Raymond.CC Blog

Category: Software

  • Net Guard Meters and Monitors Your Internet Traffic • Raymond.CC

    Depending on who your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is, you could be limited to the amount of data that is uploaded and downloaded every month. I’m lucky enough to be on an unlimited and uncapped service, but that same ISP also offers free broadband where the bandwidth is capped at 2GB each month which is mainly for light users. The trouble is it wouldn’t take much effort to go over a low usage limit these days and possibly incur extra charges.

    With that in mind, if you have some sort of usage limit on your broadband connection or would just like to keep track of what is using the bandwidth, a tool that could be of great use is something to monitor what programs on your PC are using the internet and how much data they’re consuming.

    As you might expect, there are a few bandwidth monitor programs around and one or two have been covered here before. A few days ago I came across another piece of software to monitor your internet traffic called Cucusoft Net Guard. While Net Guard is primarily a program that watches how much internet data is going in and out of your computer and notifies you if specified limits are being reached, it can also be used as a basic security monitoring tool allowing any process or service accessing the internet to be monitored, and if necessary, terminated.

     Although Net Guard is freeware, it does require you to register for a serial number with your email address. But that’s not a problem if you don’t want to give away your personal email, simply use a disposable mail service. I did and the serial was received with 20 seconds. Just a small note; the serial number I was sent had a comma on the end which as it turns out, was part of the serial number.

    When you first run the program after install, the settings window will appear and ask you to enter a monthly bandwidth limit if you want to set one accompanied by a visual alarm which can be set to trigger at a certain threshold. Then when the settings have been confirmed a small meter will be displayed on the desktop showing the current upload/download speed. This meter can be dragged anywhere, made translucent or disabled by using it’s right click context menu.

    Hover on the meter and you will be presented with a popup window that shows the daily usage statistics including programs that have downloaded or uploaded the most, their current activity and the total bandwidth consumed in the day so far.

    Double clicking on the activity bar or choosing “show main window” from the icon will open the main interface. Although it might not be as advanced and full of options as some other monitoring software, it is presented in an easy to use and functional way.

    The Net Usage tab gives the current information about the bandwidth limits including current usage and even projected usage. The lower half of the window is a weekly/monthly/yearly chart which shows the usage for any given period. Hover over a bar to get the process and total traffic stats for that date.

    The Net Monitor tab is where you can get a more detailed look at which processes and services are accessing, or have accessed the internet. It’s from here you can find out if certain programs are, or have been using the internet connection when they shouldn’t, or which processes are sucking up too much precious bandwidth. Any running process or service can be terminated by right clicking on it and clicking the only option available, Kill. Trying to kill anything like svchost.exe will throw up a warning that killing the process could have unforeseen consequences. Take note…

    The Connections window displays the current processes and established connections along with ports information and the local and remote IP address. This window is for display only, there is no user interaction in here.

    The Speed test tab is pretty obvious and will simply run a quick broadband speed test. It takes around 20-30 seconds but I wouldn’t put much trust in the results as the speed it gave me was around 1/3 of what it should have. Speed tests need to be run from a location as close to you as possible, but a quick trace showed this test was being performed from Houston, Texas in the U.S. so is never going to be very accurate for the rest of the world.

    The last tab is Statements and produces very detailed PDF document reports for the date periods either listed in dated order or through a custom date range. The report is pretty good with totals, averages, most active downloads and uploads, and complete process usage. You obviously need a PDF reader to view the document.

    A small thing to note is perhaps memory usage is a little on the high side sometimes, fluctuating between 20MB and 40MB but unless you’re a bit low on RAM, it’s not really a major issue.

    Cucusoft Net Guard works on Windows XP, Vista, 2003, Windows 7 and 8.

    Website and Download Net Guard

     

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  • Control Multiple Windows Displays with MultiMonitorTool • Raymond.CC

    Just about anybody with more than a single display connected to their Windows system will tell you Windows itself is not great at handling the situation. It has always been a rather awkward affair in trying to choose what is shown on which display. Although software drivers from the likes of AMD and nVidia are a lot better these days at handling things like multiple displays and extra options like screen rotation, it still comes down to how well Windows manages the extra displays.

    The problem has always been in selecting the monitor to be the primary display. If you want to do something simple like play a game or run a certain application on your secondary monitor or TV, it has to be changed to the primary display. The majority of software will only open on the screen identified as the primary which makes it rather frustrating to keep switching back and forth.

    Nirsoft has come up with a utility to try and make it easier to manage multiple monitors and switching between the primary and secondary displays. MultiMonitorTool can quickly enable or disable the selected display without needing to dig through driver or control panel settings, as well as the ability to alter the primary display at the click of a button or press of a hotkey.

    In addition, MultiMonitorTool has a preview window option that can show the selected monitor’s screen inside a resizable window. And also you can easily view information for, and move an application’s window from one display to the next, or directly to the primary.

    This is another small, completely portable and standalone program that is free to use. Just unzip the 32bit or 64bit download and you’re all set. Do note that this tool only works if your desktop is extended to multiple monitors, not if you have duplicate displays across multiple monitors.

    The main window is split into two halves. The top pane will display information about the monitor or TV that is available including its co-ordinates, whether it is an active or primary display, the name, the adapter and device ID. Selecting a display will enable the toolbar buttons to be clicked or the right click menu can be called. You can choose to turn the display on or off or switch the current selection to be the primary monitor.

    Hotkeys are available for most of the programs functions so you can minimize MultiMonitorTool to the tray with ‘Options’ -> ‘Put icon on tray’ and then use the key combinations such as Ctrl+F9 to set a primary monitor.

    The lower pane shows any windows that are currently open on the selected display. Information such as the window co-ordinates, size, window class and process details is given. Selecting a window and right clicking or using the toolbar will allow you to move an application window to the next monitor or move the window directly to the primary display.

    The preview window can be useful if you don’t have a view of another screen because you can select it and then monitor the chosen display from the preview window. It is activated by the left most toolbar button, ‘View‘ -> ‘Activate Monitor Preview‘, or by pressing F2. The window can be resized by dragging from the edge, the resize will be aspect ratio locked. The preview quality setting can be set as high or low from ‘Options‘ -> ‘Monitor Preview Mode‘.

    MultiMonitorTool also supports the use of command line options which you can insert into batches or shortcuts. A display can be enabled, disabled, switched or set as primary by simply calling the command and the monitor name (eg; \\.\DISPLAY2) or number (2) taken from the MultiMonitorTool display name column. The /MoveWindow command can also be used to move a single or batch of windows between displays.

