Raymond.CC Blog

Category: Software

  • 6 Ways To Remove Unused Icons from the Notification Area

    The Windows notification area, also known as the system tray, shows the system clock and other important icons such as network and audio volume by default. It has evolved since it first appeared and is currently split into two parts, visible icons and hidden icons. The hidden icons are shown when you press the up arrow to the far left. Windows decides which icons go in the hidden area and how many are permanently visible.

    It’s quite easy to control yourself what icons stay in the main notification area. Simply right click on the clock and select “Customize notification icons”. Windows 10 users need to also click “Select which icons appear on the taskbar” in Settings. In Windows 7 you have the option to show the icons and notifications permanently, hide them and don’t show any notifications, or only show notification popups when they appear. Windows 10 has the option to put the icons into the visible notification area (on), or in the hidden area (off).

    notification area icons window

    The main issue with the window that lists all the notification area icons is unused or even uninstalled software can leave entries behind and it can get a bit messy. Although those redundant icons won’t appear in either the main or hidden notification areas, it’s recommended to remove them if there a number of unused entries. There is no way to remove anything through the select icons window and it has to be done manually. Here are 6 ways in which you can do it.
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  • Block Access to Certain Programs with AppAdmin • Raymond.CC

    Trying to stop someone opening a file you don’t want them to is relatively easy and putting some form of encryption on it can easily be done. It is a slightly different story if you actually want to stop somebody executing a specific program on a computer. There are ways to do similar things through restricted user accounts where each user can be setup individually. But some people I know use only one Admin account for the whole family which isn’t good for privacy or security.

    What if you want to let someone else use your computer temporarily but don’t want them to perhaps run a specific program like an email program or browser while they’re on it? Or maybe a short term block is to be put in place on a youngster’s laptop browser or messaging application. Applying a short term restriction is a bit more tricky than a permanent one.

    An interesting little utility called AppAdmin does this for you but not by using file encryption or third party methods to block the program. It does this through adding a Group Policy entry into the registry, which will then not allow the file to be executed. Knowledgeable people will point out the Group Policy Editor is not available on all versions of Windows, but AppAdmin also works on those systems where it is not present like XP Home and Windows 7 Home Premium.

    The program is portable and comes in a zip archive. The included ini file can easily be edited to allow for adding non supported languages.

    The interface is pretty simple and to block a program or file, drag it onto the window or select it through a requester by pressing the ‘Block’ button. As soon as it appears in the window, it is blocked and cannot be executed. Do note that selecting a shortcut to a program won’t work, the executable itself has to be added. Luckily, this is a program you are not going to add hundreds of files to as multiple selections or adding a folder and its contents in one go is not supported.


                                     Internet Explorer blocked in XP Home


                                     The same in Windows 7 Home Premium

    AppAdmin uses the MD5 hash information of the file while applying the block so even renaming it will not mean it can be executed. Some files may need a restart of Explorer.exe to recognise they have been blocked and AppAdmin has a button to do this. To unblock anything and make it accessable again, put a tick into the box and click ‘Unblock selected’.

    The ‘Password’ button does not password protect the files but the AppAdmin program itself which will ask for it when you launch the program to do any blocking or unblocking. To clear an already set password just type it in the ‘Old Pasword’ box.

    While this does work for preventing executable files from being run, using it for data files is not really effective in the sense that although they are unable to run on this system, they will work fine on any other machine because the restriction policy is only for the PC you run AppAdmin on. I also found simply choosing to edit a data file through a context menu program like Notepad++ still allows you to edit the file, thus changing its MD5 hash and allowing it to be executed. This program is only really at its most effective on installed software or something that can’t easily be transferred to another system.

    To quickly or temporarily block access to a few applications like browsers, system utilities, instant messengers or files from being executed, AppAdmin has its uses and is quite handy. But is not a substitute for protecting or encrypting data like documents especially those that can be easily transported to other systems.

    Compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7. Tested fine on XP Home and Win 7 64bit.

    Website and Download

  • Restrict Domain Access with NoVirusThanks Website Blocker • Raymond.CC

    There are many different reasons why someone would want to block access to certain websites on a computer. But perhaps the main one is stopping children visiting certain sites whether they are of an adult nature or places such as social networking, music or video download sites. There are many scary places out there in the world wide web that are not suitable even for adults let alone youngsters.

    There are several ways to block websites from loading in browsers such as editing the Windows Hosts file or using the restricted sites option in Internet Explorer or a similar Chrome/Firefox extension. There are usually settings in your router that can block selected domains and also online services such as OpenDNS offer parental controls. The Windows 7 parental control feature is also an option.

