Everyone of us likes watching movies and if a movie is worth keeping in our collection, we also look forward to its official DVD/Blu-ray release. After we’ve brought the movie DVD, we either want to keep a copy of it in our computer for archival purpose or want to watch it on our growing collection of portable media devices.

Now, you might be wondering how to rip and encode your DVDs for keeping them safe and watch them on your iPod, iPad, Android, iPhone or other portable device? Handbrake is one such good free tool to rip and encode your DVDs for keeping them safe.

Handbrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multi-platform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows. Let’s take a quick read and know more about Handbrake.

How to use Hadbrake? Quick Overview

First of all you’ll need to download Handbrake. For downloading the software, visit www.handbrake.fr and click on download for Windows/Mac OS/Linux. After download completes, install the software. The installation process is easy and fast.

Now, insert the DVD you want to rip, into your computer. Click on “Source” and choose the video folder on the DVD. Handbrake will now scan the DVD for titles and chapters. After the scan is complete, choose the encoding preset (about which we’ve talked later in Functionality) and click on Start.

Depending on the preset chosen by you, length of the movie and speed of your machine, in a few minutes or hour, you’ll have the movie saved on your computer as a file. You can now sync this file to your portable device and watch the movie.

Handbrake User Interface

The user interface of Handbrake is very clean and is well laid out. You’ll find all the important functions available in the form of buttons at the top. The presets are organized in expandable lists, available at the sidebar. The outputs are organized in clean labelled tabs.

Handbrake Functionality

Handbrake is a very good tool for both novice users as well as advanced users in video encoding. Novice users will like the encoding presets offered by the software. Though we found most of the presets are for Apple devices optimized for the highest quality, screen size, and file type.

Advanced users will find Handbrake very useful because of the control it offers when you mess around with the encoding settings. You can customize everything, from file container settings to the videos aspect ratio and size, which is really overwhelming. Further diving in, you’ll be able to choose the video filters, video quality and codec, audio codecs, mix down settings, bit rate, and sample rate settings. If you’re really want to take control, check out the advanced tab!

Handbrake options lets you configure all the aspects of the software.

Conclusion

Once you start using Handbrake and see the results, we’re confident you’ll fall in love with Handbrake just like us. Handbrake is the best video transcoder we have used till date and offers the best features and performance. The icing on the cake, its open source, free and available on all platforms (Windows, Mac, and Linux)! Thanks for reading.

February 1st was “change your password day.” Did you changed your passwords? When you’re managing your various accounts, passwords and other sensitive data, it becomes very difficult to keep them secure while accessible. You can easily find many efficient password managers but most of them comes at a premium.

Here, we’re going to take a quick look at Dashlane, a user-friendly and secure password manager for Windows and Mac. The app promises to cut the hassle of managing your accounts, passwords and other sensitive data while keeping the data safe from prying eyes. Let’s see if the app can keep its promise of providing better security while revolutionizing the way we login to websites today.

Exclusive Dashlane Invites for all My Technology Guide readers!

Dashlane is now in a private beta stage. But you don’t have to wait for an invite! Thanks to the great folks behind the software to set up an exclusive page for My Technology Guide readers with some exclusive invites.

Simply click on the link below to try Dashlane without waiting to get an invite!

Dashlane Beta Invites

Getting Started with Dashlane

After you click on the above link, enter your email address and download Dashlane. Launch the setup process, which is simple and quick. In Mac, Dashlane supports Safari in addition to Chrome and Firefox, both of which is also supported in the Windows platform. But if you’re using Internet Explorer, you’ve to wait a little more as IE is not yet supported by the app.

Now, when you’re going to set up your Dashlane account using the app, you’ll notice a window, which informs you that there is absolutely no way to recover your password if you forget it since it is not stored anywhere. It may sound very hard but it is perfect for an app like this.

If you’ve used an app like 1Password, you’ll see the same policy about password retrieval. LastPass though has a way to retrieve/reset your password if you forget your master password but the process they follow is pretty secure in our opinion and is a little different from how Dashlane works. So, we will not give any negative points to Dashlane for this.

How to use Dashlane?

Once you’re completed the setup, you’ll get into your dashboard where you can start entering your information. The user interface is elegant, easy to use and navigate. We loved the simplicity and gradient white color of the user interface.

All your information is categorized into three primary categories: Personal Data, Internet Accounts, Internet Shopping. These three categories are further expanded into following: Under Personal Data, you’ll find Contact, IDs, Payment; under Internet Accounts, Logins and Passwords, Security Dashboard; under Internet Shopping, Purchases.

Entering, Importing, Exporting and Saving Information

Dashlane developers have made the task of entering all your information super easy. Simply click on the little round “+” buttons, present under each category and a form pops out for you to fill in and save.

The Personal Data category can be filled up manually while the app intelligently saves your account details for different sites as you log into them using any supported browser. Here, you’ll notice a unique feature of Dashlane about which we haven’t talked yet. Whenever, the app saves any account details, it shows a dialog box to organize your accounts. In that very same dialog box you’ll notice a check box which says “Always log me into the website.” This feature is an exclusive feature of Dashlane.

So, the next time you open that website, the app automatically takes over and logs you in. If you have saved multiple accounts, suppose your Gmail, clicking on the username field will display a pull over menu with all the saved credentials. When you click on the username you want to login to, the app automatically logs you in without any further typing or clicking anywhere.

Dashlane also lets you automatically speed up your online purchases by filling up all the details and even saves the information about that purchase (total spent, retailer name, etc.) back in the app.

Another great feature of the app is its import facility. The app lets you import all your previously saved information from your favorite browser, LastPass, 1Password, Roboform, Password Wallet and Keypass. The app also lets you easily export all your saved data.

Login and Passwords

Under the Login and Passwords section you will see a grid of all the websites login credentials. Upon hovering on any of the tile, a play button appears at the corner. If you click on it, the app automatically loads the website and logs you in. A very convenient and innovative way to login to your favorite website.

Security Dashboard

The Security Dashboard provides a quick overview of the safety level, that is strength of each passwords that you’ve saved with Dashlane. A little bar displays password strength on a scale of 1-100% and a simple interpretation of the score such as “Super Safe,” “Safe” or “Very Unsafe.”

Dashlane Browser Extension

Dashlane during installation also installs the browser extensions. This extension helps capture the login credentials and helps you fill up data. We’ve already mentioned earlier how conveniently it helps filling up online forms through a pop-up menu for each field.