    Here’s a quick rundown of some useful commands with examples, consult the Nirsoft website for more details such as the saving and loading of configuration files.

    /disable – “MultiMonitorTool.exe /disable 2” will disable display 2.
    /enable – MultiMonitorTool.exe /enable \\.\DISPLAY2 will enable display 2.
    /switch – MultiMonitorTool.exe /switch 1 2 will switch displays 1 and 2 on or off.
    /setprimary – MultiMonitorTool.exe /SetPrimary 3 sets display 3 as primary.
    /movewindow – MultiMonitorTool.exe /movewindow 1 All 2 will move all open windows from display 1 to display 2. This command can also be used to move windows by process name, window title or class name.

    The last thing worth a mention is the program allows you to save and restore the current configuration of all displays on the system. This includes display resolution, colour depth, and display position. These options are aceessed through the File menu.

    MultiMonitorTool works from Windows XP right up to Windows 8 (32bit and 64bit).

    Website and Download MultiMonitorTool

  • An All in One Tool to Backup, Erase and Encrypt Files • Raymond.CC

    These days, one of the most important tasks you perform on your computer is making sure your personal information and data is as secure as possible. You don’t have to go far around the web to hear horror stories of users not taking the necessary precautions and living to regret it. Whether it’s financial, personal or just important to you, keeping your electronic data safe is essential these days.

    Being secure is not just about protecting your files either. Keeping important files protected while on your PC is just one area which needs to be addressed. But backing up your precious files is something else that is often overlooked by some people because of the “it won’t happen to me” attitude some of them unfortunately have. Also, not to be forgotten about is making sure certain data that has actually been deleted is not recoverable. As many of you know, when a file is emptied from the recycle bin there is still a window of opportunity for it to be undeleted using something like Recuva or Wise Data Recovery.

    Here on Raymond’s we cover a lot of utilities in these areas because of their importance in keeping users safe from the pitfalls of storing personal or important data digitally. Usually though, when you mention file backup, file encryption and secure file erasing, you would be looking at two or three different utilities to get the job done.

    File Secure Free is a piece of software that aims to be an all in one security tool to let you perform all those tasks from the relative comfort of one simple to use interface. It actually boasts four different primary functions; simple file and folder backup to keep a secure copy of important data, encrypt or decrypt selected local files, secure file shredding, and also a function to lock your USB stick or external storage device with a password.

    File Secure Free is only a couple of Megs download and installs without pushing any adware on you. Portable application fans needn’t feel left out here because you can simply extract the installer with 7Zip and then delete the $COMMONFILES and $PLUGINSDIR folders to turn it into a portable program.

    The program certainly can’t be accused of being difficult to use or confusing, everything is there in a straightforward and simple to understand interface.

    The first option is the file backup option, and while it’s not designed to be some sort of Acronis TrueImage alternative, it can backup files and folders and encrypt them with a password. Select what you want to backup using the Add Files/Folders buttons, highlight what to backup and then click Backup. The output will be a .dfi file and will be encrypted using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm.

    A dialog box will ask for a password to use for the encryption, a minimum of six characters will be required. Recovery is easy enough, Browse for the dfi file and Browse for the destination folder to put the files. Then click Recover.

    File Encryption works in a not too dissimilar way to backup. Select the file to encrypt (any type of file is accepted) or selecting the folder option will process all the files in the folder, not the folder itself. You will instantly be asked to choose a password and the items will show in the program window as ‘Encrypted’. Each file will have the extension of .dfc and has to be decrypted again with File Secure Free.

    You probably don’t need me to tell you that as with file encryption, file shredding needs to be used with care. It’s pretty obvious that erase the wrong file and you won’t get it back again. The algorithms listed in the dropdown box are a bit vague in the number of passes they use. For instance, the ‘Gutman algorithm’ I believe will likely be the full 35 pass erase and ‘Erase and write random data‘ could be a single pass, enough for most mechanical HDD’s. The other three methods I suspect will be somewhere between 3 and 7 passes. Simply select your files or folder the same way as Backup and Encrypt.

    The last option is to lock an external USB stick, memory card or hard drive. Insert the drive, select it from the dropdown and click the Lock button. After entering the password the drive will need to be removed and reinserted. It will then show as ‘Unformatted’ or ‘Unreadable’ by the computer and will remain that way until you unlock it again.

    Although not loaded with options, File Secure Free is definitely a useful toolbox for performing four security related tasks from a single utility and can backup, erase and encrypt files with ease.

    Compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7 32bit and 64bit

    Website and Download File Secure Free

    Didn’t find what you want? The links below could help:

  • WinPatrol Monitors Critical System Resources and Alerts on Changes • Raymond.CC

    WinPatrol is a multi function utility which has been designed to help monitor and protect your system, helping to maintain the security and performance of your computer. It allows you to find out and better understand what programs are attempting to change your settings or what programs are trying to add themselves to the system. WinPatrol monitors and helps you maintain control over several important areas of the operation system that are often targeted by malware and spyware.

    One of the areas WinPatrol can monitor and control is a number of  start-up locations including the registry Run and Runonce entries, the start-up folder and also hidden start locations. There is also the option to move start-up items to the Delayed Start tab to delay programs not needed immediately, helping boot speed. You can also terminate active tasks and scheduled tasks. The cookie control feature allows you to automatically delete cookies from Chrome or Internet Explorer when a predefined word or phrase is contained within them. Additional features include a WHOIS lookup tool, view the HOSTS file, registry monitoring and the viewing of ActiveX  controls,  hidden files, file types, services and IE Helper objects. WinPatrol aims to be easy to use, but still offer enough powerful features to make it an essential tool to have. There is a free version and a paid version available which obviously unlocks some of the features.

    WinPatrol also has a stand-alone portable version called WinPatrolToGo which can be run from a USB flash drive or other portable device. A useful option if you don’t plan on keeping WinPatrol installed and only want to use it for a couple of quick checks or changes. Even if you don’t use WinPatrol that often yourself, it definitely comes in handy for troubleshooting on other systems and is a utility you’ll still want in your toolkit.

    WinPatrol Features:

    The PLUS version of WinPatrol costs $29.95 and gives your computer real-time infiltration detection and also access to the WinPatrol PLUS knowledgebase which is available online 24/7. Right click on just about any entry in the program and select “Plus Info…” to open a webpage. The knowledgebase is very useful because it gives very detailed information about the process or service for mere humans to read, not just computer geeks. Some of the process information even contains links and program tips that might be useful.

