Several I've not heard of before... in particular, Cry of Fear, Containment Breach and Organised Thief will be receiving my imminent attention. The Boson game looks fun as well.
Google Tasks is excellent, it's the one I always come back to after dallying around with various other reminders/note-making software.
The main advantage is that it's always synced so your notes are available from whatever machine you're on and the mobile version has been improved for those of you with smart phones. I also like the way it can sync with Google Calendar and the tick-boxes are a nice touch too.
I do like Stickies though, partly just for the ability to pin separate notes to windows (this works with browser windows/websites as well) and it does have much more to it than the built-in Windows one such as a manager, search function, reminders, sharing and back-up.
Tasks and Stickies both fulfill different needs really but between them I think they pretty much have it covered : )
Also Bernardz, there is "7 Sticky Notes" (http://www.7stickynotes.com/) which performs more or less the same functions as all the freeware sticky note programs, with the difference that if you have Dropbox or something similar installed it can store its database online and thus effectively be always synchronised.
I was under the impression that it was provided by Virus Total themselves although it is confusing when it gives differing results. It certainly opens the same page (... https://www.virustotal.com/ ...) and copying the Stickies download URL and pasting it directly into Virus Total also returns a result of 2/53. Interestingly one of the "red" results is from a provider who flags the other link as green ... ADMINUSlabs, although I have to say I've never heard of them.
Note though that using the main VT page to scan the Stickies download page URL (as opp. to the download URL itself) only returns 39 sources for the scan and thus 0/39.
I just mention these things out of interest really and suggest the PAF version for anyone who might be concerned. Personally I've used Stickies for a long time in various forms and none of my on-board AV scanners have ever found anything wrong with it.
Thank you for taking the time to check this out for us and it's good of Tom to respond so quickly.
True it would be useful if the VT site gave more detailed info but I don't think they ever set out to provide that kind of service. They disclaim any responsibilty for results so the only recourse is to contact the AV vendor in question and it's up to them whether they will provide more details or not.
I did check out the two vendors that red-flagged the Stickies download link;
Malwares.com is a new addition and VT seem quite pleased to have them on board - http://blog.virustotal.com/2013/11/virustotal-malwarescom-url-checker.html. It's a good site, you can check files there yourself and they provide plenty of post-scan info about the file. I couldn't find a way to check URLs there.
Also, I don't know if Tom contacted them but they now give the previous red-flagged link a green flag so the VT score is now 1/53.
ADMINUSlabs is a different story, their site seems to be pretty much a closed shop with no apparent means to check files or links oneself so that one was a bit of a dead-end.
I always have a couple of bootable disks such as this handy for emergencies. I never understood though why AV progs are included as surely their databases are out of date as soon as the disk is burned and the latest version of F4 is several months old already.
I do like this from the F4UBCD list of features ...
"- Shiny graphics that make the room smell nicer."
For what it's worth I just finished downloading the torrent (it's well seeded, only took about 30 minutes here) and it all scans clean with Comodo AV and MBAM. Ditto the patch file.
The nature of the software on the actual bootdisk though means that it is quite likely to trigger false alerts, e.g. the Nirsoft Suite is included.
No, Hiren's Boot CD hasn't had that software on it for the last couple of versions at least.
I've not had a proper look at this one yet but I think it contains a lot of the same freeware/shareware as Hiren's plus some extras such as Nirsoft and a "heavily modified" version of Hiren's MiniXP whatever that means.
System Rescue CD is I think quite sparse compared to these two although I tend to keep a copy of both handy.
Thinking about it though I don't know what the position is with MiniXP ... Hiren's removed all the previous commercial software to stay within the law but still has MiniXP on it.
The only issue with this and with Yumi is that not all bootable CD/DVDs work properly from USB ... for instance MiniXP fails to load up the installed list of Hiren's tools from USB (this is a known issue discussed on the forums) and some Linux distros won't boot at all in my experience, although to be fair I often have the same problem running Linux from CD as well.. It takes a bit of trial and error to discover what software will run happily from USB and what won't.
What AV do you use? I noticed that AVG is one of the AVs that red-flags EasyUHA on VT (labels it with the trojan name that you mention). It's possible that AVG just dislikes the way that UHA works as a packer/unpacker, there might be more info on the AVG forums.
(*Edit; Sorry, I just noticed that you do actually say AVG :))
Ultimate Boot CD is completely made up of freeware except for the ASTRA 14 day demo, whereas the FalconFour one has a fair amount of commercial software on it, some of which is very old. The version of Hiren's Boot CD which is incorporated into it is an older version (13 or 14 I think), from before Hiren removed all the commercial stuff.
They're both good ... FalconFour has more on it so is tempting from that point of view but Ultimate is better if you want to stick with freeware.
If you scroll about halfway down the Wordpress page, there's a link to a torrent file. I used that myself, it's well seeded and very fast but you also need to grab the 4.61 update patch - there's a direct download link for that at the top of the Wordpress page. That patch is only about 3mb but has no instructions ... you just need to run the exe and it will tell you what to do.
A couple of alternatives are streaming Youtube vids to a standalone media player such as VLC or Pot Player, or using the Pop Video add-on for Firefox which as the name suggests pops the video out into a separate dedicated window.
These have the advantage (for me anyway) that you can drag them around the desktop and resize them to play your vids in a corner of the screen while doing other stuff.
Another alternative is SVPtube - http://www.svp-team.com/wiki/SVPtube. Although VLC handles streaming URLs quite well on the whole, other media players don't always.
SVPtube is a tiny portable prog that sits in your systray and when you copy a video stream URL to your clipboard, converts it to a format that can be used by any media player - Pot Player for instance. It can be set to autoplay copied URLs and has the advantage of not being tied to any particular browser. Works with various sites like Youtube and Vimeo.
The archive is rather incomplete with many gaps but it's fascinating for a dip and a browse... I just read a short 1923 piece about the sole survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, then a piece about the Yorkshire Ripper being still at large and his identity unknown, an 1886 piece about the impact of the weather at Waterloo, and a 1910 article about a Philadelphia lawyer claiming that Dr Hawley Crippen's wife was alive and well in the States (Dr. Crippen at the time was in Britain awaiting execution for her murder.)
Absolutely brilliant, reading the press like this can give a real feel for historical events that you just don't get very often from history books. Thanks Rob : D
I tried it a few weeks ago, it didn't flag anything that isn't flagged by other on-demand AVs that I have and I wasn't much impressed by the interface or the need to install it and run a system service etc. I found it very very slow as well to scan a drive compared to others.