    Another option is to use a piece of software to control website access and the people over at the security website NoVirusThanks have decided to release a freeware utility to do exactly that. Website Blocker allows you to set up a blacklist to block sites or only allow certain sites and block everything else, which can be done by either entering the domain or with the use of wildcards which can block a number of sites with a single keyword.

    The features don’t stop at simple blocking by name, things like https blocking to restrict logging in to secure sites, firewall like inbound and outbound blocking, restricting site access on only certain browsers and allowing the recording of all sites visited not just blocked ones are all included.

    Unfortunately, at the moment the software is listed as 32bit only although it is quite new so hopefully a 64bit bit version will follow shortly. Website Blocker is only a small 1.4MB download and when running only uses around 4MB of memory so isn’t going to cause any resource issues. Administrator Privileges are required.

    When the main window is opened, the tabs are all pretty easy to work out. In the ‘Blacklist‘ tab simply enter any domains to be blocked by right clicking and selecting ‘Add‘, then enter the name in the box. It is a similar procedure in ‘Whitelist‘, but enter the places you want to allow access to, all others will be blocked. The ‘Wildcards’ tab can be used to block a range of sites by simply entering a keyword. Anything that contains the word or words will not be accessible.

    The ‘Settings’ tab offers a range of options for making things even more secure and protecting the Website Blocker process. ‘General’ has some important options such as the logging of allowed sites as well as blocked ones which is more of a spy mode and can give an idea if certain sites need to be added to the blacklist. If you don’t want to allow access to secure connections or want to stop traffic completely, there are boxes available. The ‘Block unknown websites’ makes use of the whitelist and will block everything apart from what is in the whitelist.

    The ‘Targets’ tab is where the programs are added or removed that will be affected by Website Blocker. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari are all included but you can remove or add more programs to the list by using the right click menu.

    Perhaps the most important tab is ‘Stealth’ because it will give you the ability to hide Website Blocker from the system tray so the average user will not know it is running. It can then be sent into or brought out of stealth mode by use of a pre-defined hotkey. Stealth mode can also be protected with a password, don’t forget to press the save button for both options. The password mode could easily be bypassed though as you can end the process in task manager. NoVirusThanks have thought of this and the program has an option to disable the Task Manager when in stealth mode. The more experienced users will know Process Explorer or a similar program can still be used to kill the process and remove stealth mode, but for normal users, this is more than enough. A couple of other options are disabling the command prompt and locking all CD-Roms.

    The other settings tabs have options for enabling and the duration of the blocked site popup, the location of the log file and setting up a custom proxy etc.

    When Website Blocker has been configured sufficiently, it will sit in the background until someone tries to access a blocked website, when a message will be displayed.

    If you want to see the log of what sites have been blocked and also those that have been accessed if the option was enabled, have a look in the ‘Events’ tab. Information such as the Date/Time, website, rule, program used, the site IP Address, port and what action was taken is displayed.

    The last things worth a mention are, the ‘Utilities’ menu has some shortcuts to various system functions like Control Panel, Regedit, Security Center and System Restore. While the leftmost ‘Menu’ has quick options to enable or disable Task Manager, Command Prompt and lock the Rom drives as well as a choice to ‘Reset Settings’.

    I quite like the look of this program and for the initial release, seems to work well. While it is easy to use, Website Blocker has enough features for most people and can protect itself from all but the most determined users. The only thing it really could do with now is a 64bit version which will hopefully be available sooner rather than later.

    Compatible with Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, Server 2008 and Windows 7 32bit only

    Website and Download


    Related posts:

  • Touchpad Blocker Auto Disable Mouse Clicks During Typing
  • How To Check the Actual Status of Website When You Can’t Access
  • Finding Old Domain Whois Information with DomainTools Domain History
  • Access and Watch Veoh Even if Veoh Is No Longer Available in Your Country
  • NoVirusThanks is a Free Multi-Engine Anti-Virus Files Scanner

  • Enable Scrolling in Inactive Windows with Wizmouse • Raymond.CC

    One of the things about working in Windows, is the sheer amount of programs and Explorer windows you are able have open at one time. And this can be a real help when you have multiple snippets of information which you want to read or edit in different applications. With the average size of the desktop resolution growing through the years, it’s now not uncommon for even inexperienced users to be multitasking and perhaps have browsers, document readers and editors and ordinary Explorer windows all open and being used at once.

    The problem with so many open windows is that only one window is ever active and has the focus of the system. To be able to do something in another window you have to click in it or Alt+Tab to have interaction with it. One of the most common things you will probably want to do when switching between different windows is scrolling down through a web page, document or list of files etc.

    As a simple scenario; you’re writing a document in one window while reading information from a web page in another next to it. While typing, if you want to scroll down the web page, the browser has to be clicked on to make it active, and then you can do so. If you now type something, you will type in the browser because the focus is not on what you was typing but the browser window. The document window now has to be made active again to resume editing. I’ve lost count of the number of times I have done something similar whether it is typing or simply trying to scroll on a window that isn’t active.