    If you cannot afford the PLUS version of WinPatrol, here is a trick on how to view the PLUS info for a process. The below example is to view the PLUS info for iexplorer.exe (Internet Explorer). If you want to check for another process, simply replace iexplore and iexplore.exe (in bold) with the process that you want to check.

    http://www.winpatrol.com/db/pluscloud/iexplore.html?iexplore.exe&1

    As for WinPatrol’s Real-time Infiltration Detection (R.I.D.) technology, the only way to get it working is to activate the PLUS version. Honestly speaking, I would rather use the free version of WinPatrol and spend $29.95 on a decent quality Antivirus package than spend $29.95 on WinPatrol PLUS alone. The big difference is antivirus programs are subscription based and you’ll need to renew every year but as for WinPatrol, you only need to pay once because it’s a single user license that can be used on multiple systems. The good thing is now and again, Billp Studios have a promotional offer and the last time around I got a lifetime license for $0.99! If you can catch the promo at the right time, definitely worth it for a dollar.

    The knowledgebase is good but not the best solution because it only checks the process name and not MD5 hash like what RunScanner does. A good trojan developer can easily code an undetectable version of trojan and injects itself into a legitimate process name. I tried infecting my test computer with an old trojan (bifrost) that is no longer in development and WinPatrol PLUS immediately detects a new auto startup program. I removed the auto start up entry and also killed the process (iexplore.exe) that has been injected by the trojan. Rebooted the computer and the trojan infects the computer all over again. I was unable to remove the trojan with WinPatrol…

    On the plus side, WinPatrol is a small and lightweight tool that is easy to understand and has more useful features than something like HijackThis. And the knowledge base is useful at helping to find the processes you’re not sure about. On the not so great side, even though it’s a lifetime license, the PLUS version does seem a bit over priced considering  the only things you really get are access to the PLUS knowledge base, real-time infiltration detection and can monitor parts of the registry. This might be a small added layer of protection on top of other security software, but make sure you have secured yourself with the appropriate Antivirus, Firewall and Antitmalware type software before you consider buying WinPatrol PLUS.

    Download WinPatrol

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  • Encrypt and Hide Files and Messages Using Our Secret • Raymond.CC

    When you have sensitive or personal information stored on your PC, it is imperative that this is securely protected in some way. This is usually achieved by password protecting and encrypting these files so nobody but you can access them with the correct password. The problem with this is that unscrupulous people who want to access your private information still know that something is stored inside the encrypted files. Another and perhaps even more interesting method is having your data hidden away so nobody even knows it is there in the first place. If another person can’t see and doesn’t even know you might have a file containing all your passwords sitting there ‘hiding in plain sight’, how are they going to do anything about it?

    To paraphrase from Wikipedia, Steganography is; “the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one, apart from the sender and intended recipient, suspects the existence of the message, a form of security through obscurity.” This type of security has been around for hundreds of years and in the digital world for a few decades. Something like this is probably as relevant now as it’s ever been because of the sheer amount of confidential information people have scattered across their digital devices and online.

    Encrypting a file is good, encrypting it and hiding it inside another file such as a picture or executable is even better. Anybody can open the photo or run the executable and it will behave like you would expect it to. The only time a person can even suspect there is other information stored in these files is if you go a bit crazy and do something like adding a 20MB file to a tiny 50K JPEG.

    Our Secret is a Windows utility that will handle the task of allowing you to hide one, or a number of files or simple text messages inside another file while also giving the option to password protect the data as well. The program is very easy to use and breaks down the process into a simple series of steps to hide or unhide. Although only an installable version is available, the program itself is only a single executable which can be extracted with Universal Extractor. An ini file will be created in the executables location.

    The main window is split into two halves, one for hiding and encrypting and the other to reverse the procedure.

    To hide something in a file:
    1. Open the requester and select a file to act as the ‘carrier’. I have tried this using a number of image and music formats as well as executables, office documents and archives including 7Zip and Zip. All opened themselves successfully and hid the files and messages attached to them. The only type of file it doesn’t really work on is text based files like txt, ini, Html etc.
    2. Click the ‘Add’ button where you can either select any file to be hidden or enter a text message by entering a subject and typing your message in the box. The number of messages or files that can be added appears to be unlimited although you don’t want the carrier file to appear ridiculously large for what it is. Adding big files to a tiny original carrier file is much more likely to arouse suspicion.
    3. Simply enter your chosen password twice if you want to add one and press ‘Hide’. After selecting the output filename, the job is done. The file can then be executed or viewed as normal, the only difference will be a larger file than before. Do bear in mind that if you choose to edit the carrier file such as a document or image, for obvious reasons the piggybacked data will be lost.

    To unhide the data again, you or the person you’re sending the file to will need to use this program to get it back.
    1. Point to the carrier file which was created during the hide process.
    2. If you originally used password encryption to hide the data, enter this to unhide it.
    3. Click the ‘Unhide’ button. Any hidden files or messages will show in the window and double clicking on them will allow each one to be saved.

    Having a look at the output file with a hex editor shows there is simply a number of unreadable characters tagged on the end of the file. Even if someone knew it was there, they would still have to try and decrypt it or know the password to reveal the information. But if you don’t tell anyone what you have done and it’s not blatantly obvious with the files size, who’s going to know? The whole process is incredibly simple but if used sensibly can prove to be a very powerful way of adding an extra layer of protection to your most valuable data and sensitive information. A very useful utility to encrypt and hide files as well for that extra piece of mind.

    Compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7 32 and 64bit

    Website and Download

    Related posts:

  • Hide Your Secret Files by Embedding it to another Safe Source
  • How Terrorist Hide Messages in Images
  • Encrypt Files and Folders With Pictures and Not Passwords
  • A Simple Tool to Encrypt Private and Personal Files
  • Stealth or Hide Running Program from Appearing in Taskbar or Traybar

  • Deletion Extension Monitor Log Files Deleted in Windows • Raymond.CC

    Few days ago I visited NoVirusThanks, a security website that is well known for its free multi-engine antivirus scanner that allows you to upload suspicious files and have it scanned with 14 different antivirus engines. It used to support more than 20 different antivirus brands but now only left with 14 which I’m not sure why. At their products page I noticed that they posted a very interesting tool called Deletion Extension Monitor (DEM) which is designed to monitor and log files deleted in the system.