I didn't keep it, there are better alternatives I think.
I've used Cameyo for several years now, so I know my way around it quite well.
In theory, yes it would be possible to create a package from something already installed, as Cameyo has a very straightforward section for editing packages in which you can add/remove files and registry entries etc. So you could take a pre-existing package and just replace all the contents with those relevant to the installed program you want to work with.
I say "in theory" though, because in reality it would be much much easier to just reinstall the program to create the package. For one thing you'd need to know exactly what the installer did (i.e. what files installed, registry entries etc) and it would be a potentially lengthy and complicated process to create a package that way.
Assuming you have the original installer for whatever software it is, Cameyo has an option now to capture a "virtual install" (captures the process without actually installing anything) or, if you're registered you can upload the installer to their site and see if that works. It's a bit hit and miss though in my experience.
It all depends really on exactly what program it is you want to make the package from. Some software is natively portable anyway and can be run from any location without any need for a package. If you feel like opening a thread in the forum (https://www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum/) there's a section on portable software where we could discuss it in more detail.
Thanks for this, I have this issue frequently on both my PCs. I've tried endless different solutions that I've come across on line and none have really helped, also programs like Unlocker seem unable to do it and the problem exe is generally some system process that can't be stopped.
One thing I've found is that if a computer is booted with a USB drive attached, then Windows really won't want to let that drive be "Safely Disconnected". I'll try this software and see if it overcomes that : )
I note this on the webpage; "USB Disk Ejector can detect and auto-close any applications running from the disk before ejecting. Please note this closes applications that were launched from the disk not applications that have opened a file on the disk." but it's worth a try anyway.
I've done a few of these myself, from what I've seen so far the quality of content is very good and there's a great variety of topics/fields and level of learning too. The discussion threads are a nice touch allowing you to chat with other people doing the modules.
My only problem is that I like the look of so many of them that I sign up for loads and then of course don't have time to do them all. Story of my life that. :-)
Thanks for the link to Dedoimedo's peice, that's a good read.
I came across EMET quite a while back, it really is very much a set-and-forget thing. I'm not much qualified to judge how it works but given that it has no noticeable effect on performance (longer boot time on my old desktop but that's all) and only the occasional program has problems with it, it does seem well worth having.
What happens with an installer that includes Open Candy is that when the installation runs, a dll file is executed, usually "OCSetupHlp.dll" in my experience and it is this that MBAM and some other anti-malwares will detect as a PUP. Also most third-party firewalls will pick it up if configured to make executables ask before connecting to the internet.
The dll file is extracted to, and run from, the system temp directory and connects to the internet to show you the various bundled offers. If you decline all the extras then the dll is deleted after the installer finishes and nothing is left on your system except the program you wanted.
You can read about this in more detail on the OpenCandy website and observe the process for yourself with basic system monitoring freeware and/or a sandbox/virtualised OS.
Good looking article Remah, I'm one of those who has learnt bits and bobs about the registry through trial and error and experimentation, miscellaneous reading etc.
This looks to be something I will need to read several times ... I think it will help me to organise and better understand what I know already and fill in a lot of gaps for me too.
I've tried a lot of similar software and never been hugely impressed but this actually seems pretty good.
I really like the scrolling display and chord diagrams, plus the option to switch between guitar and piano.
I've just tried it with a few songs that I already know and it seems to work well, I'll look forward to testing it with some more involved pieces later.
I'd debate whether that makes it useless though (for instance it could provide a useful foundation from which to work out the correct chords of a song) and also for basic guitar/bass accompaniment perhaps.
I second your sentiment however, I'd love see to this one developed further although advances in tab software possibly make it a bit redundant. As it stands though (i.e. youtube vid + scrolling chords) I'm thinking it's probably a great instrument (no pun intended sorry :p) for budding learners.
(Registration is required to process more than one song per 24 hours by the way, but it's free)
I've been around the block with all or most of these I think and always come back to Ghostery.
It can require a bit of user input to get it to play nicely with other add-ons such as NoScript or cookie managers, and to be truthful I can't say I've noticed any difference in browsing speed really.
It does break some websites, or portions of them ... for instance I can never make the TSA search option work unless I whitelist the whole site.
I like having it running though and concerns over their business practises are completely groundless imo. For one thing it's a simple tick to opt out but even if you don't they are completely open about what they do, if anyone has the inclination to actually go and read the information provided on the site.
An interesting program, I really can't decide which portable folder to put it in as it seems to be a text editor, password program, and temp cleaner all in one :-)
I've always liked MemPad, which is just a text editor but it uses a proprietary file format with an option to password the file. I've no idea how strong the encryption is though to be honest.
What I like about it really is that it can create structured text files with a nested tree at the left, and an option to auto-generate dated tree entries, which makes it a very neat journal/diary program.
Having spent about five hours today updating a W7 installation from scratch, I was quite excited about this.
I gave it a test drive though earlier and I see it still requires individual installation of each update, which reverts to the same problem I have with the native Windows updater ... i.e. if I leave it unattended to install all updates, then it almost always hangs so that I end up sitting at my PC and installing small batches of updates then rebooting and installing more.
Is there really any advantage gained from this software? It looks excellent but I'm dubious as to whether it's a real time saver.
I appreciate the value of streaming with nLite but, from a vanilla factory install, I'm struggling to see what difference it would really make :/
When I tried it today (with W7 fully up to date) it gave me an error message when trying to unstall unnecessary updates.
The error message, although I'm ashamed to say I forget what it said and neglected to make a note of it, was something along the lines of "you don't need this update".
I''m curious as to how the program handles these errors in an unattended intallation.
Sorry that was a bit garbled, re; nLite. I just meant is there any advantage if one doesn't use that.
Anyway I've downloaded a full set of updates so I'll give it a try this evening perhaps. I can imagine it probably is a lot quicker even if running multiple batches ... the native installer does take forever and is prone to failing as well for me when updating from a fresh W7 installation.
For batch files I use a small portable app called Batchrun (http://www.outertech.com/en/batch-file) which automates the whole procedure. It's excellent, if anybody else is following this conversation and like me doesn't know how to create batch files.
I've been giving the 360 Total Security software a test drive today, and one of its modules is a Windows updater (something like the one in the old IOBits Toolbox, if you remember it) which seems to work very well indeed.
Furthermore, the module not only downloads Windows updates, but it also has an option to be pointed to a local directory.
I've not tried it out yet, but I will do and post again to report on how it went.
