Zonealarm installed itself on my computer, accompanied by Zonealarm search installing itself on each of my browsers as the default search engine.
I got rid of both, but it has reappeared.
This spyware is not detected by Spybot or Malawarebytes.
Malawarebytes Free identifies very few tracking cookies, even on Threat Scan, whereas Spybot identifies lots. I am using the default settings for both programs.
It seems I was wrong about Spybot, on one hand it is too aggressive in that it appears to delete a lot of saved user names and such like.
On the other hand it missed OpenCandy, SearchProtect, Trovi and Clientconnect - all of which were detected and quarantined by Malawarebytes free edition.
Yes indeed, I should have heeded the warning - and will probably do so in future!
Even so I have used the CCleaner registry cleaner for years and never had a single problem.
Is there a cataloguer specifically designed for music collections. MAC (MP3 Audio Collection) was great but no longer seems to work with large collections. When I last used it a couple of years ago it handled 120GB OK but now it just hangs after many hours. It was last updated in 2003, so the problem may be with current Windows versions.
Sadly Personal Ancestral File is no longer available from the LDS Familysearch site. It is still available elsewhere as is the (essential) PAF Companion, but the latter no longer seems to accept the security PIN.
Font Manager appears to be unstable. When trying to disable many fonts it freezes for several minutes every 10 or so selections. You have to select each individual font separately - cannot select a whole family at once.
There are far to many fonts loaded during installation (most for non-western keyboards), leading to a bloated font box in office apps.
This is very slow indeed. Took 7 hours for a full drfrag, and now in Full Optimisation and after 7 hours only 68% optimised.
Defender and Super Antispyware real-time protection are turned OFF.
Trash and temp files deleted before starting.
Is there something I have missed?
Quite 'clunky' to use and hard to find the "free" version. Too many functions missing in "Free" version. Too much pressure to move to the paid version.
I think this one should be taken off the list altogether.
Well firstly, peazip just sucks. I mean aside from the fact it is infected with opencandy, there are just too many things that render it a pain in the ass to use, especially if you like downloading a lot of stuff and they're always in archives, which you want to easily right click on and either choose "extract to____" so that you can select multiple different archives to each extract into separate folders for each one, with the same name, in that directory, which takes less than 2 seconds and requires no further input, and also the fact it was a pain in the ass trying to extract multiple archives in general, no matter how I wanted to do it, but especially if I wanted to name the folder myself from the UI. I can't remember what else, but I do remember I hated peazip within the first week of using it and went on to find 7zip, which I find absolutely perfect for what it's supposed to do. Honestly, the "boring" or "old" damn UI shouldn't factor into the rating or whatever, especially considering there are quite a lot of us who LIKE that kind of user interface, especially people with Windowsblinds or at least a classic theme, not to mention the fact people have been building unbelievably HIDEOUS and completely unusable user interfaces for all kinds of good software as of late and completely DESTROYING them and all of their functionality. Regardless, it needs to WORK for everyone. I found 7zip to be the most awesome utility I've ever had, in fact. I really appreciate the work done on it, and they've kept it simple & effective.
Still, any software, no matter how free, that installs crap like adware, babylon toolbar and more nonsense, does NOT deserve to be on a list like this, nor to get anything above a 1-star rating. If they really need to do advertising to get paid for their free software, they should put actual ads in their software. Don't infect our computers and change shit around to screw us over. It's just despicable, infuriating, disgusting and stupid.
To forward an email as an attachment in Yahoo:
Click its box so there is a checkmark in the box in your list of emails (the particular email is not open at this point, you see your spambox or inbox in your screen). Hold down simultaneously Alt-Shift-F. You now have a new email with the checked email as the attachment.
Here is one other place I forward my spam to, as an attachment - cybertopcops. They do research and help to educate the public about the frauds, I think.
Thank you to everyone who fights these harrassing, insidious parasites we know only as spammers but are really dangerous Internet crime rings.
Some media players have the ability to boost the audio volume through the computer's built in speaker above the 100% maximum level which the computer's settings would normally allow. I believe that VLC is one of those which can do this.
Of all of the players on this list (and also of any other free media players which you may know of ) which ones can increase the speaker volume above the normal maximum level, and how much percentage wise does each player claim that it can increase the volume? I have read for instance, that VLC may be able to boost the maximum volume setting by either 200%, or possibly as much as 400%.
I grabbed the free copy and took a look at it. Seems pretty straightforward with the exception that if you want to make a bootable clone, you have to buy the Pro version.
I can't agree with the Top pick in this catagory. For me all the "Freemake stuff" is pup software! It was already stated that most free software come with some additional pup Software, like adobe acrobat bundles with google chrome and s.o.
but freemake installs opencandy installer and that really is crap! So you are not only getting a McAffee Scanner or the like, but tons of crapware. Some of the Software that comes with opencandy installer can be considered malware.
I find the converted videos i did with freemake are qualitywise behind some other freeware tools - when using the same output video settings.
The article says it took handbrake longer, but you did a completely different conversion! Auto-bitrate single pass against a constant bitrate...that is just like saying an apple tasts better than a pear...
And i don't consider the time it takes to convert a video as important as quality and size of the output.
I tried freemake with cuda feature and it didn't do any good - freemake crashed with my test-file.
My top pick would be "Any Video Converter free", as easy as freemake, tons of presets and better quality than with freemake and no crap-, bloat-, ransom-, whatever-ware installed on your PC, besides the one that can be checked off during install.
Other free tools like MediaCoder, XMediaRecode or Handbrake do a better job - regarding quality and output-size - than freemake!
If you are in a hurry - Don't install freemake! It will just screw your PC and you will end up spending a lot more time getting your PC cleaned of the Software the opencandy installer forced onto your PC, than the time saved upon video conversion.
