Tinys World of Technology BS

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.

Whenever you see a little arrow at the bottom of an icon, it indicates that the symbol opens a program and not a file.  I think Microsoft does this mainly because they think I’m stupid enough to not be able to find a program file on my desktop.

If you don’t like the arrow ruining the aesthetic of you icon, there are several methods for removing it.  Most of them involve making changes to the registry which is always dangerous.  There are other methods that involve using the Windows shell which can be difficult.

Over the years I’ve seen many other tweaking programs that remove the arrow.  Once I read about a program that changed the icon picture to one without the arrow.  Needless to say, all of these methods are either time consuming, difficult, unsafe or just plain stupid.

You’ve probably guessed by now that I don’t like the arrow on my icons.  For several years, I’ve used the Windows Shortcut Editor program.  If you download and unzip the program you will find folders for Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.  The program(s) do not install or change anything on your computer.  Just run the correct EXE application and you will see the screen shown in the accompanying screen shot.

There are four different options.  Click the one you want and Windows will refresh to give your icons the new look.  You can select the Windows default arrow for your system, the Windows classic (XP) arrow or no arrows.  The custom option lets you replace the arrow with your own design.  The ZIP file also contains a ‘Shortcut Arrows’ folder for a few ready made arrows that you can use.

A word of caution.  Removing the arrow not only changes the icons on your desktop but also the icons in any of folder throughout the computer.  If you browse your computers folders, you will lose the visual identification of a shortcut.  You can download the software at WINAERO.

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.

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 know that when you uninstall a program from your computer, you seldom uninstall all of the program?  When you uninstall programs in Windows, they leave bits and pieces of themselves behind, such as Registry entries, file folders, shortcuts, dll files, etc.

There are many free uninstaller programs available to replace the Windows built in installer.  My favorite is the Revo Uninstaller.  It is one of the most popular and highly respected programs that you can download.  It has been around for a long time.  I don’t remember when I first started using it, but I know it has been more than five years.

Revo Uninstaller is an uninstaller for Microsoft Windows.  It uninstalls programs and additionally removes any files and Windows registry entries left behind by the program’s uninstaller or by the Windows uninstall function.  It works by scanning a hard drive and registry for files that would otherwise be left behind.  It removes all the program’s files, auto start entries and all noticeable registry entries.

When you open Revo Uninstaller, you are presented with a list of installed programs that can be uninstalled.  Right clicking on a program in the list will give you the option to search Google for the program’s name or manufacturer.  I have found this useful when I am not sure what the program is.

To uninstall a program, double click on the title.  Revo Uninstaller will first run the program’s built in uninstaller if there is one.  Next, Revo searches for leftover program files, auto start entries, the recently opened file list and any leftover registry entries.  Although, Revo Uninstaller has a few tools for removing junk files, its real forte is program uninstalls.  It is not perfect and occasionally misses a file or entree, but under most circumstances, it is more than adequate.

There is also a portable program that can be run from a USB drive.  A paid PRO version is also available with more features.  Revo Uninstaller can be downloaded 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.

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.

Before reading this article, you must explicitly agree to abide by the following terms and conditions.  If you do not agree, please either close the newsletter or immediately hit the page down key.

“This review can only be perused during daylight hours except on weekends, holidays, a family birthday, or a solar eclipse.  In the event you decide to continue, you agree that you will not disagree with the author unless you are under the care of a state certified psychiatrist.  By continuing, you are granting permission to the newsletter editor to collect your personal information and sell it to other computer clubs.  The author of this article can change it any time without informing the readers.  Information in this article can be true or false without any repercussions to the author.”

If you’re reading this paragraph, you probably realize that the lead in was probably not enforceable.  I have no idea whether or not it is.  All I know is that almost every program I install on my computer(s) make me read and agree to an End User License Agreement (EULA).  They are often full of lots of legal terms and big words.  Many of them are several pages long.  I’m pretty sure that most EULAs were written by lawyers.

There have been several surveys and tests that show that most end users just check the agree box and install the software.  One company put a clause in the EULA telling customers how to claim a $1000 prize.  It was not claimed until after more than 3000 program installs.

Do you, like most computer users, not read the EULA?  So am I.  Don’t be surprised at that statement.  I hardly ever read a EULA.  I let the computer do it for me.

EULAlyzer Personal is a utility that scans user agreements and analyzes them for “key words” or phrases in the EULA.  It is an easy program to use.  When the EULA shows on your monitor (usually in a small window that you can’t re-size), simply select “scan new license agreement” and drag the cursor to the EULA.