    When Deletion Extension Monitor was newly released, there was no trial version but I was very eager to try it out so I bought a license. I got the activation code instantly after payment but unfortunately the code didn’t work and kept on reporting that the code has already been activated. I emailed the support team and within 24 hours I got a new activation key to activate the software. When I managed to activate DEM and ran it, I encountered a second bug which the filename column shows only Z: path and nothing else. Again I contacted them and they provided an update to DEM which fixes the problem. After a couple of months, Deletion Extension Monitor has gone through a few revisions and has fixed numerous bugs plus adding a few nice features.

    Deletion Extension Monitor has a very simple graphical user interface that shows only the necessary information such as date and time, the process that that deleted the files, the full path with filename of the file that was deleted, file extension and also the size of the file. By default it monitors a list of well known extensions and you can easily set it to monitor all file extensions by clicking the Monitoring from the menu bar, select File Extensions and check the “Monitor All File Extensions” option. Instead of monitoring system wide for file deletion, you can set the folder to monitor using the command line option, for example, the command line below would only monitor C:\raymond, C:\paul and C:\juan.

    dem.exe -C:\raymond*C:\paul*C:\juan

    Deletion Extension Monitor

    If you click on the Settings from the menubar and select Configure, you get to enable a really cool and advanced feature where Deletion Extension Monitor can copy low-level files which are normally drivers. It can also run in stealth mode where the program is hidden from the tray icon but do take note that the DEM.exe process is still visible in Windows Task Manager. Simply move the mouse cursor to the Stealth Mode box, left click on it and press any combination of keys to set set it as the hotkey to enable or disable the Stealth Mode.

    Stealth Mode

    As useful as Deletion Extension Monitor is, probably only a handful of users would need to use such tool because normal users don’t really need to constantly monitor what files are being secretly deleted from their computer. Some example usage of Deletion Extension Monitor is to monitor files deleted during the uninstallation of a specific setup file, or even to see if there is a hidden virus, malware or trojan that has been secretly deleting your files without your knowledge.

    There are many tools that logs changes to monitored folders but very specializes in only monitoring deleted files based on file extensions. Another utility that can do what DEM does is Process Monitor. You will need to get the filters right which can be too confusing and powerful to not so advanced users. As previously said, Deletion Extension Monitor used to be a shareware that cost $9.99 for 1 PC license valid for lifetime but somewhere along the way it has turned into a freeware. Deletion Extension Monitor is compatible with Windows 2000 to Windows 7 but only for 32bit.

    Download Deletion Extension Monitor

    Related posts:

  • System Protect Prevents Windows System Files from Deletion
  • Recover Deleted Files or Folders in Windows Vista
  • Run EXE Files As JPG, PNG, GIF Or Under Any Different Extension
  • Restoring accidentally deleted files with Recuva
  • Track Who Modified or Deleted Files in Your Shared Folder

  • Monitor Hard Drive Changes in Real Time with FolderChangesView

    It’s not particularly unusual for your hard drive to show activity when you don’t really expect there to be any, and you’re not quite sure why. Most of the time, it will be perfectly normal things that don’t really require your attention, but sometimes a program might be writing to the drive far more than it needs to. Or even worse, you could have a piece of rogue software trying to set itself up in the Users folder, or a virus calmly going about it’s business of infecting your files. It would be pretty useful from time to time to be able to see what exactly is being written to a drive or folder.

    Not too long ago, I wrote about some tools that can monitor changes to a folder, and then send you notifications when certain conditions are met, and they all did the job. But the utility I’m talking about here I thought was worth a mention in its own right for a couple of reasons. The first and main reason is it was released after I wrote the previous article! Secondly, the utility’s developer certainly deserves a mention because he never lets us down with the quality and usefulness of everything he creates. Nir Sofer of Nirsoft is famous for small, simple and functional tools that don’t offer interfaces cluttered with functions you don’t need. They do the job they were created for, and my USB toolkit is full of them.

    The tool in question is FolderChangesView and handles the task of actively monitoring folders or complete drives in real time, and tells you which files have been modified, created or deleted. It doesn’t offer to give popup windows or allow the running of scripts on a file create or delete trigger, but instead shows all the changes in the main FolderChangesView window. This is certainly more of a diagnostic or troubleshooting tool then other tools of this type. It doesn’t offer system monitoring as comprehensive as something like Sysinternals Process Monitor, but instead focuses on this one task.


    As with all Nirsoft tools, FolderChangesView is a tiny download of under 50K and is completely portable, no .NET requirements like so many portable tools these days. It is also compatible with just about any O/S from Windows 2000 up to Windows 8 32bit and 64bit.

    When the utility is started, it will pop up a window asking for the base folder to monitor and a checkbox for monitoring all the subfolders below the base folder. ‘C:\’ is the default option but obviously can be whatever folder or drive you wish. A folder requester would have been useful here for deep down folders because the location has to be typed in, or copied.

    After that, the program will start to monitor modifications, creations or deletions and display how many times each action has occurred. Other information such as the full path to the file, the file’s extension, and the time of the first event, last event that happened for each file. Then you can identify by looking at the numbers if any files are being excessive with their actions, or you don’t recognise the file causing the excess activity.

    The customary option to create a report file is there which can be in html, csv, xml and txt. To change the folder to monitor while the program is open, press ‘F9’ or go to ‘Options‘ -> ‘Choose Base Folder’.

    Website

    Download FolderChangesView

    Related posts:

  • Monitor Log or Text File Changes in Real Time with Notepad++
  • Simple Real Time Track Folder Changes
  • Drive Speedometer Monitors Hard Drive Read and Write Speed
  • Find Out What Program is Secretly Accessing Your Hard Disk Drive
  • A FREE Hard Disk utility to Benchmark and Test your hard drive

  • OPA-Backup Restores Your Office XP, 2003, 2007 and 2010 Activation • Raymond.CC

    I recently wrote an article about the inconvenience of having to activate Windows 7 and Vista again after reinstalling a clean O/S. In that scenario, a useful tool called Advanced Tokens Manager was able to help and backup the activation, then restore it onto the clean system without the need to activate online or by phone. The tool was also able to do the same with Office 2010 activation files, which is an added bonus. The trouble for me is, I don’t use and don’t really get on with Office 2010 all that well. Call me old fashioned, but I still much prefer, and am perfectly happy to use Office 2003. There’s definitely no desire for me to upgrade to 2007/2010 any time in the near future.

