The original post has been updated and can be found here:

JkDefrag Option GUI – Much More Than Just a GUI

Updated 7 March 2008 with comments/corrections from Emiel Wieldraaijer, the developer

What are the Technical Details & Compatibility?

What Other Posts are Relevant?

Fast and Simple Disk Defrag with JkDefrag

Defrag Those Hard To Get At System Files with System File Defragmenter (Sysinternals PageDefrag v2.32)

Why You Want to Use Portable Freeware Applications

Why I decided to Write This Blog

What are the Tags?

Technorati Tags: Freeware, My Free Review, PenDrive, Portable Freeware, Portable Freeware Portable Application, PortableApps, Pro Reviewer, Programs, Software, Utilities, Windows, Windows XP

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Google have released a new free PC based utility to synchronize your Google Calendar with MS Outlook and vice versa if you wish.

I wrote in a recent post – GTD – Getting Things Done

At present I am constrained by the need to use MS Outlook at work so I really need some freeware utilities that can intelligently exchange data with Outlook.

This seems to be a very significant step in the right direction but is not a complete solution as yet.

I picked up on this at the Downloadsquad blog in the post – Synchronize Google Calendar and Outlook with Google Calendar Sync so I followed the link over to Google Calendar Help where the download link is, grabbed the file and installed it.

All went smoothly and up popped the options screen which I duly filled in. Then disappointment, it only works with Outlook 2003 and 2007.

So I left the following comment at Downloadsquad and will follow up with testing on my home PC later.

3-06-2008 @ 8:01AM

Barry Cleave said…

Great step forward!
In a post on my blog on 5 Feb 08 (GTD – Getting Things Done) I said:

“At present I am constrained by the need to use MS Outlook at work so I really need some freeware utilities that can intelligently exchange data with Outlook.” I am sure this applies to lots of other people.

Unfortunately we are still using Outlook 2000 at work and the Google Sync utility only works with 2003 and 2007. We also sit behind a firewall and proxy so I wonder if this will also be an issue (Anyone know the answer to that?) Anyway I shall certainly use it at home but will still have to rely on Activesync and my mobile phone to sync my work calendar

Regards

Barry
http://proreviewer.com

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What Does That Mean?

In a nutshell clicking on an image in Pro Reviewer will now show a full sized picture overlaid on the current webpage. There are navigation and close buttons at the bottom of the image. This is all provided Javascript is enabled in your browser otherwise the picture/image will be shown as before – Try it on the image below.

Regular readers of the Pro Reviewer blog will be aware that the reviews like to "tell the story" as much as possible using screenshots of the software. This is because the screenshot will show quickly exactly what you will expect to get from the software and the text notes will tell you anything additional or about bugs. The old adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" definitely applies to the approach here!

The downside to this is clicking on a lot of images to enlarge them to see the detail which creates a new webpage or loads the image in the current page so you have to use the back button on your browser.

LaptopTips – Great Plugin – Even Better Support

Shutter Reloaded is a WordPress Plugin that provides this functionality from LaptopTips.

I installed the plugin on ProReviewer yesterday evening but it wasn’t working. I checked the webpage code and everything seemed to be there. Looking at the LaptopTips site I could see that it was probably a conflict with some other code but sorting that out was beyond the time I have available. So I left a comment asking for assistance:

This was late yesterday evening for me but 11am local time for LaptopTips

I received an answer 4 hours later but didn’t pick it up until this morning (my time).

Brilliant Service!!!

By the way I have displayed the question and answer as images just to use Shutter Reloaded

Other Relevant Posts

Why I decided to Write this Blog

What are the Tags?

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Why You Need Them

No it’s not because your data may be stolen it’s because you may commit the crime of not protecting it!

We all know the importance of a proper strategy for backing up our precious data and how this needs to be done to a regular schedule. Yet, how often do we forget or put off creating the backup until "a bit later". This then becomes days or even weeks and then along comes the PC crash, a powercut an OS glitch, a hard drive failure, the accidental overwriting of a file. Even with a good backup strategy properly implemented he worst of this is that it is often very difficult to tell exactly what you have lost until much later when you can’t find that precious photo or the resume that you spent a day carefully crafting.

