One thing experienced users will always tell you is when you are undertaking repairs or performing tweaks in Windows, you should always have backups to hand in case things go wrong. Full system backups are of course a good method but if changes are being made that only affect the system registry, then it makes sense that you only need to backup your registry files.
The Windows registry is essentially a huge database that stores thousands of configuration settings for Windows, third party software, hardware, services, user specific settings and much more. It only takes a bad tweak or a corrupt registry entry to cause Windows to become unbootable. Many fixes rely on editing registry values, and sometimes it’s unavoidable, but backing up is still an important first step however safe they appear to be.
There are several ways to backup your system registry but simply copying the files to another folder is not an option as they are locked by Windows and cannot be copied. Another way is using System Restore but that backs up and restores lots of other files besides just the registry. Here we show you some ways to backup just the system registry files so they can be restored in the event of system instability or Windows failing to boot at all. (more…)
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).
Most of us know that when you install an application, it’s not that uncommon for it leave bits of itself behind on your system after you uninstall it again, even using the official uninstaller utility that came with it. Security software is a prime example which can often leave a ton of redundant data behind and in many cases this causes system instability until all traces have been removed. Many of us have third party uninstall tools to help scan for and get rid of this leftover data such as Revo Uninstaller, but although they can do a fine job, these are after the event tools and sometimes not quite as accurate as they need to be.
The best way to make sure nothing gets missed after removing an application is to monitor and track the file and registry changes when you install the software so when it comes to removal, you have the chance to delete anything the original installer left behind. There are many tools around that can watch your system for certain changes and we’ve written about ones that can track changes during an installation in another article.
These 7 utilities below can monitor the install and then uninstall the software again removing all the changes the original uninstaller might have missed. (more…)
If your Windows system runs into problems, with adequate backups available, recovering files and folders is quite easy. One area which is usually more difficult to recover data or information from is a Windows Registry which isn’t on the running system. You might have backup copies of the registry files, like SOFTWARE or NTUSER.DAT, but actually reading the offline registry itself and exporting data from it is not so straightforward.
What even some experienced users don’t realize is that the Windows Registry Editor has a built in option to load registry hives from an external source. Specific keys and values can then be exported to a .REG file and imported onto another system. The hive files can be from a backup of registry files or the registry from an unbootable or offline system. All you have to do is go to File > Load Hive and browse for the external registry file.
Loading external registry hives does have a restriction, which is they can only be loaded within HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKEY_USERS in your local registry. Highlight one of those first or the Load Hive option will be greyed out. You will also have to give the loaded hive a custom name and it will sit inside HKLM or HKU as a key. The external hive will stay permanently attached in Regedit until the entry is selected and you go to File > Unload Hive. (more…)
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
There’s probably quite a few users reading this who have got at least a couple of bootable CD’s laying around for performing various repair tasks. A lot of developers these days make available ISO images which can be burned onto CD of even transferred onto USB stick. From Antivirus scanning and Linux distro’s, to password resetting tools and data backup or recovery, there’s a massive selection of disks that can really give you a comprehensive repair and recovery collection of disks. Oh, and not forgetting a lot of peoples favorite repair utility disk, Hiren’s Boot CD.
For a long time though, when you downloaded one of these CD’s, it had to be one ISO image to one CD or DVD. That makes it rather inconvenient if you wanted to take your whole repair collection with you to another location. There are tools that let you write an ISO onto a USB stick such as Rufus and UNetbootin which is helpful but still doesn’t make the best use of your disk space. (more…)
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.
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.
When you download a file from the internet, quite often you cannot be 100% guaranteed that the file has not been changed in some way from the original. This could either be by the site you are downloading from, corruption due to errors in the download process, an individual who has uploaded the file for you, or possibly the most dangerous, the file has been infected by malicious software.
One of the ways you can identify whether a file has been changed from its original state is to check its digital signature. Or you can verify a file’s integrity by checking its hash value. Every file has unique data contained within it, and when you apply a certain algorithm called a “cryptographic hash function” to it, a string value is returned which is only valid for that file in its current state.
If even one byte in the file changes, the value given when the check is run again will be different. A couple of popular hash algorithms are MD5 and SHA-1 and you will sometimes see these values listed on website download pages. A prime example is ISO images for operating systems like Linux and Windows. All the official Windows ISO images will have an SHA-1 hash listed somewhere online which you can then compare against to see if the one you downloaded is identical to the original.