Thanks for posting, it's good to have an online resource for this as it's not something I'd use often enough to make it worth installing software on my system.
Your article by the way scores 93% for style, 79% for vocabulary and appears to be completely original :-)
Interestingly, when it tries to access C:\Windows\System32\mda_ntdrv.sys, Qihoo 360 TS pops up with a trojan alert (Win32/Trojan.Adware.37e) but this is the only flag shown in Virus Total (1/57).
One thing I've always liked about Sumatra is that it lets you rename and delete pdfs while they are open. This does wonders for one's workflow when working with a large number of files.
Also as previously mentioned, it makes a decent ebook reader too.
For Firefox, my favourite so far is "Screenshoter" (sic).
The reason I use this rather than an extra screenshotter such as FSCapture, is that it allows me to capture whole webpages as well as just a selection or visible area.
I've also had problems with TeraCopy. I've not noticed that it's ever actually missed files, but whenever I've left it alone for several hours to complete a large copying job, it has invariably frozen mid-task.
I like the W8 copier and speed hasn't been an issue for me, but I would very much like to see a verify option. I use FastCopy when I want an alternative.
Hi, thanks for your reply and for a nice piece of freeware : )
When I first tried your program I saw no graphic previews at all, just locations the same as in the left hand pane. After experimenting a bit further though, I've found that graphic previews are shown for jpg files from my hard drive but not if I right click and copy an image in Firefox. For png files on my hard drive, ClipAngel shows previews for some but not all. It's not a big issue though, it's not something I would use often anyway.
The preview as it is, now that I have found it, is fine. No need at all to change that in my opinion.
I did wonder though, is there or could there be, a button to show/hide the right hand preview pane and only display the list? I know I can resize it but a toolbar button or hotkey would be handy.
One thing about defragging I've rarely seen mentioned is that many programs perform badly if hiberfile.sys and pagefile.sys get in the way. Temporarily disabling these, even on a disc with lots of room on it, can magically allow the program to do its job. I'm not sure if I'd advise the inexperienced to do this though.
One bonus with temporarily disabling the pagefile is that it gets defragged properly, something that a lot of programs don't actually seem to manage.
StartPage is excellent. If you want to use other search engines anonymously they also offer Ixquick https://ixquick.com/
It is well worth reading the Settings section as you can enable or disable various filters. These can be saved via a URL without using cookies if you are particularly paranoid.
The slight problem with DuckDuckGo is that they use Amazon servers, it's up to you to decide whether to trust them.
Nice, well nice-ish as it phones home for no apparent reason every time you run it. It may well be harmless but possibly best to block it in your firewall.
Sorry to be negative but that's not exactly brilliant. Some of the stuff is out of date or has been changed by Google so you access it in a different way and there's a load of stuff not covered. Also the font they are using makes it very easy to misread commands such as the required colons after several operators. There are better sites, google's included.
When I first saw this my knee-jerk reaction was to post a sarcastic comment about Windows Sticky Notes. As I didn't really believe you wouldn't know about them I took a bit of time to look at the site.
Assuming the program can actually do all the things claimed (and I can't see why it wouldn't) it's in a completely different league to the MS version. The ability to stick notes other than on the desktop is a great idea and one I've wanted for ages.
Nice site, it's a bit slow, possibly because of this article ;)
An alternative (with lots of other fun stuff) can be found at the Gibson Research Corporation https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 It does pretty graphics too.
"It is present in Windows 7 and 8.x but not in the home versions."
It does not work with your version.
There is a way turn on this feature but I won't detail how as it can cause serious problems. If you are capable of finding it via the usual methods you are probably capable of not breaking things.
Funnily enough I created just such a reminder only four days ago. I find a text document useful for any additional 'stuff' like quite why you are going to see your doctor. An excellent backup to the rather nice free cross platform and portable Rainlendar.
Updating programs can be useful BUT they can make errors. It is always worth checking that you really do want the suggested update. For instance, users of a well known AV program may recently have noticed that it suggested updating 7-zip to a Beta release.
I use Secunia but always check, just occasionally an update can remove functionality that you need or introduce features you really don't want (I won't say which browser has recently annoyed a lot of people by doing just that).
Hmm, I hope users are advised to remove this program once they've used it, if it bases its recommendations on other people's choices it must be phoning home and you don't want to keep something that does.
That 1000 Lifehacks site doesn't appear to have any editorial control of the tips that are published. I have seen several that are wrong and at least one that is potentially dangerous.
The battery ones already mentioned struck me too, putting an AAA into a circuit, possibly in series with AAs is potentially explosive as the current may exceed the AAA's capabilities.
You should only use the same type let alone size of batteries. A child suffered serious burns recently from mixing alkalines and zinc-carbons.
There are a fair few urban myths on the site as advice too.
Can I also ask that this site stops quoting Web of Trust when recommending software? Malware authors can manipulate the "data" there far too easily. Thanks.
This is an excellent new feature of an already excellent program.
The Virus Total integration is not enabled by default though and the first time you use it you will have to agree to Virus Total's ToS. Well worth the small effort.
Another way to force Safe Mode if you're not good at hitting the right key (in W7 and earlier at least) is to open System Configuration (press the Win key and type System Configuration or msconfig Same result) select the Boot tab then the Safe Boot check box and (probably) the Network radio button.
I can't remember when I last needed Safe Mode, not like W9x days.
It is worth checking whether your printer has this facility built in. For instance there's an Epson utility that will do this which gives overlaps to allow easy pasting the pieces together, much easier than a full bleed version.
Also make sure you have enough ink before starting, posters use an awful lot.
It's not so much the presence of the advertisements I find annoying as their tendency to make some emails unreadable by overlapping content. There is a Firefox add-on by the same name so thanks for making me search.
There is a huge problem looming for all the lovely add-ons currently available. Firefox is changing a lot of stuff and many add-ons will no longer work, even those that could be made to work may not have developers willing to jump through the hoops necessary.
There are genuine forks around that aren't going to suffer like this, perhaps the alternatives would be worth exploring in an article?
You don't need Flashblock, go to Add-ons > Plugins and use the selector box on the RHS to set Flash to Ask to Activate. Just click on any content you want to run.
Fonts can be useful and fun, but, i you are at all paranoid about your privacy adding them to your system can add yet another way for "them" to track you. Try the facility at https://panopticlick.eff.org/ to see what I mean.
That screen resolution site returns bizarre results for me, YOU ARE USING 1707 x 960, YOU ARE USING 1423 x 800, You are using 1413 X 795, You are using 1173 X 660, four browsers, four wildly inaccurate results.
