Posts Tagged: ‘Windows’

Who Is This Domain – Originally Published July 2019

July 7, 2019 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

Have you ever been surfing the web and gotten curious about the sites domain information?  Normally, you would have to open another browser tab and go to one of the many look‑up sites, type in the domain and get the information.  Alternatively, you could install an extension (on most browsers) to do the same thing.  If you do a web search, you will find many programs to accomplish the task.

What if you wanted to look up many sites?  What if you wanted to look up these same sites a month from now?  If the answer is yes, I have another question.  How would you like to get the information without installing any software on your computer?

Whois This Domain is a small domain registration lookup utility that allows you to easily get information about any registered domain.  It connects to the WHOIS server and retrieves the record of the domain.  It supports both generic and country code domains.

The utility doesn’t require an installation.  Simply put the executable file anywhere and run it.  After you run the program, you will be able to choose one or more domains.  I haven’t tested if there is a maximum number of sites you can check at one time.  When you’ve selected your site(s), click the OK button and you will get your domain report.

For this article, I’ve used one of my websites, the club website and Mr. Fixits website for demonstration purposes. I hope Tom doesn’t mind because it would be a pain to change the screenshots.  The report is straightforward.  The upper window lists each site and gives information that most people want to quickly know.  The lower window gives more detailed information on whichever site is highlighted.

    

This program is extremely easy to use.  It only takes 59KB of space on your hard drive, opens quickly and runs fast.  One of the best features is that you can save domain lists that you may want to look up in the future.  You can also save to a CSV (spreadsheet) file.  One other option is to view an HTML report.  This opens the domain list in your default browser making the data easy to read.

There are many times you might want to use this program.  If you remember when the club lost its dot com domain, I often checked to see if the usurper had relinquished control.  It was then easy for us to regain control.  I often check sites I am browsing to see who really owns them.  I also have a list saved of all my domain names.  It makes it easy to check if I need to renew them.  Finally, I have another list of domains that I would like to buy.  I’m pretty sure I’ll never get Tiny.com, but I keep checking.

Did I mention the cost of this utility?  It will set you back a grand total of $0.00.  Like many freeware authors, donations are accepted.  The program runs on any version of Windows from Windows 2000 through Windows 10.  Download Whois This Domain and give it a try.  I think you might find it useful.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Reviewed Programs I No Longer Use – Originally Published July 2019

July 7, 2019 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

In this months Lagniappe, I reviewed a NirSoft Utility that I’ve used for many years.  When I write my review columns, I usually check my indexes to see if I had previously written about the software.  This month, I noticed that there are many programs that I no longer use.  I thought I’d list a few of them and explain why I no longer use them. The links will open my original review.

• CCleaner – is a program that I used for many years.  It was originally known as Crap Cleaner and was a very good utility.  Over the years, many new functions were added which I hardly ever used.  In 2017, it was sold to Avast.  It wasn’t too long before it was discovered that the program included a Trojan malware installer.  I haven’t used it since then.  I also don’t use Avast Antivirus anymore.
• Kaspersky TDSS Killer – is another one purpose utility that I used to run weekly.  It simply scans your computer for root kits.  When I bought new computers, I didn’t reinstall it.
• TunnelBear VPN – is an still an excellent VPN (I think).  I quite using it when it was purchased by McAfee, a company that I don’t much care for.
• Spyware Blaster – is another utility that didn’t make it onto my Windows 10 machines.  It searches for and removes spyware, adware, browser hijackers, etc.  Now that I’m researching this article, I’ll probably install it again.
• WPS Office – formerly known as Kingsoft Office is an office suite of programs.  I use to solely use this program because it synced easier with my Android devices.  I haven’t used it for about two years.

These are just a few of the programs that I no longer use.  There are many others that I discontinued because I either had no use for them or they were no longer being updated.  Back in 2014, I even wrote an article about some old friends that I miss.