    For Mac users at least, it is possible to scroll down a page in a background window without making it active which on the face of it, doesn’t sound like a big deal. But when you think about it, having this simple feature can be pretty useful when multitasking and it makes you wonder why it has never been in Windows.

    A small utility called Wizmouse can give you this functionality of being able to scroll in other inactive windows without taking the focus away from the one you are working in. Just hover the mouse over the chosen window and scroll while not needing to click on it. Easy as that.

    The program is less than a 600K download and consumes around 500K-6MB of system memory. Once the install is finished, the configuration window above will open and give you the chance to make changes like starting the program with Windows, enabling left clicking on the tray icon to enable/disable or hiding the tray icon completely.

    ‘Enabling the mouse wheel for applications without wheel support’ will convert mouse wheel into scrollbar commands and hopefully allow scrolling to work when it usually isn’t available. If you want to bring the window you’re scrolling on to the front, there is an option there as well as ‘Reverse mouse scrolling’ will mimic the ‘Natural’ function on Mac OSX Lion.

    I am using Wizmouse on Windows 7 X64 and it has worked great on all windows tried so far, but will point out after closing the configuration screen there may be a few second freeze of the mouse pointer when clicking on a window with a scroll bar. This only happens once and is fine after that. The developer does mention that touchpads may or may not work due to the way some drivers work, and some Logitech mice might have the odd issue if not using the latest drivers.

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

    Website and Download

    The CNet link on the site does not contain their stupid installer.


    Related posts:

  • Scrolling Gmail in Internet Explorer Takes Up 99% CPU Problem
  • How To Enable and Access Disabled Grayed Out Buttons, Windows and Checkboxes
  • Enable Disabled Buttons in Windows with Enabler
  • Remotely Enable Windows Remote Desktop
  • Enable Show My Webcam on Windows Live Messenger 2009 Workaround

  • Wise Data Recovery a Possible Alternative to Recuva • Raymond.CC

    It’s pretty safe to say that at some point in time nearly all of us have probably deleted some files or folders by accident. It’s easily done if you are giving your PC a bit of clearout of rubbish and useless data and put something you don’t want deleted into the recycle bin without realising. Of course, if you haven’t emptied the recycle bin yet, no problem and just restore them, unless a file was too big to fit and has been deleted directly. It’s a bit more of an issue if you have turned off the recycle bin function altogether or have done this via the network because there will be no second chance to get anything back through Windows itself.

    Anybody with a reasonable amount of knowledge will know that just because these files have been deleted, it doesn’t mean they cannot be undeleted and recovered under the right circumstances. There is a wide market for this kind of tool ranging from professional recovery solutions like Runtime Software’s GetDataBack and EaseUs Data Recovery Wizard Pro, to the free undelete utilities like Recuva and Wise Data Recovery from Wisecleaner. Wise Data Recovery has just come out of beta so is now a fully fledged stable release and certainly worth looking at.

    As with most tools like this, Wise Data Recovery is able to recover just about any type of files like music, video, compressed archives, executables, etc. Once a drive is scanned, the files are given a traffic light status for the chances of recovery. Green is for a good chance of recovering the files, Orange for a poor or very poor chance and Red if the program thinks the data is lost and there is no chance of getting it back.

    Wise Data Recovery is available as both installer and portable which makes it a good addition to the USB toolkit.

    The program boasts a very clean looking and efficient interface with only two buttons needed for it to function effectively. Simply select the drive to be scanned for the deleted files and click the ‘Scan’ button. What I did notice is most of the time this program seemed to complete a scan quite a bit quicker than Recuva, which is the utility most people will compare Wise Data Recovery to.

    After only a few seconds on my system, the results were displayed in both the main window and a file directory structure window on the left, much like a standard Windows Explorer display. You can then search for your files by scrolling through the list and ticking the files for recovery. If they are green then they can be recovered. I tried a few Orange files of ‘Poor’ recoverability but none of them fully recovered properly. You may still be able to extract partial pieces of data from these files but it’s no guarantee.

    Keywords and wildcards can be entered into the search box to filter the files. Some are provided for you by clicking the dropdown arrow; images, audio, video, documents, archives and emails.

    Once all files to be recovered are ticked, clicking ‘Recover’ will ask you for a location to save the files to. For obvious reasons the program will pop up a warning if you try to save to the drive the files are to be recovered from. After that, job done.