If you really need to know, although I'm not really sure why you'd need to, right clicking the desktop and left clicking Screen Resolution gives rather more accurate information. Sorry, that needs two clicks...
Seems like an "interesting" way to make money, block the ads that a site needs to make money and replace them with ads that provide income for the browser.
I have no idea about the legality of such practices but ethically it's at best dubious.
It is someone who is stripping down Windows and is distributing a pirated version. In the FAQ it states that to activate it you need to download an activator from the Pirate Bay.
This seems like a great article for the installation, but after trying to follow it, I realised that the Anti-virus part has not installed.
I assumed it had , as it told me I had a successful installation, but since I don't see the " Anti-Virus" sections, I conclude it hasn't.
I would have to agree with a comment that the installation process is among the worst I have experienced. I'm not a beginner user, though also not expert, and to have reached a stage where I have everything installed, but not actually know if anti-virus is on or not is remarkable.
My problem may be because I originally had the firewall only installed, and only decided to add anti-virus today , as I am running it in XP and want to replace MSE.
Is the best way to uninstall everything from Comodo and re-start from scratch, or is there another way ?
One last observation is that my internet access seems to be disabled now, so the last time i tried manually to install AV, it now reaches 59% and goes no further, presumably because it cannot access the internet ?
No, I had no internet access : the actual error was that my IP address could not be set or renewed ( I am on wifi using DHCP ).
I have resolved this, effectively by un-installing and re-installing.
The un-install was very painful, since windows did not recognise that Comodo was installed, and commodo did not have an un-install option. I reverted to deleting the Comodo folder, running ccleaner, removing registry entireis referring to Comodo, and then re-starting.
This still left me with no internet, so I assume some Comodo setting had restricted this, and even re-starting with Windows firewall on didn't help.
I then used the previously downloaded cav installer, and this time it worked with no issue at, and as soon as it was done, I had internet access back.
From there I used the option to add components ( ie added Firewall ) and all works well.
I can only conclude that the removal of the originally installed comodo firewall ( via windows remove programs ) did not work properly, and that the anti-virus install was incomplete, thus leaving me with a permanent issue that only complete removal would deal with.
I may have missed a removal button in comodo, but honestly, I looked a number of times and it was nowhere to be seen,
I suppose I should really un-install and re-install just to make sure I have no "bad" components remaining, but having spent hours on this today, I am not inclined.
It (seems to) work, so I will leave it and re-assess later.
Many thanks for the article, and for the reply.
Lesson for others, is to ensure previous software ( comodo & other ) are removed before adding any new components.
Duplicate Cleaner is clean and doesn't include a Bing Bar (or any toolbar) in the installer - you need to update your listing! My vote for the best though, as it has more features than most of the paid guys.
In communication with the Lightshot developers, I learned that they also have a desktop version you can download irrespective of what browser you're using--separate downloads for Windows and Mac (see URL at end of comment). Might help if you have issues trying to use it from a particular browser. Even if you go with one of the browser add-on versions, the desktop web page is worth a look for the FAQs and some short video tutorials.
https://app.prntscr.com/en/index.html
I always use Acethinker PDF Converter Lite to change my PDF document to Microsoft Word file, It is a free online tool that lets you convert PDF document right from the browser. You don't have to install any additional plug-ins or add-ons.
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George, I'm confused :-D
In this thread I can see Boson X named as the Number 10 game of 2013, followed by your posts that say "Number 9 revealed", "Number 8 revealed" etc...
I can't see any games though other than Boson X, am I missing something here?
Oh never mind! Immediately after posting this I saw the links. Sorry.
Great choices there George : )
Several I've not heard of before... in particular, Cry of Fear, Containment Breach and Organised Thief will be receiving my imminent attention. The Boson game looks fun as well.
Thanks.
Google Tasks is excellent, it's the one I always come back to after dallying around with various other reminders/note-making software.
The main advantage is that it's always synced so your notes are available from whatever machine you're on and the mobile version has been improved for those of you with smart phones. I also like the way it can sync with Google Calendar and the tick-boxes are a nice touch too.
I do like Stickies though, partly just for the ability to pin separate notes to windows (this works with browser windows/websites as well) and it does have much more to it than the built-in Windows one such as a manager, search function, reminders, sharing and back-up.
Tasks and Stickies both fulfill different needs really but between them I think they pretty much have it covered : )
Also Bernardz, there is "7 Sticky Notes" (http://www.7stickynotes.com/) which performs more or less the same functions as all the freeware sticky note programs, with the difference that if you have Dropbox or something similar installed it can store its database online and thus effectively be always synchronised.
Is VTzilla a third-party product..?
I was under the impression that it was provided by Virus Total themselves although it is confusing when it gives differing results. It certainly opens the same page (... https://www.virustotal.com/ ...) and copying the Stickies download URL and pasting it directly into Virus Total also returns a result of 2/53. Interestingly one of the "red" results is from a provider who flags the other link as green ... ADMINUSlabs, although I have to say I've never heard of them.
Note though that using the main VT page to scan the Stickies download page URL (as opp. to the download URL itself) only returns 39 sources for the scan and thus 0/39.
Interesting too that the portable version of Stickies (at http://portableapps.com/apps/office/stickies_portable which is the one I use) scores 0/51.
I just mention these things out of interest really and suggest the PAF version for anyone who might be concerned. Personally I've used Stickies for a long time in various forms and none of my on-board AV scanners have ever found anything wrong with it.
Thanks for the info, I didn't do any homework and just assumed it to be a VT product because it's on their page and uses their site...
I'd agree that does make it a third-party product.
Thank you for taking the time to check this out for us and it's good of Tom to respond so quickly.
True it would be useful if the VT site gave more detailed info but I don't think they ever set out to provide that kind of service. They disclaim any responsibilty for results so the only recourse is to contact the AV vendor in question and it's up to them whether they will provide more details or not.
I did check out the two vendors that red-flagged the Stickies download link;
Malwares.com is a new addition and VT seem quite pleased to have them on board - http://blog.virustotal.com/2013/11/virustotal-malwarescom-url-checker.html. It's a good site, you can check files there yourself and they provide plenty of post-scan info about the file. I couldn't find a way to check URLs there.
Also, I don't know if Tom contacted them but they now give the previous red-flagged link a green flag so the VT score is now 1/53.
ADMINUSlabs is a different story, their site seems to be pretty much a closed shop with no apparent means to check files or links oneself so that one was a bit of a dead-end.
