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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A FREE Utility to Analyze and Benchmark your PC

I have reviewed system information utilities in the past (e.g. SIW – System Information for Windows); however, there is always room in your tech toolbox for another. During a past review of System Information for Windows,   a fellow blogger [ Rarst.net ] commented on and pointed out another system information utility, called PCWizard, that is very hard to match.

PCWizard is a system information, benchmarking and diagnostic tool wrapped up in one. PCWizard can analyze and test many types of hardware such as CPU, Cache, RAM, Hard Disk, CD / DVD-ROM, Removable / FLASH Media, Video, MP3 compression. The program is easy to navigate, well designed and will easily fit on your flash drive (approx. 6.5 MBs). This tool is periodically updated (usually once per month) to keep in line with the industries latest hardware and software standards. PCWizard can tell you just about anything and everything about your PC and its’ performance; AND, best of all it  is FREE.

Two options to Install:

ZIP package : PC Wizard 2009 can be run directly from removable support (CD/DVD, USB Key, …) Options are not saved.
Don’t forget to check “Use Folder Names” into your UNZIP application to create PC Wizard folders.

Self-installing EXE package : To install PC Wizard 2009 directly on your hard drive.

FEATURES:

Hardware Information

Mainboard / Bios (Connectors, ID String, MP Support …)

Chipset (FSB Frequency, Norhtbridge, Hub, Direct Media Interface, XMB, NSI, …)

Main Memory (FPM, EDO, SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, DDR-2 SDRAM, DDR-3 SDRAM, RDRAM, FB_DIMM, Timings …)

Memory Profiles : EPP (SLi Ready), Intel XMP.

Cache Memory (L1, L2, L3, Size, Frequency …)

Processors (Type, Speed, Multiplier coeff., Features, Model Number, Vanderpool Technology …)

Coprocessor

APM & ACPI

Busses : ISA, PCI, AGP (2x, 4x,8x), SMBus/ i2c, CardBus, Firewire, Hyper-Transport … )

DMI / SMBIOS

Mainboard Sensors, Processor, Hard Disk & Battery (Voltage, Temperature, Fans)

Video (Monitor, Card, Bios, Capabilities, Memory, Integrated Memory, Frequencies …)

OpenGL & 3Dfx

DirectX (DirectDraw, Direct3D, DirectSound (3D), DirectMusic, DirectPlay, DirectInput, DirectX Media)

Keyboard, Mouse & Joystick

Drives (Hard Disk, Removable, CD-ROM, CDRW, DVD …)

SCSI (Card, Controller, Adapter, Devices …)

ATA/ATAPI & S-ATA (Devices, Type, Capabilities, S.M.A.R.T. Features, RAID)

Ports (Serial, Parallel, USB, IEEE-1394)

IDE & SCSI Devices

Twain & WIA Devices

PCMCIA (PC Card) Devices

Bluetooth Devices

Sound Card (wave, midi, aux, mix, AC’97 codec, High Definition Audio)

Printers (Local & Network)

Modem (Features, Speed …)

Network (Server, Connexion, Firewall …)

Security (Scan Ports …)

PocketPC & SmartPhone Devices

System Information

MCI Devices (mpeg, avi, seq, vcr, video-disc, wave) & ACM

SAPI

Passwords (Outlook, Internet Explorer, MSN Messenger, Dialup …)

DOS Memory (base, HMA, UMB, XMS, EMS, DPMI, VCPI)

Windows Memory

Windows (Version, Product Key, Environment, Desktop, XP Themes …)

Windows UpTime (Boot, Shutdown, BlueScreen, System Restore Points …)

TrueType & OpenType Fonts

WinSock (Internet), Telephony et Remote Access

OLE (Objects, Servers …)

Microsoft® Applications

Activity (Process, Tasks, Threads)

Modules (DLL, DRV, 32 & 16-bits) & NT Services

Internet Navigator (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, FireFox)

.NET Global Assembly Cache (GAC)

ODBC

CMOS/RTC

Resources (IRQ, DMA, E/S, Memory)

System files (.ini, .log, .bat, .nt, .dos …)

