Useful Utilities

Log Me In

With this utility, you can access your computer from anywhere, as long as you’ve got Internet access. It is totally free to use.

Log Me In Link

FileZilla

This is an excellent FTP client. With it you can remotely download/upload files from an FTP site, create directories and configure multiple FTP logins.

FileZilla Link 

DirLock

Ever wanted to protect a directory with a password without buying expensive software? Well, here you go: DirLock is free and works like a charm.

DirLock Link

 DAEMON Tools

Tired of cd swapping? Store your ISO’s on your pc and open it in a virtual CD/DVD – ROM environment.

DAEMON Tools Link

FlashGet

Flashget is a download manager that can even download torrents.

FlashGet Link

WinRAR

WinRAR is a compression utility that supports various formats like ZIP and RAR

WinRAR Link

Jellybean Keyfinder

Ever had the problem where you forgot which Windows/Office product key is installed on which computer? You do not have to guess any longer – Keyfinder will reveal the product key for Windows or MS Office!

Keyfinder

MalwareBytes

Must be the best malware remover I have ever come across. (That includes Spybot Search and Destroy)  Hint: Just run a quick scan.

Malwarebytes

Slow Network?

Let's stay on the subject of slowness. Today, I have once again, come across a company complaining about a slow network. This will be a mixed discussion concerning Windows Vista and Windows XP Pro.

One of the things that Windows XP incorporates, is the My Network Places folder. When you connect to shared folders, Windows makes a copy of the shortcut in that folder. This tends to slow things down. If you keep this folder clean, you should get an improvement in speed. There is also some registry tweaks, but I'm not going into that for now. Then you may connect to a share by entering UNC names in the Explorer search bar like: \\computer\share. Using UNC names may also cause a delay, having to resolve the IP to the proper name. Try using \\IP\share, for example: \\192.168.3.3\public. This can also give you a speed boost, especially if it is a huge shared folder that you access. Now, when on a domain and you get "Applying personal settings" or "Applying network settings" staring at you for a long while when logging in, you can be sure that you have a DNS problem. Nine out of ten times, it is because your primary DNS is not set to your server's IP (Your DC) So if your server IP is XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX, set your DHCP server so that the workstation's primary DNS will be XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX. Finally, locate your "hosts" file and add your server in there. For instance: server[TAB]IP where [TAB] is the actual tab button and the IP is the IP of your server and "server" is your server name.
In Windows XP the host file can be found here:C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc Edit the hosts file with Notepad.

My Windows menus has a delay

Menu dealy

I have stumbled upon this problem a couple of days ago: When you select any menu in Windows, there is a few seconds delay before it opens. How can I make the menus pop-up faster?
The good news is, you can set the delay time in the registry. This is how:
For Windows XP: Click on the start button and then on "Run".
Type "regedit" (without the quotes) inside the run box.

Expand "HKEY_CURRENT_USER", Expand "Control Panel" and click on "Desktop".
On the right, find the key "MenuShowDelay" and double click on it. By default the value is "400", but 200 works best for most people. The lower the value, the faster it will open.
Windows Vista is exactly the same. The only difference is that when you click on the "Start Button", you can directly type "regedit" in the search box and enter.

Extensis Suitecase fonts clash with system fonts

Why does my fonts clash with the system fonts?

I have got no fonts in my system, yet Suitcase insists that the fonts are clashing with some system fonts. I am running OS X Tiger 10.3.1 with Extensis Suitcase 11 and Quark 6.5. What is the problem?

Well, the font cache of OS X Tiger is a bit "confused" and it needs to be cleared. There are different methods: You can do it through commands or deleting two pref. files, but the easiest by far (that worked every time for me) is to boot the system into safe mode by holding the "shift" button just after the boot sound. Once started up in safe mode, the font cache gets cleared as well. Now all you have to do now, is restart the system and let it boot up normally.


Problem solved. :-)

My cd-rom/dvd drive is missing

Where did my CD-ROM drive go?

Just an interesting problem I had the other day: I open up "My Computer" and saw that the CD-ROM drive icon is missing! No problem I though - Maybe it is not assigned a drive letter. So I went to computer management and saw it wasn't there either. OK...? So I boot up in the BIOS and there it was detected fine. Still no problem, I thought. I will just uninstall/reinstall the driver. That is when I got this error:

The device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device (Code 31).
So I've discovered from Microsoft's KB articles that there is a registry fix for it. The following error messages points to the same problem:
A driver for this device was not required, and has been disabled (Code 32 or Code 31) and
Your registry might be corrupted. (Code 19) You might receive the following notification message: Windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device. (Code 41)
The cause could be of some dvd or cd-rom burning software that you have uninstalled. This is the fix: (Remember to backup your registry first)

Step 1: Start Registry Editor

Start Registry Editor.

