Newsletter Archives

• WinDirStat — It was a very long wait

  Posted on November 4, 2024 at 02:44 CST by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  WinDirStat has been a staple for system administrators and users for a very long time. Nineteen years ago came its latest update — until now.

  2005: Condoleezza Rice sworn in. Airbus A380 unveiled. Charles and Camilla engaged. YouTube launched. “Million Dollar Baby” wins. Hurricane Katrina blows. Ted Koppel retires. And WinDirStat gets its last update for 19 years.

  At first we didn’t even notice that our favorite freeware hard-drive-space analyzer was going into hibernation like a very sleepy bear. But then, years later, something was amiss.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.45.0, 2024-11-04).

  Freeware Spotlight Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Folder Size Analyzer, Folder utilities, Newsletters, WinDirStat

• Reset Windows Update Tool — but you might never use it for that

  Posted on October 21, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  Like naming your entire toolbox “hammer,” sometimes a name does not do a computer tool justice.

  Reset Windows Update Tool (RWUT) is a free and open-source creation by the Colombian developer Manuel Gil that does so much more than its name suggests. Sure, it will fix things when Windows refuses to update, but it will fix some of other the big issues your Windows 10 or 11 install might face.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.43.0, 2024-10-21).

  Freeware Spotlight Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Newsletters, Realistic VHS Video Converter, Reset Windows Update Tool

• Backup! It’s been a really bad week for SSDs.

  Posted on October 7, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  There are experts out there who will tell me it’s not true and that I’m imagining things.

  But gosh darn it! When the temperature changes, we get an increasing number of failed drives at the shop. And with solid-state drives (SSDs), it happens even more!

  I’m going to use my soapbox here this week to show you how to back up your drives — both SSDs and traditional hard drives (HDDs). I will point you to some free programs, but remember that modern versions of Windows have backup tools built in. Just type in Backup on the search bar at the bottom of your desktop. You’ll find it.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.41.0, 2024-10-07).

  Freeware Spotlight AOMEI Backupper, Backup, Cobian Reflector, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Hasleo Backup, Newsletters, Personal Backup

• Jim’s Toolbox — So many nifty tools in one collection

  Posted on September 23, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.39 • 2024-09-23

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  There is nothing wrong with knowing of powerful commands to fix computers but not remembering the actual commands. That’s what tech notes and Google are for. But what if you didn’t have to look them up?

  Cemil “Jim” Taşdemir has created Jim’s Toolbox. A collection of all the tools we like to use, but with easy launch buttons so there is nothing to remember!

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.39.0, 2024-09-23).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Freeware Spotlight Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Jim's Toolbox, Newsletters, Utilities

• Ayin — the photo editor I was looking for

  Posted on August 26, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  The things you can do with photos these days are nothing short of a modern marvel. What is also a modern marvel is the thick user manual for photo-editing software: a barber could use one to raise up a kid in his chair.

  I just want a small and portable program that I can use to quickly zip through dozens of photos and do quick edits on them. Luckily for me, I found Fares Ahmed, a young student from Egypt who created just what I needed. Ayin (“eye” or “to see” in English) is a free, portable, and open-source photo-editing software package for Windows.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.35.0, 2024-08-26).

  Freeware Spotlight Ayin, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Newsletters, Photo Editing

• Desktop Media — Get a desktop icon for every drive you insert

  Posted on August 12, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  Microsoft asks what you want to do whenever you insert any type of removable media, such as USB thumb drives, CDs, or DVDs.

  But pay attention: you get only a few seconds to answer before the offer fades away. Too slow! Now you have to go hunting for the drive in Windows Explorer. Grrr.

  We’ve been setting up limited-use computers for the Mennonite communities in our area for years. One little program that we install on every one of those computers is Desktop Media by Ian Perez. Although this handy program was last updated in 2011, it still does its job for Windows XP, Windows 11, and everything in between.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.33.0, 2024-08-12).

