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 About?

Windows Control Panel provides a means to customize settings for when various power saving options are triggered following a set period of “inactivity” (no use of keyboard or mouse). For a Desktop PC (rather than a laptop) these include:

1. Turn Off Monitor
2. Turn Off Hard Disks
3. System Standby
4. System Hibernate

There is also an option to select what happens when the PC power button is pressed.

Optimizing these settings to suit you personal use can bring benefits in saving electricity, reducing wear on hard drives and cutting costs.

This article is part of a series on power saving.

Why Would You Want to Use It?

Whether you run your PC 24/7 or just switch it on for occasional use you can still make a difference to your bills by using these settings. Laptop users will probably be more familiar with power saving as this is a way to reduce the drain on the battery when not connected to the charger. Laptop manufacturers often provide more sophisticated power saving utilities that allow more options to conserve battery power. Windows Vista also has more options than XP.

This article is based on XP and is for Desktops only. Vista is very similar, but with  more comprehensive options in a slightly different interface. The Laptop version of Power Options Properties provides additional tabs and options for when the Laptop is running on batteries or on mains power.

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• Turns off monitor after a predefined period of inactivity
• Turns off hard disks after a predefined period of inactivity
• System goes to Standby after a predefined period of inactivity
• System Hibernates after a predefined period of inactivity
• Set Power Button action to:
  • Do Nothing
  • Ask
  • Standby
  • Hibernate
  • Shutdown
• Enable Hibernation
• Configure UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Part of standard Windows OS

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Popularity: 19% [?]

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What Is It?

A freeware video conversion tool that will convert a large number of different video formats to AVI allowing a wide range of options and the codecs XVID, DIVX50 and PMP. It uses mencoder as the conversion engine.

Why Would You Want It?

There is often need to convert from one format to another . This may be to suit a particular portable video playing device that you have or it may be to convert some less used formats to one that suits your main player on your PC. It also may be that you need to convert from a larger file to something smaller using a more efficient codec.

I came across this program when I was looking for a utility to convert the files from my Aiptek Camcorder – See my post on this gadget here – Budget HD Camcorder and Camera – Aiptek AHD-200 (A-HD 720P USA)

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Provides a simple user interface to select files to convert and a wide range of parameters such as bitrate for audio and video, codec, screen size, subtitles, etc.

Summary:

• Converts Video from one format to another
• Unified Interface (GUI)

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware
• Relatively simple to use
• Versatile & Useful Options
• Provides detailed information on source file parameters
• Batch conversion of folders
• Batch conversion of filetypes (eg .mov)

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Popularity: 29% [?]

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News

Today I receive a notification box for Google Calendar Sync on my main PC so I duly said yes to the update offer and it installed flawlessly.

I have previously posted Google Calendar Sync Test – Very Good But Not Perfect which gave a review of version 0.9.2.8 which gives details of some of the problems I found. (See the post for details )

A quick visit to the Google Calendar FAQ site didn’t reveal any details of what has been changed but a visit to the Google Calendar Forum resulted in finding a post that listed current issues:

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Popularity: 26% [?]

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The first part of this article ( Save Time, Effort & Maybe Money – Use Web Reviews Before you Install or Purchase – Part 1 ) dealt with a bad experience I had in purchasing some external hard drive units. In particular it points out the sort traps that are easy to fall into when you don’t do research before you purchase or there isn’t sufficient good information available. While this post is using hardware as an example the same can be said for software. Even with Freeware the time invested and the potential for damage to your system or inadvertently installing malware still means time on research and reading reviews is time well spent.

How to Stack the Odds to Get a Good Experience

Having used the purchase of the external hard drives as an example of where I had a bad experience I will use their replacement to demonstrate how to try to avoid some of the pitfalls.

As I said in the first part of this article my preference was for Network Attached Storage for this particular purpose. The reason for my previous purchase of FireWire/USB was that this option was considerably cheaper than any NAS devices I could buy at the time. Therefore I let the savings weigh too heavily against the lack of available information or reviews on my purchase. This time I was more determined to go for NAS rather than external hard drives but price still had a big part to play. The main requirements were preferably 2TB, NAS, secondary preferences were RAID configuration and user security/login options. Other facilities such as print server and Internet file access/server were not important.