If you’re filling up a long form which needs your personal data like sign-up forms, you just need to choose your saved information with Dashlane and all the fields are filled out automatically.

Syncing

Dashlane saves all your information to your local hard-drive. But, if you’ve multiple computers, you’ve the option to sync all your information to the Dashlane servers. So, when you login to your Dashlane app in your other computer, it automatically syncs all your information.

Syncing is not enabled by default and is completely optional. Even what is getting synced is completely in your hands and for your safety, your financial information is never synced.

Conclusion

Dashlane, even though is in private beta, is already a very solid app with a lot of potential. With some of its unique features like automatic sign in, the app intelligent solves a lot of short comings present in currently available password managers. If you still don’t use any password manager, we highly recommend you to start using one and feel the difference. If you’re already using a password manager, you should definitely try Dashlane.

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, don’t hesitate to comment below and get a discussion flowing! Please share your favorite password manager and if you don’t use one, please tell us why you don’t use one. Thank you so much for reading!

We’ve seen Mozilla Prism and Google Chrome’s application shortcuts, built to display and make websites (web apps) behave as native applications. But both had one disadvantage, you don’t feel any difference over using just the browser. Basically, both just displayed the same look which you would see when opening the website in the browser. You never get the feeling of using an actual native application.

This is why SweetLabs came up with Pokki. Currently in beta, it aims to make you feel as if you’re actually using a desktop app when the next time you open your Gmail inbox or use the Facebook to connect with your friends or tweet to your friends. Pokki is available only for the Windows platform now, with Mac and Linux support coming down the line.

A Brief Pokki Introduction

Pokki is a framework built on Chromium that brings the web applications to your desktop through the help Pokki applications called “Pokkis”. Pokki apps are developed using standard web technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, but with some key additions to bring you the best web application experience.

Pokki apps support nice notification tags on the icons of the apps in the menu bar. They’re also very easy to use and convenient to use too. So, you want to check your Gmail quickly? Simply click on the Gmail Pokkis, and it will pop up in a small window displaying your Gmail inbox. Click outside of the Pokki, and it disappears away. As simple as that.

Developing apps for Pokki is completely free. With their continuous contests for new apps, more and more new apps are added to Pokki. At the time of writing Pokki had already 83 apps and counting. So far, you’ll find Pokki applications for Twitter, Facebook, Grooveshark, GMail, and many more popular services. Even games like The Godfather and more are now available if you want to take a quick break. The apps are beautifully designed and easy to use.

Installing and Using Pokki

Sounds awesome? Let’s get started. First download Pokki from their official website and install it. The installation process is very quick and you should see a little acorn icon next to the Start Orb (or Start button) in the taskbar in under two minutes. Click on the little acorn to get access to the list of new, featured, and all available Pokkis.

Click on the Download button available below the Pokki app you want to install. You’ll find the icon of the downloaded Pokki apps in the taskbar next to the Pokki acorn. When you click one of them, it opens up in a larger view.

For example, the Gmail app brings up your Gmail inbox in a pop-up window that allows you to read, reply, and manage your email. The Facebook app shows your news stream and lets you update it or comment on other posts.

The Twitter app lets you access your tweets and update it. If you click anywhere out of a Pokki app window, the app disappears back to the taskbar.

Conclusion

All in all, Pokki by SweetLabs is rather very ambitious. Definitely worth to keep and use. As more and more developers starts building apps for Pokki, it will definitely suit millions of users.

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, don’t hesitate to comment below and get a discussion flowing! If you have used Pokki, tell us what you think about it and don’t forget to share your favorite Pokki app. Thank you for reading!

You’ve just purchased a shiny new computer (or a notebook/netbook) for yourself. Now, you’re wondering if the system you’ve purchased is as specified by the sales person, or you just want to know what’s at the heart of this new system that’s booting up Windows in a few seconds flat? Speccy, a freeware application developed by Piriform, (the same developers, who developed the awesome app CCleaner) let’s you know about your system inside-out by displaying all system information related to all of your components.

This article will take an in-depth look and walk you through the usability, design, interface, and overall performance of Speccy.

Installation Experience

Speccy is available for download from the official website. It is also available as portable application for users who wants to carry around in their USB thumb drives. You’ll find the link to the portable edition at the bottom of the download page.

The download size of the application comes between 4.18 MB (for the installer) to 4.54 MB (for the portable). For the installer version, installation was straight forward and took just a few seconds to complete. Upon completion, you’re presented with the option to run Speccy and to view the change log to find out what’s new in this version.

Usability of Speccy

When you launch Speccy for the first time, it’ll start scanning your system. After initial scan is complete, you’re presented with an overall summary of your system and its components. The summary includes information about the Operating System, RAM, Motherboard, Graphics, Hard Drives, Optical Drives, and Audio. In addition to the basic information for each of these different categories, you can get detailed information about the connected peripherals and network hardware.

User Interface and Design

Speccy with its straight forward user interface and simple design is very easy to use. The application is easy to navigate for even the novice users. Now, let’s take a quick look through each sub-categories and what information you can find inside them.

Operating System

When you click on Operating System menu link (let’s call it “tab” for simplicity), the application provides you a complete details of the current specifications and settings of the operating system installed on your computer. You can view the product key of Windows, view Windows Defender, Windows Firewall and Windows Update settings. If you’re an advanced user, you will find information about Windows Environment Variables, Power Profile, Scheduled Tasks, Hotfixes installed, running Process list and Services useful.

CPU

The CPU tab displays detailed information about your system processor, including number of cores, caches and more. You can also monitor bus speed, fan speed, and average processor temperature. When you click on the green meters, the application opens an expanded view for a clearer view of the graph.

RAM

Using the RAM tab, you can get detailed information about the total amount of memory installed in your system, number of expansion slots in use and number of slots available for use. You can monitor RAM usage, speed and individual module specifications.

Motherboard

The Motherboard tab displays information about your motherboard make, model, BIOS manufacturer, overall system temperature, the individual and continuously updating voltage throughputs, and more.

Graphics

The Graphics tab displays information about the integrated or dedicated video cards and identifies the connected display.

One thing to note is, Speccy couldn’t detect our dedicated Nvidia Optimus graphics card present on our laptop, it did however correctly detected the integrated Intel HD Graphics. We don’t blame Speccy for this, since Nvidia Optimus graphics cards are designed to run only when needed by specific programs/games for saving power. Since Speccy doesn’t need it, it wasn’t activated, thus was not detected.