It’s not that I’m fussy and need the latest and greatest.  My default image viewer is VuePrint which was last updated in 2008.  It is still a great program for viewing, printing and converting graphics files.  I still do a lot of my web page editing with Kompozer, another program which will probably never be updated.

Thanks for reading.

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FileMenu Tools – 2019-02

May 12, 2019 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

Mr. Spock was right.  Computers can be really efficient if you have the proper programs to do the job.  There is a truly efficient utility program that I’ve been using for more than ten years.  I first reviewed this program in July 2013.  The program has gotten even better since then.  FileMenu Tools lets you customize the right click menu of Windows Explorer.  The program adds utilities to perform operations on files and folders and adds customized commands that let you run external applications, copy or move to a specific folder or delete specific file types.

Click to enlarge.

With the built in commands you can:
• Run With Parameters – Runs a program with parameters you input in a dialog box.
• Command Line From Here – Opens a command line window.
• Copy/Move – No need to cut and paste. You can also use filters in file selection.
• Duplicate Files – Make a copy in the same folder.
• Pack to Folder – Moves all the selected elements to new sub‑folder in the current folder.
• Copy Path/Name/Content – Copies the selected item(s) to the clipboard.
• Attributes – You can view and change them without opening a properties dialog box.
• Find and Replace – Lets you find or replace a text for all the files in a selected folder.
• Advanced Rename – With lots of options.
• Change Icon – Quickly and easily change folder options.
• Advanced Delete – lets you delete specific file types in a folder.
• Synchronize Two Folders – Lets you synchronize two folders quickly and easily.
• Shred Files – Overwrites several times so it is impossible to recover the file in the future.
• Send to Mail Recipient – Lets you send an e-mail with selected elements as attachments.

These are about half of the FileMenu commands you can select from.  In the configuration menu, a simple check mark will turn off the commands you don’t want to use.  If you can’t find the FileMenu function you need, then just add a customized command to run external applications, copy/move to a specific folder or delete specific file types.

FileMenu Tools lets you configure the “Send to” sub‑menu.  You can add new items, change the properties of the existing items or delete them.  You also can disable existing “Send to” items in order to hide them from the menu.

FileMenu Tools will also let you enable/disable the commands which are added to the context menu of the Windows Explorer by other programs.  This is the only function that is not one hundred percent reliable.  When it works, it works well, but it doesn’t catch all of the programs that add to your right click menu.

FileMenu Tools is a 7.3MB download and runs on all Windows platforms.  Did I mention the price?  This program is freeware and costs nothing.  (There is a pro version available for a small charge.)  I’m pretty sure that Mr. Spock would say, “Fascinating is a word I use for the unexpected.  In this case, I should think ‘interesting’ would suffice.”

Download FileMenu Tools and give it a test.  I’m pretty sure that you’ll like it.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Winaero Tweaker – Originally Published March 2019

March 3, 2019 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

I’ll admit it.  Sometimes I suffer from mild OCD.  It kicked in again the other day when I was looking at my desktop and saw all those useless little arrows on my icons.  You know the ones I mean.  They indicate that the icon is just a shortcut to open a program.  I already knew that.  After all, it was me that put the shortcut there to begin with.  I remembered reviewing a program years ago.  In the December 2014 newsletter, I told everyone about my experiences with the Windows Shortcut Arrow EditorWindows Shortcut Arrow Editor.  It was a simple utility that did only one thing ‑ removed the shortcut arrow.  I plugged in my backup drive, went to the proper folder and found that the program only supported Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

I opened the developers website and sadly, I found that this simple utility was no longer there.  Instead, I found this message, “After years of development, I decided to release an all‑in‑one application which will include most options available in my free Winaero apps and extend it as much as possible.  I would like to introduce Winaero Tweaker ‑ universal tweaker software which supports Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.”  Although I am not a fan of all‑in‑tweaking programs, I decided to download and give it a try.

