What’s This About?

Winsock XP Fix is a tiny utility whose only purpose is to simply repair Winsock and TCP/IP errors from errors or corruption of the registry, etc. It also makes use of the Freeware ERDNT Registry Backup Program so that you can make a backup copy of the registry before changes are made.

Why Would You Want It?

Sometimes things just get messed up for no obvious reason, there are many reasons corruption of files and settings can occur. It may be a power failure or spike, a hardware malfunction or the action of some malware,virus or spyware. Maybe TCP/IP and Winsock settings are changed by mistake on the users part or installation/removal of software causes a problem. Firewall software may change settings or some sort of utility that needs proxy settings to work. The removal of Adware is a very common cause of these sort of problems. Whatever the cause it can be very difficult and time consuming to try and manually sort out the registry settings.

Winsock XP Fix provides a very simple and easy to use solution to the problem. It provides the means to backup the registry although, personally, I would prefer to create a Restore Point in Windows before applying.

So if you have Internet or Local Area Network Connection problems WinSock XP Fix is well worth a try

but create a Restore Point or backup your registry first

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• Repairs Winsock and TCP/IP Registry Settings
• Provides Registry Backup Facilities
• Gives Access to System Information Dialogs

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 46% [?]

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What’s This About?

FileTypesMan is a superior replacement for the standard Windows File Types dialog*. It allows you to quickly find the file type you are looking for, add new, edit existing, add or change actions, etc. in a simple but comprehensive way.

* To access File Types open Windows Explorer then go Tools-Folder Options from the menu and select the File Types tab

Why Would You Want It?

Perhaps files aren’t opening with the program you expect when double clicked in Windows Explorer and you need to find out why or change it back. Perhaps you want to just know what a particular file extension does, particularly if you are concerned about viruses, spyware or malware. Perhaps you need to change the program that a file type opens with. For example you may have a favorite freeware text editor that you wish top associate with .txt files or other text type files such as log and ini files. You may wish to add additional actions which appear under the context menu when the file is right clicked in explorer often you will see with document type files options such as Open, Print, New at the top of the context menu. These are all actions set in file types. More advanced users will also be able to add or change DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) information.

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• Displays all File Type Associations
• Easy Sorting by multiple columns
• Add/Edit File Associations
• Add/Edit Actions for File Associations
•  

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 32% [?]

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What’s This About?

MMM Free is a utility that runs in the background that automatically alters the Explorer context menu to a configuration that you can choose. MMM Free is a cut down version of a shareware product but it does a very good job of moving items that you use infrequently to a “Rarely Used” Submenu. It is a good alternative to using ShellExView which was reviewed earlier. Control Your Context Menu Items with ShellExView

Why Would You Want It?

When ShellExView was reviewed I said:

MS Windows provides many shell extensions as part of the OS. Also lots of programs add their own commands to the Explore context menu, Internet Explorer, etc. when they are installed to help with using the program. This makes the right click context menu in the system applications very useful for carrying out all sorts of operations and commands, however they can become cluttered with commands you never need or use. This can make it difficult to find what you want.

MMM Free allows you to still have all the context menu items available but in a sub menu to the single line “Rarely Used” in the context menu rather than switching them off permanently (or until you enable them again using the ShellExView program). So MMM Free gives you the option of always having all the context menu items but in a more user friendly and manageable arrangement.

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• Wakes up your computer from Standby or Hibernation
•  

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 28% [?]

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What’s This About?

ShellExView provides a detailed list of the shell extensions (in-process COM objects) that are used to display items in the Context Menu of Windows Explorer. These can then be individually disabled or enabled allowing you to have only those Context Menu Items that you really need.

Combined with a utility such as CMenuExtender which was reviewed here:

Create Your Own Explorer Context Menus with CMenuExtender

You can control your context menus to display only what you need and create commands to do what you want

Why Would You Want It?

MS Windows provides many shell extensions as part of the OS. Also lots of programs add their own commands to the Explore context menu, Internet Explorer, etc. when they are installed to help with using the program. This makes the right click context menu in the system applications very useful for carrying out all sorts of operations and commands, however they can become cluttered with commands you never need or use. This can make it difficult to find what you want. With ShellExView you an disable the menus you don’t need. ShellExView does not remove the shell extensions it just disables them so that you can always enable anything you need to get back. This also means that you can experiment using ShellExView to see whether you are making the right choice without any fear or permanently loosing any functions.

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• Lists all Shell Extension Objects on the PC
• Allows Enabling or Disabling of the Extensions
• Allows Details to be Copied to text or HTML files
• Opens Windows Registry at the Selected Object Entry
• Marks “Suspicious” Extensions
• Column Sorting of Display
• Highlight & Sort on Enabled/Disable Items

For more details about Shell Extensions and what they do go to ShellExView

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 25% [?]

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What’s This About?

CMenuExtender is a small utility that will allow you to create your own Windows Explorer context menu. (That’s the menu that appears when you right click on a file or folder in Windows Explorer).

Why Would You Want It?

The Windows Explorer right click context menu can be very useful for carrying out all sorts of operations and commands. Many programs add their own commands to the context menu when they are installed to help with the program. Have you ever wanted to be able to copy or move a file to a specified directory as the following screenshot shows:

Here you can see items added by the Teracopy, WinRar, WinZip and Unlocker programs, all of which help in using the program>

With CMenuExtender you can create your own specific commands to do a wide variety of things, such as running specific programs to open particular files, moving or copying files to specific directories, running a DOS command, get information on the file and many other thins including user specified items.