Hard Drives

The Hard Drives tab is useful for monitoring the S.M.A.R.T status. You can also monitor the temperature of your hard drives.

Optical Drives

The optical drives tab offers information related to all the optical drives connected to your system.

Audio & Peripheral Tabs

Just like the optical drives tab, the audio and peripheral tabs displays only hardware specifications.

Network

The Network tab provides very useful information which may come handy for troubleshooting network problems. Here, you’ll get detailed information about your local area connection, any wireless networks connected to. It provides detailed information about your network adapters, network shares, proxies, and remote desktop connections, and all active TCP Connections (applications/processes that are using your network/connected to the Internet, at any particular time).

Performance

Speccy is fast and once it completes the initial scan, it responds to any user actions immediately. Piriform is continually evolving Speccy with new features or improvements, so we’re confident Speccy will continue to get better and offer much more details.

Conclusion

You’ll find a lot of programs that allows you to monitor system health, some displays system specifications, but very few of them offer so much in-depth hardware analysis accessible through a simple, easy-to-use user interface as Speccy offers.

Speccy is completely free to download and personal use, though you’ll not get any support from the developers. If you need priority support, Piriform offers Home and Small business support for $19.95 and $34.95 respectively.

Whenever you uninstall application from your Windows operating system, theoretically, it should uninstall completely. Sadly, in reality, sometimes you will find that when you uninstall an application, it has left few files and unwanted registry entries behind. Down the road, you will notice Windows starts giving performance and compatibility issues. Manually finding and deleting leftover items is very cumbersome and risky.

Utilities like CCleaner are effective to some extent in cleaning up the leftover registry entries and temporary files. But using advanced application uninstaller that can completely uninstall apps makes more sense to keep Windows operating system in good shape. Revo Uninstaller is one such application that can completely uninstall an app and is an alternative to “Windows Add or Remove Programs” applet. Let’s see if it really can do what it claims for.

Revo Uninstaller Overview

Revo Uninstaller simplifies the process of removing leftover files and registry entries of an app after uninstalling it. It works by analyzing an application’s data before uninstall and after uninstall, scans for remnants. After the program’s regular uninstaller completes the uninstall process, Revo provides a list of registry values, files, and folders that it believes were not removed by the application’s regular uninstaller. You can now select the data you wish to delete, and it will clean your computer of the unwanted files, folders and registry entries.

Installation

Revo Uninstaller is available free and comes with several other tools about which we will tell later on. The installation process is very simple. After you have the installer which is around 2.4MB download, the application should be ready for use within a few seconds. If you don’t want to install another application on your Windows or like portable applications, Revo Uninstaller is also available in portable edition.

User Interface and Using Revo Uninstaller

When you launch Revo, you will be presented with a list of the installed applications on your computer. The user interface lets you switch easily between the default Uninstaller view and Tools view. Here we will work with the Uninstaller function first.

Removing an application using Revo is easy. You have a number of options to remove an application completely from your computer. The most easy way is to double-click the icon of the app and continue with the uninstall process. Revo Uninstaller will create a system restore (if not disabled in Options) and then it will run the built-in uninstaller of the uninstalled program. Revo Uninstaller is not directly involved in that part of the uninstall process. Revo than offers four methods for removing applications.

• Built-in: This is just like using the “Windows Add or Remove Programs” applet.
• Safe: It performs additional registry scan and hard drive scan to find leftover items that are safe to delete.
• Moderate: It is an extension to the Safe mode and performs an extended scan to find all the application’s leftover information in the most common places of the Registry and on the hard drive.
• Advanced: Advanced method includes the Moderate mode and performs a deep and thorough scan to find all the application’s leftover information in the Registry and on the hard drive. In our tests, we found this method most effective in completely removing the application.

One unique way for uninstalling apps offered by Revo is the “Hunter Mode.” This mode provides a cross-hair to place on any icon on your Start Menu, Desktop or Taskbar. After you place the cross-hair, Revo will literally “hunt” for the uninstaller of the app and go ahead with the un-installation process.

Revo Uninstaller comes with 8 handy and powerful tools to further clean up your Windows operating system. To access the Tools you have to press the Tools button on the main toolbar. Then on the left side of the main window appears the Tools panel. It has the tools included in Revo Uninstaller divided in two categories shown as buttons: “Optimization” and “Tracks Cleaner”. Under the first category Optimization, you will find an AutoRun Manager, Junk Files Cleaner and Windows Tools. The second category Tracks Cleaner lets you access Browsers Cleaner, MS Office Cleaner, Windows Cleaner, Evidence Remover, and Unrecoverable Delete.

Coming to the Preferences panel, Revo Uninstaller Free offers very few basic options. You can exclude specific file formats and directories, change the language of the application, and change system restore options.

Performance

The performance on this application varies upon which mode you use to uninstall an application. Although it does its job well, it will use a large amount of CPU as well as RAM. We would not recommend attempting to multitask while Revo is in the process of removing an application.

Conclusion

This application does what it promises and does its job well. It does take a little time depending on which method you use to remove an application. Despite this, we will recommend this application to all Windows user. Compared to the default “Windows Add or Remove Programs” applet, Revo is far better in what it does.

This application is available as a freeware application, however, if you are looking for more advanced features, you can buy a pro license for $39.25 $19.62. You can download the free or portable edition from RevoUninstaller.com.

Do you use any other uninstaller or do you use the default Windows uninstaller only? Let us know in the comments.

If you found this article useful and like it, please share it with your friends and contacts on Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter, and more using the share buttons below so that they can also enjoy it, thank you so much for reading!

Third-party premium navigation apps for Android faces stiff competing from Google Maps on Google’s Android Platform. Since, almost all Android devices comes bundled with free Google Maps plus Navigation app. Though Google Maps Navigation is not available everywhere. This stiff competition is good for end users as it brings in some good and innovative features for them. To compete with free Google Maps, premium GPS navigation apps comes up with innovative features. We started evaluating Sygic: GPS Navigation app for Android, a premium navigation app to find out if people will pay for something which they have grown accustomed to getting free?