You figured that out correctly: If you don't let the Installer access the opencandy webpages it can't be installed and that is the only way not to install opencandy BS!
That's why i can't understand having freemake in this list as the top pick: Many users won't even know how to block the opencandy-page or run freemake in a sandbox. It is not that freemake is malware, but opencandy does install malware. So if you aren't a professional or very experianced user better keep your hands of freemake.
I guess you picked lossless mp3? Normal mp3 conversion (including quality loss) is free in every vdeo/audio converter i know. Lossless mp3 codec is protected, So it will cost the Software-Provider to have lossless mp3 conversion feature implemented. I don't know of any freeware supporting lossless mp3.
Based on trying them both with sync'ing 500GB of data between two NAS drives via a Win8.1u PC, SyncBackFree V6 seems a lot faster than FreeFileSync (and SyncBackFree doesn't include Open Candy, either).
The table of contents above doesn't correspond with the one on bleepingcomputer.com - the one above omits the correct part 1. ("The purpose of this guide").
> "The most recent update to CCleaner was a couple of weeks ago"
CCleaner is "updated" every two weeks or so because it provides an opportunity for them to sell people a paid-for version. And that's fine - Piriform is a business. But I don't think it's a good reason for a "hot find" sort of item.
The review of Homebank lists 2 items under Cons. I don't know what version the reviewer used, but version 4.5 has both extensive local help in HTML format and exports CSV.
Based on several review sites, we chose Vivo for encryption of corporate files on Dropbox (about 200,000 files with 20 users).
There is no user guide for Vivo and there are 2 versions of the product. Responses by email from the company were minimal.
After two months of frustration and wasted labor hours, we gave up. The software may indeed be as good as the reviews indicate. Add in the costs of implementation since there is no user manual.
It's a melancholy feeling to know that the internet, like most everything else in the world, has been corrupted beyond redemption by corporations. Of course the writing was clearly on the wall when Google, one of the most powerful entities connected to the internet dropped the 'Don't Be Evil' from their motto and code of conduct. I'm pretty sure it wasn't because they wanted to be a teensy weensy ornery once in a while. Of course things will only get worse with the installation of Verizon mouthpiece and well known liar Ajit Pai as FCC chairman. The decision to end net neutrality was a foregone conclusion the moment he was appointed chairman regardless of what the vast majority of people wanted. The 'vast majority' ain't putting the big bucks into these guys coffers so it's hard to get them to listen. Then if one installs software to maintain some degree of privacy while online they will find many websites that will not work unless they disable their software and allow that site to have a look under the hood. When or if another iteration of the internet fires up it would be none to soon for me. Thanks for being one of the dwindling places I trust online.
I first discovered these wind current maps in a Play store weather app a little over a year ago and really liked it. I like the larger one on my monitor even better. It's truly mesmerizing to me to watch all the different wind directions and then go to the spot on the globe where they change direction because the currents have met another that forces a change in direction. Thanks for the heads up.
Thanks for the article. I dislike Google+ and having to see Google's ads for it every time I use one of their services.
Unfortunately, Google+ is necessary if one wants to comment on a YouTube video. I don't care much about that, but I want to be able to "Like" videos and maintain a channel and playlists. I'm not sure if I need Google+ to do so. Google wants to promote Google+, so they don't make it easy to determine this.
So I second (third?) the call for a list of Google services and functionality that require Google+. Since this is bound to change, a date should be provided in the body of the article, with a friendly reminder to the reader that nothing is permanent on the Web.
Thanks George for the reply. Unfortunately, most batch download feature that I know cannot crawl a webpage, list all possible download links and allow me to filter certain file types. I might be wrong but eagleget's batch download feature does not seem to be able to do what I'm looking for.
Try windows movie maker. I think it can do what you want and it's easy to use (it has been a while since I used it). You can also try HitFilm. It's a little bit complicated for a novice but there is a tutorial on youtube that you can follow. I'ven done it before.
If this is true, wot probably needs to be removed from your recommended list.
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/11/01/browsing-history-sold/
"The data that Panorama bought from brokers contained more than ten billion web addresses. The data was not fully anonymized, as the team managed to identify people in various ways.
The web address, URL, for instance revealed user IDs, emails or names for instance. This was the case for PayPal (email), for Skype (user name) or an online check-in of an airline."
If the decision is not to remove the addon, I believe techsupportalert at a minimum has thr obligation to disclose the privacy issues that have been on the news lately. Even chrome and firefox already removed this addon from their sites.
As I am far from being an expert of VPNs, I have a simple question...
It is said that many VPN suppliers collects informations about you. Is that possible to conceal our true IP to a VPN supplier by using, beside the VPN itself, a software which has for unique task to change our IP ?
If these two softwares (VPN and IP hider) may work together, will the IP hider software change my IP between my computer and the VPN supplier or will it change the IP that the VPN supplier creates to hide my real IP ?
Please, I would like that nobody tells me that the VPN is supplying a new IP and that I don't need a IP hider, that is not the question here.
I have been obliged to uninstall COMODO Firewall recently because I had a problem with the last version of it.
I am using softwares like FreeFileSync or SyncFolders to backup my data with one way only mirroring on external HDs.
I don't want here to discuss if it is a good way of doing backups or not.
The problem is that after doing such a backup, if I immediately make the same backup, the same exact files that were copied in the previous backup will be backupped again, and the same thing happens each time I would immediately do the same thing again. It is as if the files were not backupped at all.
The backup software indicates clearly that everything went OK, that no problem occured at all.
I had not this problem with previous versions of COMODO Firewall which I use since a couple of years.
The backup software has the correct permissions from COMODO Firewall.
Does someone had the same problem or knows something about it ?
The problem related in my previous comment has been treated in the COMODO's Forum.