I always have a couple of bootable disks such as this handy for emergencies. I never understood though why AV progs are included as surely their databases are out of date as soon as the disk is burned and the latest version of F4 is several months old already.
I do like this from the F4UBCD list of features ...
"- Shiny graphics that make the room smell nicer."
:-)
For what it's worth I just finished downloading the torrent (it's well seeded, only took about 30 minutes here) and it all scans clean with Comodo AV and MBAM. Ditto the patch file.
The nature of the software on the actual bootdisk though means that it is quite likely to trigger false alerts, e.g. the Nirsoft Suite is included.
No, Hiren's Boot CD hasn't had that software on it for the last couple of versions at least.
I've not had a proper look at this one yet but I think it contains a lot of the same freeware/shareware as Hiren's plus some extras such as Nirsoft and a "heavily modified" version of Hiren's MiniXP whatever that means.
System Rescue CD is I think quite sparse compared to these two although I tend to keep a copy of both handy.
Thinking about it though I don't know what the position is with MiniXP ... Hiren's removed all the previous commercial software to stay within the law but still has MiniXP on it.
X-boot (https://sites.google.com/site/shamurxboot/) is also very good, it does pretty much the same thing.
The only issue with this and with Yumi is that not all bootable CD/DVDs work properly from USB ... for instance MiniXP fails to load up the installed list of Hiren's tools from USB (this is a known issue discussed on the forums) and some Linux distros won't boot at all in my experience, although to be fair I often have the same problem running Linux from CD as well.. It takes a bit of trial and error to discover what software will run happily from USB and what won't.
I downloaded EasyUHA separately from Hiren's site (http://www.hiren.info/downloads/freeware-tools/easyuha), it (and its companion file uharc.exe) both scan clean with MBAM, Comodo AV and Emsisoft.
On Virus Total, EasyUHA.exe scores 2/50 (https://www.virustotal.com/en-gb/file/213ae6fc4b62333697002c7f69178742a3...) and uharc.exe scores 1/50 (https://www.virustotal.com/en-gb/file/f0a425fc7159c0311fcf32a03c80e24f40...)
What AV do you use? I noticed that AVG is one of the AVs that red-flags EasyUHA on VT (labels it with the trojan name that you mention). It's possible that AVG just dislikes the way that UHA works as a packer/unpacker, there might be more info on the AVG forums.
(*Edit; Sorry, I just noticed that you do actually say AVG :))
Ultimate Boot CD is completely made up of freeware except for the ASTRA 14 day demo, whereas the FalconFour one has a fair amount of commercial software on it, some of which is very old. The version of Hiren's Boot CD which is incorporated into it is an older version (13 or 14 I think), from before Hiren removed all the commercial stuff.
They're both good ... FalconFour has more on it so is tempting from that point of view but Ultimate is better if you want to stick with freeware.
If you scroll about halfway down the Wordpress page, there's a link to a torrent file. I used that myself, it's well seeded and very fast but you also need to grab the 4.61 update patch - there's a direct download link for that at the top of the Wordpress page. That patch is only about 3mb but has no instructions ... you just need to run the exe and it will tell you what to do.
Excellent NoScript FAQs article there, thanks for posting it! I've used this add on for years and never read that before :-D
Can't seem to make VLC function as a screen recorder yet but I expect I'll work it out.
Nice find Rob thanks : )
A couple of alternatives are streaming Youtube vids to a standalone media player such as VLC or Pot Player, or using the Pop Video add-on for Firefox which as the name suggests pops the video out into a separate dedicated window.
These have the advantage (for me anyway) that you can drag them around the desktop and resize them to play your vids in a corner of the screen while doing other stuff.
That's true, YT videos do play more smoothly for me when streamed to a stand-alone player.
Nice, thanks.
Another alternative is SVPtube - http://www.svp-team.com/wiki/SVPtube. Although VLC handles streaming URLs quite well on the whole, other media players don't always.
SVPtube is a tiny portable prog that sits in your systray and when you copy a video stream URL to your clipboard, converts it to a format that can be used by any media player - Pot Player for instance. It can be set to autoplay copied URLs and has the advantage of not being tied to any particular browser. Works with various sites like Youtube and Vimeo.
That's a really great find, I love history : )
The archive is rather incomplete with many gaps but it's fascinating for a dip and a browse... I just read a short 1923 piece about the sole survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, then a piece about the Yorkshire Ripper being still at large and his identity unknown, an 1886 piece about the impact of the weather at Waterloo, and a 1910 article about a Philadelphia lawyer claiming that Dr Hawley Crippen's wife was alive and well in the States (Dr. Crippen at the time was in Britain awaiting execution for her murder.)
Absolutely brilliant, reading the press like this can give a real feel for historical events that you just don't get very often from history books. Thanks Rob : D
I tried it a few weeks ago, it didn't flag anything that isn't flagged by other on-demand AVs that I have and I wasn't much impressed by the interface or the need to install it and run a system service etc. I found it very very slow as well to scan a drive compared to others.
I didn't keep it, there are better alternatives I think.
I've used Cameyo for several years now, so I know my way around it quite well.
In theory, yes it would be possible to create a package from something already installed, as Cameyo has a very straightforward section for editing packages in which you can add/remove files and registry entries etc. So you could take a pre-existing package and just replace all the contents with those relevant to the installed program you want to work with.
I say "in theory" though, because in reality it would be much much easier to just reinstall the program to create the package. For one thing you'd need to know exactly what the installer did (i.e. what files installed, registry entries etc) and it would be a potentially lengthy and complicated process to create a package that way.
Assuming you have the original installer for whatever software it is, Cameyo has an option now to capture a "virtual install" (captures the process without actually installing anything) or, if you're registered you can upload the installer to their site and see if that works. It's a bit hit and miss though in my experience.
It all depends really on exactly what program it is you want to make the package from. Some software is natively portable anyway and can be run from any location without any need for a package. If you feel like opening a thread in the forum (https://www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum/) there's a section on portable software where we could discuss it in more detail.
Hope you don't mind my jumping in there Dedoimedo
Thanks for this, I have this issue frequently on both my PCs. I've tried endless different solutions that I've come across on line and none have really helped, also programs like Unlocker seem unable to do it and the problem exe is generally some system process that can't be stopped.