Sygic lists its premium app for free (actually a 7 day trial version) in the Android Market. The app is around 6 MB download and after installing it, users must download the maps. You don’t need to download all maps available through Sygic to your Android phone as it will take up precious space on their device. Using the Sygic Downloader, you have the choice to download each map. Sygic recommends using WiFi for downloading maps data as some maps are very big in size. After the 7-day trial expires, the app prompts the user to buy an activation key from the official webpage.  Read on for more in-depth review of the app.

Visit our Sygic GPS Navigation Giveaway page here..

After downloading the maps, we fired up the Sygic app on our Samsung Galaxy S II (running the most recent firmware). Within a few seconds the GPS locked our position on the map and we were pleased to see beautifully rendered map with 3D buildings. POI are displayed nicely without distracting readability. If you don’t to see POI, you can simply disable it from Settings. Using Settings, you can further customize the program to its fullest.

When you choose a destination, Sygic starts the voice turn-by-turn directions and displays the map of your surrounding area with the calculated route highlighted in blue. Even though, in Settings we found Text to Speech but the options were grayed out. So, we weren’t able to test the Text to Speech function. We got TTS working (Thanks to Simona for the tip). You just need to select special TTS enabled voice from Settings – Regional (See the screenshot below). This feature is available in English for all the maps, in Dutch for the map of Netherlands, in German for the map of Germany and in Italian for the map of Italy.

The navigation app comes with a lot of voice options in different languages. The latest version comes with Dynamic Lane Guidance set to appear 500 meters in advance, so you can prepare your turn beforehand.

We did some tests in the highway with multiple lanes and we were notified beforehand about which lane to take to reach our destination. This option is very useful when you are traveling and you don’t know exactly which lane you should take to reach to your destination. Sygic also warns with a chime beforehand to slow down your speed if you exceed your speed limit or any speed cams are near. If you encounter any traffic incidents or police traps you can tell other Sygic users with one touch though the app.

Through Sygic’s own social network, you can add friends with whom you can share your location, status update, messages, and events. If you don’t want to use Sygic’s social network, the app also lets you share your location with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, through Email or your Phone contacts. It also allows you to attach a photo that will be visible on your Facebook wall. Sygic integrates with your Phone contacts thus allowing you to browse for your friends stored address. Another nice feature of Sygic is Demonstrate Route. Using demonstration, you can get an overview of your route before even traveling it actually.

Sygic also lets you use your custom keyboard installed on your Android phone or the default keyboard provided by it. The handy Travel Book feature keeps track of all your trips thus providing a good insight of your trip histories. Another handy addition is the Weather tool that provides you weather updates of your area. You can always take informed decision before going out for that long drive. If you are going to visit a new country, the Country Info feature will offer you some quick basic information about the country.

With all these goodness offered by this application, we were almost forgetting to mention some of the user-interface annoyances. Since, the app runs full-screen you will not be able to get access to Android Notification bar when you are navigating. Thus, you will not be able to your phone’s battery status. Though when you are in the menu of the application, it provides a status bar showing battery status, GPS signal status, Community login status and time. But, if they would have made the same info accessible when navigating, it would be a nice addition.

Overall, Sygic: GPS Navigation is a very good premium turn-by-turn navigation app for Android users. So, should you go for it?

Well, it greatly depends on what type of user you are? Having offline maps access is a blessing for those users who are out of their carrier’s coverage area since Google Maps will not work without a data plan. Offline maps also lets users who are roaming in a foreign land and either don’t have any data plan or unlimited data plan. Though the recent updates of Google Maps app lets users pre-cache map area but it has some serious limitations. Also, if your country in not in the list of supported country for Google Map Navigation, Sygic: GPS Navigation is a great alternative, well worth the price you pay for it.

You can download the 7 days unlimited trial version of Sygic: GPS Navigation from the Android Market. (Mobile Android Market)

Visit our Sygic GPS Navigation Giveaway page here..

In this digital age, when we keep all our important data dumped into electronic devices, it’s not very hard to lose the data either by human error or for any other reasons. Also, there is a threat of data being stolen when we thought that we got rid of it. Auslogics File Recovery 3 is a simple to use professional application to recover deleted files or lost partitions. It also includes advanced privacy protection and backup tools too; it includes a secure file eraser and disk wiper.

We completed our earlier Auslogics giveaway successfully, so we are here again with another Auslogics software giveaway! This time, the Auslogics File Recovery 3 is up for giveaway. We’ll be giving away 5 copies of Auslogics File Recovery 3 worth almost $250 in total this week. But, first, let’s see the features offered by this application.

File Recovery is a very straight forward and easy to use program. Inclusion of advanced privacy protection and backup tools further increases its value. Let’s take a quick walk-through of the program features before we talk about the giveaway.

As soon as you launch the program, you’ve the option to begin searching for your files in all available locations. The user-interface is very well laid out and even a novice user can get used to the functions in no time. In the left sidebar, all the detected hard disk drives are listed. In the right pane, you’ll be asked for the task you want to do with the program. In this case, the option to begin searching for deleted files.

There is an option to narrow down your search to certain file types only, if you know what exactly you’re looking for. Otherwise, you may search for all delete files on your drive. Further, you can narrow down to include only the files modified within or after a certain date. Next, the program asks you to enter any specific file name if you’re looking for just a particular file.

The program now provides you the option to do a deep scan, which is basically a thorough search and rescue method. After you click on the Search button, Auslogics File Recovery 3 begins its work. Depending on the size of your hard drive and the limits set by you, the search could take several minutes.

We tested the program on our virtual computer. Since, VM was newly deployed by us, the program returned results within seconds. On purpose, to test the effectiveness of the program, we detected mixed types of files that included some images, a word document, a PDF file and video file. Another feature of File Recover 3 is it generate a quick preview of certain media file types including PDF files. This feature is very handy in recovering the correct file.

Restoring files is also very easy using this program. You simply select the check box(es) next to the file(s), you want to recover and then click on the Recover Selected button. You will then receive a prompt to select the destination place, where you want to save the recovered files to.

Two important features of File Recovery 3 are recovering lost partitions and create a disk image. The lost partitions feature included in the program lets you recover accidentally deleted partitions from your system. File Recovery can find the information about deleted portions of the disk, so that you will be able to recover files from a lost partition. The program allows you to create a complete disk image of the logical drive along with all the information contained on the disk, including deleted files. This option allows you to recover files from the disk image later on while continuing working with the logical drive.