If you have something like an MD5 or an SHA based hash value from a website and want to check the integrity of the downloaded file, a way to calculate its hash value is required. Here we show you 10 different tools that can calculate and compare hash values, they were tested on Windows 10 and 7. (more…)
Windows drivers are important because a badly coded driver can cause instability and even blue screens of death. Most of the time, a driver file has a .sys extension and a .inf file is often used to install it. Besides Windows already having dozens of drivers installed by default, lots of software can install a driver for both hardware components and to help run the software itself, somewhat like a Windows service.
Drivers can also be used at a low level, such as anti piracy DRM for games and applications, and even malicious programs, such as rootkits. You can, of course, view running drivers in Device Manager. Unused drivers can also be viewed in Device Manager by adjusting a couple of settings. It is not as easy to view drivers that have been installed and are not part of Windows but belong to third party software.
A lot of third party software can leave unused drivers behind which could cause issues affecting your system now or at some point in the future. Below, we list a number of tools that can filter out drivers made by Microsoft or are installed by Windows. This can help narrow down old, unused, or unstable third party drivers you might want to investigate further or remove.
Most average computer users like to use the mouse for performing the majority of tasks in Windows. It makes sense because Windows is primarily point and click. More advanced users and professionals prefer to use the keyboard for many tasks because Windows has tons of keyboard shortcuts. Therefore with just a few key presses, you can do something which might take several mouse clicks.
If you send loads of emails or write lots of documents and endlessly type in the same text time after time, it makes sense to set up a keyboard shortcut to help you out. With a configured custom hotkey you can insert a block of commonly used text or run a program that doesn’t already have an assigned shortcut. That could be a big time saver and reduce mouse actions or repeated typing by a sizable amount.
If you are simply looking for an automatic text replacement tool, there are many dedicated programs available like WordExpander or PhraseExpress. If you’re looking to insert text, run programs, or perform other tasks from a custom hotkey, we have six free tools for you to try out. All were tested in Windows 10 and 7 64-bit. (more…)
Many advanced users use the keyboard to run applications or Windows tools, either through the Start menu or the Run dialog box by pressing Win+R. Both can open websites, run command line tools or open specific folder paths. While the Start Menu search box and the Run box are similar, the Run box is slightly more advanced with its previously used command history and browse box to find and launch specific programs. Run can also launch Control Panel applets with Control commands.
Something to make the Run box more efficient is shortening commands to make them quicker to type. Instead of typing a long command or path, type just a few letters that link to the command, otherwise known as an alias. Windows has a very basic alias function built in but it’s stored in the registry and not immediately obvious. The Run dialog checks this registry key so if you can add an alias to the it, the shortcut will work when you use Run. The registry key is:
There is also another similar key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER that affects just the logged in user but it’s rarely used. There will already be some aliases there and it’s possible to manually add your own but having a tool do it for you automatically would be easier and less problematic. Here we show you 3 ways to create a keyboard shortcut alias in the Run dialog box to make typing commands quicker. (more…)
Are you annoyed by confirmation windows asking questions like “Are you sure you want to continue”, “Are you sure you want to do this”, or something similar? These confirmation windows are there to prevent against accidental termination of programs for careless users but it can get really annoying especially if you know for a fact that you are going to click the Yes button every time you see that window. Depending on your level of expertise for computers, you may either prefer to have the warning windows every time you close a program or perhaps you don’t even want it at all. Below is one example when terminating Zemana AntiLogger.
Previously I have introduced 5 software that is able to prevent programs from closing by disabling the close button, today we will be taking a look at a program that does the opposite, which is auto clicking on the button found in the confirmation windows. (more…)
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
Previously I have written an article on how to prevent Google Chrome from closing when there are multiple tabs opened by prompting a warning window when you try to terminate the program either by clicking the close button on the top right or via Alt+F4. This annoying behavior still exist on the current Google Chrome 20 which can be easily solved by installing the Google Toolbox extension.
The solution above is application specific but what if you want to prevent other programs from closing such as Microsoft Outlook, or any other software of your choice? Good news is I found 5 software that claims to prevent accidental closing of software by disabling the close button and have put them to test. Weirdly out of the 5 programs, only 1 of it is a freeware. (more…)
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
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.
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.