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• Creates User Defined Contwext Menus in Windows Explorer
• Allows the menus and items to be edited
• Allows the menus and items to be moved
• Comes with a number of predefined commands

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 17% [?]

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What’s This About?

Copernic Desktop Search has been my desktop search utility of choice for sometime. The main reasons for this were

1. Searching Network Shares
2. Reasonably stable
3. OK Interface

and in that order!

There are obviously other desktop search products out there and I have tried most of them. I quite like Google but I don’t like the browser interface. X1 has a great interface with lots of options for refining searches and setting personal searches but won’t index network shares in the free version. MS Windows product was not as good as other solutions but I will certainly be looking at the new version 4 in the next few days. Anyway up till now I have been using Copernic on my home network to index 3 desktop PCs, 2 Laptops, my Windows Home Server drives and my NAS boxes.

Yesterday I was greeted by the following message box while suing Copernic Desktop Search 2.3:

A major new version "update” (note they don’t use the word upgrade) is always interesting with the promise of new features and options.

In fact the message box states:

We recommend that you update the current version to benefit from the latest features and improvements.

I duly updated by letting the automatic download and install process run.

What Did I Find?

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Popularity: 39% [?]

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What’s This About?

Edison is a program that allows you to change and save the standard windows power options in a simple interface for two different times “Work” and “Other”. It also has a simple scheduling option to switch between the two on a once per day basis.

Why Would You Want It?

You can easily change the standard Windows Power Options Properties by selecting Power Options in Control Panel as the last post  Windows Power Schemes – Set and Forget to Reduce Your Electricity Bill:

As you can see from the post under the Windows Power Options Properties – Power Schemes tab you can change all the options which are more than in Edison, you can also save as many different power schemes as you want. The advantage of Edison lies in the ability to automatically schedule two different power schemes to suit your pattern of use.

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• Quick and Simple Setting of 2 Power schemes
• Schedule Switching between the schemes once per day
• Helps save power for desktop PCs

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware
• See estimated savings

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Popularity: 19% [?]

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What’s This All About?

Drive Manager is a small utility that provides quick access to information on all your disk drives, CD/DVD drives, Removable drives, Flash/USB Drives, Network Shares and Virtual Drives in one handy and easy to use interface. It provides an excellent way to get to essential information quickly as well as allowing you to run some essential drive maintenance utilities.

Why Would You Want It?

Simply because this is a small portable application that provides independent access to lots of drive information and functions in a single interface. You can access the majority of this information using Windows Explorer and various standard Windows Accessories and System utilities. However, with Drive Manger nearly all these functions are combined within a single, easy to use interface which quickly gives access to the information you need.

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• Displays a list of all drives
• Plenty of essential information is instantly available in the main interface
• Lots of other functions are available through the toolbars and menus
• Quick filtering of different drive types

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware
• Portable

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Popularity: 20% [?]

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What’s This About?

WakeupOnStandBy  is a small program that will automatically wake up your computer from Standby or Hibernation mode at a predetermined schedule of time and days of the week, then run programs, open web pages, etc. before closing down your computer again if you want. It also has the ability to run multiple schedules allowing you to effectively shutdown and start your computer when you want.

Why Would You Want It?

Many computers are run 24/7 as a matter of convenience rather than necessity. Just to be able to get on the computer instantly without waiting for what might be quite a long boot period and get to your emails or instantly access web pages is a convenience. This is trade doff against the cost of running the PC and the consequential use of “scarce” resources, carbon footprint, global warming and a general disregard for he environment and future availability of resources for our children and grandchildren.

I am as bad as anyone and worse than many. I run several computers and some of them run 24/7 because I need them to be doing scheduled actions while  am not actively using them. These include indexing, backups, fetching email, etc. so the information is ready and available when I need. The fact is that these computers could be shutdown for several hours a day when I am at work or asleep without any real inconvenience. In fact unless your running a server of some sort or downloading over P2P networks you really don’t need any computer running all the time.

The recent severe increases in oil and gas prices has been a bit of a wake up call and started to make me look at ways of reducing my energy consumption so I can get the bills down. I am ashamed to admit it is the impact on my pocket and not my impact on the environment that has spurred me into action

So I am across WakeupOnStandBy in a search for a freeware program that would allow me to schedule the time my computer was running to suit my daily./weekly programme. As you will see it is not a perfect solution and could do with a bit of work to make it easier to use but it will certainly do the job needed with a little bit of perseverance.

However, if you want to save yourself some money or feel you should do your bit to preserve our planet it is worth a bit of effort to set up the necessary schedules

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• Wakes up your computer from Standby or Hibernation
• Puts the computer into Standby or Hibernation Mode
• Allows for scheduling based on time, days, and weeks
• Runs programs on Startup or Shutdown/Hibernate
• Saves power for desktop PCs
• Saves battery life for laptop PCs

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 24% [?]

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What’s This About?

CrossHairs is a very small program/utility that will display a vertical and horizontal line on the monitor at the mouse cursor position. It can be set to be static at the original position or to follow the mouse position.

Why Would You Want It?

CrossHair has 5 obvious functions:

1. As an aid to lining up graphics and text for page layouts
2. As an aid to estimating values on graphs and charts
3. To pinpoint the mouse cursor position on "busy" screens or difficult backgrounds
4. As an aid to people with impaired vision
5. To help young children spot the mouse position

I have found it very useful for all of the first 3 items over the past couple of years, particular 1 & 2. I am also sure it will be a great help to people with impaired vision or for children.

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• Shows vertical and horizontal lines activated by Hotkeys
• Lines can be static
• Lines can follow the mouse position

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 21% [?]

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