Category: Tools

  • Toolkit essentials – Physical tools

    Any and all jobs have a few tools of the trade that are essential to the successful completion of your tasks. So, too, with IT support. Whether in the office or out working with a client, I usually have a few tools with me, such as:   Screw drivers This set from DealExtreme has served…

  • Turn any website into a desktop widget

    AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) looks like one of the contenders for the way things are going in terms of simple programming interfaces. One example of this is Adobe Digital Editions, which runs on AIR, and I have recently discovered a second, called Snippage. Simply put, Snippage allows you to track a specific portion of a…

  • Three free tools to restore and recover files

    I’ve been there, and I’m sure you have too. You’ve spent hours on a document, you go to bed, and the next morning, it’s gone! Oh crud! Now what? Here are three free Windows utilities that have worked charms for me:   The first thing I’d try is an utility called Free File Recovery by…

  • Free Registry and Spyware utility

    A while back, I was tipped off about an application called Glary Utilities, billed as “The #1 free, powerful and all-in-one utility in the world market!” This piqued my interest, and I installed it, deciding to try it out, as it has received favorable reviews from several places, including CNet. The installation is just as…

  • A better way to see trends

    An old joke says that there are three kinds of lies; black lies, white lies and the internal polling data of political parties. The latter example is typically statistics, and while statistics can be presented in such a way as to prove almost anything, raw, unprocessed statistics are a great tool.   One of my…

  • ISO burning – as easy as it comes

    From time to time, I come across having to burn an ISO onsite. I usually carry with me an external hard drive on which I have a few essential ISO’s, such as Ubuntu, UBCD or GParted. Now, while I have software to burn ISO’s on my computer, I don’t always bring my computer with me…

  • Finding your (serial) keys

    You know the situation; you’ve got problems with your computer, and need to reinstall it. However, you’ve got loads of software installed, and need the serial keys for them. What you need is a keyfinder. There are many out there, but the one I’ve found to be most useful is called the Magical Jelly Bean…

  • Taking screenshots of DVD’s

    I’ve been having a lot of problems getting screenshots of DVDs I am reviewing. Searching online, I’ve found many solutions, but none that have worked consistently. I decided to try out a few things myself, and here’s my solution for the problem:   To do this, you’ll need to have Media Player Classic installed. (You…

  • A better Task Manager

    Windows Task Manager is a decent enough tool, but it doesn’t really give you all that much information, nor is it always able to do what you need it to, such as end certain processes. By default, the Processes view looks something like this:   While this is enough for most users, it isn’t always…

  • At a glance: Process Explorer

    Process Explorer Originally uploaded by razumny At a technical seminar, I was introduced to the magic of Process Explorer, a tool developed by SysInternals (now a Microsoft-owned company), which picks up where the taskmanager leaves off. Found here, it is contained within a 1.5 MB zip-file, and it runs without installation. At a glance, I…