Step 2: Delete the UpperFilters registry entry

1. In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
2. Expand SYSTEM, and then expand CurrentControlSet.
3. Expand Control, and then expand Class.
4. Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
5. In the details pane of Registry Editor, on the right side, click UpperFilters.
   
   Note You may also see an UpperFilters.bak registry entry. You do not have to remove that entry. Click UpperFilters only.
   • If you see the UpperFilters registry entry in the details pane of Registry Editor, go to step 6.
   • If you do not see the UpperFilters registry entry, you still might have to remove the LowerFilters registry entry. To do this, go to "Step 3: Delete the LowerFilters registry entry."
6. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
7. Click Yes when you receive the following message:
   Are you sure you want to delete this value?

The UpperFilters registry entry is removed.

Step 3: Delete the LowerFilters registry entry

1. In the details pane of Registry Editor, on the right side, click LowerFilters.
   
   Note You might see a LowerFilters.bak registry entry. You do not have to remove that entry. Click LowerFilters only.
   
   If you do not see the LowerFilters registry entry, unfortunately this content is unable to help you any more. Go to the "Next Steps" section for information about how you can find more solutions or more help on the Microsoft Web site.
2. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
3. Click Yes when you receive the following message:
   Are you sure you want to delete this value?
   The LowerFilters registry entry is removed.
4. Exit Registry Editor.

Step 4: Restart your computer

Restart your computer. After you have done this, try to access the CD or DVD drive. If you can access the CD or DVD drive, and if you do not receive an error message, the problem is resolved. You can reinstall your CD or DVD writing or recording software.

If you cannot access the CD or DVD drive, or if you receive an error message, unfortunately this content is unable to help you any more. Go to the "Next Steps" section for information about how you can find more solutions to the problem.

I only had an "upper filters" entry. When I removed it and rebooted, all was well again.

Why is my computer slow?

I have experienced a number of problems when it comes to a slow computer and spent countless of hours looking for a solution. Some problems,related to having a slow computer, where just annoying and others really serious and downright nasty. I do have some experience with Apple Mac running OS X, but for now I will concentrate on the Microsoft Windows operating systems.(Windows XP and Windows Vista.) Many a time I was asked the question: "Why is my computer slow?". Therefore, I decided to write this blog in order to address this common problem of poor computer performance. So if you experienced problems with a trojan or spyware before, you just might find something useful here. Let's kick this off with a well known question:

Why is my computer slow?

You just bought your new computer and it is running like a well oiled maschine, but as time goes by, it seems that your computer is slowly grinding to a near halt. Why?

There are a number of factors to consider:
Lets start at the least severe scenario and progress to more serious causes:

1. Newer updates for windows and programs comes out all the time. For example - You may have started off with Adobe Acrobat 5 and now you are running Adobe Acrobat 9 or you may have started off with Internet Explorer 6 and currently, you are running Internet Explorer 8. These newer versions are more resource hungry and over time, you may experience that your computer does not perform as well as it used too.

2. Over the months/years, you tend to install all the more programs, toolbars, printer software and so forth on your computer. With all the installing and unstalling of programs, two things happen: Your hard drive becomes defragmented, which in turn causes your hard drive to search longer for the files it needs. To explain this a little bit better: Your hard drive is made out of "blocks" called "sectors"(for simplicity sake). Each sector can contain data. This is where all your programs are stored including your operating system. These sectors are all neatly stacked together on the hard drive, when starting up your pc for the first time, with no spaces in between. When you install something, it looks for the next available space on the hard drive and places the data neatly in the empty sectors. When you uninstall a program, it deletes the information from the once filled sectors. Now your data becomes scattered around your hard drive, having now emty spaces inbetween and data from one program all over the hard drive. Now it becomes a bit harder for your computer to locate the data on your hard drive. Therefore, Windows comes with a utility included to defragment your hard drive. It is called "Disk defragmenter" in Microsoft Windows. It is essential for good hard drive health that you run this tool every now and then. To access the utility in Windows XP: Open my computer, right click on your local hard drive(usually drive letter c:) or the volume you wish to defrag and click on properties. Locate the "tools" tab at the top and select it. Click on defragment now. Once opened, click on the "analyze" button and it will let you know if you need to do a defragmentation. On Windows Vista - Just click the "start" button and type in the search bar "defrag". Click on "disk deframenter", select your volumes and defrag if neccessary. It will be best to run this utility when you are not going to work on your computer. It is sometimes a long process, so leaving it to run over night will be a good idea. Secondly (and the most common one): Your computer stores all the information about your preferences, product keys, programs that are installed and its location, ect., in the registry. So if you ever wondered why you can't just copy and paste a program from one Windows system to the next - this is why. Adding and removing programs from your computer can cause missing- and/or broken links in your registry. Your registry also gets searched when launching a program. In some cases you can have severe problems in your registry to such an extend that you won't be able to uninstall some of your programs. A bit more on this later. Another reason for your registry to take a knock is when you do not uninstall a program properly via its uninstaller, but instead just deletes the folder. To fix your registry and you do not have the knowledge to manually edit the keys yourself, you need a good, trusted and reliable registry cleaner. I will stay away from the ones that are free, for the reason that if you delete the wrong registry key/s, your system might not be able to boot up again and I had it happen before with some clients.Important: Do not mess with the registry keys yourself, unless you have the knowledge. It is imperative to backup your registry before attempting to remove/edit any keys from it.You can find some registry cleaner products if you Click Here
   