    So for anybody in a similar situation of not having Office 2010, something else is going to be needed to back up the activation files of the other Office products for you. Luckily, I had a bit of good fortune there, as while researching and reading up on the Advanced Tokens Manager utility, what should I come across but another tool to do exactly that! The program is called OPA-Backup and is able to backup the product activation of Microsoft Office XP, 2003, 2007 and 2010. After the Windows reinstall, the chosen product backup can be restored without the need to activate again.

    OPA-Backup is freeware and also a portable utility making it an essential download for the pen stick. The downloaded zip file is a paltry 140K and only unpacks to around 340K. The program needs administrator privileges to function properly, so right click the executable and ‘Run as Administrator’. Don’t worry if you forget as you will be asked to elevate to administrator upon starting OPA-Backup.

    OPA-Backup is pretty easy and intuitive to use and the user interface behaves more like a wizard with a series of screens to get the job done. The first screen is simply to select your version of Office from the dropdown list, sorry any Office 2000 users as that isn’t supported. Click ‘Next’ when selected.

    The next screen will tell you if your chosen Office version is already activated on the system. If it is, the option will be available to back it up. If not, the option will only be to restore an already created backup. After continuing, the program will ask for a folder which will either be where to save the backup to, or where the already created backup is. A warning window will inform you of the potential problem if you try to save to the system drive. As there is the potential for multiple backup files to be present in the same folder, you will be asked to choose a backup file to restore even if there is only the one.

    The process will then be completed a few moments later. If backing up you should get the above success window. Take note of the programs recommendation for restoring; install but don’t run Office, restore the backup using OPA-Backup, then run Office. If you have just done an activation restore, the screen below should be displayed.

    OPA-Backup also supports usage from the command line which is handy for running in scripts or batch files. Type ‘OPAbackup32.exe –info’ (two hyphens) to get a list of the commands.

    As is the case when doing the same thing with the Windows activation files, the same version of Office must be reinstalled which was backed up in the first place. For example, if you are backing up the Office 2007 Home and Student activation, you must reinstall the 2007 Home and Student edition for it to work.

    OPA-Backup requires the .NET Framework v3 installed which Windows 2000, XP and 2003 users would need to install first on a new system.

    Compatible with Windows 2000, XP, 2003/2008, Vista and 7 32bit and 64bit.

    Website

    Download OPA-Backup

    Related posts:

  • Backup and Restore Activation Files for Windows 7, Vista and Office 2010
  • Download Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 with NO ACTIVATION
  • Auto Enter Product Key When Installing Microsoft Office XP, 2003 and 2007
  • How to Remove or Uninstall Microsoft Office 2010
  • Automatically Diagnose and Repair Office 2007 Problems

  • Display Thumbnail Preview for All Video Files in Windows • Raymond.CC

    Digital cameras normally save the photos in file names such as DSC_0001 and it is impossible to determine what the photo is about unless you open and view it in a computer. Microsoft implemented a very useful feature called thumbnail previews since Windows XP where instead of showing a default icon for the file extension, it displays a thumbnail of the photo for a quick preview directly from the Windows Explorer without opening the photo. This allows the user to quickly search for the photos that they are looking for. The thumbnail preview also works for video files but unfortunately the support for videos is quite bad. Generating video preview thumbnails is much more sophisticated if compared with images.

    First of all, there are many video formats today and Windows is only capable of displaying thumbnail preview for the limited videos that it supports. One of the most popular video format today is MKV which is the Matroska video format and Windows will either show a white color blank icon or the icon of the media player. Other than that, the first frame of the video is normally used as the thumbnail preview by Windows and to be honest, the first frame are usually black in color, the Dolby Digital intro or similar which will end up having identical thumbnails.

    Bad Video Thumbnail Preview

    If you’re annoyed by the flawed video thumbnail preview in Windows, fortunately you can easily improve it by using a free configuration tool called Media Preview to display better and more relevant thumbnails for video files.

    Media Preview is able to help you generate thumbnails for a total of 37 different video extensions which includes the following video formats: 3G Partnership Project, Audio Video Interleaved, Flash Video, Matroska Video, MPEG-1/MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 14, MPEG Transport Stream, Ogg Video, Quicktime, RealMedia, Video Object and Windows Media.

    After installation, all you need to do is run the Media Preview Configuration shortcut that is installed to your desktop, and tick the check boxes that you want it to generate the thumbnail preview from the File Format tabs. You can also define your own extensions and restore the media file association of the thumbnailing system to Windows default settings.

    Media Preview

    The Testing and Cache tab allows you to perform live testing to compare the thumbnail differences between the one that is generated by Windows and by Media Preview. Do note that Media Preview only generates the thumbnail of video files and it doesn’t automatically mean that you can play the video file if you can see the preview thumbnail. It does that by using Libavcodec.

    You shouldn’t notice any slow down by using Media Preview to generate video thumbnail preview but if you do, you can simply set it to Speed instead of Quality by moving the slider from the Settings tab. At the Advanced tab, disabling Video Reel Image and File Type Icon overlay on thumbnails can also speed up the thumbnail generation.

    Below is a short video demo on how I configure Media Preview to generate thumbnail preview for all MKV files.

    Media Preview is free and works on Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8. You will need to download and install the correct version of Media Preview depending on your Windows operating system which is either 32-bit or 64-bit.

    Download Media Preview

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  • Backup and Restore Activation Files for Windows 7, Vista and Office 2010 • Raymond.CC

    Sometimes when your Windows installation starts to get a bit slow or unstable, you might be thinking about wiping it off and putting a nice, clean, new install back on. Many of you will have taken image backups of your own system but personally speaking, if it’s been at least a few months since the last install, I prefer to start afresh. Many users also like to wipe and reinstall even a new system when it comes preloaded with the manufacturer’s bloated software and third party trials of Office and a security suite etc. Quite often, when dealing with someone else’s computer and all they have to fall back on is an old system recovery image created by the OEM, a reinstall is really the only logical option.

    The problem when you reinstall is having to reactivate the operating system. This obviously means entering your 25 digit product key and then activating online. Or if you’re unlucky and Microsoft thinks you have done this one too many times for its liking, you may have to reach for the phone and go through the extra activation steps on there. What I see happening quite often these days as well, is on laptops and netbooks the product key is getting rubbed off the COA sticker because it is made from paper and doesn’t have the clear plastic coating to protect it like the old days. This could stop the ordinary user from using their own key to reinstall. Using something like Produkey in this scenario to get the key from the current installation would simply show the OEM’s generic key which cannot simply be entered on reinstall unless you know the steps to reactivate with an OEM license.

