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If you experience problems reading this issue in your email program you can read this issue online from the Supporters' Area here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/members/index.htm IN THIS PREMIUM ISSUE: 0. EDITORIAL: Never re-install Windows again 0.0 EDITORIAL Do you really need to partition your hard drive or is it an outdated and unnecessary procedure? This may seem like a strange question to ask in this, the last part of a series on how to partition and image your hard drive. It is, however, an important question that needs to be addressed. But first things first: The final
part of my tutorial on "Never Reinstall Windows again"
is now online here: In the past, partitioning was a necessity. For example, early versions of Windows 95 could only support partitions up to 2GB, so if you had a drive bigger than that, it simply had to be split up into several drives smaller than 2GB. And there were performance reasons. Older file systems slowed down as the number of files on a disk increased, so you could get better performance by splitting a large hard disk into several smaller drives. Also, old single head disk drives performed much better on the outer tracks, so it made sense to put performance sensitive functions like the operating system on partitions that were located on the highest performing area of the disk. Management was also an issue. It made sense to separate different types of data on different drives in much the same way you use folders to separate different kinds of data within a drive. Typically, this involved putting the operating system on one drive partition and user data on another. This later scheme had some real advantages. First, it allowed the system partition to be easily backed up and restored without affecting user data. Secondly, it meant that size of the system backup was more manageable. Finally, it allowed separate backup regimes for system data and user data. That was the past. Today's operating systems and file systems do not currently impose practical constraints on maximum disk size. NTFS, for example, allows partitions up to 16 terabytes. Furthermore, these file systems do not noticeably degrade in performance as the number of files increases. Hard drives have also changed. Modern multi-head drives with large caches perform far more uniformly across the entire disk surface. Indeed, there are some that argue that with caching, a modern drive will perform better overall when it is not partitioned. So if we don't have to partition anymore and there is no longer a performance advantage in partitioning, then why do it? It all comes down to management, backup management in particular. This can be clearly seen by the way I manage my own PCs. Over the last five years the first thing I did when I bought a new PC was to partition the drive. I created one partition of around 10-15GB for Windows, another of 1-4GB for the Windows paging file and allocated all the remaining space to a data partition. This system has worked well. I backup
the Windows partition regularly using a sector by
sector drive imaging program (Acronis True Image) and
back up my data using a file based backup program
(Genie Backup Manager.) My drive images are a very
manageable 6-8GB in size and I can restore Windows
quickly and easily without overwriting my key
data. I could, for example, have everything on just one partition and use True Image to image the whole drive to an external hard drive. That is, create one big image containing Windows and my data, the whole caboodle. That way both Windows and my data would be backed up at the one time. Sure the image would be huge, maybe 150GB but it could be argued that external hard drives are so cheap it doesn't matter. Sure it would take a long time, but if it runs overnight who cares. Similarly, I could use the external hard drive not for storing an image file but for creating an exact mirror of my hard drive. And there are a number of software products that allow you to do this easily. Some even allow the creation of a bootable mirror. Then again there are various hardware Raid options. Today Raid and hard drives are so cheap that it's a practical option for home users. A while back I decided to try out one of these alternative strategies on a new PC I had bought for my wife. So for the first time in years I didn't partition the drive as soon as the PC was delivered. For backup I bought a large USB external hard drive and I set it up so every night a scheduled True Image backup job ran that imaged the whole C: drive to the external drive using True Image's differential backup mode. That was about 6 months ago. Since then I've restored both Windows and data on that machine several times and it has worked well enough. So I'm convinced. You no longer "have to" partition your drives for backup management But I'm still going to do it. I've found that I hate working on my wife's PC. With everything all mixed in together it's a mess. Furthermore, the drive gets fragmented more quickly. And because the hard drive works harder I figure it's got more chance of failing. And there's the time factor. I can
restore Windows on my own PC in 10 minutes. On my