  Freeware Spotlight Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Desktop Media, Newsletters, Shortcuts, Windows Desktop

• DefenderUI — Windows Defender is great, when turned on fully

  Posted on July 29, 2024 at 02:42 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  Microsoft’s first attempt at antivirus software was Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), released in 2009 to Windows XP and later to Windows Vista and Windows 7.

  Then it was replaced by Windows Defender.

  MSE was not great. It updated just three times a day. Although its 2009 certification from AV-TEST was a big win for Microsoft, the certification was lost in 2012. That’s probably because it tagged Google Chrome as a virus in 2011, a memorable day at our computer shop. To make things even worse, in 2013 it received the lowest score possible for an antivirus product. It wasn’t until 2018 that MSE was able to win a top score, with an 80% detection rate from AV-TEST.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.31.0, 2024-07-29).

  Freeware Spotlight DefenderUI, Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Security Essentials, Newsletters, User Interface, Windows Defender

• AutoAudioRecorder — Record any audio playing on your PC

  Posted on July 15, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.29 • 2024-07-15

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  My daughters made a video of themselves singing a song they’d created when they were little. I wanted to grab the audio from it for a family project. Free software to the rescue!

  AutoAudioRecorder by AutoClose was exactly what I needed for my own purposes, but it has so many neat abilities that I decided to share it with you as well.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.29.0, 2024-07-15).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Freeware Spotlight Audio Capture, AutoAudioRecorder, Newsletters, Personal Media

• WhoisThisDomain — Where is that great deal coming from?

  Posted on June 3, 2024 at 02:42 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  There are two non-techie things I really love: shoes and glass ornaments.

  Because of tracking cookies, advertisers know this, too. I really don’t mind that very much because while I’m on Facebook, I see only ads that interest me. Unfortunately, I also get questionable ads. How do I know the origin of these vendors and their great deals before I click?

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.23.0, 2024-06-03).

  Freeware Spotlight DNS, Domain servers, Newsletters, WhoIs, WhoisThisDomain

• Sizer — When a window must be an exact size

  Posted on May 20, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  If you must drag the edges of windows to resize them over and over while working, you are wasting minutes of your life that you can never get back.

  Sizer by brianapps.net is one heck of a free program I recently stumbled across that can resize any window (program or explorer window) instantly. I’m pretty excited to share this one, so grab a copy of Sizer from OlderGeeks.com, and let’s get started! It works on all versions of Windows from XP to 11, so unless you are stuck in the 90s, it should work for you.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.21.0, 2024-05-20).

  Freeware Spotlight Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Newsletters, Sizer, UI, User Interface

• DesktopOK — No more screaming when your icons get scrambled

  Posted on May 6, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  I have two large monitors and a lot of icons filling those screens. It may look like utter chaos, but my brain knows exactly where each icon is located.

  So when some poorly crafted software leaves my icons all neatly stacked to the left side of my main monitor, I want to neatly stack some skulls!

  DesktopOK by Nenad Hrg (one of my favorite developers) can put your mind at ease by allowing you to save the layout of your desktop icons. If things go south and your icons get messed with, you can quickly restore them. Want different layouts for different screen resolutions or users? No problem! DesktopOK can save as many backups as you want.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.19.0, 2024-05-06).

  Freeware Spotlight Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Desktop management, Desktop Restore, DesktopOK, Newsletters

• SmartContextMenu — Computing for lazy people like me

  Posted on April 29, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  If you want me to use your fancy new feature in Windows, it better be fewer than three clicks away. Two is better. It’s not that I’m being difficult. I’m just very conscious of how many clicks I’m using.

  SmartContextMenu is an enhanced version of author Alexander Illarionov’s other popular program, SmartSystemMenu. With the latter garnering nearly 4,000 downloads on our website, I think SmartContextMenu will become even more popular.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.18.0, 2024-04-29).

  Freeware Spotlight context menu, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Newsletters, SmartContextMenu
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