As mentioned earlier, File Recovery 3 comes bundled with two more features. Disk Wiper is one of them. The program lets you securely remove files. It permanently deletes files from the system so that no one can recover the files later. Since, some users may also want to securely wipe out their whole hard disk, File Recovery 3 lets you shutdown your PC automatically after the task completes.

File Shredder is another security feature provided by the program. File Shredder lets you securely delete specific files instead of wiping the hard disk. You simply drag and drop those files into the File Shredder, and click the Shred button. File Shredder starts securely deleting the files. So that, not only the program itself can recover the contents of the file. After the process completes, the program generates an HTML report just like its big brother Auslogics BoostSpeed 5 does.

Auslogics File Recovery 3 Giveaway

Auslogics File Recovery 3 is a very good application that’s very simple to use. The step-by-step file recovery procedure is novice proof and allows anyone to easily recover files or partitions. The security features of the program are also very handy. Auslogics File Recovery 3 works with Windows 7/2008/Vista/2003/XP (32-bit & 64-bit).

The program is available for $49.95 from Auslogics. You may download a trial from here to test the program.

We’re giving 5 copies worth almost $250 away this week so join the giveaway below!

Preference will be given to fans of our Facebook page/Google+ page and newsletter subscribers. So if you haven’t subscribed, do so now by clicking on this link.

In a nutshell, Like us to join our Facebook Page. If you are in Google+ than simply add us to your circle. If you’re already following us, you may skip this step.

Next step is to share about this giveaway using any of the social media buttons under this post.

And finally, to confirm that you are entering this giveaway, comment below.

Please use your real email address (if you are a subscriber, use your subscribed email address for getting preference) so that we can get in touch if you win.

That’s it! You’re done!

Well, not everyone are into social networks like Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.

If you are among these, you’re still eligible to join the giveaway.

You have to be either a verified email subscriber of this website or if you have a blog or website, simply publish a post on your blog or website along with a link to this giveaway and a short description. Then come back here and in the comments, tell us where you’ve published it.

This giveaway begins now and ends on next Friday, December 2nd, 2011 at 22:00 (PST).

5 winners will be selected randomly and they will be contacted via email.

Have fun and don’t forget to share about this giveaway with your friends. After all sharing is caring.

TuneUp Utilities 2012 is the latest version of one of the most popular Windows system optimization and tweaking program. Every year it is getting perfected with new unique features added to the program. TuneUp Utilities 2012 features all the functions that were present in the earlier version, viz, TuneUp Utilities 2011 (which we have reviewed earlier). Along with all those features, two notable features added to the latest version are TuneUp Economy Mode and TuneUp Program Deactivator.

TuneUp Economy Mode will extend the battery life of notebook, netbook and tablet computers by shutting off processes and hardware components that aren’t required or in use. TuneUp Economy Mode is the new introduced feature of 2012 while TuneUp Program Deactivator, introduced in 2011 version, has gone through major overhauling in 2012 edition. Both TuneUp Economy Mode and TuneUp Program Deactivator, when used in combination can boost the energy efficiency of Windows 7 systems by up to 30 percent, when compared with the Windows 7 built-in energy savings mode.

With today’s increasing computing power, multi-core processors and gigabytes of RAM, many users will argue if they need a system optimization program? But, many users will agree with us that even with so much of computation power in hand, Windows tends to become sluggish after usage. Microsoft promises to change this scenario with its upcoming Windows 8 operating system but until than we are left with trusted system optimization utilities like TuneUp Utilities.

Since we have already reviewed TuneUp Utilities 2011 and most of the tools, although improved, have remained same in TuneUp Utilities 2012, in this review we will concentrate only on the most notable two features (discussed above). You can go through the thorough review of TuneUp Utilities 2011 here to know in-depth about what it offers.

At the end of this review (after break), you will find a giveaway contest, through which you can win a free license of TuneUp Utilities 2012 worth $49.95. 5 licenses are up for the giveaway, so the total licenses worth approx $250 (exactly $249.75). More on that later.

A quick walk-through…

TuneUp Utilities 2012 User Interface

The installation was very straight forward, after which, TuneUp Utilities immediately launched its 1-Click Maintenance tool. The tool quickly checks for Windows Registry errors, broken shortcuts, temporary files (but Recycle Bin), Windows startup and shutdown problems, disk fragmentation and so on. A report of everything found, is provided after the analysis and you can then fix the issues with a single click.

As we have seen earlier with 2011, the tools are divided into five tabs:

• Status & recommendations: shows you an overview of the current condition of your system and gives you recommendations on how you can improve the system’s health.
• Optimize system: disable or uninstall unwanted programs and clean up your system and your data.
• Gain disk space: you can delete unnecessary data systematically from your system.
• Fix problems: you will find simple solutions for any problems that might occur.
• Customize Windows: you can configure how your Windows should look and function, thereby personalizing your computer.

For advance users or for quickly finding a tool, you can click on “Overview of all functions” option. This option gives you a list of all functions that TuneUp Utilities offers. If you click on the wrench icon next to a tool, it opens the settings for that tool.

TuneUp Program Deactivator

Many Windows programs like Microsoft Office adds services, startup programs and other tasks which slows down the system and hampers performance, even though we don’t need those services or programs to start with Windows. If uninstalling the program is not an option than the revamped version of Program Deactivator might be able to help you.

Simply launch Program Deactivator and a list of installed programs is displayed along with its performance impact on your PC. We have already seen earlier in TuneUp Utilities 2011, that it really works and improves performance of the system.

What’s new in TuneUp Utilities 2012 edition of Program Deactivator is the TuneUp Programs-on-Demand Technology, in layman terms the “Automatic” function. Simply keep the function on, and if you launch a “deactivated” program then TuneUp Utilities 2012 will automatically disable this again once you’ve closed it down. Thus it keeps your system in top performance always.

Even though your mileage may vary when using this tool. But if your system is packed up with programs (like ours), TuneUp Program Deactivator will surely help you gain performance.

TuneUp Economy Mode

Windows 7 is optimized to conserve power but it is still not fully optimized. As the number of background process, service or scheduled task increases, the impact on the power can also be felt. This prevents devices from entering low-power (or idle) modes. TuneUp Economy Mode prevents PC hardware components from delivering too much power when it’s not really needed. Once TuneUp Economy Mode is active, all non-essential background processes and services are disabled to reduce power usage. The settings are very easy to configure. In our tests, we have seen an increase in battery life.