3. The last area I would like to mention, bearing in mind that there are a number of things you can do to optimize your computer, is Spyware. Just before I carry on: Towards the end, I will give a quick review of Registry Fix(A registry cleaner that worked well for me in the past)and some links to a few other programs that may come in handy. Let's carry on... Spyware, is software that secretly gathers information about you while you navigate the Internet. To add to the list of annoyances are: Addware, Jokeware and Hijackware to mention a few. Addware will have ads pop up on your computer even when you are not connected to the Internet. Hijackware will intercept your Browser, redirecting you to their website. This will sometimes happen when you just open your browser or even clicking on a valid link from Google. Jokeware is a tactic used to scare you in buying a product. Rootkits is software that actively hides its presence from anti-spyware and anti virus software. All of this can collectively be called as malware. Breaking the word down: 'Mal' meaning malicious and 'ware' meaning software. Not all of them are harmful, but they all affect your computer's performance in one way or the other. Spyware slows your computer down consideribly in my experience. Many of these 'infections' opens the door to many other malware programs and viruses. A good example of software that combines most of these characteristics, is a program called, Antivirus 2008. Soon to be a Antivirus 2009, because this program followed us around since 2003 if I'm correct. What it does is popping up some warning messages on your screen, saying that you are infected with a virus and that you have to click a link to scan your computer. Clicking on the link it does a "make believe" scan and shows you the results and prompts you to buy their product to get rid of the "infections". That is not all: It will embed itself on your taskbar and gives a pop-up warning so often, it will drive you insane. To make things worse, It will hijack your browser, rendering it near useless. It also attempt to hide itself from anti-spyware software. Even Spybot Search and Destroy, which I consider to be the best free anti-spyware scanner, does not pick it up. So here you can see that it acts like Jokeware, Hijackware, Addware and a rootkit. This brings me back to the registry. Sometimes when an anti-virus or anti-spyware product removes an infection, it leaves an invalid link behind. When you start your computer up it might give you an error message that a certain dll file could not be found. This is harmless but very annoying. Also what I had happen to me before, was an infection that was removed, but the "program" still showed up in my list of programs being installed. When you try to remove it, it will tell you that that product does not exist or some other error message. That is caused by a broken link in the registry and if you do not have the knowledge to fix it, a Registry Cleaner may work for you. Remember to always backup your Registry before doing anything to it!
   

Some good practices: Always have a good anti virus program and keep it up to date. (I will list some free online scanners and software to the right of this page.) A online scanner won't keep you protected, so have an active scanner! The free programs are better than nothing, but I highly recommend buying something decent. Do not turn Windows Firewall off: It does not protect you all that much from malware, but it does make your computer a little bit more secure. Only visit trusted sites on the Internet and do not agree to pop-ups when you're not a 100% sure. Regularly scan your computer with a good anti-spyware product. Better still would be an active anti-spyware scanner. Be careful of what you download from the Internet!

As promised, a bit more about Registry Fix:

Registry Fix is very easy to use and incorporate many more features than just cleaning your registry. You can also remove your startup programs or installed programs with an easy to use interface. Registry Fix will scan your registry for free, but it won't clean it (apart from 3 areas of your registry) until such time as you buy the product. Let us have a quick look at interface:

This is what it looks like the first time you start it up. Here you can select everything you need to include in the scan.(All the tick boxes under the big 'SCAN NOW' button) Clicking on the 'Help' button in lower right corner will bring you to their website with all the help files. Clicking on the 'Support' button will open up your default mail client with their e-mail address already filled in. However, the first thing I recommend you to do is to backup your registry. How do you do this? Click on the 'Advanced options' button at the top. You will be presented with the following: Right at the bottom you'll see: 'Full Registry Backup Utility'. Click on that and click on the radio button: 'Create a new backup' The rest of the buttons under the advanced options is self explanatory. Browser helper object manager is where you can view the plug ins and toolbars that is installed on your browser. This gives you the option of removing some of them if you wish. Startup program manager is where you can remove programs that run on startup if you wish. Add/remove program manager does the same job as your add/remove feature under Windows control panel. All that is left to do, is click the big "SCAN NOW" button. Once that is done, fix the selected errors.

In my next upcoming blog, I will talk about computer optimization and I will also update this blog with some more useful tools and utilities. Drop me a line if there might be more you wish to know around the subjects we touched on today.