One thing I've found is that if a computer is booted with a USB drive attached, then Windows really won't want to let that drive be "Safely Disconnected". I'll try this software and see if it overcomes that : )
I note this on the webpage; "USB Disk Ejector can detect and auto-close any applications running from the disk before ejecting. Please note this closes applications that were launched from the disk not applications that have opened a file on the disk." but it's worth a try anyway.
I've done a few of these myself, from what I've seen so far the quality of content is very good and there's a great variety of topics/fields and level of learning too. The discussion threads are a nice touch allowing you to chat with other people doing the modules.
My only problem is that I like the look of so many of them that I sign up for loads and then of course don't have time to do them all. Story of my life that. :-)
"...a program that can snoop around and list every possible current active available shortcut for your running OS"
Check this article here Crombierob - http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/detect-available-hotkeys-activeh...
Thanks for the link to Dedoimedo's peice, that's a good read.
I came across EMET quite a while back, it really is very much a set-and-forget thing. I'm not much qualified to judge how it works but given that it has no noticeable effect on performance (longer boot time on my old desktop but that's all) and only the occasional program has problems with it, it does seem well worth having.
That's really quite good : )
I don't know if it's something I'd use much but I love the idea.
What happens with an installer that includes Open Candy is that when the installation runs, a dll file is executed, usually "OCSetupHlp.dll" in my experience and it is this that MBAM and some other anti-malwares will detect as a PUP. Also most third-party firewalls will pick it up if configured to make executables ask before connecting to the internet.
The dll file is extracted to, and run from, the system temp directory and connects to the internet to show you the various bundled offers. If you decline all the extras then the dll is deleted after the installer finishes and nothing is left on your system except the program you wanted.
You can read about this in more detail on the OpenCandy website and observe the process for yourself with basic system monitoring freeware and/or a sandbox/virtualised OS.
You know you can click on the pictures to see them in their original size?
Alternatively if you're in Firefox, then ThumbnailZoom Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/thumbnail-zoom-plus/?src=ss) is very handy.
Ah, ok :-)
Yes I agree then, the original uploads are bit too small I think for easy reading.
Definitely, Speccy is always my first choice for a quick rundown of hardware or if I need to monitor temperatures for any reason.
Jerry I guess software means O/S here.
Good looking article Remah, I'm one of those who has learnt bits and bobs about the registry through trial and error and experimentation, miscellaneous reading etc.
This looks to be something I will need to read several times ... I think it will help me to organise and better understand what I know already and fill in a lot of gaps for me too.
Thank you.
Nice find Rob : )
I've tried a lot of similar software and never been hugely impressed but this actually seems pretty good.
I really like the scrolling display and chord diagrams, plus the option to switch between guitar and piano.
I've just tried it with a few songs that I already know and it seems to work well, I'll look forward to testing it with some more involved pieces later.
Cheers.
I discovered that too last night, e.g. - http://play.riffstation.com./?v=VaWdHa8eh10 and http://play.riffstation.com./?v=I-h4A7bF8wQ
I'd debate whether that makes it useless though (for instance it could provide a useful foundation from which to work out the correct chords of a song) and also for basic guitar/bass accompaniment perhaps.
I second your sentiment however, I'd love see to this one developed further although advances in tab software possibly make it a bit redundant. As it stands though (i.e. youtube vid + scrolling chords) I'm thinking it's probably a great instrument (no pun intended sorry :p) for budding learners.
(Registration is required to process more than one song per 24 hours by the way, but it's free)
Oh, so does mine.
Thanks, I'd not noticed that.
Another great find from Rhiannon : )
Thank you.
I've been around the block with all or most of these I think and always come back to Ghostery.
It can require a bit of user input to get it to play nicely with other add-ons such as NoScript or cookie managers, and to be truthful I can't say I've noticed any difference in browsing speed really.
It does break some websites, or portions of them ... for instance I can never make the TSA search option work unless I whitelist the whole site.
I like having it running though and concerns over their business practises are completely groundless imo. For one thing it's a simple tick to opt out but even if you don't they are completely open about what they do, if anyone has the inclination to actually go and read the information provided on the site.
Oh yeah ... I just checked in detail and Ghostery was blocking the ajax search API.
I didn't look properly before because I didn't mind just whitelisting TSA globally if I wanted to do a search.
Looks nice but the idea of having to download an installer and then downgrade it after installation just turns me off it sorry.
I've used AkelPad portable for two or three years now, it's crammed with features but manages to stay very quick and light imo.
An interesting program, I really can't decide which portable folder to put it in as it seems to be a text editor, password program, and temp cleaner all in one :-)
I've always liked MemPad, which is just a text editor but it uses a proprietary file format with an option to password the file. I've no idea how strong the encryption is though to be honest.
What I like about it really is that it can create structured text files with a nested tree at the left, and an option to auto-generate dated tree entries, which makes it a very neat journal/diary program.
http://www.horstmuc.de/win.htm
Windows Updates Downloader...
Having spent about five hours today updating a W7 installation from scratch, I was quite excited about this.
I gave it a test drive though earlier and I see it still requires individual installation of each update, which reverts to the same problem I have with the native Windows updater ... i.e. if I leave it unattended to install all updates, then it almost always hangs so that I end up sitting at my PC and installing small batches of updates then rebooting and installing more.
Is there really any advantage gained from this software? It looks excellent but I'm dubious as to whether it's a real time saver.
I appreciate the value of streaming with nLite but, from a vanilla factory install, I'm struggling to see what difference it would really make :/
When I tried it today (with W7 fully up to date) it gave me an error message when trying to unstall unnecessary updates.
The error message, although I'm ashamed to say I forget what it said and neglected to make a note of it, was something along the lines of "you don't need this update".
I''m curious as to how the program handles these errors in an unattended intallation.
Hi, thanks for the reply.
Sorry that was a bit garbled, re; nLite. I just meant is there any advantage if one doesn't use that.
Anyway I've downloaded a full set of updates so I'll give it a try this evening perhaps. I can imagine it probably is a lot quicker even if running multiple batches ... the native installer does take forever and is prone to failing as well for me when updating from a fresh W7 installation.
For batch files I use a small portable app called Batchrun (http://www.outertech.com/en/batch-file) which automates the whole procedure. It's excellent, if anybody else is following this conversation and like me doesn't know how to create batch files.
I've been giving the 360 Total Security software a test drive today, and one of its modules is a Windows updater (something like the one in the old IOBits Toolbox, if you remember it) which seems to work very well indeed.
Furthermore, the module not only downloads Windows updates, but it also has an option to be pointed to a local directory.
I've not tried it out yet, but I will do and post again to report on how it went.