Conclusion

In our tests on a laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) on Core i5, 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD, boot time fell by around 10 percent, RAM usage fell from 40 percent to 35 percent. Overall, system performance was improved and we actually found our applications launching faster.

You can test TuneUp Utilities 2012 for yourself and see the system performance improvements yourself. The software is available for Windows XP, Vista and 7 (32-bit and 64-bit editions) and can be downloaded from TuneUp Utilities official website for free.

TuneUp Utilities 2012 Giveaway

Update: Giveaway is over. Winners are announced here.

We will like to first thank TuneUp Corporation for sponsoring the giveaway. We have 5 licenses of TuneUp Utilities 2012 to give away to our readers for free.

How to take part in the TuneUp Utilities 2012 giveaway?

Subscribe to My Technology Guide Email Updates. You can subscribe us using following link: Subscribe to My Technology Guide

Note: For new subscribers, don’t forget to click on the confirmation email sent to you by FeedBurner to start our email subscription. If we find that your subscription is incomplete than your entry for the giveaway will not be considered.

Now, simply share about this giveaway on any social networking site of your choice and post its status URL here in the comments (for verification). You may also share this offer on your blog or post about the giveaway in a forum and post the URL here. The more you share, the more are your chances of winning. Make sure to use the same email address registered for My Technology Guide email newsletter, otherwise you won’t be eligible for the giveaway.

For increasing your chances further, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or FriendFeed.

The 5 lucky winners will be announced by us after 7 days.

Disclaimer: We received a license key for reviewing the application but we opted to test it in free trial mode. Since most users will test the software in trial mode before buying. The trial program is fully functional and can be tested for 15 days.

Windows users these days can find plenty of system optimization applications which promises to make their slow computer system fast. But let us be frank, most of these utilities are a disappointment. The come bundled with a lot of useless stuff which instead of speeding up, slows down your PC further. Some of them even kills your Windows system by mindlessly removing critical registry entries or system files.

There are some exceptions available to the above set, which do what they promises to do. Auslogics BoostSpeed is one such system optimization software which is one of the best among those which we have reviewed earlier. We took the latest version of BoostSpeed, Auslogics BoostSpeed 5.1, for a test ride. Below you will read about how it performs in our test and whether it is really worth the money. By the way, did we mention about a surprise at the end of this review?

Auslogics BoostSpeed is a program which really can revitalize your system. The program uses trusted and tested useful system optimization techniques and technologies to take care of your PCs performance. And, you don’t need to have a PhD in Windows or be an expert to use this program. It comes with many integrated utilities which lets you easily tweak almost every area of your computer system.

BoostSpeed installer is small and is just 8 MB (8.09 MB) in size. The installation process is smooth and is typically Windows application install process, where you just click on Next, Next and Install. With minimal user interaction during installation, you do can customize where to install the application, select the options for creating shortcuts of the application, etc.

Even though the “control center” of the program looks sparse compared to TuneUp System Utilities 2011 or WinZip System Utilities, but we like this approach. The user interface is basically divided into four sections: System Scan, System Advisor, Resource Usage and Advanced Tools. You can click on the tabs to get access to the different sections or you can do so from the View menu.

System Scan

System Scan tab opens up by default when you first launch the application. This tab includes only a “Scan Now” button which finds Registry Errors, Junk files, Disk Error and Disk Fragmentation. After you launch the application for the first time, it recommends scanning your system for registry errors, junk files, disk errors and disk fragmentation. The scan itself is fast and after it finishes, you can see the end-result of the scan. In our test, the application found 3387 issues. We did a review of what it found in details by checking the “Show Details” option. After that we clicked on the “Repair Now” option. After the process completed, we noticed that we have recovered 790 MB of disk space.

After cleaning up, we viewed the log generated by the program. The log is nicely laid out and opens up in your default browser.

In the right-side of System Scan, you will find “Quick Tasks” to erase browser history, Windows history, temporary files and optimize memory.

System Advisor

When you select the System Advisor tab, it automatically starts scanning your system for performance improvements and potential security issues. After the scan gets over, it provides you a number of fixes for the issues, it found in your system. We got the following fixes, which you can see in the screenshot below.

Resource Usage

The Resource Usage tab basically displays current CPU, RAM, Disk and Network usage of your system. If you click on the “View Details” link, it opens up its own Task Manager which provides detailed information about everything and offers you more control than Windows Task Manager.

One thing we like about BoostSpeed Task Manager is its unique “Rating” feature. This feature categorizes each process into Trustworthy processes and Unknown processes. Thus making it easy to find suspicious processes.

Advanced Tools

Through the Advanced Tools tab, you can get access to more utilities for: Disk Maintenance, Free Up Space, Software Control, System tweaks, Disaster Recovery, Registry Maintenance, System Status, Privacy and Speed Up Internet.

These utilities are for the advanced users who want more control over their system and how it works.

Conclusion

Auslogics BoostSpeed performed well in all our tests. It recovered around 800 MB of disk space compared to 100 MB of Windows inbuilt Disk Cleaner. It also optimized our system with effective and easy to apply optimization. Our system performs faster now. You can see for yourself by downloading the trial version.

For

Best in the class and fast disk cleanup, easy to use startup manager, fast disk defragment, effective Internet connection optimizer, good task manager alternative and noticeable system optimization.

Against

Sparse details in rescue center, no in-built application update, you have to visit their website to download.

Auslogics BoostSpeed 5.1 PRO License Giveaway

We would like to thank Auslogics Software Pty Ltd for sponsoring 5 license keys of Auslogics BoostSpeed 5.1 Pro each worth $49.95 exclusively for My Technology Guide readers. If you are a software developer and want to host a giveaway with us, contact us.

How can I win Auslogics BoostSpeed 5.1 Pro License?

This time we have kept the giveaway terms very simple. All you have to do is, become our email subscriber (don’t forget to confirm the message from FeedBurner to activate the subscription) and comment an honest message below using the email address which you used for subscription. Existing subscribers don’t need to subscribe again, they can take part using their existing email address used for subscription.

Regarding “honest message,” we meant, we want to know what you think about this application. So, if you just comment “I am in” or “I want to win,” or similar messages, you are not going to win anything. Keep your comment unique and post your thoughts about the application after testing it.

You have 1 week in hand before we choose the winner based on the most honest comment about the application. No random winner, only the most honest 5 readers will be the winners.

P.S. Don’t forget to share about this giveaway with your friends!