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What Is It?

A Firefox Add-on that allows you to set multiple status bars and move content between them to display what you want to see.

Why Would You Want It?

Many of the Firefox add-ons use the status bar to display information or as a clickable control to set options or display a menu to use the add-on. This can not only leave the statusbar cluttered but also create problems in the width of the page being wider than the screen. This in turn creates problems in viewing the page and not being able to see all the tabs. With Statusbars you can get rid of the width and clutter problems quickly and easily

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• Provides multiple statusbars
• Allows statusbar items to be reorganized

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

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Popularity: 15% [?]

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Updated 7 March 2008 with comments/corrections from Emiel Wieldraaijer, the developer

All updates except minor typos are shown on red

What Is It?

A front end or GUI to make the setting of options and running of Jeroem Kessels wonderful JkDefrag program a breeze for the user. Not only does it accomplish this in a comprehensive way but it also provides a GUI for PageDefrag and a scheduler for running JkDefrag. This GUI is written by Emiel Wieldraaijer and the GUI automatically downloads the latest version of JkDefrag and PageDefrag when the program is started the first time.

Why Would You Want It?

JkDefrag is a simple but powerful defragmentation tool. The standard windows GUI does not allow the setting of the multiple options in the command line version nor can it be simply scheduled with out a third party scheduler. This program makes it easy for the user to set options and schedule the running of JkDefrag through a simple and familiar Windows interface. It also wraps PageDefrag into the package and provides additional useful functions as well as links to several useful resources through the help menu.

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• User Interface for JkDefrag
• User Interface for PageDefrag
• Installer for JkDefrag and JkDefragScreensaver
• Scheduler for running defrag utilities
• System “Cleanup” option
• Option to automatically check for updated version of JkDefrag

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

(more…)

Popularity: 18% [?]

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What Is It?

PageDefrag is a standalone utility for defragmenting system files including pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys, system event files and registry hive files. These are all files that standard defragmentation utilities, both freeware and paid, can’t touch.

Why Would You Want It?

The system files, particularly the page file(s)  can be subject to a lot of activity during normal use of a PC. Fragmentation of these files will therefore have an impact on system performance. In reality these files tend not to be very fragmented but should they be this program will fix them, every little helps.

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Provides a simple standalone, utility whose sole purpose is to defragment "locked" system files that cannot normally be defragmented.

Summary:

• Defragments system files 
• Can be set to run once on every startup (boot)

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

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Popularity: 11% [?]

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What Is It?

JKDefrag is a very popular and highly regarded disk defragmenting tool written by Jeroen Kessels. It provides a quick and simple way to defragment disks or anything that looks like a read/write disk to the Windows operating system.

Why Would You Want It?

Because it will speed up the time your PC takes to boot (start up) and programs will run more quickly, particularly if the system RAM is being fully used. (When the RAM is fully used by the OS and programs the remaining information has to be written to the hard drive which is very much slower).

Overall, hard drives are a relatively slow storage medium (memory) to read and write to. The process is slowed even further if the files are fragmented into many pieces in different places over the disk surface(s) The Windows operating system automatically writes data to the disks to available spaces (sectors) and apart from some special files does not try to make them into one single continuous file. This means that both the writing and reading processes need the read/write heads to move to find the data and of course the disk has to spin round for the relevant data to be under heads. Defragmenting can make the process far quicker by placing the data so it can be read more quickly and efficiently.

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

JKDefrag defragments the disk(s) while the system is running normally. However, some files cannot be defragmented due to restrictions of the operating system or the rights of the individual user. The JKDefrag website has plenty of information on defragmentation as well as tips on how to use and get the best out of the program. Tips include how to make the best use of your hard drives to maximise speed and how to ensure the maximum number of files are defragmented.

Summary:

• Defragments file on read/write disks
• Runs normally under the the operating system
• Uses the Microsoft API (so very safe in operation)

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

(more…)

Popularity: 18% [?]

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