    I ran a quick scan of my S: partition using Wise Data Recovery and Recuva. Both found 1418 deleted files although Wise did complete the scan quickest. Of those, Recuva found 37 unrecoverable (red) and 23 Poor (orange) files, while Wise Data Recovery found 60 unrecoverable (red) files. Scanning other partitions yielded similar results. It seems they are pretty even in finding the amount of deleted files that are recoverable although Recuva also has a slower and more thorough ‘Advanced’ scan mode available.

    So, is Wise Data Recovery a viable alternative to Recuva? I’d have to say if you’re unhappy with Recuva for some reason, then yes it is. But it isn’t something you would use instead of Recuva because Piriform’s utility is still the better program overall. Wise is a nice clean program which does its job quickly, but Recuva still has the ability to Ctrl or Shift click for multiple selections, has a secure overwrite function, different view modes, preview and header view tabs, a wizard and some other options not available in the Wise software as yet. The program is still in its infancy, so there is plenty of scope for the inclusion of more functions as time goes on.

    Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, Win7/8 32bit and 64bit

    Website and Download


    Related posts:

  • Permanently Delete and Remove Sensitive Files to Prevent Data Recovery
  • Top 10 FREE Data Recovery Software
  • Restoring accidentally deleted files with Recuva
  • Recovering the Lost Data from The Great Beyond – Windows Edition
  • Recovering the Lost Data from The Great Beyond – All OS Edition

  • A Useful Tool to Get an On Screen Volume Level Indicator • Raymond.CC

    A lot of PC keyboards and a good number of laptops will usually have a couple of hotkeys somewhere to control the system volume, either by pressing an ‘Fn’ qualifier key and a number key, or some extra added on buttons. You might even have a nice little dial or slider to handle it for you. Sometimes there will be a function in the provided driver or software that shows the volume level status in a nice on-screen display. But if it isn’t available, you’re stuck with the basic Windows volume control options using the icon in the system tray. My Logitech keyboard has a dial and a mute button but nothing to display this on the screen.

    A neat little program called 3RVX gives an on screen display of the volume level with a number of different looking skins included. There are eight with the program, but extra ones can be added. Not only that, but if your keyboard doesn’t have its own dedicated buttons to control the volume, some hotkeys can be configured for the up, down and mute functions as well as an optical drive eject hotkey.

    The installer is only about 2MB and will require Administrator privileges to install. During idle use (not controlling volume), it uses around 1-3MB of memory which rises another 4 or 5 when the display is on screen. The program does not start itself so it needs to be run first time from the start menu where you will be asked to choose a language. The default skin is a Mac type display (top left) and there will be a volume icon similar to the Windows one in the tray. Unfortunately, the default white icon will disappear if it goes in the hidden items box for the tray icons, it’s still there, but white icon on white background. Right clicking the tray icon or running the program from the start menu will bring up the settings window where you can change the skin amongst other things. Below are six of the default skins.

    The ‘General’ settings tab has options for starting with Windows, playing a sound when altering the level and running a custom sound mixer if you use one. The ‘Display’ tab changes how long and where the display shows on screen. You can change the fade delay and speed, whether to hide the tray icon or the display when programs are in full screen mode and the display position on screen. If you have multiple monitors there is the option to choose which to use for the display.

    The ‘Hotkey Setup‘ tab is already set up to a default of pressing the ‘Windows’ key and scrolling the mouse wheel to alter volume levels or clicking the middle mouse button to mute. Simply select the action to change and click the ‘Key combination’ button and hold down your own selection. Ctrl, Alt, Shift or the Windows keys can be used separately or in combinations with mouse actions or keyboard keys.

    Sadly, at the time I write this, the developers site is ‘down for maintenance’ so no other skins are available from his site. 3RVX is a few years old so I’m not entirely sure if it’s a temporary thing or not. But somewhere like DevianArt has some for you to have a look at. Just extract the zip file and place the folder in the ‘Skins’ directory of the program.

    Compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Works fine for me on 64bit Win 7.
    The .NET framework 3.5 is required.

    The Download is still available from authors ‘down for maintenance’ website.

    Online Documentation

  • Prevent USB Autorun Virus Infections with Bitdefender Immunizer • Raymond.CC

    The introduction of the Autorun feature was brought to our Windows systems way back in the day when Windows 95 was around. It was a great idea of allowing things like game and application installs to automatically launch themselves whenever a CD or DVD was inserted into the drive. This is quite a big help to the novice and inexperienced users because they don’t have to do anything to trigger an installer or specified piece of software. The idea behind Autorun is simple with a file called Autorun.inf located in the root of the media containing a command to execute the required program. The inf file is looked for, and if found, is read when the disk is inserted.

    With the invention of USB drives and sticks, the Autorun feature has been the target of attack from viruses, Trojans and other malicious software. This is because of the ease at which the Autorun.inf can be replaced and then pointed to start the malicious executable, and begin the infection as soon as the device is inserted into a machine. The ease at which these viruses can then travel from system to system with the aid of the unwitting user poses a major security risk. It would come as no surprise to anyone that Autorun based threats have been one of the most common forms of infection over recent years.