Note: We will choose the winners and contact them through email within 7 days after the giveaway expires. Please don’t double post your comments.

In this digital age, we store data commonly in hard disks, but we should be extra cautious about our precious data. As hard disks are getting cheaper and cheaper, everyone is storing everything they can in them. But, have we all ever thought about backup? With these fragile data storage medium, we can never be 100% sure. Disaster happens almost everyday, hard disks fails, data corruption occurs, in seconds all our important precious data vanishes in thin air, while we just stare at the monitor helplessly. Sounds scary?

It’s scary, loosing all our data in seconds is the worst nightmare that anyone will want to experience. Here, at My Technology Guide, we take backup seriously, thus we rely on VaultPress, a premium backup service by Automattic for WordPress sites. We will share about our experience with them some other day.

While our Windows operating system is busy performing a scheduled backup, there’s time to check an interesting backup tool, NovaBACKUP Professional. NovaBACKUP Professional is a cost-effective backup application for Windows users. It has an easy to use user interface and can back up your data to CD/DVD drives, online over the Internet, or to tape drives, disk drives and other media without interfering with other programs. The easy step-by-step wizard guides you through performing backup and restore tasks.

NovaBACKUP 12 Professional offers custom backup options along with wizards catering both novice and advanced users. The user interface itself is split into two vies; Simple View and Advanced View. The Simple View has all the tools meant for novice users while the Advanced View has features for the advanced users. We found that the basic view hides some functions which are available only in advanced view. Some functions which are available in basic view are hidden in the advanced view.

For instance, the Copy Wizard can only be found in the Advanced View while the Refresh My Backup feature is available only in the Simple View. The application provides three types of copy options. The regular copy is recommended for most users simply because it’s identical to simple copy and paste of files. The other two options are mirror and bidirectional copies.

In the simple view, you’ll find the Backup Wizard. When you launch the wizard, you have to choose which files you want to back up. Next, choose if you want to limit your backup to just the files modified since earlier backup. At the end, choose if you want to start backing up your data now or later.

Advanced view offers much more control. Options like virus scanning, open files backup, verification and data compression are available here. The Advanced View version of the Backup Wizard lets you choose whether you want to do a snapshot, differential, incremental or full backup. Normally, do a full backup first and then choose the other options available.

Coming to restoring data, NovaBACKUP comes with a simple Restore Wizard. Select files and folders that you want to restore from a backup. Choose whether you want to restore the data to.

Speaking about its other features, one of the worth mentioning is the integrated disk-imaging disaster recovery. Using this feature, you will be up and running fast in case of a disaster.

NovaBACKUP 12 Professional is a very good backup solution for Windows users. You can download and try a 15 day trial copy of NovaBACKUP 12 Professional and see yourself how it performs.

Airtime, developed by Sourcefabric, is a free, open-source radio broadcasting software for scheduling and remote station management. The radio software runs on Linux platform, and features easy management and automation. The Airtime server software runs on Ubuntu Linux, Debian, and Red hat and multiple users can use the software to schedule radio shows remotely through any web browser. After installed, the user can control it from anywhere using a modern web browser.

Recently, Sourcefabric has released Airtime 1.8.2 with 58 improvements and bug fixes. It now provides the users ability to download audio, cancel a show that’s being recorded, and watch the recording status of a show on the “Now Playing” screen. The latest version has also improved the installation and upgrade process. A new command-line program called “airtime-check-system” now verifies the environment in which the radio software is being installed and helps troubleshoot problems.

Overview

Airtime provides a one-stop solution for a range of broadcast projects: from community to public and commercial stations. It can play the commonly used MP3 format and the open Ogg Vorbis format.

The Liquidsoap stream generator is the heart of the software. Liquidsoap generates streams from files present in the Airtime media archive, indexed in a PostgreSQL database. Live shows are automatically recorded with Ecasound, using the soundcard line input. Editors and station controllers can use Airtime to build playlists and manage files (upload, add metadata, manage advertisements) inside the station or via the Internet, using a standard web browser such as Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Combining Airtime, the Liquidsoap stream generator, the PostgreSQL database and file storage, you can supply a broadcast station with all the functionality needed for automation.

How to Automate Your Own Radio Broadcasting Station?

1. After installing, login to the Dashboard.

   

2. Add your files to the library using the “Add Media” button or drag and drop files to it.

   

3. Create a playlist in the Playlist Builder menu using your audio files.

   

4. Create a show by going to “Calendar” in the menu bar, and then clicking the “+ Show” icon. This can be either a one-time or repeating show. Only admins can add shows.

   

5. Add the playlist to the show by going to your show in the Schedule calendar, left-clicking on it and selecting “Add Content.”
6. Select your playlist and drag and drop it to the “Items in this show” area.

   

Example System Diagram

In the diagram below, the media files are stored on a separate machine which also includes a PostgreSQL database, accessible through the local network. Liquidsoap outputs streams to both the transmitter and a streaming media server. The machine running Airtime is behind a firewall because it is connected both to the local network, and to the Internet for remote access. This enables Airtime to offer password-protected access to the media database and scheduling from both inside and outside the studio building.

If you want to explore more, you can explore a full demo online or download it for free.

About Sourcefabric

Sourcefabric is a Czech non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting quality journalism through open source software and tools.

Windows and Mac users know WinZip for their compression utility. WinZip Computing, a Corel company is expanding its product portfolio beyond compression and encryption with the debut of the WinZip System Utilities Suite. A complete collection of easy-to-use and affordable PC utilities that helps keep computers stable and running at peak performance.

WinZip System Utilities Suite offers powerful system tools to fix common problems, improve system stability and rev up your computer’s speed. Designed for easy, automated operation, and it provides everything you need to restore the zip to your PC. It automatically performs regular maintenance, reducing the likelihood of common problems like crashes, system errors and reduced speed.

WinZip System Utilities Suite is composed of about 20 different system utilities to improve computer performance. Just like the earlier system utility reviewed by us, TuneUp Utilities 2011, WinZip System Utilities Suite’s different tools are nicely organized into one single “launcher UI.” You can even access these tools separately from not just the menu options within the “launcher UI” but from its own separate Start Menu entry, which is again nicely organized. Each utility is having its own individual user interface thus you can directly open only the utility which you want to.

