A Super Fast and Portable PDF Viewer

If you like fast; then you will like Sumatra PDF Viewer (or Reader).  This viewer blows them all of the water when opening and viewing PDF files. Sumatra is open source (FREE), is simplistic in nature (not a lot of bells & whistles), small in file size (<1.2 MB), does not write to the Windows registry, and is available in a full install version (for on your PC) or as a portable version (for on your flash drive).

If you go the full install (setup) route on your PC, you can make Sumatra your default PDF viewer (or reader), in place of Adobe PDF. I actually uninstalled Foxit PDF Reader on my PC, another great PDF viewer, to give Sumatra the lead duty of opening PDF files on my PC.

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Windows 7 Functions and Settings In A Box

Have you ever been frustrated with navigating the operating system in an effort to find a specific function or setting?  You know it is there, but just can’t seem to remember where exactly you saw it and how you got there.  With the recent public release of Windows 7 I am sure many of you are finding yourselves in that type of situation.

Today I ran across a program, called Windows 7 In A Box,  that will help you navigate and actually learn many of the most common settings (and functions) that are native to the Windows 7 operating system.

The really cool factor to Windows 7 In A Box is that it is a portable app and can be carried with you (in your tech toolbox) on your flash drive.  I can see myself using this app to quickly assist other Windows 7 client users without having to go through the navigation process of locating specific settings and functions.  Windows 7 In A Box is one of those apps that basically will save you a whole lot of mouse clicks to get where you want to go.

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The Way a Backup Program Should Work

Backing up personal files (pictures, music, documents, videos, etc…) on our computers is probably the one maintenance function we neglect the most. To prove the reality of it all; I have assisted numerous individuals with their computers and I can not think of one person that was actually performing routine backups of their personal files. As a matter of fact, I have witnessed the look of despair on people’s faces when they are told their data is lost.

I truly believe the reasoning behind this is that the majority of home based computer users’ do not know the “how to’s” when it comes to setting up backup software; using an external drive, etc…  To all the Tech’s out there that assist people, we need to change that. We assist and fix; but, fail to recommend prevention measures such as performing backups and actually showing how it is done.  Let’s face it, backup software is very intimidating and foreign to most computer users.

What software do I use for backup software? Here of late I have been experimenting with and testing several different backup software product options and finally settled with Yadis! Backup.

Yadis! Backup, in my opinion, is the way a backup program should work.  You install it, select the folder (s) you desire to backup, point it to your external drive and it does the rest.  Yadis! Backup will backup your personal files in “real time” and does not rely on a schedule.  Once it is setup, Yadis! Backup will copy all of your files to the backup destination; after that, you do absolutely nothing. As a matter of fact, you will not even know it is there.  If you add or change a file, Yadis! Backup knows to back it up. If for some reason the destination source or drive is not available, Yadis! Backup knows to hold the backup until the destination drive becomes available again.

What I really like about this application is that it is easy to setup and is a good option for the everyday home user’; plus, it is just downright smart.

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Portable Utility to Backup and Archive Your Email

Here of late I have been on a kick with testing backup utilities; and today I came across an interesting application, called MailStore Home, that will allow you to archive (or backup) your email. If you are an email packrat and you are looking for something to archive (or backup) your email to your computer, then this app may be for you.

First off, MailStore Home is FREE and is designed to archive (or backup) email from:

Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Exchange
AVM Ken! Mailbox
Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla SeaMonkey
Windows Mail
Windows Live Mail
Google Mail
IMAP Mailbox
POP3 Mailbox
Email Files

MailStore Home can either be installed on your PC or you can go with the NEW portable beta version that can be run without installing the app  and can be run directly from your flash drive (or from a folder on your PC). For the sake of testing this app, I went with the portable version and ran it directly from a folder on my PC.

I am an email packrat in the sense that I use an online webmail account that harvests emails from my numerous other email accounts so that I have a backup. As a matter of fact I have approximately 4 GB’s of email stored in that backup account. The only problem with this strategy is that my emails (and attachments) are stored on the internet and not on my PC. MailStore Home is the solution to this problem and has given me the option of archiving and saving all of my emails to my PC.  As a result, I can clean out my online account and feel more comfortable knowing that my email data is now safe on my PC.

The cool factor with MailStore Home is that when you perform the backup, you have option of leaving the email on the server (on the internet) or you can tell MailStore to delete the email on the server after it has been safely archived (backed up).

MailStore Home will pluck those emails, attachments and all, and save them to your PC in the form of a data file that can be read  and searched by MailStore Home and backed up to other locations (such as an external drive, flash drive, etc…). 