    A simple solution to get round the need to activate when you reinstall Windows is backing up the required activation files and information from the old install, and then restoring it when the new install is complete. No reaching for a magnifying glass to read the key, no need for internet access, and no need for the phone to be nearby.

    Advanced Tokens Manager is a free and portable utility to backup and restore the activation information for any version of Windows Vista, 7 and Server 2008/2011 with a couple of clicks. It also supports Office 2010 activation backup and restore, not any previous versions like 2007/2003 though. What it does is back up the product key and a file called tokens.dat that holds the activation information for Windows and also Office 2010. A similar thing has been achieved over the years by backing up the WPA.dbl file in XP.

    A couple of things you can’t do with this method of backing up the activation is trying to restore onto a different PC or hardware. There is a hardware ID stored in the tokens file that will not allow it. Also, you cannot restore to a different version of Windows from which you backed up from. For example; if the backup is from Win 7 Home Premium, it has to be restored on to Win 7 Home Premium. It should however, work if you want to switch between 32bit and 64bit versions. Download, extract the zip and right click to ‘Run as Administrator’.

    Advanced Tokens Manager is very easy to use, simply click ‘Backup Activation’ to backup the Tokens.dat on the Windows install you’re going to remove. A folder called ‘Windows Activation Backup’ will be created in the same folder as the program with the tokens.dat and an ini file with a few bits of information like product key, Windows version, tokens file CRC etc. Keep this folder safe as without it, you cannot restore any saved activations. If you want to backup Office 2010, click the button at the bottom and click the backup button again.

    Then reinstall your version of Windows, look at a previous article for Official Windows 7 ISO’s if you need them. Don’t choose to enter a product key or activate during the reinstall. When at the desktop, run Advanced Tokens Manager and there should be the button to restore in place of backup.

    Click ‘Restore Activation’ to begin the process of restoring the tokens.dat and inserting the product key. After a few minutes the success window should appear. Now go and check by right clicking on ‘My Computer’ >> ‘Properties’ and checking the activation status. If it says not activated, you may need to reboot.

    An easy to use and effective tool that saves you the hassle of entering product keys or having to phone Microsoft just to reactivate your product. If you have an OEM manufacturer PC, another tool called ABR is able to backup your activation files. This article was written for Vista but works in Windows 7 as well.

    Compatible with Windows Vista, 7, Server 2008 / 2011 and Office 2010.

    Requires .NET Framework 3.5

    Website and Download

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  • Manage Files and Folders Quickly and Easily with DropIt • Raymond.CC

    With the massive capacity of hard drives today and the shear amount of files it is possible to store on them, it’s important to try your best at keeping everything in some sort of organised structure. Looking on your drives for a file with a specific name is not too much of a problem and you can simply search for it. But when there are hundreds, or even thousands of files of all different types and sizes crammed into a few folders with no real recognised from of order, it can be a real nightmare finding what you want. A classic example of this is the Documents folder or default downloads folder used by your web browsers for everything you get off the web. If it hasn’t been looked at for a while and all the files moved to more appropriate locations, things could look real messy in there and sorting it is something you might decide to keep putting off for another day…

    Once you have it nailed down and all files and folders are stored in a nice neat directory structure, it becomes quite easy to manage and maintain. The problem arises when this type of issue doesn’t get rectified because it only gets worse and more out of control with time. Luckily for me, I’ve always been quite obsessed with keeping things neat and tidy on the PC and I can navigate to just about any file within a few seconds without the need to search first. By contrast, a good friend has been the complete opposite through the years and never knows where anything is, which I find quite funny, but unsurprisingly he doesn’t!

    If you’re not quite as organised with your files as you might wish to be, a little utility called DropIt could be a big help to manage files and folders and save literally hours of trying to manage it all yourself. The simple function of the program is it provides a floating icon on the desktop to which you drop files and folders. DropIt then sends these to different locations which you specify in the program. This may seem like a rather small thing, but just imagine dropping folders full of unorganised movies, music, documents, archives and executables onto the icon and then all those files being moved to the appropriate folders automatically without you having to lift another finger.

    There are a huge amount of possibilities with this program as the function is not just limited to copying or moving. Decompressing archives or compressing files in to new archives is also supported as well as renaming or deleting certain files or types and also creating lists, music playlists or opening files with an associated program. If dragging and dropping is still too much like hard work for you, DropIt is also capable of monitoring specified folders at a predefined time interval and then anything matching a created rule is processed with no need for user interaction.

    DropIt is completely free and open source software but obviously if you find it very useful the developer welcomes donations. It also has a version for just about everybody, an installable version for permanent use or a portable version if you prefer it, both with 32bit and 64bit specific versions. The download size is roughly around 2MB for each variant.

    After running the program for the first time and selecting the language (18 are supported), there won’t appear to be much happening with just a blue icon on the desktop. Drag a folder or files onto the icon and the program will pop up asking you to associate each type of file with an action.

    When the ‘New Association’ window appears:
    1. Give the association a name.
    2. Enter the rules for the association. These can be simple *.doc or myfile.* entries or other similar wildcards. Multiple rules are also supported. Eg; *.doc;*.pdf;*.txt. Size and date filters can also be applied.
    3. Select the action to apply. This can be copy, move, compress, extract, rename, delete, open with, create list, create playlist, create shortcut, copy to clipboard or ignore.
    4. This is where the destination folder, archive name or open with program is specified. What is required in the box differs depending on the action.

    The simple example in the screenshot above will move any PDF file you drag onto the desktop icon to the documents folder. The rules for each association can obviously be a lot more complex. The program is also smart enough to allow several different actions for the same file type or rule, you will be asked which action to perform from a list when needed.

    DropIt works on the principle of ‘Profiles’ which can be switched by right clicking the icon. For example; you can create a file manager profile which moves files to the chosen folders, and then switch to another profile which can archive any files you drop onto the icon. You can then switch to yet another profile to perhaps rename a folder of images or music. Different icons can also be chosen to easily identify the current active profile.

    One of the useful functions in the options window is the ability to watch specified folders every xx amount of seconds and then perform the requested action on any files inside. Useful to do something like move files from the Downloads folder straight into the appropriate destination folders every 60 seconds or so.

    Other useful options include; adding the profiles as a ‘Send to’ in the context menu, archive compression level, method and password encryption, configuring the ‘Create list’ layout style, and a number of various sorting options.