It is a problem concerning ADS (Alternate Data Stream) and timestamps.
The problem should be addressed by the month of April.
People having problems with version 8 of COMODO Firewall should revert to version 7 till the next version 8, which will maybe have brought a fix to this problem.
Yes, it is a very good software and really very useful, but I really prefer SunsetScreen over it because this one has more options allowing a better fine tuning.
We may find SunsetScreen at this address : http://www.skytopia.com/software/sunsetscreen
You will find a portable version of SunsetScreen at this address :
http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/System/System-Enhancements/Portable-SunsetScreen.shtml
Maybe that I misunderstood the meaning of your question.
If your question was to know if the changes brought by this software to your monitor are reversible if you uninstall the software, the answer is "yes". But the changes are also immediately dropped down when you close the software.
Here is what I meant by "But the changes are also immediately dropped down when you close the software." :
When you press the "X" button in the upper right of SunsetScreen's window, the program doesn't really shut down. It is just minimized in the Notification Area in the taskbar, just beside the clock.
What I mean by "closing" the program is to right click on the SunsetScreen's icon of the Notification Area and chosing "Close Program" in the contextual menu. At this moment your monitor will return to its normal settings.
The thing is the same for the installed version and for the portable one.
Here are the main differences between these two softwares.
F.lux has the capability to self-adjust to the sunrise and sunset times while you have to enter manually these values in SunsetScreen. All you have to do in F.lux is to indicate your location and F.lux will do the rest.
As I already said in another comment, you will find the exact values of sunrise and sunset times for the place where you are located on this website : http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/
SunsetScreen, on its side, has a capability that F.lux doesn't have : it may adjust not just the tone of color of your monitor for the day and for the night, but also the brightness of your monitor by increments of 1%. That capability is a very handy one because you may define a different brightness for the day and for the night, also, you may change the brightness at any time you want.
Make your choice : do you feel lazy and wants the software to adjust by itself the sunrise and sunset times or do you want more control on the brightness of your monitor ?
I know that every monitor offers means to adjust its brightness, but it is usually a little bit more laborious to do this with these means than to use the simple capability of SunsetScreen.
I used different download managers in the past, then switched to Free Download Manager since some years, and I fully agree with this article, its one of the best download manager.
It splits the file that is being downloaded in such a way that it makes the download faster than other download managers.
Without any offense, its clearly written above in the article as: "... Even though it lacks things such as an Anti-theft or a Firewall, 360's design and features compensate that loss...."
I guess you should read it well ;)
I tested it, its firewall works, as well as its anti-theft.
Lol, I never said memory is not there to be used. But excessive use of memory by only one software is a bad thing. Did you think about the other software that are running? I just said Firefox uses less memory. ;) And considering what you said, my system is not underpowered, but if you do a google search, you will found so many people complaining about excessive RAM usage by chrome. One example, open about 100 tabs in firefox, and then open 100 tabs in chrome, and see the difference. :)
Hi!
This is a great list,It must have taken lot of time to gather such information.I would love if you consider https://iconscout.com/categories/vr/photos for the next time you create something like this.
Thanks in advance!
Does anyone have a good book on python programming that they could share with me. I am doing some python for the stock market technical analysis work and would like to know and understand better what is going on. Thanks for your help.
Scott
Awesome! I've wondered why this folder was unbearably slow. I generally use the folder I added to a Library since it was much, much faster, but will make this change immediately.
Thanks, Vic! I can't tell you how many times I've needed to be able to do this, particularly during malware remediation.
After creating this entry I exported it and copied it to my (generally locked) flash drive so I can use it on client machines as needed.
I tested the uninstalling of MS Silverlight from a Windows 7 x64 (Enterprise) laptop by booting into Safe Mode. I was unable to uninstall MS Silverlight after booting into Safe Mode, importing the registry entry, then running the uninstaller via the Programs and Features control panel. I then rebooted back into Safe mode and it still didn't work.
I rebooted into Windows Normal Mode and imported the registry entry, then back to Safe Mode but that didn't seem to help, either.
I've checked the Registry and the new "MSIServer" key does appear to be in the proper place, properly named, with the proper data value: "Service".
Are you aware of any issues which might restrict the use of this registry entry? Thanks!
I booted back up in Safe Mode, checked that the Registry Entry still exists - it does, but upon running the command to start the service I got the following CMD window error:
[SC] StartService FAILED 1084:
This service cannot be started in Safe Mode
I even threw in a few capitol letters, a few at a time, such as "SC" and "MSIServer" but no go.
CleanMem WORKS on my Dell Latitude E6400 which is already maxed out at 8GB RAM (that is the chipset limit - no way to add more) and running Windows 10 Pro 64-bit.
If you are able to add more physical RAM, that is always going to be a lot better than using something like this. Memory is not that expensive.
But if you're up against the physical memory limit already, this can definitely help make the most of what you have.
It DOES a better job of squeezing out the optimal usage of memory than Windows does.
It can also help make up for poorly programmed apps that are memory leakers (keep increasing use of but don't release memory back to Windows).
There is no magic to this app and it was programmed as well as any similar utility could possibly be. It simply makes use of the existing Windows API to do memory housekeeping that Windows often fails to do, which is clearing out memory from apps no longer needed in memory. It does a FANTASTIC job of that. It's very visible when you see the monitor saying 75% or more of RAM is used and you clear it. It can be set to do that automatically so you never see usage get that high.
If you have a RAM-limited situation (where you cannot use the optimal amount of RAM and cannot add more), PLEASE install CleanMem. I have used it for years and my laptop does not bog down to a crawl anymore which used to happen frequently without it.