    Windows 7 has Autorun disabled by default for all devices except those of type ‘Drive_CDrom’ although the slightly different Autoplay function can still be used. Other versions of Windows can also now be patched to behave in a similar way. Even if your own machines might be invulnerable to the Autorun virus threats, it doesn’t automatically mean other peoples PC’s are as well, especially if they are running a pre Windows 7 operating system. Connect an infected USB stick into their PC and it won’t take long for the virus to transfer itself across.

    It still makes some sense then, that if you frequently use USB sticks or portable hard drives, doing all you can to help prevent any Autorun type threats installing themselves on the devices, is important.

    A free utility to help you tackle this problem is Bitdefender USB Immunizer. Although it’s been out a little while, the latest version has had a bit of a GUI face lift and has also added the ability to immunize several devices with ease. The principle is simple; USB Immunizer creates an empty write protected Autorun.inf file on the USB device which prevents any malicious software from installing its own file and therefore nothing can be automatically launched upon insertion.

    The program is a completely portable standalone executable, so simply run it making sure there is a USB stick or hard drive ready to be attached.

    The main window will display the plugged in devices and a red glow to the icon indicates it is not immunized. The green glow shows an already immunized device. Just follow the simple instruction and click on a red device and create the protected Autorun.inf file.

    There is an option by clicking on the ‘cog’ icon in the window, to enable auto immunization whenever a USB device is attached. It’s probably better to leave this option though, and do it on a manual basis in case it immunizes a drive you don’t want it to.

    It’s worth pointing out that this type of program doesn’t remove threats or kill viruses and will not replace any of your security software, but does a useful task of helping prevent threats that use Autorun to spread themselves. The Bitdefender FAQ also mentions that the created Autorun.inf file cannot be deleted under Windows because of the security measures that have been put in place. You will either need to delete it using a computer running Linux or OS X or reformat the drive.

    Compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7 32bit and 64bit.
    FAT, FAT32 and NTFS file systems are supported.

    Website

    Download


    Related posts:

  • Protect Windows From USB Autorun.inf Virus With USB Firewall
  • Stop Windows From Executing Instructions Found In AUTORUN.INF
  • How to Make Windows Autorun USB Flash Drives
  • Disable AutoRun CD in Windows for Better Security
  • Prevent Spread of Viruses through Removable Drives with iKill

  • Use Spyrix Free Keylogger to Monitor a PC’s Activity • Raymond.CC

    Whether you think it might be a good idea or not, sometimes there could be a legitimate case for monitoring what is happening on a PC when you are not physically sitting there in front of it. Some people may call it spying but I guess it really just depends on your point of view. While using monitoring techniques to gather private or confidential information from another person is obviously not something anyone should be doing, there are times when someone is perhaps engaging in certain activities on your PC you are not completely happy with.

    Perhaps you are just worried about your children visiting places on the internet you’d rather they didn’t, or trying to stop them going to parts of the system causing stability or security issues. As a couple of simple examples; a relative came home from work two or three days in a row to find his kids had infected the machine with a rogue antivirus. Needless to say, they wouldn’t, or simply couldn’t tell him what they were doing or where they were going to get infected. Another person I know has several kids and one of them kept disabling the laptop’s security software and obviously no-one was admitting responsibility. Monitoring the mentioned systems could have given a much clearer indication of what was happening, why it was happening and when.

    When mentioning the word ‘Keylogger’, a number of people reading this will raise their eyebrows and think ‘Trojan’ and other malicious software. And they are of course, correct. Malicious keylogger trojans are one of the more common pieces of code that sneak their way onto a computer and log the users actions, such as typing in password or financial details, and sends that information to a remote location. But using keylogging on your own or a friend or relatives PC and having good intentions, with the aim of prevention or education, is more acceptable.

    Spyrix Free Keylogger is one such application that is expressly designed to log a number of activities at regular intervals. User tasks such as keystrokes, applications and windows opened and clipboard activity are all monitored. These actions are also automatically captured and stored as a series of screenshots.

    The installer is only a 2MB download and installs to under 3MB. After installation the program will popup with its settings window. There nine visual skins available, and to be honest, I’m not fond of any of them but the Windows 8 and Charm skins appear to be the best of the bunch for me at least.

    Spyrix Free Keylogger is easy to use and the information is stored and displayed in a very readable format. The columns are; Event which can be filtered in the dropdown box by screenshot, keyboard event or clipboard value. Date and time of the activity can be filtered by a certain date or between two ranges. Window title lists the name of the window, application lists the tracked process name and value is the keyboard input, clipboard contents or name of the screenshot taken. Any captured screenshots can be clicked on in Detail View to expand and text can be copied.