Main features I found that you may be interested in:

Archive all email messages centrally, securely and permanently

No storage limitations

Search your email in a fraction of a second (incl. attachments)

Integrated CD/DVD burning, backup archives with 1 click

Conserve disk space; MailStore Home saves only a single instance of mail and attachments

Preview saved messages directly in MailStore and reopen them in your local mail client (e.g. Microsoft Outlook)

Your email can be exported to a variety of destinations

Messages are stored MIME-compatible, and can be recovered at any time without information loss (e.g. to import them in other applications)

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Enhance the Windows Clipboard with PasteCopy.Net

PasteCopy.Net is a portable clipboard manager that enhances and (in essence) enlarges the capacity of the Windows Clipboard operations by supporting multiple cut/copy and paste operations. This app will handle multiple cut/copy and paste operations of graphic and/or text and is very useful; especially if you are a blogger or someone that performs a great deal of editing (e.g. html editor, graphic editor, author).  The cool factor about this clipboard manager is that you can arrange the items that you accumulate into categories which makes locating clips a snap.

PasteCopy.NET does not require any installation, and does not leave a trace on the computer; however, the app is dependent on .NET 2.0 or higher (which is a component that is commonly installed on today’s PCs).

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 98/ME/2000 SP3/Server 2003/XP SP2/Vista/Windows 7 – Requirements .NET 2.0 or higher

Features:

Portable freeware tool, only (514KB)

Multilingual support (de, en, es, it, nb, pl, pt)

Auto- Copy & Paste Windows Clipboard

Convert rtf to txt (-automatically)

Convert html to rtf or txt (-automatically)

(Auto-) resizable/hide preview

Mouse-hover/keystroke preview

Export and print function

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Find the Largest Files and Folders On Your PC

I have been doing computers for many years and over that many years I have accumulated and collected thousands of files (and folders), such as downloads, pictures, videos, documents, etc…  Fortunately, I have an organized method to my madness for managing my files (and folders) so that valuable disk space is not wasted.  One such method that I use to collectively visualize my madness is a FREE and PORTABLE utility, called TreeSize Free.

TreeSize Free is an utility that will show you, in a graphical sense, what files/folders are consuming the most space on your hard drive.

When you first run TreeSize Free you need to click on “Scan”, then select the drive you desire to analyze.  The scan is performed in threads, which means you will see results while the program is working.  On my first scan of my system, it took about minute to complete the scan, which is typical (and actually pretty fast) for a program of this type. The cool factors to this little gem of a program is that; you can break down the results (or values) by kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes; you can list the results by size, allocated space, percentage, cluster size or by file count;  you can sort the results by name or size;  you can use the Windows Explorer right click menu directly in the program; AND, you can print out a very nice report of the scan results.

For a program that is small in size (and portable); it serves a very practical purpose by showing you what files and folders are hogging up disk space.  TreeSize Free can also come in handy for locating those huge file downloads that you forgot about or when you are assisting someone with cleaning the file contents from their PC to reclaim disk space. Personally this is a “must have” program on everyone’s PC or flash drive.

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A File Backup Program Inspired by Star Trek

One of the fictional Star Trek innovations, back in the ‘60’s, was a machine called a Replicator that was capable of creating (and replicating) objects. In 2002, approximately 36 years after the show debuted, Karen Kenworthy developed Karen’s Replicator, that was inspired by the original Replicator that was featured on Star Trek.

Who is Karen Kenworthy and what is Karen’s Replicator?

Karen was the writer of a newsletter (called Karen’s Power Tools) that was featured in a national tech magazine called Windows Magazine (Winmag.com). Windows Magazine, one of my favorites, went belly up when it was sold to a larger publishing firm (which was a shame). Karen was also the developer of the Power Tools software (utility software) that was featured in Windows Magazine. Today, Karen continues to promote the newsletter and the Power Tools software on her very own web site called Karenware.com .

Back in 2002 when I was managing my Star Trek fleet of PC’s I needed a file backup program that I could setup and the user could launch a batch backup job by simply clicking an icon on their desktop (or run it at a scheduled time). This is where Karen’s Replicator came to the rescue.

Karen’s Replicator is a FREE file backup program that can be configured to automatically backup files, folders, even entire drives! Karen’s Replicator cannot duplicate objects (like in Star Trek), but it can duplicate files AND it does it very well. The files you backup will maintain the same file attributes and dates. After you setup and run that first backup, subsequent backup times are fast with minimal impact to your computer’s resources.

Today, in 2009, Karen continues to develop and improve Karen’s Replicator. It is not the prettiest backup program out there, but is an excellent example of a good software product that focuses, not on vanity, but on getting the job done. Today, seven years later after Karen’s Replicator came to my rescue, I continue to use it as a  backup option on my PC. It has never let me down… As a matter of fact, this article is my way of simply saying, “Thank You” to Karen Kenworthy. I encourage you to visit Karenware.com to explore all of Karen’s Power Tools.

Karen’s Description of Karen’s Replicator:

Automatically backup files, directories, even entire drives! Karen’s Replicator copies selected files from one drive/folder to another. Source and Destination folders can reside anywhere on your network.

Options include repeated copies at intervals as short as a few minutes, or as long as several months, copy only files that have changed, and the replication of folder and file deletions.

New features allow you to specify which files should not be copied, and also which days a file should be skipped!

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