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TreeSize Professional 2.0
Find out which folders are the largest on your drives. Treesize
Professional shows you the size, allocated and wasted space, the
number of files, 3D bar charts and pie charts, the last access
date and much more information for several folders or drives you
choose.
- Figure: TreeSize Window
TreeSize Web Site
Another one is Folder Sizes
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WinZip
WinZip brings the convenience of Windows to the use of Zip files and other
compression formats. The optional wizard interface makes zipping and unzipping
easier than ever. WinZip features built-in support for CAB files and for popular
Internet file formats such as TAR, gzip, UUencode, BinHex, and MIME. ARJ, LZH, and
ARC files are supported via external programs. WinZip interfaces to most virus scanners.
Eventhough most Windows comes with its own Zipping program, Winzip is still good and allows
users to span multiple disks.
- Figure: Winzip
Winzip Download at Tucows
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Skype
Welcome to the future of voice communication! Skype is an easy to use piece of software that allows you to make phone calls over the Internet at a fraction of the cost of
regular telephone calls.
All you need to get up and running is a headset that plugs into
your computer, and some bandwidth.
- Figure: The Skype Window is very easy to use
Skype Website
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Fullshot
You need a good screenshot utility because a picture can tell a thousand words. FullShot is a screenshot
utility for users who needs an effortless, effective way to work with "snapshots" of Windows screens. It's
perfect for images you want to include in manuals, training handouts, presentations, marketing materials,
and web pages. You can also use FullShot to print screens directly to any printers connected to your PC.
I might of made it number 1, however the support for this product is unfriendly.
- Figure: Screenshot of the Fullshot windows
Fullshot Web Site
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Command Sync
Theres a lot of ways to make sure you have a backup, the common way is to store your files on a server,
but with notebooks everywhere its is not a good option.
Comm Sync is a utility which you can configure to copy all the directories you want and copy it to
the server. It will copy only changes and you can set it up in task scheduler and forget about it.
CmdSync is the command line version of FileSync designed for batch and/or scheduled synchronisation.
It is completely parameter driven and allows synchronisation in either or both directions as
well as optionally including sub-folders and handling the timestamp incompatibility of different file systems.
- Figure: Cmd Sync command line tool
Cmd Sync Web Site
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File Sync
FileSync is our file/folder synchronisation utility and is the most complete solution for
keeping files up to date between your notebook and desktop or workstation and server.
By simply specifying source and target folder paths and the file types that you require,
FileSync will produce a comparison list of the relevant files showing which need to be copied
and in which direction. You then have the option to filter the list, examine specific files
for differences and change copy directions before going ahead with the synchronisation process.
The binary comparison capability is ideal for checking the integrity of CD-R and CD-RW recordings.
- Figure: File Sync synchronises your local computer to a file server
File Sync Web Site
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Folder Share
FolderShare allows you to create a private peer-to-peer network that will help you to synchronize files across
multiple devices and access or share files with colleagues and friends.
By using FolderShare together with MSN desktop search, you can even search your computer's local content remotely and download
files from your computer from anywhwere.
- Figure: Folder Share helps you to sync files over Internet
Sharing photos via Folder Share is much faster and easier than using emails.
Folder Share Web Site
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Live Mesh
Live Mesh puts you at the center of your digital world, seamlessly connecting you to the people, devices, programs, and information you care about—available wherever you happen to be.
Imagine all your devices—PCs, and soon Macs and mobile phones—working together to give you anywhere access to the information you care about.
Learn more features about Live Mesh.
- Figure: Live Mesh helps you to sync files over Internet
Live Mesh is similar with File Sync,Sharing files via Live Mesh is also faster and easier than using emails.
Live Mesh Web Site
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VMWare
VMware Workstation is virtual machine software for technical professionals. It lets you
work on multiple operating systems on a single computer. You spend less time configuring
hardware, installing software, and rebooting or reconfiguring systems, and more time developing,
testing, and deploying applications and delivering support. VMware Workstation gives you immediate
access to the operating systems and applications you need to get your job done now.
- Figure: Windows 2000 running VMWare with Windows XP
VMWare Web Site
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Windows Benchmarking Utility For Performance (Sisoft Sandra)
Running out of bribes to entice your computer-savvy friend to check on your
PC? This utility's benchmarking, diagnostic, testing, and tune-up tools gather
and report information about your system's hardware and resources.
