Site Suggestions and Feedback

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Like our site?  Think it sucks?  Got an idea how it could be improved?

Whatever, we'd like to know so please leave a comment below

Gizmo

Some past comments from our site contact form:

I have only been looking at your site for about ten to fifteen minutes and felt compelled to send you a message to say "Thank you for not sucking". There's plenty of "Free Stuff" websites out there who simply spill out as much text as they can to maximize banner ad returns. It would appear that you are actually checking to see if this software is worth using in the real world. I have a certain appreciation of free software and often take note of authors [or utilities] I feel have done an exceptional job.

Thank you! Dave.

 

I just wanted to let you guys over there managing this site, my appreciation and thanks at a wonderful job and service that you are providing to the whole World. Thank you, and God bless.

Sincerely, Sam.

 

I've been a visitor to your website for a number of years with it becoming one of my main resources for freeware.  I just wanted to comment that the changes that have come about in the last year and the recent site redesign have turned this from an already great site to an awesome website.  Thanks for all of the effort that you all put into this.

Janet

 

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Comments

Please update your best free firewall list, some are discontinued, and some are completely changed. This is always the site I choose when searching for best freeware, and I am pretty desperate for reliable recommendations for a decent firewall and tired of testing them all myself ;)

Hello there, my name is Tim and I am the editor for the Best Free Firewall list as mentioned. Just wanted to let you know that I will be working on updating the category soon with revised / new content as necessary. Thanks for visiting and posting your comments!

I followed the link from Rob's post to the Microsoft site and discovered that support for Office 2003 is stopping at the same time as support for XP. I use Outlook for email and am wondering if the ending of support means I should be switching to Thunderbird and Firebird? Is there an article in this?

Hi, I've been searching through your site and the vast amount of information you guys have worked hard to incorporate into it. So far, everything I have read is in English and very easy to read and understand. Even the most basic pc users can benefit from the information provided and greatly advance in their computer literacy and capabilities. This site is geared to all ability levels and it is even provided in different languages.

Overall this site is the most valuable comprehensive collaboration of computer information I have found thus far. All of the information is truly in the best interest of all-level computer users and there are no ulterior motives involved like you get on many sites I have seen. For these reasons, I have referred my children, many friends, family, co-workers, students, etc, to techsupportalert.com.

This is a fantastic site and all of your hard work and information provided is so much appreciated! Thank you for creating and continuing to provide an internet site that is invaluable to all of us pc users! Keep up the phenominal work!!

I've been a follower of your site and email articles for several years but registered today. I value the leads and advice you provide -- well done. I have a request regarding Android applications. I try to carefully consider the access (permissions) granted each application and how it affects my privacy and security (as well as the privacy and security of those in my contact list). I find, however, that I am evaluating in an ignorant vacuum. It should be easy for a really knowledgeable writer to discuss the impact of each permission granted and the implications that follow. Why, for example, do applications that have nothing to do with telephony want access to my phone and identify those I call or who call me. I can only guess and my guesses are not comforting.

A similar Widows article might be of interest. My concern here is granting permission for, as an example, Microsoft to receive data helping them improve various programs.

Best regards, keep up the good work and Mahalo plenty

Hello All... I am a 50 year old full time worker and full time college student. I started college in 2009 with no computer experience and no idea I would need a computer for academic success. Now in my 5th year, I am able to accomplish all the things I need to for school. I have also learned to utilize my computer for many other things to make life easier. I have to let you know, your website has proven the most fair, most comprehensive and most usable I have encountered in these 5 years. I learned more in the first 20 minutes of reading on your site than from all other combined resources accessed during the same 5 years. I visit your site often, especially just before the start of new semesters. I always want to do everything I can to ensure that my computer will function as needed and is safe and secure, when computer reliance is at it's highest for me. Your site has helped me do just that for several semesters now. I recommend a visit to classmates, professors, and everyone I care about. I wish I had the time to do some reviewing for you. As a relatively novice user, I'm sure I could provide some worthwhile feedback, but work and my education must come first. There is very little you could change to improve your site, just keep doing what you're doing already. I love this website! Sincerely, Sickboy009.

Could a new category be set up for e-book makers? I'd like to convert .docs to epub and whatever other formats might be available.

