What’s This About?

ClipGuru is a semi Portable Application which monitors the clipboard and stores the information it finds there as text or images. This type of application is generally referred to as a “clipboard extender”. It stores this information in a database which provides a history of stored clips that can be reused. It has a variety of useful options for both storing and recalling the stored information

Why Would You Want It?

ClipGuru is a small, portable and light on resources. It allows you to store text clips or images (copied on there own without any text).So if you need to store text on it’s own, or images on their own, with the option to save different sets and paste multiple selections this could be very useful.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Monitors the Clipboard for text or Images
• Stores information in a simple database
• Multiple storage sets
• Clip text searching
• Combine clips
• Combined pasting
• Manage clips

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 13% [?]

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What’s This About?

DisplayFusion (Portable Freeware version*) provides the ability to move and resize windows between monitors in a multi-monitor setup. It also allows you to set wallpaper and backgrounds from photos on your computer or from Flickr. It is a great alternative to the shareware “Ultramon” program.

* There is a shareware upgrade to a Pro version however the Free version does everything that I need.

Why Would You Want It?

If you use a multi-monitor setup (and for a serious computer user the only reasons I think you shouldn’t is lack of money or space) then moving windows, particularly maximized windows between the monitors is something you wan to easily do. The ability of DisplayFusion to move a maximized window from one monitor to another by dragging and dropping makes it worth installing for just this one feature. The addition of hotkey window operations and wallpaper/background management are just an incredible bonus

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Drag Maximized Windows between monitors/screens
• Move, Size and Maximize Windows with Hotkeys
• Set Separate Images as Screen Background/Wallpaper
• Auto Snap Windows to Monitor edges

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 20% [?]

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What’s This About?

Flexible Renamer is a portable program that will rename files and folders, change file attributes including dates, change tags for different file groups (music, photos, docs, etc.) It has very powerful rules and methods combined with a wide range of options, defined presets and methods as well as both simple and advanced ways of working.

Why Would You Want It?

The need to rename batches of files in collections of photos, music tracks, documents, archives, websites, etc. can be met by many programs. However, Flexible Renamer offers this and more in a small portable program which includes comprehensive renaming rules, changing dates, changing attributes, changing tag information for most common tagged files and the ability to create batches of prenamed files. Sometimes you just want to add something to a file name, for instance you may want to add a place and date to the name of all the photos you took on holiday. You might want to add  something to a batch of documents that all relate to the same project. As you can use the file date for sorting in many file explorer programs you may want to change dates as a method of indicating that older dated files are part of a “most recent” set on a particular subject. This, combined with the ability to also change the folder names and tag information makes Flexible Renamer very powerful

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Renames Files and Folders
• Provides comprehensive rules and rename methods
• Changes Attributes including dates
• Changes File Tag information for common tagged file types
  such as photos, music, documents, etc.
• Adds Shell Extensions for Context Menus (Optional)

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 29% [?]

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What’s This About?

PicPick is a portable freeware screen capture program and a drawing program combined with some other useful drawing tools including a screen ruler, color picker on screen drawing and screen protractor. The capture and drawing utilities are very much like Faststone Capture which is no longer freeware.

I first saw this on winAddons.com a couple of days ago, since when it has “been doing the rounds” on many of the tech blogs. So read on if you are interested in some more detail and screenshots on the full potential of this great little portable program. The version reviewed here is PicPick 1.8

Why Would You Want It?

PicPick provides several tools in one small portable package, all integrated into a single main Manager window(GUI) and also accessible from the system tray menu.

The main functions can all be used independently of each other so you could still use it as a drawing and picture or photo annotation tool even if you don’t need screen capture. Of course you might just want it as a free, portable and very versatile screen capture tool. The fact that extra tools are included is a real bonus

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Captures Screen
  • Full Screen
  • Active Window
  • Window Control
  • Region
  • Fixed Region
  • Freehand
  • Repeat Last Capture
  • Autoscroll (for pages longer than the on screen window)
• Drawing Program/Image Editor with
  • Standard shapes, arrows, lines, etc.
  • Blur, opacity, hue, contrast, brightness, pixelate, etc.
  • Rotate, Flip, etc. (Whole or selected part of picture)
• On Screen Drawing Tools (Whiteboard)
• Color Picker
• Color Palette
• Screen Crosshair
• Screen Protractor

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware
• Portable

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Popularity: 31% [?]