EULAyzer then scans the document and searches to see if the software you’re about to install displays pop-up ads, transmits personally identifiable information, uses unique identifiers to track you, and much more.  Troublesome phrases in the EULA are highlighted so you can easily review the appropriate phrase.

Occasionally, EULAs are found on a web page or some other file.  In this case, you can copy and paste the document into EULAlyzer and analyze it as previously described for potential problems.  You can also review Terms of Service agreements by the same method.

As an added bonus, you can save the EULAs to a file on your computer and read them at you leisure.

EULAlyzer is not the ultimate program and does not offer any advice, but only suggestions.  It is a good utility that I recommend you keep in your junk fighting toolbox.  Did I mention the price?  You can download and install the program for a one time payment of $0.00.

You can download EULAlyzer 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.

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 thought I’d take a few minutes and revisit a program I told you about almost two years ago.  It’s the password program that I use every day when I’m computing.  KeePass Password Safe creates strong passwords and keeps them safe.

I use a lot of passwords in my daily computing.  As of this writing, I’ve got 63 e-mail addresses.  I have eighteen passwords that I use to manage them.  I frequent 7 different forums, each with separate password.  Then there are my gaming site passwords.  Five right now.  Did I forget to mention my military and medical passwords?  Eight of them.  Then there are on line shopping passwords and the most important one of all – the one that logs me into the SWLAPCUG web site.  I’ve got more than 50 passwords that I use fairly frequently.

The first week of every month, I change the passwords for websites that keep important data.  It seems that some company or government office is always being compromised and losing important data.  For most web sites, I use hard to break passwords.  Want to see one of my sample passwords?  1+;edYXEQ)-|gvUWxSOZ`B~4ym,x]~U|MV$Hpm&} is a password that I’ve used in the past to gain access to my military retired pay and allotment information.  As you can see, it would be pretty hard for anyone to guess what it is.

The program I use to manage all of those passwords is KeePass Password Safe.  It is a really easy to use utility that helps you to keep track of all your passwords while keeping them safe.  It lets you store all of your passwords in a lightweight, simple to use database that is encrypted so that only you can access it.

KeePass Password Safe stores all of your passwords in groups.  That makes it extremely easy to quickly find the one you want.  The program does more than just store the passwords; it also lets you easily copy them onto a Web page or an application.  You can drag and drop them, copy them to the clipboard, or copy them using a hot key.  A great feature that was added since my last review is “Perform Auto Type”.  This feature automatically fills in user names and passwords.

KeePass also features a plugin framework.  Plugins can provide additional functionality, like support of more file formats for import/export, network functionalities, backup features, etc.

One of the best features of KeePass is the random password generator which creates passwords with characteristics that you specify.  That way you can tailor your passwords as needed.  For example, some websites won’t let you create a password with underlines while others might require a specific password length.  KeePass makes it easy to create any password.

The program also includes support for TAN (Transactional Access Numbers) passwords and allows you to create TAN lists which automatically expire a password once it has been used . Other features include auto-lock, database search and import/export.  There are many more features.

Of Course, KeePass also fits in with one of my most demanding prerequisites.  The cost is Zero!  KeePass is open source.  You can read more about the program on the KeePass Password Safe Home Page.  Give it a try.  I don’t think that you’ll be disappointed.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk; a little lagniappe.

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.

Usually, when I take photographs, my procedure is to take about twenty of them at a time.  I figure that I should get one good picture out of that many.  On those rare occasions that I don’t get a keeper, I just edit it like it was a shark jumping at a helicopter.  The program that I use most often for editing is Paint.NET, an open-source, free photo editing software program.  It was originally created as a student project in 2004, funded by Microsoft.  It was designed to replace Microsoft Paint, which was included in Windows.

Paint.NET has many advanced features which include blurring, sharpening, the Magic Wand which allows for the selecting of regions of similar color and the Clone Stamp which is used for copying or erasing portions of an image.

Layers are another great feature of Paint.Net.  They allow you to add a layer on top of the background that not only allows you to add new items on top of others, but to edit them independently of the other layers.

The program has a large number of special effects.  These allow you to alter the appearance of your image.  You can use blurs, sepia toning, color level altering, ink sketch transformations, anti red-eye, distortions such as bulging, denting and pixelation.  The software has a huge following of users that are constantly creating and sharing other special effects and plug-ins.

Another great feature is unlimited undo history.  You can make as many changes as want.  If they don’t look good, just undo and do over as often as you like.

There is also an active online community and forum.  They will give you any extra help that you might need.  You can also find several tutorials and guides.

Did I mention Paint.NETs best feature is the cost?  The price is free, although the author will accept any donations.  Give it a try.  You might like it.  You can download Paint.NET here.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, bonus perk; a little lagniappe.