Great Applications (That are safe to use!)

[tunnelrat]

I began my IT career by fixing my computer so that I could (drumroll) continue to play whatever game it was that I had such a burning desire to play.

Over the last couple of decades I have picked up some noteworthy programs that make life easier.

Was talking to a friend online today, and this one came up, so I figgered I would share it with the current online community I am tormenting:

Spacemonger

http://www.sixty-five.cc/sm/v1x.php

This program is an easy to use file system scanner that will give you an easy to read graphical representation of where all of your drive space is being consumed (i.e., where all of your porn you thought you deleted is hidden).

Simply run it, and take a look at the output.

The version I am listing is ancient, but it is free and it DOES work with Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 (32 and 64 bits on all counts).

This program will crash now and again on multiple refreshes of very large drives, but it simply requires you to launch the program once again.

So, if you are constantly running out of space, or just haven't given your drive a good cleaning in awhile, check this program out... I have found some crazy huge files on numerous systems that shouldn't have even been there... nets a lot of extra space for more AH screenshots and movies =)

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I began my IT career by fixing my computer so that I could (drumroll) continue to play whatever game it was that I had such a burning desire to play.

Over the last couple of decades I have picked up some noteworthy programs that make life easier.

Was talking to a friend online today, and this one came up, so I figgered I would share it with the current online community I am tormenting:

Spacemonger

http://www.sixty-five.cc/sm/v1x.php

This program is an easy to use file system scanner that will give you an easy to read graphical representation of where all of your drive space is being consumed (i.e., where all of your porn you thought you deleted is hidden).

Simply run it, and take a look at the output.

The version I am listing is ancient, but it is free and it DOES work with Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 (32 and 64 bits on all counts).

This program will crash now and again on multiple refreshes of very large drives, but it simply requires you to launch the program once again.

So, if you are constantly running out of space, or just haven't given your drive a good cleaning in awhile, check this program out... I have found some crazy huge files on numerous systems that shouldn't have even been there... nets a lot of extra space for more AH screenshots and movies =)

Ccleaner is also a good tool to free up space. Useless backups can amount up to tens of gigabytes from the operating system alone.

[tunnelrat]

Ccleaner is also a good tool to free up space. Useless backups can amount up to tens of gigabytes from the operating system alone.

SO funny you mentioned that... I was going to throw it up on here next!!!

Excellent program, sir.


The official Ccleaner site: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

(Don't click Ads for other "cleaners")

[Bizman]

CCleaner is one of my favourites, too.

Many people fill mailboxes and slow down threads by sending photos of original size. XP Powertoys has an excellent Image Resizer, but since many of us already use more recent Windows versions, the open source alternative is a better choice to recommend: Image Resizer by Codeplex. Just right-click a picture file (or several), choose the size, OK and you have a small file to send. The new one seems to have noticed that most screens nowadays are wide.

Hint: Small or even Mobile load fast on bulletin boards such as this... 

[BaldEagl]

Here's one of my favorites that I've been using for years; Wallmaster:

http://www.tropicalwares.com/wallmast.html

The free version only lets you load 50 wallpapers.  You can have them change on start-up or on a timed basis or change them manually.  Not a system tool but a great little app.  I actually upgraded to the Pro version years ago but the free version is fine.

[mthrockmor]

Would you recommend either of these for a laptop using Windows 7? I checked last night and my lap top has over 90 programs running though I don't know which ones I can turn off. My home PC has 36 running. And I stopped using gamebooster because AH community said its bad.

Thanks in advance!

Boo

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Here's one of my favorites that I've been using for years; Wallmaster:

http://www.tropicalwares.com/wallmast.html

The free version only lets you load 50 wallpapers.  You can have them change on start-up or on a timed basis or change them manually.  Not a system tool but a great little app.  I actually upgraded to the Pro version years ago but the free version is fine.

Win7/win8/OSX/linux has this feature natively. It's only needed in XP basically.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Would you recommend either of these for a laptop using Windows 7? I checked last night and my lap top has over 90 programs running though I don't know which ones I can turn off. My home PC has 36 running. And I stopped using gamebooster because AH community said its bad.

Thanks in advance!

Boo

You can start by running msconfig from your start menu search. You'll find several sheets of functions, including startup programs. Those are the extra programs that are started up on every bootup - on a laptop there will be all kinds of programs for handling special shortcut keys, touchpad etc. There can be nasty adware-like stuff like toolbars loading etc. too. Some are necessary and some are just a waste of space. You can experiment by enabling or disabling stuff from the startup. Do not touch any of the 'services' in msconfig or other settings. I repeat, do not touch them. Msconfig is too stupid to warn you from disabling critical system services, it's much safer to run services.msc to tweak the services - but even then be prepared to break something if you don't already know what you need and what you don't.

Any experimenting with abovementioned settings is at your own risk and at full knowledge that you may end up reinstalling your OS if you disable the wrong thing in the wrong place and don't know how to manually fix it. Then again only through experiment one can learn. I've messed up my OS many times - but now I know what I can do safely and what I can't

[Bizman]

If I remember right, Win7 has an option to hide Windows processes in Msconfig. What's left, is "safe" to disable - safe in the meaning that your computer will start even without them. You might want some programs to start automatically, like antivirus and such...

Ccleaner also has an option to disable or totally remove startup entries. On the good side is, that it doesn't show critical OS entries. Totally removing entries by accident is something one has to try to avoid by being careful.

[The Fugitive]

Would you recommend either of these for a laptop using Windows 7? I checked last night and my lap top has over 90 programs running though I don't know which ones I can turn off. My home PC has 36 running. And I stopped using gamebooster because AH community said its bad.

Thanks in advance!

Boo

OK this is the easy way for "computer dumbies". Use this program and this site to do this.

This is an easy way to cut the "crap" out and it is a very safe way to do it. The program is AlacrityPC. It is a program you can use, much like gamebooster, to turn off program temporarily. The site is BlackVipers site. He has under his "Popular Content" section of his page "list" of the most common processes running on computers and he list what is what and what can be turned of safely.

Install the program and create a profile. Go to BlackVipers site and compare your processes with his list for the operating system you have. turn off everything you can. Save the profile and run it. If you screwed something up and the computer freezes or crashes or does some other weird thing, just reboot your computer. AlacrityPC doesn't change anything on your computer, it just turns them off. Rebooting your computer will start the computer in the same configuration as it was in before you started messing with it.

For a non computer geek using msconfig, or services.msc can be a bit daunting. This way is safer and not so terrible an exercise. It will take some time as there are a lot of services to go through, but you really can't mess it up. Good Luck!

[100Coogn]

I've read on here some time ago, that services should be disabled using Services, found in Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services and not msconfig.
Don't now how true it is, just throwing it out here.

Coogan

[Bizman]

I've read on here some time ago, that services should be disabled using Services, found in Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services and not msconfig.
Don't now how true it is, just throwing it out here.

Coogan

I've read the same. Through Services there's the possibility to set a service to start either automatically or manually, the third choice being disable. Msconfig's Services tab only has a check mark for on or off. The latter also seems to lack some of the services found on services.msc. Msconfig is a good tool to eliminate startup programs, though, unless they can't be prevented from starting through their own option menus.

[TequilaChaser]

if you use services.msc you will also have the ability to see what is dependent on the service you are checking out, as well as see which service(s) the service you are checking is dependent on....

it also gives a brief description of each service

Hope this helps

TC

[BaldEagl]

Win7/win8/OSX/linux has this feature natively. It's only needed in XP basically.

I wouldn't know as I still use XP.  Started using that app with Win 98.