I'm a first time user of your site. I looks very helpful, but in my first trial of a highly reviewed product I was once again duped. I downloaded the SearchMyFiles software by Nirsoft. Step one is to select the files to scan. I selected a few that I knew had duplicates. The next step was to act on the files, but not before receiving a pop-up for a mandatory purchase before being allowed to move forward. So much for free; although, not a bad price. Perhaps you might mention this little detail, and tell us which ones are really free, or even show a comparison chart.
I just need to move both feet foreword.

Nir Sofer does not develop commercial apps. "NirSoft Web site provides more than 100 freeware utilities for Windows without requiring the users to pay any fee, even when other companies sell similar tools for dozens of $". If you received a payment popup this must have come from another source. I just ran this utility on my own system and it works as described. MC Site Manager.

I officially registered today and now have a problem which I hope you can solve. I did not realize that my username would be shown when I post, so I supplied my real name as my username. I wish to change that but after a frustrating search concluded that the only way to do that was to delete my account and then register once more. Is there an easier way?

I can sort this for you if hopefully our system still allows you to log in after the change. If you don't like what I've already changed it too, let me have another choice and I'll change it again. Please check you can login OK first though. MC - Site Manager.

Greetings to the team:

Thank you so much for keeping this website up to date for the benefit. Knowing how time wasting it can be to surf online looking for the right tool to use on your computer, Gizmos has indeed become a life-safer. I can't thank you enough for the effort you have put through into creating this marvellous website. This site is more like a real online reference for software and free apps. I own three computers with three different OS, ie Mac, Windows, and Linux Ubuntu. I also own an Android and iphone device. It is always an effort for me having to keep all the apps in my devces up to date as long as they are free. You guys simply draw the map for us and point us to the right direction - all for free. It's a simple click away and Gizmos will do the rest.

Thank you thank you thank you.

Best of regards
Richard
- Your loyal Gizmos' user

Thank you for your kind words Richard. If you ever feel like contributing to Gizmo's as part of our editing team, please have a look here. MC - Site Manager. http://www.techsupportalert.com/become-a-reviewer.htm

Wondering why, as a long time member, with same acct, same user name - I'm being asked to solve a captcha for posts? Even for the same session, if post more than one reply, it still forces me to solve captchas.

Is this really necessary for long time members - assuming they've never "behaved badly" on the review site?

How could the reviewing process be improved:
For most reviews, very little detailed info is supplied for how the testing was actually done. What type of computer / OS was used for testing; the exact criteria for rating one product better than another. Many of the ratings seem subjective.

Sure, reviews often say, ABC took X minutes to perform a task, while XYZ took Y minutes.

Maybe details of the testing, computer specs, what specific criteria were used & how each product fared on each of the criteria could be on separate pages from the main article.

I find many descriptions of products don't seem to match their scores. Descriptions may be very negative, but ratings are still a 4 or 5, or vice versa. Some descriptions are SO SHORT or contain such little useful info, I wonder if the reviewer tested the product at all. Yet, those products may get a very high or low score - based on what?

I'm not talking about very long, extremely complicated reports. Just what was used to judge the products in a category & quantitatively how each one performed on each criterion. Then users can decide how important performance on each criterion is to them.

In ANY kind of "scientific" testing, criteria must be established & specific results recorded for each test parameter. Otherwise, it becomes partly / largely subjective.

Maybe you will consider joining our editing team because we always welcome those with the time and ability to help improve our reviews. Please see the link below for details. MC - Site Manager. http://www.techsupportalert.com/become-a-reviewer.htm

I would if I could.

One person would be a spit in the ocean. I'm saying that for a site devoted to reviews & where most reviewers are not "professionals," it'd benefit the site, readers & would help the reviewers, if certain reasonable guidelines & standards were established for how reviews are done.

* General * guidelines on how testing should be done & how data should be reported (even if more detailed info is listed on other pages). Eliminate some subjectivity & allow readers to see the actual data behind reviews, so they can decide which data is more / less important to them.