wife's PC it takes hours. So there you are. If you are an average user who can afford to buy good backup software and extra hard drives to store your backups then maybe you don't need to partition your hard drive. But if you are like me and want your computers well organized and easy to maintain then partitioning is still the way to go. See you next month. Gizmo These upgraded lists are a big improvement over the originals and a credit to the 30 volunteer software editors working on the project. May I ask you a favor? When you check out the new lists could you please help out the editors by adding your comments or suggestions using the email link at the end of each item? Even if your suggestions are minor they will all help the category editors in their task. You'll also notice some software categories which still need editors, so if you feel you'd like to help with one or more of the vacant categories then please email me at editor@techsupportalert.com [1] http://techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm 1.7 Use Open Office
Online Last month I wrote about Amazon's S3 storage system in the premium edition. After using it for a month I'm sufficiently impressed with it that I feel I should tell all subscribers about it. Amazon S3 is not really a consumer online storage service like Mozy but forms part of Amazon's package of web services that is geared to technical users. Indeed, to access the S3 storage you need a separate third part application program. The program I'm using is called JungleDisk. It's a $20 program backup management program recommended to me by Jean-Denis Marx, one of the volunteer editors for the Best Freeware Wiki project. JungleDisk mounts the S3 as an external drive which can be accessed normally through Windows Explorer. It performs automatic or manual backups of the directories or files designated by the user. JungleDisk can keep deleted and modified files on S3 (time machine function) or ensure that the two drives are in sync. They also sell a $1 per month add-on "Plus" service that provides web access to your backup files and allows true differential backup. The latter means that only the changed parts of large files are uploaded rather than the whole file. This feature should cut down on bandwidth use considerably. I say "should" as I haven't yet tested it. And there's also a portable version for your USB flash drive that allows you to securely access your data from any public terminal. Yes, JungleDisk is not free but the $20 is a once-up cost and includes lifetime support. And you can try it for free for 30 days. I know what you are thinking: "Why is Gizmo recommending this when I can get a lot of these features at other online backup services for free." Well let me tell you straight: I don't get paid a cent to say this nor do I derive any commission from S3 or JungleDisk. In fact I forked out my $20 for JungleDisk just like anybody else. The real answer is simple. S3/JungleDisk is the only online backup solution that I've tried on my PC that has worked seamlessly and 100% reliably. And while it's not free it's so cheap it doesn't matter. JungleDisk is not for beginners. Nor is it for those who want cute looking interfaces. JungleDisk is serious software designed to do a serious job. [1] http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=16427261 Subscriber Igor Brejc writes "Gizmo after reading your article in the Premium edition about Amazon S3 [1] I signed up. Since then I've done some testing of clients other than JungleDisk [2] that can use the S3 service. Here are a few useful links: S3 Drive [3]: This is a free virtual disk client for S3. I tried it on Windows XP and I had some problems with it. But it does work on my Vista machine. It's beta and has some quirks, but I think it should be mentioned here. But JungleDisk is probably a better option, since it's actively developed and supported and it is cheap. S3 Backup [4]: This is a free client for S3 backup (it's beta too). I tried it and it works, but sadly it lacks the virtual-disk feature List of Amazon S3 Backup Tools [5]: At the same site there is also an interesting article [6] comparing the economics of home backup server with Amazon. JunglediskSnapIn [7]: This is a Powershell implementation of JungleDisk which uses the Amazon S3 storage services. This is ideal for making automated backups to JungleDisk. [1] http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=16427261 Last month I mentioned a website [1] that is useful if you want to read one of those strange winmail.dat email attachments sent by a user of Microsoft Outlook. Several subscribers wrote in, including Darren Lovatt, Joe Francis and Dirk Röhrig, to tell me about a nifty free utility that's designed just for this exact task. Here's what Darren said "Gizmo I thought you might be interested in Eolsoft's Winmail Opener [2]. It's a small and simple utility that allows you to view and extract contents of TNEF-encoded messages such as the infamous winmail.dat. That means if you receive winmail.dat on your e-mail, with Winmail Opener you can view the rich text message contents and attachments embedded into this file. Winmail Opener is absolutely free - no nag screens, no ads, no spyware, no time limit. The executable is small and system requirements are low. Been using it for a while, and it always does the job." Many thanks to Darren and the others for the suggestion. A lot of readers are going to find this really useful. Freeware, Windows 95->XP, 304KB. [1] http://tud.at/php/tnef/ 2.7 Neat Way to Search