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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: 40% [?]

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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: 39% [?]

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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: 28% [?]

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What Are They?

The Freecom ToughDrive 2.5″ is a mobile 2.5″ hard drive from Freecom with Anti-Shock mechanism contained in a durable, soft silicon cover. It has an integral USB 2.0 cable and plug and is USB 2.0, buspowered so you don’t need an additional power supply. It works with Win & Mac as well as other digital products with a suitable USB interface.

Why Would You Want One?

I could have written something here but the Freecom site has some text that I think covers what I would say anyway:

The toughest drive there is!
In today’s world mobility has become a key factor. People who are on the road carry their whole office with them. Notebook, mobile phone, PDA, external hard drive… Imagine what can happen when you’re late for a flight, running to the gate, and your external hard drive accidentally falls from your notebook case or out of your jacket pocket onto the floor… it breaks. Hundreds of hours of work, gigabytes of spreadsheets, documents, photo’s… all gone. Not anymore! Freecom introduces the ToughDrive. The ideal external storage solution for people on the move. Fitted with an internal anti-shock frame and a unique soft silicon cover, it can withstand bumps and drops so your drive is still fully functional after it has dropped. The ToughDrive ensures you can still access your valuable files.

What Are The Essentials?

Specification:

Product Short Spec - 250GB:
Compatibility: PC, Mac
Hard drive size: 250 GB
Interface type: Hi-Speed USB
Form factor: 2.5″
Buffer size: 8 MB
Average seek time: 12 ms
Spindle speed: 5400 rpm

View datasheet (PDF)

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Durable, soft silicon cover
• Internal anti-shock mechanism - Withstand falling from 2 meters
• Integrated USB 2.0 cable
• Buspowered
• High quality, slimline design
• Fanless design thus no noise
• Including award-winning NTI Shadow backup software for PC and Mac,automatically & continuously protects your photo, music, video and other data files
• 2 years warranty

Cons:What’s Not So Good?

• Short integrated USB cable

(An extension is provided but it is one more thing to have to carry around)

Why Do I Use Them and

What is the ProReviewer Experience?

I have used 3 different Toughdrives over the past 2 years. an 80GB, a 160GB and my most recent purchase a 250GB. I bought the first one because I needed some lightweight portable storage as my Laptop only had a 30GB internal drive. I wanted something I could take on overseas trips and holidays with confidence that it was unlikely to fail due to being bumped about in the laptop bag or rucksack. The later purchases were to be able to carry more data and take some multimedia files for entertainment on my travels. The first drives also came with Acronis Backup software which is excellent. The latest drives come with NTI Shadow backup software which I haven’t tried.

The first two drives (80GB & 160GB) were called ToughDrive Pro but Freecom have now used this for a newer model which has both USB and FireWire connections. However you will see that both reviews in the “Useful Links” section below refer to the original model and describe them as the ToughDrive Pro so watch out for this inconsistency if you intend to purchase and don’t need the extra FireWire connection.

I have not been disappointed. Not a single problem with any of them which is more than I can say for 2 other drives I have used from other manufacturers. Acknowledging just 3 drives is a small sample to comment on overall reliability I have been very pleased with them and would recommend them to anyone. While a little more expensive the extra security and confidence you can get to your data when you need it is well worth it. The soft cases have not scuffed or marked with use despite being regularly carried in the front pocket of a rucksack with several items. Needless to say I keep a full copy of all my portable applications on all of them

Useful Links

Freecom

250 GB Drive - More info

View datasheet

PC Pro Review - Freecom ToughDrive Pro

Amazon.com - Freecom ToughDrive Pro - Hard drive - 250 GB

ZDNet Freecom ToughDrive Pro hard drive - 250 GB - Hi-Speed USB … (see Spec Tab)

What Other Posts are Relevant?

TIP - Format a USB Flash Drive for Speed or File Size - What’s Best and How to Overcome Some Problems

Data Rescue Tip - Use MS Utilities to Repair Outlook Files

Backup - Identify Where the Data Is - Find the Location of Your Information on a Windows Based PC?

Why You Want to Use Portable Freeware Applications

Why I decided to Write This Blog

What are the Tags?

Popularity: 25% [?]

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