Misty27, this is my personal response as one reviewer of many. First, I encourage you to become a reviewer here and do what you are asking for. Generally, a major change requires someone to be the champion and prove it. That could be you. :-) You'd also see the broad range of "reasonable guidelines and standards" we work under already. Many of us reviewers are IT "professionals" or have professional expertise in the software we are reviewing. But we are all volunteers and many of us are in "I would if I could" circumstances with very limited time. That's why we need more people putting in "spit". What you are asking for takes more time than many of us have available. It also will be difficult to apply to reviewers who are less quantitative. I am more technically minded so I do have criteria and scores for all the categories I review but most of our visitors are satisfied with short easy to read reviews with key information in the Quick Selection Guide. My own experiences, the user feedback and the page statistics support this view. More detailed information is sought by no more than 1 in 8 of our readers. My conclusion is that all the extra work I have done has much less return than I expected. Ironically, it is often the case that the recommended product so clearly leads the other products that the matter of quantitative scoring is irrelevant. That is the case with my first attempt at a more detailed article, Best Free Internet Safety Check. All this means that we get a much better return on our efforts from working on categories with no current editor or those needing updates - at the moment this includes all of mine, sigh. :-/ That's why I say you should give it a go and pick an article that needs more objectivity. You could also choose to work with another editor by doing part of the job: testing, analysis or writing.
Remah makes some very good points. We are always looking to improve both the quality of our content and how it is presented but as a volunteer group we are ultimately governed by the amount of resources we can generate. Where we will always stand out though is in our independence. No one here is influenced by vendors (although they try :D) or the need to generate advertising revenue from commercial products while pretending to write impartial reviews. Thank you for your feedback which is appreciated. MC - Site Manager.

I appreciate the time limit of volunteers. My suggestions were just that - suggestions.
Use none, all or some, in any fashion.

My inference that, even for volunteers, certain reviews need more supporting data / info, still stands.

If the site disagrees, that's fine. Consider the discussion closed.

Best regards,

First of all, I love your site and only wish I could help review freeware but time does not allow.

Second: This site is getting a mite too geeky.

For example it used to be easy to simply type into the search something like "Best Free Online Web Builder" and actually get a list of a few. But it seems very difficult to do that now.

One gets discussions about CMS or Wordpress or SMF forums but where are the recommendations regarding sites like Weebly.com, Webnode, Wix etc.?

I cannot find them any more. And I have been on the web since the 90's.

Probably happens because "expert geeks" are helping who do not know how to use the KISS principle (Keep it Simple Stupid).

Just saying.

-Charles

This is far too complicated, and I still cannot find the genre link you said you posted! Like many people, I want certain genre at certain times, and this is impossible to sort out.

What exactly are you referring to and from which page of our site? Then maybe we can help you. MC - Site Manager.

I signed up to vent about Comodo but can't find the tab
to make comments so I'll put it here. I feel that Comodo deliberately made it's free product shut down
all my hardware, denying me access to Open Office where
I'm working on a novel and my scanner no longer scans
and I can no longer open my word processing files. Every two minutes I get the same message: Should I allow
Sofware Updater? I keep saying "Yes" and Comodo keeps
bugging me about the same software. Comodo does have
an online manual but it's obscured by the Comodo warnings as though they don't want people to read it.
Then they invite you to speak to their online helper and
at the last minute asks you for the code that you paid
when you signed up for the $19.99 version.I would rather
they charge me $19.99 and give me a firewall that doesn't make it impossible for me to do my day-to-day
tasks. Comodo also forced me to download Google Chrome and Google Chrome is simply not as good as
Explorer 8 and Explorer 8 no longer functions. What
would be useful is a FAQ where all the common problems
caused by Comodo is addressed. My old McAfee firewall
never gave me this kind of trouble. Thanks for allowing me to vent and I think I'm going to email
a copy of this to Comodo except my Cut and Paste has
been disabled as well. The reason I say Google Chrome
is no good is it refused to give me google.com telling
me that it hasn't been declared safe but not how to
declare it safe. I hope a Comodo representative is
reading this or maybe somebody could pass this on to them. Absolutely the worst firewall I ever downloaded. I appreciate it keeping me safe, but now
I can't do anything. By the way, I tried downloading
Panda Cloud Cleaner and Antivirus 2014 as Gizmo suggested and got "Failed Download Error" twice.
Have to download latest version of IDM.

We understand your frustration, but we are afraid this is not the right place to post about it. This section is for posting suggestions and feedback about our own site, and not for posting about another software. You should post your issue on Comodo forums, where it will be answered best. Sorry, but we will have to delete this comment from here.
Comodo is an excellent tool but it does need to be configured properly. There is also a fairly steep learning curve with it in operation. We have a dedicated Comodo contributor here who I'm sure will be pleased to assist if you post details of your issue here in our forum. MC - Site Manager. http://www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum/freeware-installation-and... See also: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-install-comodo-firewall.htm

Gratitude for the work everyone invests in this site.