Over time I have built a short list of reputable Internet companies that I start of by using to see what is available whether I am looking for the best deal on a particular item or I am looking for a product in a particular class as in this case. This list remains fairly stable as a core list of trustworthy companies with competitive prices as well as excellent “terms & conditions” for support and returns. This forms a starting point for my “research” but is not an exclusive list as far as any decision is concerned as I will explain later.

Using my core list I quickly narrowed things down to a short list of NAS devices that met the requirements of storage size, price and overall specification. It was clear that NAS devices still seem to command a premium price when compared to “External Hard Drives” which is surprising as in terms of hardware and production costs they must be almost identical. In fact when you see NAS boxes with “TB of storage selling for substantially more than a Windows Home Server PC plus some additional hard disks to make it up to 2TB you have to wonder what’s going on .

Having narrowed my options down I found that the best value money, by some way, was the Western Digital My Book 1.5TB NAS which also offered remote access and sharing. I then set about looking for reviews and information on it at various locations. The main sources | normally use and would recommend are :

• The Internet sales sites for specification, user manuals, policy on guarantees and customer reviews (for positive and negative feedback)
• The manufacturer for detailed check on specifications, support area FAQ’s, firmware or software updates, Forums
• Major Technology sites and PC magazine Internet sites for reviews and reports
• Blogs for Reviews and Comments on products
• Groups and Forums for reviews, comments and particularly negative feedback

In going through this process I keep an eye out for alternative products that may appear in the reviews or comments. I also watch out for similar products by the same manufacturer as this may be a further guide to quality and service.

The most important thing is to take a balanced view of what you read. Reviews by the manufacturer will of course set everything in the best possible light but if they also point to independent reviews and awards then these should be followed up. (Make sure that you believe the authenticity of any independent review, you should have no problem with reputable magazines and tech sources but it is not unknown for some smaller operators to be up to no good)

When I was looking at the 1.5TB reviews and comments there were quite a lot of very negative comments from customers on a couple of the major Internet sellers websites. At first I was rather disappointed as I thought this would mean I needed to find an alternative which would be far more expensive. However looking at some of the reviews in detail and making comparisons with other comments and the product specification revealed a lot more. What became clear was that many comments resulted form unrealistic expectations or understanding of the product followed by a somewhat prejudiced reaction. In this case two things were clear, the bundled software for connection and sharing appeared to not work properly and secondly the Western Digital approach to DRM and sharing over the Internet was being attacked. So a little more delving showed that the bundled software was not necessary except for Internet sharing and that if the device was uses as a straight NAS device and configured through the internal Web Interface then there were no problems.

The final part of the decision making process is where to purchase from. For me this is very dependent on the type of product I am purchasing. If it is electronic or mechanical (or a combination of both as with disk drives) I consider this quite high risk in terms of possible early failure through bad luck or manufacturing problems. I will already have considered this in selecting the manufacturer but I like to know that the online retailer is likely to provide a good returns and support policy and I am prepared to pay a little more for this. If I am buying low cost or low risk goods such as software or consumables then I will look for the best price option. In making these decisions remember that you need to take into account postage costs, delivery times and additional security or rights you may get through the method of purchase. (e.g. In the UK using a credit card provides additional rights and even insurance for certain purchases).

In Summary I suggest that the following process is advisable:

1. Select possible products
2. Gather “Research”
3. Review research for validity and weight accordingly
4. Decide Yes/No to purchase
5. Find prices including postage costs
6. Decide level of cost v “terms and conditions” that is appropriate
7. Check delivery times etc. meet your requirements
8. Use most appropriate payment method

Good luck in all your future purchases

Technorati Tags: Electronics, External Hard Drive, Free Reviews, NAS Device, Network Attached Storage, Pro Reviewer, ProReviewer, Reviews, Windows, Windows Home Server

Popularity: 17% [?]