Webpages with Firefox For most users their Email files are among the most valuable data items on their PC yet curiously, they are often the least frequently backed up. The reason is simple: email archives are usually located in obscure locations on user's computers. In fact many users have no idea where their mail is stored. The situation is made worse by the fact that many email programs have no inbuilt backup. It's an unfortunate state of affairs but here's an excellent free solution for you. MailStore is an email backup program for multiple email clients. Rather than backup in the normal way it works by importing you email into its own store. You can import from Outlook, Windows Mail, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Exchange, and SeaMonkey as well a file or any POP or IMAP account. That means you can not only backup your email files on your computer but also backup the email in any webmail account for which you have POP or IMAP access, Gmail for example. This approach not only provides backup, it also allows you to consolidate and duplicate your email into a single store rather than having it scattered across multiple locations. Furthermore, you can search this single store using MailStore's fast inbuilt search facility. Mail held in the consolidated store can also be exported and imported back into your email program. So you have real backup. It all works effortlessly provided your email is stored in the default location usually used by your email client. If not, you will need to tell MailStore where to find your files. Thankfully there is a guide [2] that will assist you in this process. Overall, this is a most useful product. If you use one of the supported email clients and are not currently backing up your email then I suggest you try it out. I also suggest you read this short tutorial [2]. Thanks to subscribers Kent Fulton and Ender Wiggin for the suggestion. Freeware, Windows 2000->Vista, 10.5MB [1] http://www.mailstore.com/en/mailstore-home.aspx Digital cameras may be the best thing since sliced bread, but almost all current cameras have a glaring weakness; they take poor photos in conditions where both brightly lit and dark areas feature in the same shot. Typically the dark areas come out black and/or the white areas get bleached out. HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography is a technique that overcomes this problem. It works by taking several shots of the same scene using different exposure settings and then merging the individual shots into a single photo that is correctly exposed in both the light and dark areas. The results can be quite spectacular. Check out these shots [1] on Flickr. Creating HDR photos is easier than you might think, because most modern digital cameras have an exposure bracketing feature that allows you to automatically take several shots of the same scene using different exposure settings. And there is plenty of free HDR software available to merge the photos. Tony Bennett, one of the volunteer category editors for the freeware wiki project, has just prepared a review of free HDR programs and that's now online here [2] So get to it and make you own HDR shots. Better still, send your best ones to Tony at the email address shown at the end of his review. [1] http://www.flickr.com/groups/hdr/pool/ After a quiet January, Microsoft has released a huge set of security patches on "Patch Tuesday" in February. In total there were 11 bulletins covering 17 flaws. Six of these flaws were rated as "critical", with the majority of these related to Microsoft Office. However, a flaw in Excel 2000 -> 2003, rated by Secunia [1] as "Extremely Serious", remains unpatched. Until Microsoft gets around to patching it, users should not open Excel files from unknown sources or, alternatively, they should open such files in a sandbox or other safe environment. Further details of the Microsoft February updates can be found here [2]. All of the updates are distributed automatically via the Microsoft Update Service. Dial-up users in particular need to be aware that these updates are large files and will require a considerable period of time online to be successfully downloaded. If you are not certain that you have received the updates then visit the Microsoft Update Service [3] now. [1] http://secunia.com/advisories/28506/ The privacy policy for techsupportalert.com has been updated and is now online here [1]. I know reading this stuff is about as exciting as watching paint dry but these things, like End User Licensing Agreements are important and should be taken seriously because they help protect you from scoundrels. The privacy policy has been updated to reflect changes in the website and newsletter that have already taken place, such as the introduction of RSS feeds, and to accommodate possible future changes such as the registration of site visitors. The privacy policy covers your subscription to this newsletter, so I recommend that you read it in full. If you have any questions feel free to contact me at editor@techsupportalert.com. The new policy is already in place for new site visitors and subscribers and will come into effect for existing subscribers and visitors on the 15th of March, 2008. If for whatever reason you don't accept the new privacy policy then you should unsubscribe before that date. Unsubscription details can be found at the bottom of this newsletter. [1] http://techsupportalert.com/privacy_policy.htm 4.1 Photoshop Look-alike for
$7.95 4.6 The 10 Best Free Downloads