Most Valuable Advice: Recommended Set of Security Apps
It would be tremendously beneficial -- probably the most valuable advice I and many others could receive -- is a simple guide to a recommended set of applications/services that would serve the essential security requirements ofan average PC user.

It is very difficult for me to ascertain this information from the various security software guides you provide, which is tremendous but difficult to navigate and synthesize for an average user.

So, if I have standard needs, what set of recommended apps (not generically, but specific packages) do I need that play well together and cover all the basics.

Further, you could add line items for specific additional needs. For instance,
"If you need anonymous surfing, add this: (Specific app/service)
"If you download torrents, add this: (specific app/service)"

You could provide links to the specific reviews/guides, if users want additional background.

Inherently this list might feel oversimplified for your editor or more sophisticated users, and might involve some subjective choices. However, I strongly urge you to consider providing this counsel. You are a trusted site, and I have struggled mightily -- without assurance of success -- to assemble such a set for myself.

Thank you for considering this request, on behalf of myself and what I'm sure is a very large number of users seeking your counsel.

Hi, thanks for your suggestion :). Have you looked at these on the site? First is the Security Wizard which helps you select the security software for your system, as per your requirements. http://www.techsupportalert.com/SecWiz Another article which you might find useful is this: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/safe-computing-under-hour.htm You will find links to more such articles, under Related Security Articles heading, at the end of the above one. Please go through them too. However, if you have already gone through these, and still feel that you require more help, then please provide us the feedback as to how we can improve on the present articles. Or, if you still feel the need for separate article covering specific points, please let us know, and we will try to follow up on that. Since it will require a discussion, it will be better to start a thread in the forum, here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum/comments-suggestions-and-...

Thank you. However, as always:
- I used to be able to obtain your list by clicking Gizmo in Gmail. That stopped working and gave something incomnprehensible. Took me ages to find it via Google itself. Suggest you put the link back in.
- you still say free sites but some no longer are. I used to use Revo Uninstaller and was very happy with it for seeming years. Then one of the usual idiocies deleted it. When I tried to reload I was told it was for 30 days only. And it did indeed stop working after 30 days. Annoying.
[email address removed - not permitted - please read the rules before posting]

Vendor pages often open at their commercial listings because they want to sell these products. If you go to the downloads section of the Revo website, the free version link is there. MC - Site Manager. http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html

at https://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-portable-programs.htm#bfp-dis...

web site shows defraggler is Best Free Portable Disk Defragmenter.

however, at https://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-disk-de-fragmenter.htm

UltraDefrag gets 5 stars

and defraggler gets 4th place and 4 stars.

Please clarify,
zeke

Possibly it's because one author reviewed the portable version whereas the other reviewed the installed version?

These articles were written by different editors so there is always likely to be a difference of opinion. You can contact the editors for their comments directly by clicking their username and then "contact" just under the page title. MC - Site Manager.

You could tell the date of the latest version of the software you review.

Best System Info Utilities had two recommendations that are not right
Gizmo's favorite SIW is not free but $10
PC Wizard is a serious trap that floods your pc with crap.

Without a backup partition I would have been dead in the water.

I take my comments back on PC-Wizard. I must have hit the wrong download link on that sight and that led me to CNet which screwed my pc up.

After finding the right pcwizard link I downloded the 5.1mb file and it installed and I was able to uncheck any extra software options.

Thanks for coming back to us. You raise a good point in that download pages often contain traps to entice users to a different location. We have an information page about the cnet wrapped installer here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/cnet-downloadcom-wrapped-install... You might also find this of interest. MC - Site Manager. http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/what-else-have-you-just-download...

Thank for the Reply Gizmo with regards to SIW. I'll look at the new location for a copy that actually installs without problems. Thank you.

As for PC Wizard, I find the bundled software overwhelemed my pc. I could not find a costomized install setting. There seem to be on work around the PC Wizared bundeled tool bards or adware and other stuff.

If anyone knows has a work around I would like to hear about that.