Anyone who says this doesn't work has not used it, period. It absolutely DOES work, but you have to be realistic and use it properly. I would advise not clearing RAM until it gets over 50% usage at least and you also do not want to run a ton of apps and browser windows regardless. Remember, it clears memory from UNUSED processes, not used ones. Even Windows 10 doesn't do that very well. Windows 10 does other things very well like spying on you and forcing updates to reboot your computer so you lose your work.
If you want to create a uTorrent search URL from scratch for a torrent website not listed here or anywhere else you can find, you can do it like this.
Open Internet Explorer 11, and go to the torrent website whose search URL you wish to add to uTorrent.
Search for something, anything.
Hit F12 for Developer Tools and go to the Network tab.
There you will see a couple lines of information at the top left under Name/Path.
The first line is the search format URL you need for uTorrent and the second line is the search result URL you used to generate that information.
The search format URL is shown with the part after the slash being on top of the part before the slash. Just combine the two into a proper URL and add them to uTorrent and you will see the next time you search for something using that torrent website, it will work.
The posted link redirects to https://ultradefrag.net/en/index.shtml which is for a paid product. The author stopped developing the last free version (7.14) and from version 8 and up is not free.
The posted link needs to be changed to: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ultradefrag/
Unfortunately, Firefox basically banned it. Even trying to download from the author's GitHub doesn't allow it to install. Even after changing a setting in about:config which should have allowed it through.
At the time of the first review they were on version 4.9.3
Now they're on build 7.0.0.30103
I use it and the only issue I saw with it (may be fixed now they're on version build 7+) is that you had to create a bookmark before you could connect.
What I would like to see is for it to behave slightly more like the Windows filesystem in some respects. Maybe a shell API has to be created.
This page just happened to show up when I have tried everything to figure out why all of a sudden my laptop is running so slow, but after reading the comments, I don't know if I should download this Task Manager.
Littleladyk, not a lot of software for converting MP3's to notation (or even MIDI or chords) has been developed. At one point, I tried several programs that do that. If you are still looking for such programs, you can let me know, and I'll specifically address the topic on this page. In the meantime, I recommend searching for the sheet music online.
Hey, all. I recently became editor of this page, and I'm planning to test all that software listed above. This page is going to be sparse for a little while, but if you have any unanswered comments, feel free to speak up and I'll answer them as soon as I have the answers.
Hi EdnaG. Unfortunately, that kind of technology is highly advanced and still proprietary. I have not yet found a free program that is able to reliably convert recordings into sheet music.
The commercial program Melodyne Assistant is able to convert single-voice recordings to MIDI format files, which you can import to any of the programs listed above to print sheet music, but it costs $250 and is somewhat technically advanced.
I recommend learning to use either Finale Notepad or MuseScore. Both of these programs give feedback by playing individual notes when you click on them, and they are also able to play back what you've written at the tempo you specify. These features may help you get acquainted with the practice of reading and writing sheet music. Wishing your group future success!
MikeR
You are correct in your comments on Photostory.
I have been behind in my duties of category editor, for several reasons, some of which have to do with the apparent abandonment of hands-on slideshow programs for the convenience of point and shoot devices such as the ipad in the last year!
I added some observations to the beginning of this category as to the snap shot mentality of the present generation of picture takers.
There have been no comments such as yours for over a year! and I was about to give up the category.
But if there is interest, I will re-review some of the new programs and report on them.
Thanks for the input.
Don Stahl
Remah
Thank you for your comments.It's good to know some people are still interested in making their own DVD slide shows.
As you see by the above comments on the I have made about the DVD slideshow GUI program, my experience with the program is also less than acceptable in many areas. However, if you want more info on its use, checkout the comments on the Download.videohelp.com site.
As I noted, the program is container for a group of stand alone programs which may be better used separately.
Usually the creation time is more a function of the amount of work you want to put into transitions, narration, music, etc, than the raw rendering of the final video DVD production.
Keep up your interest and let me know how you are doing as you progress.
Thanks again for you comments.
Don
Hi Motorguy
I certainly am pleased to hear that there is still interest in slideshow production.
Check out some of the free programs reviewed at the beginning of this category. I believe they may be at least a good introduction to the possibilities for adding transitions, narration, music, slide manipulation, titles, etc to make your productions more interesting.
You did not indicate the city you live in, but most of the senior centers have computer classes and will allow use of the equipment for classes on slideshow production, if one of your people have had some experience with such programs.
Please let me know if I can suggest course content or other help.
In addition, most programs will allow the picture content to be stored as data in addition to the video program, so that the viewer can print out chosen pictures from within the video.
Keep up your interest,
Don Stahl (also a senior citizen !)
Hi
Sorry I have not answered your note before this, but I have also had problems with using the new Windows 10 and the Edge browser !
I finally had to re-install my windows 8.1 as a dual boot with my windows 10.
I hate to suggest it but you may want to add a dual boot configuration in order to run the 3D-album configuration. I tried a copy of the 3D-album program and its does seem to do all that you need, so I would suggest you run it under the former operating system you used in the past and wait until your favorite program has a Windows 10 update.
Thanks for the comments.
Don
This is a list of the most recently posted comments on the site sorted so that the most recent comments appear first.
You can however sort the list on Article title by clicking on the column heading. To see actual comments click the + sign.
Zonealarm installed itself on my computer, accompanied by Zonealarm search installing itself on each of my browsers as the default search engine.
I got rid of both, but it has reappeared.
This spyware is not detected by Spybot or Malawarebytes.
Malawarebytes Free identifies very few tracking cookies, even on Threat Scan, whereas Spybot identifies lots. I am using the default settings for both programs.
Ah I see, thanks for the explanation.
It seems I was wrong about Spybot, on one hand it is too aggressive in that it appears to delete a lot of saved user names and such like.
On the other hand it missed OpenCandy, SearchProtect, Trovi and Clientconnect - all of which were detected and quarantined by Malawarebytes free edition.