Thanks for posting, it's good to have an online resource for this as it's not something I'd use often enough to make it worth installing software on my system.
Your article by the way scores 93% for style, 79% for vocabulary and appears to be completely original :-)
Nice program, very simple and straightforward.
Interestingly, when it tries to access C:\Windows\System32\mda_ntdrv.sys, Qihoo 360 TS pops up with a trojan alert (Win32/Trojan.Adware.37e) but this is the only flag shown in Virus Total (1/57).
https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/82e5421289acd75b5c16b02fca4e77679ebfb...
One thing I've always liked about Sumatra is that it lets you rename and delete pdfs while they are open. This does wonders for one's workflow when working with a large number of files.
Also as previously mentioned, it makes a decent ebook reader too.
For Firefox, my favourite so far is "Screenshoter" (sic).
The reason I use this rather than an extra screenshotter such as FSCapture, is that it allows me to capture whole webpages as well as just a selection or visible area.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/screenshoter-fixed/?src=search
I've also had problems with TeraCopy. I've not noticed that it's ever actually missed files, but whenever I've left it alone for several hours to complete a large copying job, it has invariably frozen mid-task.
I like the W8 copier and speed hasn't been an issue for me, but I would very much like to see a verify option. I use FastCopy when I want an alternative.
Nice software but ultimately beaten by Wavosaur imho, not least because the latter supports realtime VST processing.
Nice find : ) I've been through no end of clipboard managers for something that suits my needs, this one seems light and stable so far.
It appears to lack image preview but I can live with that and maybe there's some setting somewhere that I missed.
Hi, thanks for your reply and for a nice piece of freeware : )
When I first tried your program I saw no graphic previews at all, just locations the same as in the left hand pane. After experimenting a bit further though, I've found that graphic previews are shown for jpg files from my hard drive but not if I right click and copy an image in Firefox. For png files on my hard drive, ClipAngel shows previews for some but not all. It's not a big issue though, it's not something I would use often anyway.
The preview as it is, now that I have found it, is fine. No need at all to change that in my opinion.
I did wonder though, is there or could there be, a button to show/hide the right hand preview pane and only display the list? I know I can resize it but a toolbar button or hotkey would be handy.
I would like to contribute and clicking on any part of the "Donate" graphic takes me to a PayPal page which I gather is the method you've chosen.
Your post says we can do it by bank transfer, is this also managed via PayPal without needing an account?
Having your browser hijacked is a "minor inconvenience"?
No, it's a reason never to go near the guilty party ever again.
Hello rmitch,
hope you have a good time with this.
One thing about defragging I've rarely seen mentioned is that many programs perform badly if hiberfile.sys and pagefile.sys get in the way. Temporarily disabling these, even on a disc with lots of room on it, can magically allow the program to do its job. I'm not sure if I'd advise the inexperienced to do this though.
One bonus with temporarily disabling the pagefile is that it gets defragged properly, something that a lot of programs don't actually seem to manage.
Nasty interface, little or no information on what it's going to do particularly registry 'optimizations'.
Anyone who can work out what it is doing probably knows how to sort things anyway and if you don't understand what it's doing you shouldn't run it.
Not a program worthy of these pages.
An extremely easy way to get the latest Java is to use ninite dot com's excellent installer which avoids the possibility of nasties.
StartPage is excellent. If you want to use other search engines anonymously they also offer Ixquick https://ixquick.com/
It is well worth reading the Settings section as you can enable or disable various filters. These can be saved via a URL without using cookies if you are particularly paranoid.
The slight problem with DuckDuckGo is that they use Amazon servers, it's up to you to decide whether to trust them.
Nice, well nice-ish as it phones home for no apparent reason every time you run it. It may well be harmless but possibly best to block it in your firewall.
Or you could use PortableApps dot com which saves messing about.
Or you could press the Windows key, type 'fonts' (no quotes) and press return. Admittedly you'll only get Abc but heh...
Excellent bit of kit, although I'll have to teach it what I've already got.
It might be an idea to link back to this utility whenever anything downloadable with it is reviewed.
Thank you vic..
Sorry to be negative but that's not exactly brilliant. Some of the stuff is out of date or has been changed by Google so you access it in a different way and there's a load of stuff not covered. Also the font they are using makes it very easy to misread commands such as the required colons after several operators. There are better sites, google's included.
When I first saw this my knee-jerk reaction was to post a sarcastic comment about Windows Sticky Notes. As I didn't really believe you wouldn't know about them I took a bit of time to look at the site.
Assuming the program can actually do all the things claimed (and I can't see why it wouldn't) it's in a completely different league to the MS version. The ability to stick notes other than on the desktop is a great idea and one I've wanted for ages.
Thanks for finding it Rob.
Nice site, it's a bit slow, possibly because of this article ;)
An alternative (with lots of other fun stuff) can be found at the Gibson Research Corporation https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 It does pretty graphics too.
"It is present in Windows 7 and 8.x but not in the home versions."
It does not work with your version.
There is a way turn on this feature but I won't detail how as it can cause serious problems. If you are capable of finding it via the usual methods you are probably capable of not breaking things.
Nice find vic.
Also worth noting that MalwareBytes has a Chameleon feature (under the Tools tab) that gets round nasties that try to stop it running.
Hasn't Windows 8 got a built-in ISO viewer?
If you have 7zip you can view the contents of or extract isos
Windows Photo Viewer does this, at least the version that comes with W7. I'm sure earlier versions could do it too.
My mistake, I misread the original post, sorry.
Funnily enough I created just such a reminder only four days ago. I find a text document useful for any additional 'stuff' like quite why you are going to see your doctor. An excellent backup to the rather nice free cross platform and portable Rainlendar.
Updating programs can be useful BUT they can make errors. It is always worth checking that you really do want the suggested update. For instance, users of a well known AV program may recently have noticed that it suggested updating 7-zip to a Beta release.
I use Secunia but always check, just occasionally an update can remove functionality that you need or introduce features you really don't want (I won't say which browser has recently annoyed a lot of people by doing just that).
Hmm, I hope users are advised to remove this program once they've used it, if it bases its recommendations on other people's choices it must be phoning home and you don't want to keep something that does.
That 1000 Lifehacks site doesn't appear to have any editorial control of the tips that are published. I have seen several that are wrong and at least one that is potentially dangerous.
The battery ones already mentioned struck me too, putting an AAA into a circuit, possibly in series with AAs is potentially explosive as the current may exceed the AAA's capabilities.