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Well that’s pretty obvious but I bet we all have made poor decisions to install software or buy a new bit of kit before carrying out a proper review of information available on the web. I would also add to this that being an “Early Adopter” can be fun and all very cutting edge but this is often referred to as the “Bleeding Edge” with good reason. I will detail two of my recent experiences bad and good and the value of doing some good research.

A Bad Experience

About 9 months ago I bought a 2TB external storage device. My preference was to go for a NAS (Network Attached Storage) unit as I already had a couple of these and liked the fact that they were universally available over the home network. A bit of searching around on the Internet showed that there was a 2TB FireWire/USB interfaced unit for about 60% of the price I would be paying for a NAS device. The 2TB unit was new on the market but came from what I understood to be a large, reputable company with plenty of other external storage products which had a good track record. This was quite a sizeable purchase at over £400 ($800) so I did not commit to this lightly, but I decided the saving was to good to pass and ordered it (over the Internet). The device duly arrived, I plugged it in and everything was up and running quickly with no problems. In fact I was so pleased that I decided to buy a second unit a couple of weeks later and daisy chain them together.

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What Is It?

Google Calendar Sync provides the functionality that I have wanted for sometime in being able to synchronise a web based calendar with MS Outlook and synchronising Outlook over different computers and hand held devices. Sure there are commercial "paid for" products on the market for synchronising Outlook and some freeware products that will partially do what is required or just import from Outlook but nothing that could synchronise both ways or optionally in only one direction. (i.e. either from Outlook or to Outlook).  The testing I have carried out so far has shown a couple of problems that I have not been able to resolve which may be the Google Calendar Sync program or Outlook. At work we have had some problems with the the corporate Outlook/Exchange Server setup which has resulted in appointments disappearing among other things, so I may have some "corrupted" appointments sitting in my Outlook installations. This post is not intended to be a full review but an explanation of my finding through the installation and initial testing process. I will, however, use the basic review layout and headings that you will be familiar with.

Why Would You Want It?

Having a single master calendar makes sense  and one that you can access from anywhere you have a web connection is ideal for people who need to use a single appointment system system for home and work. The ability to synchronise the master calendar with appointment systems used at home and work as well as mobile devices such a phones and PDAs really is essential for many of us. The icing on the cake is two way synchronisation so you can update the master calendar with appointments entered on one of your other devices.

What Does It Do – The Essentials?

Summary:

• Synchronises Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook
• Options for two way or one way Synchronisation

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

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Popularity: 19% [?]

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Firstly Apologies

Apologies to my regular readers who visited the site in the last couple of days, particularly those of you expecting the report on my testing of Google Calendar Sync. Those of you who visited may have noticed some problems with the page layout and missing icons or pictures. What turned out to be a relatively small file in one of the server directories caused me huge problems.

The Problem

I could not access the blog through the Admin interface which is used to manage the blog in all sorts of ways. Posting, managing comments, setting options, adding and removing plugins which provide additional functions, etc. So although readers were seeing minor problems their were major ones behind the scenes. As I though it was a plugin that I had recently added that streamlined the use of the admin interface I started there but had to work through the server file interface rather than the blog admin interface. Anyway, having moved files to temporary folders, deleted files, checked file permissions and done all sorts of other things one of my Google searches turned up an obscure solution. Which pointed me in the right direction. To cut a long story short there was an .htaccess file in the plugins directory with 4 lines in it that was the cause of the problem. I renamed this and hey-presto I had access to the admin panel again .

All then I had to do then was put back together everything as it was before, one step at a time and checking each step in case on of the plugins was creating the rogue file. This took a very long time

In retrospect I should have resorted to installing the last site backup but hey you live and learn .

The Happy Event

My first grandson was born yesterday (I already have two granddaughters). They light up my life.

Other Relevant Posts

GTD – Getting Things Done

News – Google Calendar Sync Released – Sync with Outlook & More

10 Ways to Save & Protect Your Data – Even files You Just Saved or Text You Just Typed

Technorati Tags: Freeware, Getting Things Done, Google, GTD, Impartial Review, Independent Review, Outlook, Pro Reviewer, ProReviewer, Utilities, Windows, Windows XP, Backup

Popularity: 15% [?]

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