Venice

Venice, the best policy IMO is to assume that everything you want to install is bundled with something extra you might not want. This is a growing trend now anyway, so adopting this approach is a good policy. Then, before you run the installer, Google the product name plus "bundled components" and the search results should indicate what is included and provide details of what others have done to avoid them. Usually this requires selecting "custom install" rather than the default settings, and paying close attention to which boxes need ticking or un-ticking during this process. Lastly, installing the free version of WinPatrol will enable you to avoid many of these unwanted components, even if you miss them first off during the install process. MC - Site Manager. http://www.winpatrol.com/
It is the previous portable version of SIW that is freeware. I have now changed the download link to Softpedia. Previously there was a freeware home version listed on the vendors site which now appears to have been discontinued so thanks for pointing this out. The bundled components with PC Wizard are already stated in our product information guide. MC - Site Manager.

The Eraser program does not erase anything securely in my experience. I have used it for some 2 yrs and thought it was Ok until I tried to erase unused space. That is when I found out that at least 50% of the items I thought had been erased were in fact easily recovered using the freeware program "Testdisk and Photorec from www.cgsecurity.org"

Even after 4 times using 7 passes and 1 time 35 passes most of the erased files were recovered.
Be careful recommending the Eraser program from Heidi especially when one plans to sell or give away an old computer.

It is worth noting that their website says that the free version of Revo Uninstaller does NOT work with the 64-bit version of Windows 7.

Just a note to Rob - and thanks for asll your work on our behalf - regarding your 'Patch my PC,' and the fact that this sounds very similar to 'Secunia PSI,' (also free) which resides in the tray, automatically checks for updates, and generally installs them for you automatically.

In my opinion it would be a realy, realy nice idea and a very useful thing, if this side would have kind of "to-do-list after formatting". That list should include things like "install firewall, install antivirus program, make your settings in your brwoser and so on.

Found this side as i was looking for something.
One of the best founds i have ever had.
Go on like this!!
Thanks to all of you for this page.

Unfortunately such a list would need to cover more than one operating system and a huge variety of individual needs. We do though provide a variety of tips and tutorials covering a wide range of topics that can be accessed via the site search. This is one aimed at security but there are others too. http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/safe-computing-under-hour.htm You can also open a topic in the forum if you need specific help with something. MC - Site Manager.

I think it is kind of hard to navigate through the site. For example, to find the Android list of top free apps, I tried to click "Android" which brought me to a list of articles about apps, not the compiled list I was looking for. The navigation bar at the top is confusing because when I come to this site, I want the best of... lists so I naturally look for it at the top navigation bar. But I have to go to the homepage to find them instead, which means 1-2 more screens before I get to what I want. Also I can't tell what exactly the focus of the site is supposed to be: it seem to be the "Best of..." Freeware but everywhere I see are articles and tips for random things. It is not very organized, and the homepage looks really cluttered.
Well that's just my thoughts anyway :) I think you could get a lot more traffic if the site was more user friendly and more mainstream, like the fancy new websites coming out now. What you guys do is great, it has helped me a lot over the past years.

Hello Gizmo

I have been a fan of Gizmo for some time now and it has provided me some very useful software, ideas and hints & tips. Sadly installing any sort of "free software" is becoming a hazardous operation as more and more doubtful software is installed alongside the application I would like to look at. OK, I can watch carefully as I choose how to navigate the installation process and avoid some of these nasties but others manage to slip through. I can then spend a happy half hour or two using that excellent free uninstaller REVO Uninstaller - but even this cannot crack some of them and I have to resort to system restore to get back to where I was.

Perhaps there isn't a way of avoiding this but a warning could be placed in a prominent place with a few hints and tips for minimizing the problem and or curing it.

Unfortunately what you are asking is not possible simply because there are too many possibilities. Also, developers using OpenCandy today may well switch to the Ask Toolbar tomorrow, so the overall situation is very fluid. As you can appreciate trying to keep hundreds of different pages updated with this information would be unsustainable. We do though try to offer some general advice as in these articles: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/what-else-have-you-just-download... http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/controversial-advertising-progra... From the above information, WinPatrol and Toolwiz Time Freeze are worth highlighting. MC - Site Manager.

Wondering if posting an edit to the "now hiring" page, specifically regarding syntax of terms "'principle' motivation" compared with "'principal' motivation'", might land me a spot as an editor or reviewer or such??? Thx, cc

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