You should only use the same type let alone size of batteries. A child suffered serious burns recently from mixing alkalines and zinc-carbons.
There are a fair few urban myths on the site as advice too.
Can I also ask that this site stops quoting Web of Trust when recommending software? Malware authors can manipulate the "data" there far too easily. Thanks.
This is an excellent new feature of an already excellent program.
The Virus Total integration is not enabled by default though and the first time you use it you will have to agree to Virus Total's ToS. Well worth the small effort.
That screen resolution thing returns a different result in every one of the seven (7) browsers I've tried, none of them correct.
Nice site, well worth checking the accuracy of the facts though.
This looks interesting but, Version 1.0.25 beta
Probably not for everyone, yet.
Interesting, I can't say I'd need it though.
Another way to force Safe Mode if you're not good at hitting the right key (in W7 and earlier at least) is to open System Configuration (press the Win key and type System Configuration or msconfig Same result) select the Boot tab then the Safe Boot check box and (probably) the Network radio button.
I can't remember when I last needed Safe Mode, not like W9x days.
Nice facility.
It is worth checking whether your printer has this facility built in. For instance there's an Epson utility that will do this which gives overlaps to allow easy pasting the pieces together, much easier than a full bleed version.
Also make sure you have enough ink before starting, posters use an awful lot.
It's not so much the presence of the advertisements I find annoying as their tendency to make some emails unreadable by overlapping content. There is a Firefox add-on by the same name so thanks for making me search.
Am I being thick? How is this different to Right click > View image info, or Right click > Inspect element?
But, if you do, make sure you encrypt everything before you do, absolutely no one provides a completely secure service.
There is a huge problem looming for all the lovely add-ons currently available. Firefox is changing a lot of stuff and many add-ons will no longer work, even those that could be made to work may not have developers willing to jump through the hoops necessary.
There are genuine forks around that aren't going to suffer like this, perhaps the alternatives would be worth exploring in an article?
You don't need Flashblock, go to Add-ons > Plugins and use the selector box on the RHS to set Flash to Ask to Activate. Just click on any content you want to run.
Delete it? Surely you mean update to IE11 using Windows Update?
If anyone simply deletes IE they can wreck their system.
Did you know that Virus Total can be integrated into Sysinternals' Process Explorer and Autoruns? It's utterly brill!
Sorry, twelve years old there for a moment.
It's November 3rd, 2011 all over again!
;^)
Fonts can be useful and fun, but, i you are at all paranoid about your privacy adding them to your system can add yet another way for "them" to track you. Try the facility at https://panopticlick.eff.org/ to see what I mean.
I love 7zip, not just for normal zipping/unzipping, it can open all sorts of other things too, well worth poking around to see what it's capable of.
It is available as a portable program as well.
Or create a Belarc Advisor profile, I really don't like that your program requires a "Remote networked computer".
That screen resolution site returns bizarre results for me, YOU ARE USING 1707 x 960, YOU ARE USING 1423 x 800, You are using 1413 X 795, You are using 1173 X 660, four browsers, four wildly inaccurate results.
If you really need to know, although I'm not really sure why you'd need to, right clicking the desktop and left clicking Screen Resolution gives rather more accurate information. Sorry, that needs two clicks...
Seems like an "interesting" way to make money, block the ads that a site needs to make money and replace them with ads that provide income for the browser.
I have no idea about the legality of such practices but ethically it's at best dubious.
Trouble with this is it doesn't show the consequences of turning stuff off.
Some of them are likely to break Windows.
If you want to try things you MUST create a restore point before you do.
Keep it up people, you are much appreciated.
Sid
It is someone who is stripping down Windows and is distributing a pirated version. In the FAQ it states that to activate it you need to download an activator from the Pirate Bay.
This seems like a great article for the installation, but after trying to follow it, I realised that the Anti-virus part has not installed.
I assumed it had , as it told me I had a successful installation, but since I don't see the " Anti-Virus" sections, I conclude it hasn't.
I would have to agree with a comment that the installation process is among the worst I have experienced. I'm not a beginner user, though also not expert, and to have reached a stage where I have everything installed, but not actually know if anti-virus is on or not is remarkable.
My problem may be because I originally had the firewall only installed, and only decided to add anti-virus today , as I am running it in XP and want to replace MSE.
Is the best way to uninstall everything from Comodo and re-start from scratch, or is there another way ?
One last observation is that my internet access seems to be disabled now, so the last time i tried manually to install AV, it now reaches 59% and goes no further, presumably because it cannot access the internet ?
Any advice appreciated.
Hi,
No, I had no internet access : the actual error was that my IP address could not be set or renewed ( I am on wifi using DHCP ).
I have resolved this, effectively by un-installing and re-installing.
The un-install was very painful, since windows did not recognise that Comodo was installed, and commodo did not have an un-install option. I reverted to deleting the Comodo folder, running ccleaner, removing registry entireis referring to Comodo, and then re-starting.
This still left me with no internet, so I assume some Comodo setting had restricted this, and even re-starting with Windows firewall on didn't help.
I then used the previously downloaded cav installer, and this time it worked with no issue at, and as soon as it was done, I had internet access back.
From there I used the option to add components ( ie added Firewall ) and all works well.
I can only conclude that the removal of the originally installed comodo firewall ( via windows remove programs ) did not work properly, and that the anti-virus install was incomplete, thus leaving me with a permanent issue that only complete removal would deal with.
I may have missed a removal button in comodo, but honestly, I looked a number of times and it was nowhere to be seen,
I suppose I should really un-install and re-install just to make sure I have no "bad" components remaining, but having spent hours on this today, I am not inclined.
It (seems to) work, so I will leave it and re-assess later.
Many thanks for the article, and for the reply.
Lesson for others, is to ensure previous software ( comodo & other ) are removed before adding any new components.
Cheers !
Duplicate Cleaner is clean and doesn't include a Bing Bar (or any toolbar) in the installer - you need to update your listing! My vote for the best though, as it has more features than most of the paid guys.
In communication with the Lightshot developers, I learned that they also have a desktop version you can download irrespective of what browser you're using--separate downloads for Windows and Mac (see URL at end of comment). Might help if you have issues trying to use it from a particular browser. Even if you go with one of the browser add-on versions, the desktop web page is worth a look for the FAQs and some short video tutorials.
https://app.prntscr.com/en/index.html
I always use Acethinker PDF Converter Lite to change my PDF document to Microsoft Word file, It is a free online tool that lets you convert PDF document right from the browser. You don't have to install any additional plug-ins or add-ons.
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