System Benchmarks

Processor (Dhrystone (MIPS), Whetstone (MFLOPS), Mandelbrot fractal …)

L1, L2, L3 Cache, RAM (Bandwidth, Latency …)

Main Memory (Bandwidth, Latency …)

Hard Drives

CD/DVD Rom

DirectX 3D

Video

Removable/Flash Support

MP3 Compression

VISTA Experience Index

Tools

Can save, print, e-mail a report

Can save a TXT, RTF, HTML, PDF or CSV report

Can export any graphics as BMP file

Can export text and graphic with the clipboard

Web update Wizard

Communicate with Motherboard Monitor

Dump (Hardware registers, System BIOS, video BIOS …)

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A Simple Solution to Backing Up Your Browser Settings

The everyday computer user primarily uses the computer to browse the internet. As a result, the web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc.) becomes one of the most important pieces of software on the computer. Over a period of time, based on the user’s surfing habits, the browser cumulatively collects bookmarks, cookies, history, toolbar settings, extensions, add ons, etc. that the user ultimately becomes dependent on. The problem occurs is when the computer crashes or the user moves to a new computer AND all of those cumulative browser gatherings by the user are lost. I have actually witnessed users that were more upset that they lost their browser bookmark settings, when their computer crashed, than personal documents they may have had.

To prevent this mishap from occurring there is a backup solution, called FavBackup, that will backup your bookmarks and any other settings that are browser specific (e.g. history, cookies, user preferences, extensions and other elements).

FavBackup is a portable app that requires no installation and has the capability of backing up the browser settings for various versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari and Flock.  One point to make is that you will be see two different type of backup and restore options:

(1) – Backup or Restore – allows you to select what you desire to backup or restore

(2) – Full Backup or Full Restore – will perform a backup or restore of all settings in one fell swoop.

FavBackup is very easy to use, fast and efficient; AND is must-have software for any computer user who is tied to their browser. If anything, make FavBackup part of your normal backup routine and use it to at least backup your bookmarks.

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Turn Your Web Browser into an Image Editor

Today I want to show you an online cloud service called Pixlr that offers several tools that you can use to capture and edit your images (and photos) right inside your web browser. You simply visit Pixlr.com and your browser is transformed into an image editor.  No account sign-up is needed or required.

The tools in Pixlr are are driven by Flash and you need to have the Flash plug-in (get flash) to get it to work. Most PC’s today have the Flash plug- in already installed. To find out if you have flash installed, simply visit Pixlr and try to load the editor. The cool factor about Pixlr is that if you are using the current version of Flash, you will not have to upload your images (or photos) to the server. The image you desire to work on will be opened directly into your browser at the local level (on your PC). The plus about this is that your image is not being sent somewhere else, which could be a privacy concern; especially if the image is sensitive in nature. In essence, your internet browser (such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Opera etc.) becomes an image editor.

Pixlr Editor – If you are already familiar with image editing software (e.g. Photoshop, Gimp, Paint.net, Paint Shop Pro), then you will be right at home with Pixlr Editor. The editor offers the same functionality, navigation and tools, with the ability to handle layers, that you find in your typical image editing software. Your final creation can be saved to your computer as a JPEG, PNG, BMP or PXD (layer Pixlr image).

Available Tools:

Marquee tool
Move tool
Lasso tool
Crop tool
Wand tool
Clone Stamp tool
Pencil tool
Eraser tool
Brush tool
Gradient tool
Paint Bucket tool
Blur tool
Sharpen tool
Smudge tool
Sponge tool
Dodge tool
Burn tool
Red Eye Reduction tool
Drawing tool
Bloat tool
Pinch tool
Color Picker tool
Type tool
Hand tool
Zoom tool

In addition to Pixlr Editor you will also find Pixlr Express and Pixlr Grabber.

Pixlr Express is an online utility that gives you the ability to “quick fix” your photos with basic tools (e.g. crop, resize, rotate, flip, adjust the color and apply photo effects).

Pixlr Grabber is a is a light weight application that enables you to right click any image on your desktop and open them in Pixlr Editor. It is available as a Windows application or as a Firefox extension.

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