BeatificaBytes

Download: http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

It usually supports USB connection and Intel RAID. But I like it as it gives more information than some other similar tools, a.o.: the letter assigned to the disk or the disk number instead of only the disk model name. And it can also be used to monitor the machine and send mail alerts.

Also, in addition graphs with S.M.A.R.T. information, it also show you the AAM/APM settings and let you control them.

• AAM (Automatic Acoustic Management) to reduce noise
• APM (Advanced Power Management) to reduce power consumption

Donwload  : http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

It can be used to :

• Test storage device for bad-blocks and bad-sectors,
  • Verification in linear modeto determine if the drive needs data rescue, has recoverable errors or in its perfect shape.
  • Reading in linear mode is a simpler, but faster disk check.
  • Erasing in linear mode.
  • Reading in Butterfly mode (synthetic random read).
• Show S.M.A.R.T. attributes
• Show temperatures
• Change some HDD parameters such as:
  • AAM (Automatic Acoustic Management) to reduce noise
  • APM (Advanced Power Management) to reduce power consumption

I like it too, in addition to CrystalDiskInfo because it can test the disks and I noticed that it was providing some other S.M.A.R.T attributes than CrystalDiskInfo…

Download: http://hddscan.com/

Information about S.M.A.R.T messages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T

As many laptop users, when my palm accidentally grazes the touchpad while typing text, I experience unpredictable cursor  jumps resulting in garbled text 🙁

TouchFreeze is very small piece of software sitting in the system tray: it simply and silently turns off the touchpad while one is typing. It works really really fine and is compatible with Windows 8 x64.

Download: http://code.google.com/p/touchfreeze/

My-Config which is mainly a web based tool (online) can detect your hardware and software configuration. It find next the appropriate drivers and  search for WHQL-certified (or beta as an option) updates compatible with your computer on the web site “TousLesDrivers.com”. It comes however with an offline modules to, among other, run analysis when disconnected from Internet.

Depending on your hardware (i.e.: if there are the adequate sensors) My-Config is also able to report on your components’ activity: voltage or temperature of the processor, of the graphics card, etc. .

After a complete analysis of your PC, you should focus on the summary pane. This one displays the drivers for which an update has been found. Next to each one, you have a button to download the update from “touslesdrivers.com” web site.

The other panes show information on your hardware, installed applications, running process, startup programs, …. But nothing out of the ordinary here.

A great feature is however the “network mode“. The offline module of My-Config can indeed be installed on remote PC in your LAN and configure to run as a service protected with a password. This remote service can next be query from any PC to display its analysis report. The offline module can be configured as a service via the menu Start > All Programs > ma-config.com > Settings. In that window, select the Network mode, a password, and click “start”.

On PC not connected to Internet, you can run an offline analysis using the offline module via the menu Start > All Programs > ma-config.com > Settings. In that window, click the “Detect” button. This is going to save an analysis report in a file. Copy this file on a USB ley and go to a PC connected to internet. Finally, upload the file on http://www.ma-config.com/en/detectoffline (see the bottom of that page)

Notice: if you PC runs fine, there is no reason to update anything. Updates are usually more a source of issues than a real improvement for your PC (except “Security” updates)…

To check for programs update, have a look on Sumo

I used to use Unlocker but moved to Lock Hunter when I first started with a x64 version of Windows, not supported at that time by Unlocker. Both are freewares.

Once installed, Lock Hunter add a contextual menu “What is locking this file/folder” on the files and folders in the Windows Explorer. This menu open Lock Hunter to:

• View the processes locking the file/folder and all its DLLs
• Kill the locking processes or unload its DLLs
• Unlock, delete, copy or rename the locked file/folder
• Delete the locking processes from the PC

The deleted items are move into the recycle bin’s, so it’s quite “safe”…

Details: http://lockhunter.com/

Download: http://lockhunter.com/download.htm

If you like it, the same company has developed another piece of software (not free) to safely remove Usb devices which are “locked” (and throwing the error “device cannot be stopped” when you try to eject it via the native windows “Safely Remove Hardware” systray icon) : http://safelyremove.com/download.htm

It enumerates usually much more that the native System Configuration’s startup pane (press Start key-R and type msconfig to open this one) and from the following sources:

• the hidden registry entries used to start a soft once or each time windows boot.
• the startup folders’ items (accessible via the menu: Start > All Programs > Startup)
• some of the initialization files inherited from the old windows versions (E.g.: Win.ini)

Using Starter, the user could choose to disable selected entries, edit them, create new, or delete them permanently (while they can only be disabled via the native “System Configuration” tool of Windows). You have also various interesting contextual menu available on each item, like “search on internet”, “Launch”, “File Properties”, “Explore file folder” and the whole “System context menu”…

Details: http://codestuff.obninsk.ru/products_starter.html

Download: http://codestuff.obninsk.ru/products_starter.html

Found Issue: on Windows 7 x64, CodeStuff starter is not showing entries from “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run” (local machine) but only from “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run” (current user) and “HKLM\Wow6432Node\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run”. The native “System Configuration” is therefore still usefull as it’s showing those entries!

As an Image Browser, FastStone is really light and fast while supporting many graphic formats, including obvious ones (gif, jpeg, png, pcx, tiff) but also ico, camera raw files, …

It comes with some other small pieces of software that I use each time I transfer photos from my camera to my NAS.

• An ultra light and quick Image Viewer. I like this one as it opens in seconds (full screen or windowed, as configured) when double clicking an image in Windows Explorer. Next, moving the mouse to screen edges, menu appears with the most common actions such as cropping, resizing, opening the image with an external tools (ex.: Paint.Net :)), …
• a batch Image Renamer supporting “expressions”, search & replace, renaming preview, …
• a batch Image Converter supporting resizing, Lossless JPEG rotations, color adjustments, auto-rotate based on EXIF information…

FastStone also offers Side-by-side Image Comparison, Red-Eye removal, musical slideshow with transitions, …

Details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FastStone_Image_Viewer

Download: http://www.faststone.org

I dislike to use “pro” editors as they are usually too complex for my needs, i.e.: full of over-killing features for a end-user like me. On the opposite, Paint.net offers a clear, pro but still simple interface with all the required powerful tools such the Magic Wand for selecting regions of similar color (ex.: grab clouds in order to remove them), and the Clone Stamp for copying or erasing portions of an image (ex.: rebuild a collapsed wall).

I really use Paint.net a lot to completely remove elements from photos or rebuild their background as well as to simply make pictures’ background  transparent…

I like also how simple I can replace a color with another one in a picture using the Recolor Tool.

Tip: I was recently trying several free tools to determine the code of colors seen in web pages. Actually, the most stupid simple solution to get a color code is to take a screenshot (Using the “Prt Scr” key), to paste this screenshot in Paint.Net and grab Hex Codes using the Color Picker tool.

Also, to automatically edit all images with Paint.Net instead of MS Paint, I did set “C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\PaintDotNet.exe” “%1” as Default value for the registry entry: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT > SystemFileAssociations > image > shell > edit > command. Find attached to this post the reg file that can be used to update the registry.

Details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint.NET

Download: http://www.getpaint.net