desktops on windows XP.

Virtual Desktop Manager

Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this PowerToy.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/DeskmanPowertoySetup.exe

Instructions:
Once you install the Virtual Desktop Manager you right click on your task bar then select Tool bars menu then drop down to Desktop Manager. Then the Desktop manager should appear on your tool bar to the right.