Toolwiz Care. This procuct is dangerous. After using the default cleanup I got "Resource file C_PsdRsDll" error appears when I start the computer.
Yes indeed, I should have heeded the warning - and will probably do so in future!
Even so I have used the CCleaner registry cleaner for years and never had a single problem.
Whatever happened to MP3 Audio Collection? Can't find it on Google search.
Is there a cataloguer specifically designed for music collections. MAC (MP3 Audio Collection) was great but no longer seems to work with large collections. When I last used it a couple of years ago it handled 120GB OK but now it just hangs after many hours. It was last updated in 2003, so the problem may be with current Windows versions.
Sadly Personal Ancestral File is no longer available from the LDS Familysearch site. It is still available elsewhere as is the (essential) PAF Companion, but the latter no longer seems to accept the security PIN.
Xmarks is gone. It always had problems synching between firefox and chrome.
Dropbox is now limited to three devices.
There is no indication that your files have NOT been backed up - for whatever reason.
Font Manager appears to be unstable. When trying to disable many fonts it freezes for several minutes every 10 or so selections. You have to select each individual font separately - cannot select a whole family at once.
There are far to many fonts loaded during installation (most for non-western keyboards), leading to a bloated font box in office apps.
FONTMATRIX
This has been removed from the Ubuntu repositories and is reported to be dysfunctional.
Win 10. Program would not recognise usb2 flashdrive. Only showed Hard drives.
I tested a16GB Kingston Datatraveller 3.0. - R/W 130/28
Later tested same again - R/W 34/27
Drive was empty.
Kinda useless.
Download limit of only about 6 images per day.
Excellent program, but no longer available for Windows.
This is very slow indeed. Took 7 hours for a full drfrag, and now in Full Optimisation and after 7 hours only 68% optimised.
Defender and Super Antispyware real-time protection are turned OFF.
Trash and temp files deleted before starting.
Is there something I have missed?
No longer free. Quite expensive.
Quite 'clunky' to use and hard to find the "free" version. Too many functions missing in "Free" version. Too much pressure to move to the paid version.
I think this one should be taken off the list altogether.
xMarks is no longer available. Please remove it.
Well firstly, peazip just sucks. I mean aside from the fact it is infected with opencandy, there are just too many things that render it a pain in the ass to use, especially if you like downloading a lot of stuff and they're always in archives, which you want to easily right click on and either choose "extract to____" so that you can select multiple different archives to each extract into separate folders for each one, with the same name, in that directory, which takes less than 2 seconds and requires no further input, and also the fact it was a pain in the ass trying to extract multiple archives in general, no matter how I wanted to do it, but especially if I wanted to name the folder myself from the UI. I can't remember what else, but I do remember I hated peazip within the first week of using it and went on to find 7zip, which I find absolutely perfect for what it's supposed to do. Honestly, the "boring" or "old" damn UI shouldn't factor into the rating or whatever, especially considering there are quite a lot of us who LIKE that kind of user interface, especially people with Windowsblinds or at least a classic theme, not to mention the fact people have been building unbelievably HIDEOUS and completely unusable user interfaces for all kinds of good software as of late and completely DESTROYING them and all of their functionality. Regardless, it needs to WORK for everyone. I found 7zip to be the most awesome utility I've ever had, in fact. I really appreciate the work done on it, and they've kept it simple & effective.
Still, any software, no matter how free, that installs crap like adware, babylon toolbar and more nonsense, does NOT deserve to be on a list like this, nor to get anything above a 1-star rating. If they really need to do advertising to get paid for their free software, they should put actual ads in their software. Don't infect our computers and change shit around to screw us over. It's just despicable, infuriating, disgusting and stupid.
To forward an email as an attachment in Yahoo:
Click its box so there is a checkmark in the box in your list of emails (the particular email is not open at this point, you see your spambox or inbox in your screen). Hold down simultaneously Alt-Shift-F. You now have a new email with the checked email as the attachment.
Here is one other place I forward my spam to, as an attachment - cybertopcops. They do research and help to educate the public about the frauds, I think.
Thank you to everyone who fights these harrassing, insidious parasites we know only as spammers but are really dangerous Internet crime rings.
Hi Guys, I'm looking for a free basic sound enhancer for pc/laptob sound generator. Just a basic equalizer will suffice..
Some media players have the ability to boost the audio volume through the computer's built in speaker above the 100% maximum level which the computer's settings would normally allow. I believe that VLC is one of those which can do this.
Of all of the players on this list (and also of any other free media players which you may know of ) which ones can increase the speaker volume above the normal maximum level, and how much percentage wise does each player claim that it can increase the volume? I have read for instance, that VLC may be able to boost the maximum volume setting by either 200%, or possibly as much as 400%.
I grabbed the free copy and took a look at it. Seems pretty straightforward with the exception that if you want to make a bootable clone, you have to buy the Pro version.
I can't agree with the Top pick in this catagory. For me all the "Freemake stuff" is pup software! It was already stated that most free software come with some additional pup Software, like adobe acrobat bundles with google chrome and s.o.
but freemake installs opencandy installer and that really is crap! So you are not only getting a McAffee Scanner or the like, but tons of crapware. Some of the Software that comes with opencandy installer can be considered malware.
I find the converted videos i did with freemake are qualitywise behind some other freeware tools - when using the same output video settings.
The article says it took handbrake longer, but you did a completely different conversion! Auto-bitrate single pass against a constant bitrate...that is just like saying an apple tasts better than a pear...
And i don't consider the time it takes to convert a video as important as quality and size of the output.
I tried freemake with cuda feature and it didn't do any good - freemake crashed with my test-file.
My top pick would be "Any Video Converter free", as easy as freemake, tons of presets and better quality than with freemake and no crap-, bloat-, ransom-, whatever-ware installed on your PC, besides the one that can be checked off during install.