An apt one word description of the software is “awesome”.  It actually makes changes to the Windows Registry without opening a registry editor.  This makes it far less likely that the user will make irrecoverable changes to their computer.  When you download and install the program, it will detect your operating system and display the appropriate interface.  (Note: I have only tested the software on Windows 10 machines.

All the possible tweaks are organized by category, such as Appearance, Behavior, Desktop and Taskbar, etc.  At the very top, Winaero Tweaker also provides your basic system information.  The various options are all described with clear language.  Clicking an option will give you greater detail.  Each tweak also has a link that says, “See in detail how this tweak works.”  Clicking the link will take you to the Winaero website for a detailed description of what the program will change on your system.  There is also an option in the “File Menu” to reset to defaults.

Another useful section is the “Bookmarks” where you can add tweaks that you use most often.  For instance, many users like to change their screen colors, themes, etc.  There are far too many tweaks for me to explain them all in this short article.  For a complete list check out the developer’s web site: The list of Winaero Tweaker featuresWinaero Tweaker features.

The program is freeware.  You can download Winaero Tweaker by downloading the ZIP filedownloading the ZIP file.  Extract all the file from the ZIP and run WinaeroTweaker.exc.  The FAQs have indicated that this might change in the future.  If that happens, I will give some serious consideration to purchasing it.

By to way, my desktop looks a lot better without all those shortcut arrow.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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PDF-Echange Editor – Originally Published November 2018

November 4, 2018 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

Did you ever notice how the default programs in Windows often aren’t always the best?  Take Adobe PDF Reader as an example.  It is a program that likes to use a lot of memory and run all the time, even when you aren’t using it.  Adobe usually installs unwanted programs when you do updates, changes your system settings and many other things that you may not want.

There are a lot of good alternative PDF viewers.  The one that I usually use is PDF‑Xchange Editor from Tracker Software.  This program is the successor to the PDF‑Xchange Viewer.  Its design has been totally overhauled, making it much clearer and easier to use.  The program is easy to use with many different tools for working with documents including typing text and editing it, drawing diagrams, creating stamps, underscoring and styles, entering commentaries, notes and more.  In fact, I haven’t personally used every free editing feature.

Here is a partial list of free features:
● Full Document Spellchecker
● Multi-Language document OCR
● Full Page Text Content Editing
● OCR image based/scanned PDF to fully text searchable PDF files
● Add Comments and Annotations to any PDF file (subject to security settings)
● Mark-up pages with text and objects
● Type directly on any PDF page
● Export PDF pages or entire files to any one of the supported Image formats
● Extract text from a PDF page/File
● Fill and Save forms to disk, email or ‘post’
● Full Java-script engine included
● Plug-Ins for major browser
● Auto Highlight Fillable Form Fields
● Document Search
● Add/Edit Hyperlinks to pages
● Support for PDF File Attachments
● Send PDF files via email from viewer
● Undo/Redo functionality for text editor
● Add/Edit/Move Bookmarks

You can also extract or delete entire pages from a long PDF file and embed new content like text, images, blank pages or entire PDF documents.  PDF‑Xchange Editor can also convert documents between PDF and Word formats.  It even includes an OCR (optical character recognition) for converting scanned documents into editable text.  Note: I haven’t tested the OCR.

One of my favorite features is the tabbed interface.  This feature comes in handy for things like when I edit the “History” column for the club newsletter.  I can open all the PDF newsletter files for a given month and easily shift from one to another for viewing.  If I want to repeat an item from an older newsletter, the copy and past feature makes it easy for me to “cheat”.  You can also extract and/or export individual pages or the entire document.

Installation is simple and fast.  When you run the program, you get every feature of the licensed program.  When clicking on various items, a pop‑up window opens and informs you if you are attempting to use an enhanced feature.  You can still use the feature, but any pages will be watermarked.  This is a subtle method of getting you to purchase a license.  If you do a lot of PDF editing, it might be a worthwhile purchase.