You can check components ranging from your CPU, BIOS, and PCI bus, to your
printer, CD-ROM drive, and modem. A built-in wizard helps you gather the information
to optimize your system. You can save, print, fax, and email system reports
from within the program.
- Figure: Benchmarking Utilities
Sisoft Sandra Web Site
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UltraEdit (IDM Computer Solutions Inc.)
UltraEdit is a simple text editing program that picks up the functionality that Notepad leaves out.
UltraEdit will allow you to edit Text, Hex and HTML files in the one user friendly environment. It has
smart indenting for when you're editing code, macro recording, advanced search and replace functions.
When you want to work on a .txt file, it's important to associate it with a proper editor, UltraEdit
is just such a tool. There are other third-party editors about, but this is the one I like the best.
- Figure: UltraEdit
IDM Computer Solutions Inc Web Site
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MadOnion PCMark2002
PCMark2002 is a benchmarking tool used to measure generic PC performance in home and office use.
PCMark2002 is unique in that it measures computer performance at a low level. As a result, the
program is relatively small - only 8.8 MB to download.
It also has an integrated Online ResultBrowser that instantly compares results against the world's
largest database of performance data. This application can be very helpful for managers to find out how
good their computers really are; e.g. when their employees complain about performance.
PCMark2002 is available in a feature limited free Version.
FutureMark Website
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Backup
Robocopy is a powerful tool for mass data migration and server consolidations.
The tool operates as a command-line and is included in the Microsoft
Windows 2000 Resource Kit. Robocopy is utilised on a regular basis at
SSW, running daily at lunch time (1:30pm), hence ensuring that files
are secure and backed up.
- Figure: Robocopy
Robocopy Website
Another good backup program is Arctor. It is not free, but has more functions than Robocopy.
Advantages are:
- It zips all the files it backs-up saving space
- It can store different versions of files and delete them after there is to many versions or the
time period is over. That allows you to have full weeks of changes worth on one disk
Disadvantages are:
- No command line arguments can be used
- The backup process is very slow as each file is ziped
- Figure: Arctor GUI
Arctor Website
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Bginfo
Bginfo is a little sysinternals application that will create a background image with information from the computer that it is running on. This is great when you have a rack full of computers and a KVM to switch between them. You can see quickly and easily which serve you are connected to.
You add a link to the computer setup folder and whenever you login a new bitmap will be generated with updated information and taking into account your resolution. This means that you can display info like available hard disk and uptime and it will always be up to date.
- Figure: Bginfo in action
Bginfo Website
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Beyond Compare
Beyond Compare is a powerful time-saving utility for comparing files
and folders on your Windows system. Beyond Compare does both FTP and
Folder Synchronization. The UI for comparison is the same for both FTP and File-based modes.
Get more Details about Beyond Compare by 3rd Party Web Development Tools
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Driver Agent
We can use Windows Update to
download the latest patch for our operation system; but how do I keep my hardware drivers up to date?
Driver Agent can help you to scan your computer and generate a driver status report for you, and if
you registered, you can even download the latest driver from them.
- Figure: Scan result for my laptop computer
Driver Agent
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SSW Diagnostics
In SSW, we have our own tool to keep our system update to date by checking every
executables and dlls in the system.
- Figure: SSW Diagnostics scan result
SSW Diagnostics
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K-Lite Codec Pack, Real Alternative, QuickTime Alternative
People install QuickTime to play .mov.
People install Real Player to play real media files eg. rmvb, .rm.
We don't actually need that, the easier way is just install the codec, and you
can use 1 media player (your favourite one, usually Media Player) to play all
different formats.
The best one is (Lei's favorite):
- Vista Codec Package (includeing RealMedia and QuickTime components)
Alternative are (Ryan's favorite):
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DU Meter
DU Meter provides an accurate account of the data which is flowing through your computer's network connection. This readout is presented in both numerical and graphical format, in real time.
- Figure: DU Meter can show your network connection
DU Meter
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WhatsUp Gold
WhatsUp Gold is the world's leading network management solution with over 70,000 networks reliably managed worldwide. With four distinct product editions all based on the same scalable architecture, WhatsUp Gold delights network engineers and networking-oriented IT pros with powerful capabilities such as automated device discovery, graphical network mapping, SNMP v1-3 and WMI monitoring, and versatile alerting, notification and reporting functionality.
- Figure: WhatsUp Gold can help you do more network management works
WhatsUp Gold