Other free tools like MediaCoder, XMediaRecode or Handbrake do a better job - regarding quality and output-size - than freemake!
If you are in a hurry - Don't install freemake! It will just screw your PC and you will end up spending a lot more time getting your PC cleaned of the Software the opencandy installer forced onto your PC, than the time saved upon video conversion.
You figured that out correctly: If you don't let the Installer access the opencandy webpages it can't be installed and that is the only way not to install opencandy BS!
That's why i can't understand having freemake in this list as the top pick: Many users won't even know how to block the opencandy-page or run freemake in a sandbox. It is not that freemake is malware, but opencandy does install malware. So if you aren't a professional or very experianced user better keep your hands of freemake.
I guess you picked lossless mp3? Normal mp3 conversion (including quality loss) is free in every vdeo/audio converter i know. Lossless mp3 codec is protected, So it will cost the Software-Provider to have lossless mp3 conversion feature implemented. I don't know of any freeware supporting lossless mp3.
Based on trying them both with sync'ing 500GB of data between two NAS drives via a Win8.1u PC, SyncBackFree V6 seems a lot faster than FreeFileSync (and SyncBackFree doesn't include Open Candy, either).
No point trying to find awkward "workarounds" - just get Classic Shell and most Win 8/8.1 problems are fixed.
It's worth reading "The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit" at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2458544 before installing EMET.
The table of contents above doesn't correspond with the one on bleepingcomputer.com - the one above omits the correct part 1. ("The purpose of this guide").
> "The most recent update to CCleaner was a couple of weeks ago"
CCleaner is "updated" every two weeks or so because it provides an opportunity for them to sell people a paid-for version. And that's fine - Piriform is a business. But I don't think it's a good reason for a "hot find" sort of item.
There is another great alternative out there called Polarity Browser. It is light on resources and very fast.
The review of Homebank lists 2 items under Cons. I don't know what version the reviewer used, but version 4.5 has both extensive local help in HTML format and exports CSV.
For my money (so to speak), Homebank is a much better personal banking app than GnuCash and should be included in the banking category.
Based on several review sites, we chose Vivo for encryption of corporate files on Dropbox (about 200,000 files with 20 users).
There is no user guide for Vivo and there are 2 versions of the product. Responses by email from the company were minimal.
After two months of frustration and wasted labor hours, we gave up. The software may indeed be as good as the reviews indicate. Add in the costs of implementation since there is no user manual.
Thank you for letting me
Hello, thanks for the sadly true article.
It's a melancholy feeling to know that the internet, like most everything else in the world, has been corrupted beyond redemption by corporations. Of course the writing was clearly on the wall when Google, one of the most powerful entities connected to the internet dropped the 'Don't Be Evil' from their motto and code of conduct. I'm pretty sure it wasn't because they wanted to be a teensy weensy ornery once in a while. Of course things will only get worse with the installation of Verizon mouthpiece and well known liar Ajit Pai as FCC chairman. The decision to end net neutrality was a foregone conclusion the moment he was appointed chairman regardless of what the vast majority of people wanted. The 'vast majority' ain't putting the big bucks into these guys coffers so it's hard to get them to listen. Then if one installs software to maintain some degree of privacy while online they will find many websites that will not work unless they disable their software and allow that site to have a look under the hood. When or if another iteration of the internet fires up it would be none to soon for me. Thanks for being one of the dwindling places I trust online.
Happy New Year!
I first discovered these wind current maps in a Play store weather app a little over a year ago and really liked it. I like the larger one on my monitor even better. It's truly mesmerizing to me to watch all the different wind directions and then go to the spot on the globe where they change direction because the currents have met another that forces a change in direction. Thanks for the heads up.
Thanks for the article. I dislike Google+ and having to see Google's ads for it every time I use one of their services.
Unfortunately, Google+ is necessary if one wants to comment on a YouTube video. I don't care much about that, but I want to be able to "Like" videos and maintain a channel and playlists. I'm not sure if I need Google+ to do so. Google wants to promote Google+, so they don't make it easy to determine this.
So I second (third?) the call for a list of Google services and functionality that require Google+. Since this is bound to change, a date should be provided in the body of the article, with a friendly reminder to the reader that nothing is permanent on the Web.
Thanks for comment #2. I don't care much about commenting on YouTube videos, but I want to be able to maintain playlists.
I need your input.. Which one of these programs can list and download multiple files of a certain type from a website page similar to downthemall?
Thanks George for the reply. Unfortunately, most batch download feature that I know cannot crawl a webpage, list all possible download links and allow me to filter certain file types. I might be wrong but eagleget's batch download feature does not seem to be able to do what I'm looking for.
Thank you George!!!
Hitfilm 4 is free and has great capabilities. It also can edit mp4 video.
Try windows movie maker. I think it can do what you want and it's easy to use (it has been a while since I used it). You can also try HitFilm. It's a little bit complicated for a novice but there is a tutorial on youtube that you can follow. I'ven done it before.
If this is true, wot probably needs to be removed from your recommended list.
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/11/01/browsing-history-sold/
"The data that Panorama bought from brokers contained more than ten billion web addresses. The data was not fully anonymized, as the team managed to identify people in various ways.
The web address, URL, for instance revealed user IDs, emails or names for instance. This was the case for PayPal (email), for Skype (user name) or an online check-in of an airline."
If the decision is not to remove the addon, I believe techsupportalert at a minimum has thr obligation to disclose the privacy issues that have been on the news lately. Even chrome and firefox already removed this addon from their sites.
As I am far from being an expert of VPNs, I have a simple question...
It is said that many VPN suppliers collects informations about you. Is that possible to conceal our true IP to a VPN supplier by using, beside the VPN itself, a software which has for unique task to change our IP ?