Like many programs, there is a “free” and licensed option.  Very few free editors will let you add new content to documents.  This alone is a good reason to make it your new default app for PDFs.  You can download PDF‑Xchange Editor from the publishers web site.  There is only a Windows version.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Mostly Free Software – Originally Published November 2018

November 4, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I’ve been loading my new Alienware Aurora R7 desktop computer with software.  So far, I’ve spent zero dollars and I expect to spend the same amount in the foreseeable future.

People who know me can tell you that I don’t normally spend my dollars for stuff I can get for free.  I guess it’s my Dutch heritage.  Part of the purchase price of a computer is used to pay for the operating system.  I’m fairly certain that if that wasn’t so, I would be an avid Linux user today.  After all, that penguin is kind of cute.

One thing that I normally do with a new computer, I haven’t done with this machine.  I haven’t installed very many third party security programs.  I’ve been using Windows firewall and anti-virus.  As of this writing, I am not planning to install some old favorites like CCleaner.  I haven’t decided whether their recent problems make the program as useful as it was in the past.

Other programs that I’ve installed are Libre Office, which is my default word processing software.  I also use Scribus for creating the club newsletter.  I use Core FTP for transferring files to the various web sites that I maintain.  In addition to Notepad, I use BlueGriffon and Kompozer for HTML editing.  I still use FileMenu tools on all of my computers for the sheer utility that is provided.  I really tried to like the new Windows File Explorer, but I finally went back to using FreeCommander XE.  Of course, I’ve installed about six different web browsers, mostly for testing purposes.

The only paid for program that I’ve installed is Inpaint by Teorex.  This is a graphics utility program that does only one thing, but it does it very well.  Inpaint erases unwanted elements from photographs.  It is fast and easy to use.  I originally got the program years ago as a free Giveaway of the Day.  If I’ve spent actual cash money, you can assume that it must be a pretty good program.

Other graphics programs that I’ve installed are Paint.net and FastStone Image Viewer.  These programs have been discussed and demonstrated at length several times at club meetings.  Suffice it to say that they are excellent programs.

I may also install another program that I paid for.  It was originally a shareware that I purchased for ten dollars if I remember correctly.  VuePrint is an image viewer that can also do minor editing.  I originally purchased it because I liked how fast you could view and print images.  About eight years ago, the author quit updating the software and released it as freeware.  If you want to try it, you can download it here: VuePrint-Free Image Viewer.  Note: I haven’t tested the software on Windows 10.

I’m getting to be a little older and kind of turning into a curmudgeon.  I don’t often look for new software, but when I do, the first place I look is Gizmo’s Freeware.  On this site you can search by software categories, do a search for a topic or you can read various lists such as all of the free software from Microsoft.  Another great feature of this web site is the Resources section where you will find several lists of tips, guides, tutorials etc.

If you are looking for a good, free program you can probably find it at Major Geeks.  The site has been online for many years and has a vast repository.  There is also an active forum where you can seek help.

You can find, create and publish open source software for free at SourceForge.  Sometimes I go to this site just to check the statistics on the home page.  As I write this article, SourceForge has 430,000 projects listed.  There have been 19,192,106 downloads this week.  I find those numbers to be astounding.  That is a lot of programs.  (I wonder if they make a hard drive big enough to hold them all?)  I’ve found that the real computer geeks hang out on this site.

A few other good places to find freeware are Donation Coder, the Freeware Geeks and NirSoft.  Nirsoft is unique because it has more than a hundred programs, all written by one person.  Many of them are small utilities that are really useful.

Free software is really nice but you should remember that free lunches are pretty good too.  Neither is really free.  They just require a different kind of payment.  Some programs are scaled down versions that entice you to buy the full program.  Some require you to give them personal information.  Many of these programs are written with the hope that users will like them so much they will make a payment to the author.  I’ve done just that for some of the indispensable software I use.

If you start downloading and installing free software, be extra careful.  I recommend doing a internet search with the software name and the word “problems” or “reviews”.  If there are a lot of hits, be suspicious.  There is a lot of free stuff that comes with a free Virus or Trojan included.  Download only from a trusted site.  Before you install, scan with your anti-virus program.