for Vista Users This article was prepared by Joe Bennett, the volunteer editor in charge of the "Best Free Windows Media Player" category at the techsupportalert.com website. According to WikiPedia, "A codec is a device or program capable of performing encoding and decoding on a digital data stream or signal." In plain English I'd put it this way: a codec is a particular way of compressing audio and video files to save space. The best known example of a codec is MP3. It compresses bulky audio files such as WAV to much smaller MP3 files. All codecs involve a trade off between the amount of compression and the resultant quality. If you compress too much the quality loss may become intolerable. Information scientists are always coming up with smarter ways to get more compression with less quality loss. That's one of the reasons why there are so many codecs and it's also why newer ones will keep popping up. So why is this important to you as a computer user? Because to play an audio or video file that has been compressed by a particular codec you need the corresponding codec on your PC in order to decompress the file and play it. Out of the box, a brand new PC will be capable of playing certain kinds of media. By default it will be able to play audio CD's, WAV files, certain kinds of AVI files, and Windows WMV files. However, there are a lot of other file formats which it will not be able to play, so additional codecs are needed for the computer to be able to decode those files and play them. In fact, most computer users have encountered the situation of trying to play a video file only to be frustrated to find they don't have the codec. As a result the video won't play. There are tools available to help overcome this problem, such as VideoInspector [1], a freeware program that identifies the codecs used in a particular video and helps you find a download location. While you can install individual codecs in order to play a particular media file, it's more common to install a whole collection: a codec pack. The idea is to give end users a "one stop" installation of a lot of codecs so they don't have to hunt down particular codecs when they come across a file they cannot play. That sounds handy but there's a catch. Some codec packs contain proprietary codecs of doubtful legality. Typically this involves the use of codecs that are altered versions of existing codecs developed by other companies. Often this is done to avoid copyright issues, but it's sometimes done to extend functionality so the PC can play more file types. However, since almost all codecs are released under a license agreement which prohibit alteration, these altered versions are still likely to be illegal. And it's not only the law you have to be concerned about. Using an altered codec may cause problems on your PC. It all depends on how professionally the alterations were made. Unfortunately, you have no way of knowing this in advance. The following codecs and codec packs are considered to have legality issues hanging over them: DivX codec - This and the many
varieties of it are altered versions of the Microsoft
MPEG-4 V3 codec. It is considered old by today's
standards So
where can you find free, legal codec packs that will
let you view the media you need to view? XP Codec Pack - http://www.xpcodecpack.com/ Often these codec packs show up in the Windows Control Panel Add/Remove programs applet, so you can uninstall them there if you wish. If they are not shown in Add/Remove programs, they will still be visible from the Windows Device Manager. To see the codecs installed on your PC, right click on the My Computer icon, and select Properties/Hardware/Device manager/Sound Video Game Controllers. You can then select either of the Audio Codecs or Video Codecs items. For each items the codecs are listed under the properties tag. If you want to, you can also uninstall any unwanted codecs from the same location. [1] http://www.kcsoftwares.com/index.php?vtb "Windows Media Player for Windows XP Supported Codecs"
- 6.1 The Best Free Program Launcher If you only use a few programs you don't need a program launcher as you can get by perfectly well with the Windows Start Menu or by using Desktop Shortcuts. However, once you start using a lot of programs, these methods become clumsy and inefficient. At that stage you need a program launcher. Programmers have come up with several different design approaches for program launchers. One approach is to use a dockable command bar containing shortcuts. Another is to use hotkeys to launch particular programs. My preference though is for keyword based approaches where you launch a program by typing in the name (or part of the name) of a program. The best known freeware examples of this approach are Launchy [1] and Find and Run Robot [2]. Now these two top programs have some hot competition in the form of Enso, a former commercial program that is now free. You use Enso by holding down the Caps Lock key and typing a command followed by a program name. But you rarely have to type the full name. For example, on my laptop all I have to do to launch Firefox is type "Open Fir". At that stage Enso has determined that I wanted Firefox and has offered me the option of launching it. It's fast; lightning fast. That's all very familiar to Launchy users, but Enso has some neat extra tricks. You can navigate to folders, websites, open particular files in designated applications, swap between Windows and more using the same basic command structure. For example, you can jump to any open Firefox or Internet Explorer tab by typing part of the tag title. It doesn't even have to be the first part of the title. So to open a tab titled "where to buy cheap beer", all you need to type is "GO beer." In fact, "be" is probably all you need type. You also don't have to rely on typing application names because Enso can link a command to any keyword. For example, Firefox could be launched by typing "FF" if you so wish. Enso is fast and addictive, but then again so is Launchy. Which is better? Launchy is smaller, open source but not quite as powerful, while Enso is faster and more flexible but with a smaller user base. My advice is to try both and see what better suits your personal style. Personally, Enso suits me better, but your mileage may vary. What I can say is that if you have never used any of these products you are going to be surprised just how useful they are. Thanks to subscriber Philip McMahon for letting me know Enso was now free. Enso is freeware, works with Windows 2000, XP and Vista and the download is 12.1MB [1] http://www.launchy.net/ 6.2 A Free Utility That Really Does Make Your PC Run Faster I'm skeptical about products that claim to make your PC run faster. I've tried many of these over the years and for the most part they either didn't work or they messed up my PC so badly that any speed improvement was not worth the problems created. But things have changed: following an enthusiastic recommendation by regular contributor "Torrente", I've at last found a product I can recommend. In fact it works so well I'm using it myself. The program is called Actual Booster 3.1. It works by simply boosting the priority of whatever program is running in the foreground window, that is, the currently active window. Only that program is affected; it does not change the priority of any background program or process. What that means is that whatever program you are currently using gets a bigger slice of your computers processing power and so will run faster. If you are currently using Word then Word will run faster. If you switch to an Outlook window then Outlook will run faster but Word will slow down. But it doesn't matter if Word slows down because you are not using it! It's a simple and elegant idea. But it's more than that; it actually works. On my laptop I have experienced a real improvement in speed. Furthermore, in the five days I have used Actual Booster I haven't had any serious problem other than an occasionally slow or erratic mouse cursor. This is easily solved by hitting Crtl Alt F12 which terminates Actual Booster immediately. This is a useful trick to remember should you encounter problems on your PC. I found that the degree of speed improvement depends on the program; the more processor intense the program the greater the possibility for improvement. Most Windows operations were snappier while TextPipe pro, the program I use for processing long text documents was really accelerated. Others programs such as Notepad didn't really run noticeably faster. By default the program in the active Window is given a Windows priority of "high", the second highest setting. This can be changed to a higher or lower priority, but the default value of "high" is a sensible choice. I can certainly envisage problems if this was changed to "real time", the highest priority available in Windows, so don't be tempted to use this setting. When I saw that Actual Booster was from a Russian software company called Loonies software I must admit I was a bit concerned. However, after a lot of testing I'm happy to say that the product is 100% clean and can be recommended with confidence. Like a lot of Russian software, it's
intellectually elegant and highly functional, but has a
rather basic user interface. The program is just 64KB
in size and uses only 2MB of your memory space when
running. Just the kind of product I like. No, it's not problem-free, but the problems are relatively few and easily manageable. I've decided to keep it on my PC but only use it when I need a speed boost. This is easily managed as the program can be easily enabled/disabled from the tray icon. Actual Booster 3.1, Freeware, Windows
95 -> Vista, 64KB. To change your email delivery address, username or password login to your Premium Edition Subscription Control Panel. Here you can also renew your subscription or check your expiry date. To log-in, use your username and password. If you have not yet chosen a username and password then login using your subscription email address for both username and password. Your subscription email address can be found at the very end of this newsletter. From you control panel you can also access the Premium Supporters' Area. There you'll also find all individual back issues, a downloadable back issue archive, an extensive FAQ plus a growing list of resources exclusively available to Supporters. If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, send me an email at supporters@techsupportalert.com. Remember to state the email address at which you are currently subscribed. Receiving duplicate issues? If you are receiving an
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http://www.webelists.com/cgi/lyris.pl?enter=support.alerth Note that the free and paid editions are totally different publications so you can unsubscribe to the free edition without any chance of impacting your paid subscription. The 46 Best-ever
Freeware Utilities The Extended List of the Latest
Freebies For lots more free IT
newsletters see Thanks to subscriber Roger Keeny for copy-editing this issue. If you have a need for such services, contact Roger at liddlebigboy@gmail.com. For
convenience North American subscribers
can
contact this newsletter by snail mail at: Support Alert is a registered online serial publication ISSN 1448-7020. Content of this newsletter is (c) Copyright Support Alert Ltd, 2008. See you next issue. Next month's issue will be published on the Thursday the 20th of March. Gizmo |