    When the program is minimized, it is sent to the system tray like anything else meaning it will be visible and easily terminated. In ‘Settings’, there is an option to enter ‘Hidden mode’ and hide the tray icon by entering a password. The programs main interface can only then be accessed by pressing the hotkey and entering the chosen password.

    If you want to clear the logs and start logging process again, simply navigate to ‘Users\*yourname*\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Spyrix Free Keylogger\’ and delete the contents of the ‘logs‘ and ‘scr‘ folders. In XP these two folders are located in the ‘Program files‘ folder.

    Spyrix Free Keylogger is works with Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7 32bit/64bit

    Website and Download

  • 8 Ways to Detect And Remove Old, Unused or Hidden Device Drivers

    Almost every piece of hardware attached to your Windows computer will show up in Device Manager as an installed device. This includes Graphics cards, CPUs, USB devices, disk drives, network adapters, and just about anything else. When the device is first connected to the computer, Windows will detect it and either install the device driver automatically or you install it yourself from CD or the internet.

    After that, it’s not a problem while the device remains connected but can potentially become a problem if you disconnect it. The driver that was installed when the new hardware was connected does not get uninstalled when the hardware is removed. Over time this can leave driver entries on the system for devices that have long since been removed. Some applications also don’t remove software drivers when you uninstall the software.

    Device manager unused drives

    Even if the hardware or software is no longer available, Windows still looks for it on boot. This can lengthen boot time and potentially cause future driver conflicts so it makes sense to remove what is no longer required. As Windows hides these devices by default, we show you 8 ways to find and remove old and unused device drivers from your system. Make sure to run programs or Command Prompts as an administrator where possible.
    (more…)

  • Uninstall Program Leftovers with Geek Uninstaller

    As you know, whenever you install a piece of software it will install several files and probably registry entries on the system in order to work. And this is fine while you’re using it. When you choose to uninstall the software, you simply use the programs dedicated shortcut icon or go through Add/Remove or Programs and Features in the Control Panel.

    Unfortunately, as is the case with just about all versions of Windows, quite often this doesn’t completely remove all traces of the files, folders and registry entries used by the software and these get left on your system. While this might not be a major problem at the time, it can cause potential issues down the line. This is especially true with system utilities and security software or software which installs a large amount of information and data. It’s possibly expected that sometimes a file or two or a registry key is left behind, but sometimes there are literally hundreds or even thousands that remain which isn’t good news for an efficiently run system.

    The majority of users will no doubt know about third party uninstall programs like Revo Uninstaller and IObit Uninstaller, a couple of programs I keep in my USB toolkit. These programs and others like them are especially designed to remove leftover registry information, files and folders after uninstalling a program which the Windows built-in tool doesn’t touch.
    (more…)

  • Enhance the Windows Clipboard with Arsclip • Raymond.CC

    Although the Windows Clipboard is a great idea, even with Windows 7 it’s not what you would call feature rich. Copy something like a block of text or an image, and that’s about it, one piece of data in, the same one out. With the sheer amount of multitasking most people do in Windows these days, how useful would it be to have more than one actual item in the clipboard at once? With Windows alone you’re out of luck, but thankfully there are programs out there to greatly enhance what the Clipboard can do and help make it a much more functional part of your system.

    One such utility to actually bring the clipboard functionality a bit more up to date is ArsClip, which monitors the clipboard and records multiple entries as opposed to just the one Windows offers. It also adds several options to enhance the clipboard even further making it much easier to keep track of and use multiple entries.

    Some of its features:
    – Configurable Hot key to access the program
    – Create new groups using the Permanent Clips menu option.
    – Append and merge clips, either before or after capture.
    – Directly paste the image to an opened image editor or the text to the text editor.
    – Instruct the tool not to copy any non-text item which is larger than specified size.
    – Picture, RichText, File Copy, Unicode, HTML support
    – Form Mode for pasting multiple fields
    – Windows 7 Jumplist support (If you pin the program to the Taskbar)

    Version 4.0.0 of the program was released not too long ago and the website lists some new features including; Expandable Menus, new Clip Menu window for editing clips, drag-and-drop reordering and Menu key/Application key/Delete key support.

    The program actually comes with both the setup and a portable version in the zip file so it’s your choice to which way you wish to use it. Run the utility and it will display an icon in the system tray and will wait for you to send something to the clipboard. By default 15 items will be stored although this number can be increased to 100 items by right clicking the tray icon, going to Configuration >> Clipboard >> History >> And increasing the store number.