One last link that you can check to find some good free software links is our Club Website.  Log in and check the posts.  You can also search the older club newsletters.  A lot of freeware has been reviewed in the past.

If you’ve got a favorite program (free or paid), why not take a few minutes and let the rest of the club members know about it?  Write a short review and post it on the club’s website or send it to the Newsletter Editor.  Remember our club motto?  It is “Users Helping Users”.

Thanks for reading.

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End User License Agreement(s) – Originally Published August 2019

August 18, 2018 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I remember about thirty years ago I bought some new software.  I don’t remember the program, how much I paid for it or whether I liked it.  What I do remember is opening the box and taking out a shrink wrapped disk.  After opening the disk, I took out the End User License Agreement (EULA).  The opening paragraph read something similar to this: “By opening the package, you agree to our Terms of Service.”  These companies were sneaky back then and they are still furtive today.

What got me to reminiscing about this was the EULA for Toolwiz Time Freeze, a sandbox program software that I recently updated. It doesn’t get much simpler. The terms of service were easy to read and understand. Compare this with many other EULAs of thirty or forty thousand words that you cannot understand without consulting a dictionary.

I’m not going to go into a long diatribe about the evil things some EULA agreements do.  Things like saying you agree to never sue the company, post bad reviews on social media, agreeing to future changes, etc.  I’m also not going to write about some of the funny EULAs.  I’m pretty sure that Apple doesn’t really think anyone will use iTunes to manufacture missiles.

Instead, I’m going to tell you about some EULA services I use.  Like most other people, I don’t read all agreements before installing software.  You can slap my wrist the next time you see me.

EULAlyzer is a program I’ve used for many years.  When you are installing new software, open the program and you will see an option to “scan new license agreement”.  A new window will pop up with an icon to drag over the EULA window.  The EULA will be imported and you can analyze it.  You do this simply by clicking the “analyze” button.  Eulalyzer then reviews the license for keywords such as tracking, advertising, third‑party, data collection, etc.

I’ve been getting e-mails from Paranoid Paul for more years than I can remember.  Paranoid Paul is a free service that allows you to track changes made to online documents that affect your privacy or your personal information.  This includes Privacy Policies, Terms and Conditions or User Agreements.  I haven’t actually been on the website for most of those many years I mentioned earlier.  To use the service, you must submit an e-mail address.  Then you pick which documents you are interested in following.  Whenever there is a change, you will receive an e‑mail with a brief synopsis of what is new.  The service is free.

Occasionally, I find other programs or websites that claim to do the same thing, but I have found none of them to be as useful or easy to use.  Life would be so much easier if privacy policies were as clean and concise as the one on my personal website.

Thanks for reading.

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Reviewing a Review – Originally Published July 2018

July 5, 2018 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1.  A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2.  An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

This month I’m going to do something a little different.  Instead of reviewing a program, I’m going to give you my opinion on 101 of the Best Free Software and Apps for Your Windows PC.  The link is to an article on Make Tech Easier, one of my favorite tech sites.  It was published on June 24, 2018 and is a comprehensive list free software in some major categories.  Here are my thoughts on the programs.

Gaming Tools: I don’t play many games and haven’t tried any of these programs.

Office Suite: I’ve tried all of these programs except for Calligra.  They all work well.  WPS Office was my default program for many years.  I quit using it when it the Chinese government started funding it.  I sometimes use Google Docs if I need to do a quick edit or I am writing something on a mobile device.  I started using Libre Office when Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems and quit supporting Open Office.  Over the years I have become familiar with Libre and use it almost exclusively.

Note-taking apps: Evernote is one of the few programs that I actually pay for.  I have had an annual subscription for four years now.  The free version just doesn’t do everything I need.  I’ve tried all of the others except for Apple Notes.  Every year when my subscription is due, I usually once again review all of the others.  They have gotten much better, but I’m still giving Evernote my $70.  Maybe this year will be different.