If these two softwares (VPN and IP hider) may work together, will the IP hider software change my IP between my computer and the VPN supplier or will it change the IP that the VPN supplier creates to hide my real IP ?
Please, I would like that nobody tells me that the VPN is supplying a new IP and that I don't need a IP hider, that is not the question here.
I have been obliged to uninstall COMODO Firewall recently because I had a problem with the last version of it.
I am using softwares like FreeFileSync or SyncFolders to backup my data with one way only mirroring on external HDs.
I don't want here to discuss if it is a good way of doing backups or not.
The problem is that after doing such a backup, if I immediately make the same backup, the same exact files that were copied in the previous backup will be backupped again, and the same thing happens each time I would immediately do the same thing again. It is as if the files were not backupped at all.
The backup software indicates clearly that everything went OK, that no problem occured at all.
I had not this problem with previous versions of COMODO Firewall which I use since a couple of years.
The backup software has the correct permissions from COMODO Firewall.
Does someone had the same problem or knows something about it ?
The problem related in my previous comment has been treated in the COMODO's Forum.
It is a problem concerning ADS (Alternate Data Stream) and timestamps.
The problem should be addressed by the month of April.
People having problems with version 8 of COMODO Firewall should revert to version 7 till the next version 8, which will maybe have brought a fix to this problem.
Yes, it is a very good software and really very useful, but I really prefer SunsetScreen over it because this one has more options allowing a better fine tuning.
We may find SunsetScreen at this address : http://www.skytopia.com/software/sunsetscreen
Hi HisSon.
You will find a portable version of SunsetScreen at this address :
http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/System/System-Enhancements/Portable-SunsetScreen.shtml
Those who will use this kind of software should adjust correctly the sunrise and sunset times.
You will find these exact values for the place where you are located on this website :
http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/
Hi HisSon.
Maybe that I misunderstood the meaning of your question.
If your question was to know if the changes brought by this software to your monitor are reversible if you uninstall the software, the answer is "yes". But the changes are also immediately dropped down when you close the software.
Hi, HisSon.
Here is what I meant by "But the changes are also immediately dropped down when you close the software." :
When you press the "X" button in the upper right of SunsetScreen's window, the program doesn't really shut down. It is just minimized in the Notification Area in the taskbar, just beside the clock.
What I mean by "closing" the program is to right click on the SunsetScreen's icon of the Notification Area and chosing "Close Program" in the contextual menu. At this moment your monitor will return to its normal settings.
The thing is the same for the installed version and for the portable one.
F.lux vs SunsetScreen
Here are the main differences between these two softwares.
F.lux has the capability to self-adjust to the sunrise and sunset times while you have to enter manually these values in SunsetScreen. All you have to do in F.lux is to indicate your location and F.lux will do the rest.
As I already said in another comment, you will find the exact values of sunrise and sunset times for the place where you are located on this website : http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/
SunsetScreen, on its side, has a capability that F.lux doesn't have : it may adjust not just the tone of color of your monitor for the day and for the night, but also the brightness of your monitor by increments of 1%. That capability is a very handy one because you may define a different brightness for the day and for the night, also, you may change the brightness at any time you want.
Make your choice : do you feel lazy and wants the software to adjust by itself the sunrise and sunset times or do you want more control on the brightness of your monitor ?
I know that every monitor offers means to adjust its brightness, but it is usually a little bit more laborious to do this with these means than to use the simple capability of SunsetScreen.
I used different download managers in the past, then switched to Free Download Manager since some years, and I fully agree with this article, its one of the best download manager.
It splits the file that is being downloaded in such a way that it makes the download faster than other download managers.
torrentz.eu
Have a look ;)
http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/mobile-devices/android/sep-2013/
Well, 360 security do include anti-theft option. And according to AV-test in March 2014 the 360 security's protection is given full rating.
Without any offense, its clearly written above in the article as: "... Even though it lacks things such as an Anti-theft or a Firewall, 360's design and features compensate that loss...."
I guess you should read it well ;)
I tested it, its firewall works, as well as its anti-theft.
I just said it does not lack anti-theft.
Nice one ;)
Thanks for this article (",)
It is free, you should not download the commercial version
Download the portable version, it works fine for me. I downloaded that last year.
Compared to firefox, chrome uses too much RAM :-/
Lol, I never said memory is not there to be used. But excessive use of memory by only one software is a bad thing. Did you think about the other software that are running? I just said Firefox uses less memory. ;) And considering what you said, my system is not underpowered, but if you do a google search, you will found so many people complaining about excessive RAM usage by chrome. One example, open about 100 tabs in firefox, and then open 100 tabs in chrome, and see the difference. :)
Mega (https://mega.nz/) offers 50GB for free account :)
Thank you so much for sharing your advice on this problem!
Do you know what to do when MS Word reflects the changed window background color, but Excel does not?
How to find double space in PDF files? Please advice
Hi!
This is a great list,It must have taken lot of time to gather such information.I would love if you consider https://iconscout.com/categories/vr/photos for the next time you create something like this.
Thanks in advance!
Does anyone have a good book on python programming that they could share with me. I am doing some python for the stock market technical analysis work and would like to know and understand better what is going on. Thanks for your help.
Scott
Sir, any latest update will be posted to this article?
Good info,,,thanks. Could you tell us how to do this for AOL and IE?
Awesome! I've wondered why this folder was unbearably slow. I generally use the folder I added to a Library since it was much, much faster, but will make this change immediately.
Thanks, Vic!
Thanks a lot for the referral to ADrive. I just have a few questions...
How invasive are the ads? I mean, do they get in the way of the smartphone app?
And how much email do they send you? Would you use SpamGourmet for ADrive Personal Free or do you need a "real" email account?
Thanks in advance - ssoundman
Thanks, Geert.