    Once data is in the clipboard you can simply view the history by pressing the default Hotkey combination of Ctrl+Shift+Z. A small window will pop up with the history contents of the clipboard for you to select:

    The Clipboard Functionality of Windows increased with Arsclip

    If you are typing in a document just press the number key of the desired clipboard text, or use your mouse / arrow keys, and it will be inserted at the cursor position. To empty the contents of the clipboard partly, or completely, simply right click the tray icon or use the ‘System’ menu in the popup and use the ‘Flush‘ options.

    Another useful function is the ‘Permanent Clips‘ option which allows the creation of strings of text you use often like email or home address, or maybe predefined sentences or paragraphs. These can then be accessed with a similar keystroke from the popup menu or a custom hotkey combination.

    The Clipboard Functionality of Windows increased with Arsclip

    The tray has a few options through the right click which can also be found in the popup menu such as; Program configuration, permanent clips, flushing and editing the Clipboard contents and its history. Left click the tray icon and you will get a thumbnail of what the current clipboard item is.

    The Clipboard Functionality of Windows increased with Arsclip

    There are plenty of configuration options like changing the hotkey combinations, Changing clipboard options depending on the program and altering the formatting of the copied text and many more.

    The Clipboard Functionality of Windows increased with Arsclip

    Hopefully one day Microsoft will get around to making the Windows Clipboard a lot more functional, but until then, something like ArsClip is on hand to make things a bit easier.

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

    Website and Download

  • Create an HTML Directory Structure with Dir2HTML • Raymond.CC

    Whether you need to do so for your website or yourself, there is quite often a need to create a listing for a particular directory, set of directories or a whole drive. There are very simple ways of doing this but the end results are not exactly pleasing to look at with a simple text based output. A much nicer and more functional way is to create these structures in an HTML directory format. This is an especially ideal scenario if you are using your system as a server or something like a sitemap or index for a website is needed where local directories can be indexed and then uploaded.

    Even if you have no intention of using HTML directory listings for online purposes, creating listings for cataloguing file collections and folders on your hard drives or CD’s and DVD’s still produces something that is much easier to read and navigate around than a standard text file alone. A program called Dir2HTML from Arclab is a freeware tool for Windows that aims to make it easy to convert a standard directory structure into an HTML index file.

    The program has a number of useful options to aid in the creation and customization of the HTML index. Dir2HTML supports recursive folder indexing, selecting a file mask to filter in or out filetypes, create a sub-section for each subfolder and excluding hidden files and folders. Tailoring the output visually can be handled by adding a customized title, altering the font sizes and colours and resizing different areas of the output.

    The program is a small 1.2MB download and is pretty straight forward to use. There is not a portable version available, but this can be easily worked around by simply copying the Dir2HTML folder from ‘Program Files’ and then uninstalling if you don’t want to keep the program installed.


    An index can simply be created by clicking the ‘Select folder’ icon, picking the root folder to index, clicking the ‘Select Output’ button and choosing the location where to save the created .htm file. Then either press the ‘Start’ button at the top to create the file, or click ‘Start and Open Output file’ at the bottom to also view the htm file in your browser afterwards. Depending on the amount of data to process, this can take from a couple of seconds to a few minutes for a whole drive.

    Options such as adding a back-link to add a link to the top-level section, or creating hyperlinks from files are available should you need a bit more flexibility for the index. If you use ‘Link files’, the ‘Link-Prefix’ box will need to be altered from the default ‘./’ if the index file will not be located in the root of the input folder. See the Online Help for a better understanding.

    The colour, type and size of the fonts along with the background may need a bit experimenting with to get the desired results, but it shouldn’t take too long for the way it looks and displays the index is to your liking.

    Compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7

    Website and Download

  • Lock, Restart or Shutdown a PC with Auto Lock • Raymond.CC

    Performing time intensive tasks on your computer can be a bit of a bind, especially when you have to physically sit there until the process has finished. Usually tasks which take time, quite often use at least a reasonable amount of processing power. There are quite a few pieces of software that come equipped with a ‘Shut down when done’ button, but what happens if you don’t want to shut down the machine? There are other things you might want to do instead of shutting down the machine, such as simply turning the screen off, or logging off from your account. Or you might simply want to shut the system down after the task has ended and the option to do so is not available directly from the software.

    Sometimes having your PC running longer than you really want it to and not being around should anything untoward happen, could also potentially pose a security risk. Even if you do not want to shutdown a PC after a task has finished, a similar thing might be needed such as restating the PC or logging off in a certain amount of hours and minutes from now. There are a few utilities around to do this kind of thing, but they are often full of other features you might not want. A very easy to use and simple utility is designed to do this and this alone. Auto Lock is a very tiny, compact and portable tool of only 120k so can be placed anywhere you like.