Web Browsers: I change my default web browser more that some people change their underwear.  All of the tech sites tell us how fast each on is at rendering web pages.  A millisecond or two has never made much difference to me.  Between all of my active computers, I usually have about twelve browsers installed.  I do this mostly for testing my various websites before uploading.  For daily use, I mostly utilize Firefox and Pale Moon.  I normally use the Chrome Browser only when I need to access my Google account.  On Linux machines, I use either Chromium or Firefox.  Over the years, I’ve tried to like the Opera browser, but I never could.  I don’t know why.  I only have one Windows 10 computer where I use Microsoft’s Edge.

Media Players: Years and years ago I used SMPlayer and Potplayer.  Now I use VLC to play all of my media files.  It plays almost everything.  I might be a little old fashioned, but I still use Windows Media Player for MP3 files.

File Compression: Does anyone compress files anymore?  With the size of hard drives there is almost no need to do so. I  keep 7-Zip installed on my computers.  I can’t remember the last time I compressed a file.  I mostly use it for extracting files that I’ve downloaded from the internet.

Instant Messaging: How quaint. I don’t think that I’ve sent an instant message since ICQ was the best program.  I haven’t tried any of these programs and I don’t intend to.  There is no one I want to either bother or be bothered by.

Email Clients: I may be the only club member that still uses an e‑mail client instead of web mail.  I usually have between 60 and 100 active e-mail addresses.  I like the control that Thunderbird gives me.  I haven’t tried any of the other three, but Mailbird looks interesting and I may test it.

Torrent Managers: I have BitTorrent installed on one of my computers, but I don’t Torrent very often.  I haven’t tried any of other managers.

Anti-Spyware and Anti-Virus: Whenever I set up a new computer, Malwarebytes is one of the first programs I install.  I have never tried AdwCleaner.  I don’t let toolbars and adware get installed in the first place.  I’ve demonstrated Kaspersky TDSSKiller to the club several times.  It is a great stand‑alone program.  I haven’t tested USB Disk Security but have put it on my list of things to do.  The best way to protect against USB drive infections is don’t plug in any USB drives you do not know the source of.  I quit installing third party anti‑virus programs about two years ago.  I have found that Windows Defender is adequate.  I still use Avast on one of my computers, but will probably remove it.

The Other Stuff: FTP clients are necessary if you do a lot of uploading (or downloading).  I’ve used all of these and they all work well.  CoreFTP is my choice.  I’ve long urged the use of password managers.  I’ve used KeePass for many years.  Windows integrated ISO software works fine for me.  I don’t use a download manager.  Windows Snipping Tool works fine for all of my needs.  There are hundreds (or maybe thousands) of code editors for users that need them.  I usually use KompoZer or BlueGriffon.  Paint.net is my graphics editor of choice.  I even converted Tom into using it.  Does anyone read an e‑book on their computer?  I haven’t run a game emulator for years.  Same thing with diagrams and charts.  Windows backup works fine for me.  Finally, the only optimization program on this list that I use is CCleaner.  I didn’t even know that PC Decrapifier was still around.

All of the programs on this list are free for personal use and as far as I know, they are from reputable sources.  If you find anything that looks interesting or useful, why not download it and give it a try?  If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Belarc Advisor – Originally Published May 2018

May 13, 2018 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

I’ve got a lot of programs that I use to upkeep and maintain my Windows computers so that they operate smoothly.  To help me do this, it is important to know substantive information about my different machines.  I get much of this data by using Belarc Advisor.

Belarc Advisor scans your PC and builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware in the form of an HTML report that you can view in your browser.  This information includes local drive volumes, memory modules, printer information, installed licenses, installed software, multimedia information and much more.  All of your PC profile information is kept on your PC and is not uploaded to any web server.

