Newsletter Archives

• Freeware Spotlight — Spydish

  Posted on June 15, 2020 at 01:00 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  Remember a time when we could install Windows without needing to immediately go through settings and turn on “features” that impacted our privacy?

  Fast-forward to Windows 10, and managing privacy settings has become only more complicated. And looking for them can be time-consuming. To make that process easier, developer Belim from mirinsoft.com created Spydish — a small and light tool that’s easy to use, uncomplicated, and — of course — portable. You can also use it to debloat Windows 10.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.23.0 (2020-06-15).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Group Policy Editor, Privacy settings, Spydish

• Freeware Spotlight — Marxio Timer

  Posted on June 1, 2020 at 01:00 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  Like a fine, vintage wine, some aging but venerable software still works nicely — even on an operating system that wasn’t even imagined back when the app was created.

  Marek Mantaj first published the free Marxio Timer way back in 2009, and it’s still an exceptionally useful utility for controlling when and how your computer shuts down, sleeps, and so much more.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.21.0 (2020-06-01).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Task scheduling, Timer utility

• Freeware Spotlight — Open Hardware Monitor

  Posted on May 18, 2020 at 01:00 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  Some of the most difficult computer problems to diagnose and resolve are random errors — those inconsistent blue screens, those arbitrary freezes and shutdowns, those odd Windows glitches.

  A common cause of random system failures is overheating — one or more hardware components running at higher-than-safe temperatures. Sure, spring might bring warmth and fresh flowers, but it also delivers shedding pets and lots of other airborne particles that clog up PC fans and put additional stress on CPUs, power supplies, and video cards.

  So how do you know whether something is overheating? Michael Möller’s Open Hardware Monitor (OHM) can help provide an answer.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.19.0 (2020-05-18).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Fan speed, Hardware monitor, Overheating

• Freeware Spotlight — Staying at home edition

  Posted on April 27, 2020 at 01:00 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  We’re certainly living in a different world right now — social-distancing with friends, co-workers, and others; social-bonding with family.

  Those of us still working are in many cases doing so from home — some with the added complication of kids. And then there’s the drain on our bank accounts. All of which make the community of open-source and freeware software development more important than ever.

  To help you get through the current trials and tribulations, here’s a compendium of utilities and apps, for both adults and kids, that might make your stay-at-home experience a bit easier.

  Here we go …

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.16.0 (2020-04-27).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Calculators, Gaming, LibreOffice, TeamTalk, Video editing

• Freeware Spotlight — A Thousand Words

  Posted on March 30, 2020 at 01:00 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  As we’re all dragged into this new pandemic reality, PC-service clients are going to need remote assistance more than ever.

  Unfortunately, many of those folks are not as computer-savvy as we might wish. So when users run into problems, they might find it difficult to convey what exactly is going awry. In many cases, simple screen shots will illustrate the problem far better than will describing it over the phone.

  The aptly named A Thousand Words (ATW) is a handy screen-capture app from developer Andrew Lambert. The tool is specifically designed to be easy to use — suitable for PC users of any skill. If a problem can be seen on-screen, the machine’s user can launch ATW and follow a simple wizard to quickly grab shots of the fault. The user can then annotate the images and email the shots to a service tech (or the unofficial family IT person).

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.12.0 (2020-03-30).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, OlderGeeks, PC service, Screen capture

• Updates to the AskWoody Ultimate Utilities List

  Posted on March 9, 2020 at 01:00 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  UTILITIES

  By T B Capen

  This past October, I introduced my occasional Ultimate Utilities List to the AskWoody newsletter.

  Readers returned the favor by offering some of their favorites in the AskWoody Lounge. Here’s an assortment of apps you might want to try out.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.10.0 (2020-03-09).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Backup Software, Start menus, System cleaners

• Freeware Spotlight — KillEmAll

  Posted on March 2, 2020 at 01:00 CST by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  Computer troubleshooting typically means careful diagnosis and working through one solution at a time.

  But there are occasions when you have to take an ax to the problem.

  At our computer shop, we often see machines that are totally infested with malware. Just getting a malware-cleaning tool to run can be a challenge when you’re constantly bombarded with bogus popups, malicious anti-virus apps, and fake system cleaners — all running in the background.

  When the stuff really hits the fan, we load up one of our favorite utilities: KillEmAll. It comes from d7xTech.com, known for its extremely useful paid and freeware tools for computer techs and system administrators.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.9.0 (2020-03-02).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, End processes, Windows troubleshooting

• Freeware Spotlight — eToolz

  Posted on February 17, 2020 at 01:00 CST by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  If you’re a relatively young computer tech or system administrator, you’re living in wonderful times.

  The ability to show up at a worksite with all your tools on a flash drive was the stuff of dreams for us floppy-totin’ grayhairs.

  To your many portable tools, I suggest adding Austrian developer Werner Rumpeltesz’s eToolz. It’s your go-to app for everything network-related.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.7.0 (2020-02-17).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, DNS, Networking tools, Ping, Trace

• Freeware Spotlight — security.txt

  Posted on February 10, 2020 at 01:00 CST by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  Just when you thought you knew everything about the Internet …

  Remember Easter eggs — digital-style? Those hidden gems embedded in applications? Alas, few exist anymore; The Easter Egg Archive lists past and present examples. Here’s one: In Firefox, enter about:mozilla in the URL bar.

  There’s a sort of Internet equivalent to the Easter egg — though not as charming. Many websites are adopting two “hidden” venues designed to provide a bit of inside information.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.6.0 (2020-02-10).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hidden Web pages, Humans.txt, Security.txt

• Freeware Spotlight — ForensiT Transwiz

  Posted on January 27, 2020 at 01:05 CST by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  For many Windows 7 users, the easier path forward is not to upgrade their machine to a supported OS but simply to purchase a new Win10 PC.

  That’s great: you’re starting off with a fresh operating-system installation. But now you’re faced with moving years and years of your stuff to the new machine. It’s sort of like moving to a new house … though without the surly movers.

  Transferring data, and reinstalling apps, is relatively easy — transferring your personal settings, not so much. Never fear! One of our favorite software companies, ForensiT, has you covered! I’ll show you how to get some much-needed assistance with moving personal data and settings via the Transwiz utility.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.4.0 (2020-01-27).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, System upgrades, Transfering user data

• Make your favorite utility the default app in Win10

  Posted on January 13, 2020 at 01:00 CST by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  We love the many freeware utilities we’ve installed over the years — but Microsoft sure doesn’t.

  Take our photo editors, for example. When we click on an image, Windows 10 opens its Photos app — a slow-opening beast with relatively few options. When I want to work on a photo, I want my favorite freeware app to open — automatically!

  In this week’s column, we’re going to fix the problem of unwanted default apps, using my photo viewer/editor as an example.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.2.0 (2020-01-13).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Default apps, IrfanView

• Freeware Spotlight — Infinite Password Generator

  Posted on January 6, 2020 at 01:00 CST by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  If you’re looking for a password-keeper/-generator app, there are plenty offered for nearly any platform.

  It should be no surprise that my preference is a password manager that’s both simple and portable — such as Yuku Sugianto’s Infinite Password Generator (IPG, for short). It generates secure passwords for websites and applications by combining a single master keyword with keywords you provide for each site. It then stores your passwords on your computer in an encrypted file.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.1.0 (2020-01-06).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Password generators, Password managers, Portable apps
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