What I meant was, "Will it work with a SpamGourmet account...?" I'm glad to hear that it does.
Works great, Vic. Thanks!
Thanks, Vic! I can't tell you how many times I've needed to be able to do this, particularly during malware remediation.
After creating this entry I exported it and copied it to my (generally locked) flash drive so I can use it on client machines as needed.
I tested the uninstalling of MS Silverlight from a Windows 7 x64 (Enterprise) laptop by booting into Safe Mode. I was unable to uninstall MS Silverlight after booting into Safe Mode, importing the registry entry, then running the uninstaller via the Programs and Features control panel. I then rebooted back into Safe mode and it still didn't work.
I rebooted into Windows Normal Mode and imported the registry entry, then back to Safe Mode but that didn't seem to help, either.
I've checked the Registry and the new "MSIServer" key does appear to be in the proper place, properly named, with the proper data value: "Service".
Are you aware of any issues which might restrict the use of this registry entry? Thanks!
I booted back up in Safe Mode, checked that the Registry Entry still exists - it does, but upon running the command to start the service I got the following CMD window error:
[SC] StartService FAILED 1084:
This service cannot be started in Safe Mode
I even threw in a few capitol letters, a few at a time, such as "SC" and "MSIServer" but no go.
Hmm...
Here's mine:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal\MSIServer]
@="Service"
Perhaps it doesn't work with the Enterprise version? I can't think of any other reason it won't work, though I'm far from an expert.
THAT was it! Safe Mode with Networking is my go-to environment and I never gave a thought to that being the possible problem.
Thanks for your assistance and the great tip, Vic!
Thanks, Vic! I hadn't run this utility in a while, either - over 2GB saved.
CleanMem WORKS on my Dell Latitude E6400 which is already maxed out at 8GB RAM (that is the chipset limit - no way to add more) and running Windows 10 Pro 64-bit.
If you are able to add more physical RAM, that is always going to be a lot better than using something like this. Memory is not that expensive.
But if you're up against the physical memory limit already, this can definitely help make the most of what you have.
It DOES a better job of squeezing out the optimal usage of memory than Windows does.
It can also help make up for poorly programmed apps that are memory leakers (keep increasing use of but don't release memory back to Windows).
There is no magic to this app and it was programmed as well as any similar utility could possibly be. It simply makes use of the existing Windows API to do memory housekeeping that Windows often fails to do, which is clearing out memory from apps no longer needed in memory. It does a FANTASTIC job of that. It's very visible when you see the monitor saying 75% or more of RAM is used and you clear it. It can be set to do that automatically so you never see usage get that high.
If you have a RAM-limited situation (where you cannot use the optimal amount of RAM and cannot add more), PLEASE install CleanMem. I have used it for years and my laptop does not bog down to a crawl anymore which used to happen frequently without it.
Anyone who says this doesn't work has not used it, period. It absolutely DOES work, but you have to be realistic and use it properly. I would advise not clearing RAM until it gets over 50% usage at least and you also do not want to run a ton of apps and browser windows regardless. Remember, it clears memory from UNUSED processes, not used ones. Even Windows 10 doesn't do that very well. Windows 10 does other things very well like spying on you and forcing updates to reboot your computer so you lose your work.
If you want to create a uTorrent search URL from scratch for a torrent website not listed here or anywhere else you can find, you can do it like this.
Open Internet Explorer 11, and go to the torrent website whose search URL you wish to add to uTorrent.
Search for something, anything.
Hit F12 for Developer Tools and go to the Network tab.
There you will see a couple lines of information at the top left under Name/Path.
The first line is the search format URL you need for uTorrent and the second line is the search result URL you used to generate that information.
The search format URL is shown with the part after the slash being on top of the part before the slash. Just combine the two into a proper URL and add them to uTorrent and you will see the next time you search for something using that torrent website, it will work.
The posted link redirects to https://ultradefrag.net/en/index.shtml which is for a paid product. The author stopped developing the last free version (7.14) and from version 8 and up is not free.
The posted link needs to be changed to: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ultradefrag/
Unfortunately, Firefox basically banned it. Even trying to download from the author's GitHub doesn't allow it to install. Even after changing a setting in about:config which should have allowed it through.
At the time of the first review they were on version 4.9.3
Now they're on build 7.0.0.30103
I use it and the only issue I saw with it (may be fixed now they're on version build 7+) is that you had to create a bookmark before you could connect.
What I would like to see is for it to behave slightly more like the Windows filesystem in some respects. Maybe a shell API has to be created.
This should be removed for now. I concur with the previous person. The website still says:
"The SSH Server does not currently support plain FTP, or FTPS (FTP over TLS/SSL).
We plan to support FTPS in a future version."
It just WORKS and is the absolute best option when the memory on your machine is maxed out (short of buying a new computer).
I have seen the difference numerous times when I turn it off.
If you have a spinning HDD, a second thing you can do is replace it with an SSD and increase your swap file size to double your installed RAM.
This page just happened to show up when I have tried everything to figure out why all of a sudden my laptop is running so slow, but after reading the comments, I don't know if I should download this Task Manager.
Hi EdnaG,
Do you mean that you would like to convert voice recordings to sheet music?
Hi EdnaG. Unfortunately, that kind of technology is highly advanced and still proprietary. I have not yet found a free program that is able to reliably convert recordings into sheet music.
The commercial program Melodyne Assistant is able to convert single-voice recordings to MIDI format files, which you can import to any of the programs listed above to print sheet music, but it costs $250 and is somewhat technically advanced.
I recommend learning to use either Finale Notepad or MuseScore. Both of these programs give feedback by playing individual notes when you click on them, and they are also able to play back what you've written at the tempo you specify. These features may help you get acquainted with the practice of reading and writing sheet music. Wishing your group future success!
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