After installation, you simply need to run Belarc Advisor and wait until the initial analysis of the computer system is completed.  This process may take time, depending on the speed of your computer, number of peripherals, programs installed, etc.  Once the analysis is completed, Belarc Advisor will display in your default web browser a Computer Profile Summary.  This is generated as an HTML file and is stored on your computer.

Depending on the number of the programs installed on your system, the length of the page and the amount of information will vary from computer to computer.  Belarc Advisor identifies and reports the following information:

• CPU(s) installed on your motherboard
• Motherboard make, model, and serial number, plus BIOS data
• Hard drive and optical drive data, including total capacity and free space, as well as volume details like the drive letter and file system
• Total amount of RAM, plus number of modules installed
• Mapped network drives
• Local user and system accounts, last logon time stamps, and locked/disabled status
• Installed printers and which port each is using
• Storage controllers
• Video card and monitor make, model, and serial number data
• USB, eSATA, and similar controller data
• Sound card or other audio hardware
• Anti-malware program installed program and definition version data, last scan time stamp, and current status
• Group policy data
• Service tag of the computer model, and possibly a support link to the manufacturer’s website
• Networking, Bluetooth, and other communication hardware and protocol data

One of my favorite features is in the programs report section.  There you can check the last time that you have opened any installed program.  This can help you decide whether you might want to uninstall old, unused software.  I run the program every month or so.  That way I always have a fairly up to date report of my system(s).  The information doesn’t usually change too much.  I haven’t included any screenshots of my computers.  You can find many pictures with an internet search.

I like this program and have been using it for several years.  After installation, it only uses a little over 6MB of space on my hard drive.  Belarc Advisor runs on Windows 10, 8.1, 7, Vista and XP SP3.  Both 32‑bit and 64‑bit Windows Operating Systems are supported.  The license allows for free personal use only.  You can download Belarc Advisor from this link.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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PDF Link Editor – Originally Published March 2018

March 11, 2018 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

I’ve often commented on how I have a lot of utilities installed on my computers that do only one thing, but do it better than larger “do it all” programs.  One of my favorites that I use almost every month with the club newsletter is PDF Link Editor.

With this program I can quickly check and easily edit URL links.  The program is a convenient, easy to use application that allows you to edit all the hyperlinks within a PDF document quickly and smoothly.  The first image is a screenshot of the start up screen.  You can see that all of the options except “Add PDF” are grayed out.  In the second screenshot, I’ve loaded last months newsletter.  You can see that the newsletter is in the right panel.  The scroll bar on the right allows you to view different parts of the PDF file.  In the left panel there is a list of all the HTML links, the associated URL, the document page number of the link and a check box.

    

The document preview is helpful in another way.  You can also click hyperlinks in the document to see where they lead.  That way, you do not need to open the PDF file with another program just to figure out which links need to be replaced, extracted or removed.

After selecting links you are ready to utilize the core functions of the software.
1. Clear PDF hyperlinks will erase the selected links from the document.
2. Extract PDF links will create a text file of all of the links in the document.
3. Replace links will change the link URL to a new destination.
4. Add links will allow you to search the document for a “link anchor” and add a new hyperlink.

After performing your editing, the program opens a pop up save window.  The default save settings are to append the document name with whatever adjustment you just made.  That way you will not accidentally overwrite the original PDF.

I do have a few minor quibbles with the software.  The window size cannot be adjusted.  A full screen would be much more useful as a larger preview and more links could be seen.  The default link replacing hyperlink is for Google.  I would prefer this to be blank.  Some fonts do not render correctly in the preview screen.

Beside the minor inconveniences, there is one that I definitely do not like.  When you click on “About”, a standard program information window opens.  A few seconds later, your default web browser opens to the company’s home page.  In my opinion, this is not only aggravating, but unnecessary as well.

All in all, PDF Link Editor is a great tool for users who need to manage links in PDF files.  It is easy to use for both novices and advanced users.  There is almost no learning curve.  The program is small (less than 20MB) and utilizes 27.1MB of hard disk space.  The best part is the price of $0.00.  You can download PDF Link Editor here.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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