    The program comes with two different ways of performing one of the specific actions. The first is ‘If Idle’ which will wait for the computer to be idle for some specified time. Once the system is idle, the countdown you have specified (default is 10 seconds) will begin and the lock/restart action will trigger if the timer reaches zero. The timer will reset if the CPU becomes active during the countdown. ‘Forced’ mode will simply apply the action at the end of the specified countdown period after pressing the ‘Start’ button.

    The more astute users will no doubt be aware that waiting for the system to become idle is definitely not foolproof and just because the application you are monitoring has finished its work, the system might quickly start another processor intensive task such as scanning from your security software. Not perfect, but is still useful if you know there is not likely to be any more high CPU usage afterwards.

    The initial action on starting the utility will be ‘Screen Off’ and ‘Lock PC’ when the PC is idle. The main function options are locking the PC, logging off, restarting the system and shutting down the system. The ‘None’ option will only turn the screen off. The ‘Mute system sound’ option can be used when the machine is setup to be locked.

    If you minimize Auto Lock then it will disappear to the system tray and give you the countdown status by hovering over it. A small and simple tool to do a simple task.

    Compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7

    Website and Download

  • Sophos Virus Removal Tool Help Finds Missed Viruses • Raymond.CC

    The fact is no antivirus will ever achieve 100% detection with 0 false positive. Even if it does, it won’t maintain at that perfect score in the next test. Therefore you should not fully trust your antivirus but use it only as a reference. One good example is a Remote Administration Tool such as DarkComet encrypted to bypass antivirus detection. I am glad that some of you found and clean the DarkComet infection from your computer using the DarkComet RAT Remover tool when your antivirus failed to detect it in the first place. So if your antivirus says that your computer is clean, don’t think that your computer is definitely free from any malware. It is always better to play safe by using a password manager or a keystroke encryption software to prevent from any possible keylogger capturing what you type on your keyboard.

    Another way to increase the detection rate of malware on your computer is to scan with other antivirus engine. For example, if you have Kaspersky Anti-Virus installed on your computer, you should be using a different brand of antivirus engine to scan instead of using the standalone Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool because both Kaspersky Anti-Virus and Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool uses the same virus definition and scanning technology. Obviously you are going to get the same results.

    One suggestion is to use the free Sophos Virus Removal Tool that works alongside your existing antivirus. The Sophos Virus Removal tool is capable of scanning memory, including system memory on 32-bit Windows, registry, all local hard drives and offers to remove when any infection (viruses, spyware, rootkits, fake antivirus) is found.

    Sophos Virus Removal Tool
    Sophos Virus Removal Tool is similar to Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool where it does not provide real time protection on your Windows computer which is why it will work even if you already have an antivirus software installed. Sophos Virus Removal Tool requires installation and the setup file is at 82.7MB in size. After installation, all you need to do is click on the Start scanning button. When an infection is found, you can click on the Details button to view the infected items and followed by clicking the Start cleanup button to remove the threats. Below is a video demo on how Sophos Virus Removal Tool scan and remove a malware that I’ve infected on my test machine.

    The Sophos Virus Removal Tool creates a log file in the application data or program data folder, depending on the version of Windows that your computer is running. You can find the log file (SophosVirusRemovalTool.log) from the following path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Sophos\Sophos Virus Removal Tool\Logs\.

    It also comes with command line support that requires UAC elevation by running the SVRTcli.exe file from C:\Program Files\Sophos\Sophos Virus Removal Tool\ folder. There are several command-line options that can be passed to the command-line tool such as -yes to prevent from asking for confirmation before cleanup, -reboot to automatically restart the computer if required for cleanup, -uninstall to remove the tool after scan and cleanup is complete. You can specify the -help option to display the text help for more command line options.

    Sophos Virus Removal Tool doesn’t come with a self auto update feature so you will need to download from the official link below when you need an updated version to scan on a machine that you suspect to have a virus infection. Sophos Virus Removal Tool is compatible with Windows XP SP2, Vista or 7.

    Download Sophos Virus Removal Tool

  • 5 Tools to Manage Multiple Network Connection Profiles

    Every home or work network you connect to can conceivably have different settings for the connection. At home you might use a WiFi connection with default or automatic settings, for work you might have a manually set IP address and gateway or custom DNS servers. Each different network configuration you come across requires the settings in Windows to be adjusted to match. While this isn’t a major problem because Windows allows you to change these types of settings, it isn’t the quickest thing to get at and change regularly.

    Manual reconfiguration each time through Windows Network Connections is both time consuming and inefficient. It requires you to remember each individual setting or the network might not connect properly. An easy solution is being able to create different network profiles for different scenarios, so you can save IP address, DNS, default gateway and other settings for each network connection you encounter. When you need to change to a different network, a different profile can easily be applied which changes all the required settings automatically.

    Here are 5 free tools for you to create and apply network profiles.
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