    There really are a lot potential combinations and uses for DropIt to tailor things more to your liking. If you are looking for something like this or already use similar software I would still recommend you take a look at least of the portable version. It’s advisable to have a good read of the included PDF file for a better explanation of all the features and what it can do because I’ve really only scratched the surface here.

    Compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7 32bit and 64bit

    Website and Download

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  • View and Edit Environment Variables Easily in a Nice GUI • Raymond.CC

    Although many people have probably never touched them, environment variables contain some rather important information to help maintain the smooth running of the system. A lot of software will rely on the values held within these variables to point it in the right direction for access to various areas of Windows. System paths such as where the ‘Windows’, ‘Application Data’ or ‘Program Files’ folders are located are all held inside these variables and the user or a program can check them to know where to look. Possibly the most common variable that users want to change themselves from the default is the location of the Temp folders which is where all of the temporary data is stored when files are extracted, installers are executed etc.

    Because every system is different, these variables are still quite useful as something like ‘Program Files’ or ‘Temp’ might not be in the same location on your machine as it is on mine. But if the environment variable is queried and points to the right place, it won’t matter. These variables are not only useful for programs to access, they are commonly used in scripts and batch files for the same reason. You can also use them from the Command Prompt for quicker access and they will work from the Run/Search boxes in the Start Menu as well. Any variable is easy to identify because it is encased in the percent symbol. For example, type %Temp% or %Appdata% into the Start search box and pressing Enter will take you straight to the relevant folder.

    Windows has a built in environment variable editor as some of these variables are not fixed and can be changed, the Temp folder being one of them. The editor does its job but it’s a bit featureless and basic and can be tricky to find for some users. Also, only the editable variables are listed and not the fixed ones even if you wanted to know what they were, which is something you would usually need to use the command prompt and the ‘Set’ command for.

    A handy tool called Rapid Environment Editor makes it much easier to view, create and edit environment variables than the Windows tool, and packages it in a much nicer and more functional user interface. If you have administrator privileges, it’s also possible to edit the variable settings for any user. Setup installer and portable versions are available although unless you change variables constantly, the portable version is probably preferable. Rapid Environment Editor needs to be ‘Run as Administrator’ if you want to edit the ‘System’ variables.

    The ‘System Variables’ list on the left is system wide and any data or changes to those variables will affect all users, where ‘User Variables’ affect only the current user or another user selected from the dropdown list. The greyed entries are ones that are not allowed to be changed. Invalid paths and filenames are also checked and if any are found, the entry will show in red.

    To edit a variable simply double click on it and if you want to edit the value, click the plus button to open the tree and then double click a value. A target folder or file value can be edited by right clicking on it and selecting ‘Insert Directory Path’ or ‘Insert File Path’ to bring up a Windows open dialog. Even this simple thing is missing from the standard Windows variable editor.

    New variables can easily be added and a number of Explorer type functions are included like copy, paste, undo and redo, all accessible from the button toolbar or right click context menu. Don’t forget to press the ‘Save’ button to commit any changes. A backup can be created before editing or after repairing any entries which will be saved as a .reg registry file.

    If you want to know what the Windows defaults are, have a look at this default environment variables page in case you have any issues with your variable locations.

    Compatible with Windows NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, 2008 & Windows 7 32bit and 64bit.

    Website

    Download Page

  • Reduce Firefox Memory Leaks and Memory Usage with Firemin • Raymond.CC

    You usually don’t have to talk to someone very long who’s a long time Firefox user for them to mention the words ‘Memory Leak’. This is something that seems to have been plaguing the popular web browser for quite a while now. Even though Mozilla have done a lot of work in this area to try and get things under control, a lot of people still complain that it’s using far more memory than it should. The memory leaks get worse the longer Firefox is left open and after several hours or a few days consumed memory of well over a Gigabyte is not uncommon even with only a few tabs open.

    I have to admit I have not really used Firefox for a while now, apart from loading it up to have a quick look now and again, but even with the accelerated release schedule these days similar to Chrome’s, this issue still seems to be one of the most complained about from users. Some less experienced people get a little confused about what is a memory leak and what isn’t and complain that Firefox uses too much memory when it starts up. That is more memory usage than leaks and can also be a problem in itself if you startup with loads of open pages and installed extensions. Memory leaks are noticeable and happen over a period of hours, when the memory usage will go up, but doesn’t seem to go down a lot, or at all, even if you close all of the open tabs.

    While a browser using up a Gigabyte of memory on system with plenty to spare, isn’t really going to cause a major problem, on a machine with less, things could slow down considerably. Thanks go to one of our forum moderators, Murphy, who pointed me in the direction of a little utility that aims to help eliminate Firefox memory leaks and greatly reduce the amount resources it consumes during use.

    Firemin is a simple tool that works using an API function called ‘EmptyWorkingSet’ which cleans up the memory workspace of the Firefox process and frees up the memory it doesn’t need. The program sits in the background while Firefox is running, watches its memory usage and runs the optimization accordingly. As well as the memory optimize function, Firemin also has a similar feature to the well known Speedyfox utility which will compact the Firefox SQLite databases and potentially help improve performance. The program is freeware and also portable so can be placed anywhere. Once started, it goes straight to the system tray and is ready to do its work. Right click the tray icon and select ‘Options’ to check or alter a couple of settings.

    There are only a couple of options available and the important one is the slider. Firemin offers a trade off here; the more you move the slider to the left, the less memory Firefox will be forced to use but the more processing power is required to keep it that way. Obviously, the opposite applies the more the slider goes to the right. The more memory you let it have, the less hard it has to work to keep things in check. The other option is whether to launch Firefox when you start Firemin which would need the ‘Firefox location’ box pointing to the correct folder.

    The SQLite database optimize function is available through the tray icon context menu and simply click it to start the compacting process. Firefox will need to be not running to do this.

    As a simple test, I loaded up Firefox with several tabs and extensions to get the memory usage up high.

    Then Firemin was started to see what happens to the memory usage. The result was quite startling….

    It went from around 1GB to just over 3MB! Impressive numbers indeed and I never really noticed any performance drop or problems viewing the content of the multiple tabs that were open.

    This is obviously a tool that some people won’t get a great deal of mileage from if you have a fast processor and stacks of RAM, or you never leave Firefox open for more than an hour or two at a time. But for users who have more normal spec systems or like to have Firefox constantly open in the background, Firemin could be well worth a try. It is reported to work with Waterfox as well.

    Compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 2008 and Windows 7 32bit and 64bit.

    Website and Download

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  • A Windows 8 Style Ribbon Toolbar for Windows 7’s Explorer • Raymond.CC

    A large proportion of PC users who want to try out Windows 8 have probably done so by now with the Release Preview freely available. It’s certainly split opinion with its radical new start screen, Metro interface and other sizable changes. One of the new features is the addition of a ribbon toolbar to Windows Explorer which users of Office 2010 or previously 2007 will know all about. Microsoft did start introducing the Ribbon UI elements into Windows 7 with the built in Paint and Wordpad utilities sporting a fresh new look, but this is one step further with integration now in the Windows interface itself.

    The ribbon can be quite useful as it displays several buttons and options for whatever it’s being used in, but quite a few people are not terribly fond of it. Some users find it can have a rather messy and confusing look with the non uniform buttons and tabbed layout. One thing Microsoft seemed to do in Windows 7 was to go a bit backwards with a rather lacklustre Explorer interface and the usability of a functional toolbar similar to that found in XP was sadly all but missing. Bringing back a number of the most commonly used Explorer functions into an easy to click toolbar could be a welcome addition.

    An open source utility called Better Explorer aims to bring a close copy of the Windows 8 ribbon toolbar to Windows 7 users. Another useful function is enabling tabbed windows like most of today’s web browsers, meaning you don’t need several different Explorer windows open cluttering up the desktop. The Quick Access toolbar is also present as is the option to collapse the ribbon if it isn’t needed for a period of time.

    A couple of things that need mentioning are; Better Explorer has just moved from an alpha to beta release so is by no means a completely stable product. A few bugs and issues are possible although there have been a number of fixes for the beta. I didn’t really encounter too many issues although it did hang on trying to access a network drive. Do bear this in mind if you decide to try it out. Secondly, it doesn’t replace Explorer but runs as a separate program which is good in this case because any beta issues won’t have an effect on Windows Explorer itself.

    Better Explorer needs .NET framework 4 to function and when you install will offer to download .NET if you don’t have it.

    Most of the main part of the window is pretty self explanatory and behaves like Explorer would including the breadcrumb bar and search box. A couple of additions though are the Up button next to back/forward and the more interesting tabs bar. If you’re used to using tabs in your browser, you will know how much easier tabs are than separate windows. To create a tab either use the buttons in the ribbon or double click the tab area.

    The primary area of interest is the ribbon itself with a number of useful buttons on the ‘Home’ tab you might actually use such as cut, copy and paste, multiple selection options, copy to and move to, new folder, rename, delete and also an open with option. The ‘Share’ tab has options to map a network drive, share the selected items and a ‘Create Archive’ wizard. A number of different viewing options are found in the ‘View’ tab. The ribbon can be closed at any time using the arrow button top right.

    There are a few options in the ‘File’ tab allowing the changing of the default starting folder, choosing a different ribbon colour and restoring previously opened tabs.

    When you click on certain items such as drives, folders or certain filetypes, an extra tab will appear giving you options specific to what is selected. Clicking a drive for example, will show a drive tab with defrag, format and drive cleanup options or an executable will show an Application tab with run as administrator or pin to taskbar options etc.

    As I have said, this is not a final stable release and there are bound to be a few changes or fixes before it is truly ready for permanent use. As it stands, I think Better Explorer looks pretty interesting and could potentially be a viable alternative if you like the idea of a ribbon in Explorer but are in no hurry to use Windows 8.

    Compatible with Window 7 32bit and 64bit

    Website

    Download

  • A More Functional File Search with Instant File Search Pro • Raymond.CC

    Most people have at some time used the built in search function that Windows provides allowing quick access to your files. And it does have some advantages such as the indexing of the files and retaining the information about them to speed up subsequent searches. Unfortunately the indexing feature itself also has a few disadvantages such as creating a bit more disk activity than it perhaps should while building and maintaining the index. It also appears to consume more system resources than you’d like. You also need to know your search syntax pretty well to get the most out of it. Because of that, quite a few users turn off Windows search completely and simply stop it running in the background, and I’m one of them.

    With SSD’s becoming pretty common now, Windows Search with the indexing feature is perhaps only really of use on standard hard drives anyway. But with huge capacity hard drives and the possibility of the number of files in a system running into the millions, it is still a real benefit to have something to be able to quickly and efficiently search through your files. One such utility called Instant File Searcher Professional can perform fast searches but doesn’t consume any unnecessary resources when you don’t need it.

    The program is a standalone portable executable of around 600K so can be used only once or placed in a more permanent location for regular use.

    Experienced users will probably be quite at home with the interface and the search options available, but it isn’t too difficult for anybody to get their head around. The search process can be a plain and simple one or more complex if you like. A simple search can be performed by typing in the name in the box, selecting a folder from the dropdown list of common locations or browsing for another drive or folder. If you want to also search by extension, either type in your own or select from a number of predefined ones such as audio, video, archives, images etc. Pressing the ‘Go’ button will start the search process.

    Although the search is pretty quick, it is by no means instant as the name might suggest and searching for executables on my ‘M:’ drive with 240,000 files took around 50 seconds on first run. Any subsequent searches to the same location will obviously be a lot quicker while the program is still open.

    Where Instant File Searcher Professional does start to prove its usefulness is with the options available to apply filters to the search such as using the date and time properties and then selecting whether to search for earlier or later than that specified. Creation or modified dates can be chosen.

    On the other side of the window are some more options to filter the search like whether to include only files and/or only folders, include hidden and system files, disable the icons from showing in the results which helps performance, and looking only for certain file sizes above, below or equal to a user specified size.

    Once the search has completed the results window will be shown. If there are still too many files to your liking, the results can be filtered even further by typing in another search term into the box at the top. The results in the list can be double clicked to be taken to that file’s location and right clicking will produce the standard Explorer context menu. There is also an ‘Export’ button which will save the results in a CSV file.

    It would be nice if there was the ability to search several locations or drives at once, as it is, only one at a time is permitted. Also, because there is no function to search the content of files and no form of indexing is used, things like searching for music file tags or EXIF meta data in images is not an option. As it is, Instant File Searcher Professional is a useful addition to the USB toolkit as long as the machine you use it on has .NET v4 installed.

    If you want a faster, more basic file search and index of all NTFS drives on the system, have a look at a utility called Everything which has been written about before.

    .NET Framework v4.0 is required

    Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 32bit and 64bit.

    Website and Download