Even though with 20 different system utilities, WinZip System Utilities Suite may seem very complex for novice users but it isn’t at all. Thanks to the master launcher UI, which offers you one big button “Start Smart PC Care” to optimize your computer system. The idea behind this single click optimization is that this would be the first thing new users would run, and once that’s done, they could simply use the separate tools as needed to further optimize specific aspects of their Windows PC.

Smart PC Care is a general PC health tool that performs the following vital system jobs with one simple click:

• Clean junk data and free up disk space
• Defrag your hard disk for optimized performance
• Clean hidden privacy-exposing traces
• Scan for outdated or missing drivers
• Clean registry errors
• Optimize your registry for better performance

Click on the screenshots below for an overview of how Smart PC Care works in our test run on our computer and how it optimized our system:

Other utilities included are:

• Registry Cleaner – Scan for and clean registry errors
• Registry Optimizer – Organize your registry for better performance and a faster computer
• System Cleaner – Remove junk data and free up disk space
• Disk Optimizer – Defrag your hard disk for optimized performance
• Disk Tools – Check your hard drives for file system and disk errors
• Disk Explorer – Review disk usage by files and folders
• Memory Optimizer – Free unused allocated memory for better system performance
• Driver Updater – Automatically download and install the latest drivers required by your system
• Game Optimizer – Optimize for game play to reduce freezing, crashing or interruptions
• Privacy Protector – Clean hidden privacy-exposing traces
• Secure Delete – Permanently delete confidential data so that it cannot be retrieved
• Secure Encryptor – Password-protect your personal files from unauthorized access
• Undelete – Recover accidently deleted data
• Backup Manager - Back up your important files and documents
• System Files Backup and Restore System Files – Back up and restore important system files
• PC Fixer - Fix common problems instantly
• System and Security Advisor – Fine tune your system settings
• Duplicate Files Remover - Remove unneeded duplicate files
• Startup Manager – Remove unnecessary programs to improve the speed of system startup
• Uninstall Manager - Remove unnecessary programs and free up disk space

Designed for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, WinZip System Utilities Suite is available for $39.95(USD) for a single license. For a free scan, users can download the WinZip System Utilities Suite to identify issues that may be affecting the performance and reliability of their PC.

10-license giveaway of WinZip System Utilities Suite exclusively for My Technology Guide readers is coming up in our next update.

Data security and backup is one of the most important activity in computing world. You can find abundant of backup applications available and they all come with different features and specifications. Novice users for instance can easily find backup applications that are very simple to use while power users and administrators will search for backup solutions that are feature rich and provides them control over the data backed up. Between these two categories of user types is where most end-users live, which is reflected in what they want for a backup tool. These users need a simple but reliable tool to back up the data they depend upon for day-to-day business while the software itself should not be overly complex to configure.

With the abundance of backup applications available, it’s nearly impossible to know which tool is best suited for the most users. But there is one backup tool that makes itself viable to almost all types of users, be it novice, power or end users. Backup4all Professional is a simple to use backup tool that will reliably have your backups safely placed where you need them and can, just as easily, restore those files to your machine.

Backup4all automates the backup process, saving you time. It also saves storage space by compressing the data (using standard zip format) and even protects your sensitive data by optionally encrypting it. Using Backup4all you can easily back up your data to any local or network drive, backup to FTP, backup to SFTP, backup to DVD or CD, backup to Blu-ray or other removable media (such as USB HDD or flash drives).

Anyone with simple or moderately complex backup needs will benefit from this application’s easy to use backup wizards and one-touch backup solution. One very nice feature that will appeal to many users is that Backup4all can also back up locked files such as .pst files. This means Backup4all can be an easy way of backing up your Outlook data (or any data that is often in a locked state). It features four backup types: full backup, differential backup, incremental backup and mirror backup.

Backup4all’s interface is well designed and easy to use for everybody. In order to back up your data, you will use the New Backup Wizard, accessible from the File menu, toolbar or using the Ctrl+N keyboard shortcut. Using the wizard you can easily set up any backup configurations you wish. You can define powerful file filters and schedule your backups any way you want. Once a backup is performed, you can see what files changed since the last backup using the explorer-like tree view or you can read the statistics about the next backup execution.

Features:

• Microsoft Outlook backup plugin
• Backup locked or open files (XP/2003/Vista/Windows 7)
• Four backup types: full backup, differential backup, incremental backup and mirror backup
• Customized Zip Names, Standard Zip Compression and zip64 support, Encryption support
• Predefined Filters and, File and Folder Filters
• Built-in Scheduler
• Handles multiple backup jobs
• Built in Email notifications
• SFTP backup software
• Snapshot support
• Disk spanning support
• Automated updates
• Logging
• Command line tool
• Easy to use restore wizard
• Once-touch backup
• Backup directly to CD, DVD, Blu-ray
• Create shortcut for backup job/group

Backup4all Professional is a great solution for users looking for regular, reliable and even encrypted backups of data. Backup4all is one of the easiest backup solutions you will find that nearly any experience-level user will feel instantly at home with. Try it yourself by downloading the 30 days trial version from the link below and share your experience with us.

[ Download Backup4All Professional ]

Backup4All Professional License Giveaway (5 Licenses each worth $49.95) [Expired]

We are pleased to announce that Softland SRL, the developers of Backup4All Professional is providing 5 Pro licenses each worth $49.95 exclusively to My Technology Guide readers.

To be eligible for the giveaway, simply follow the steps below:

Subscribe to My Technology Guide Newsletter. You can subscribe us using following link:

Subscribe to My Technology Guide Newsletter

Note: For new subscribers, don’t forget to click on the confirmation email sent to you by FeedBurner to start our email subscription. If we find that your subscription is incomplete than your entry for the giveaway will not be considered.

Share the word about the giveaway with your friends and colleagues through Social Networks like Twitter, Facebook, etc. So that they too can take part in the giveaway. You can follow us or like us for more updates in the future!

Giveaway is over, winners list here.

The Emsisoft Emergency kit is a freeware portable virus scanning tool for Windows that you can use to clean infected systems. The Emsisoft Emergency kit is basically collection of four utilities that you can run without installation from any device connected to the computer system.

The four utilities included in the emergency kit are: a disc scanner to check and clean infected systems, a command line scanner that offers the same functionality but without the graphical user interface, HiJackFree that provides an in depth analysis of the system and a cleanup software called BlitzBlank which can delete data that cannot be deleted by normal means.

To use the Emsisoft Emergency kit, all you have to do is download the zip file and extract it to any portable device (if you want to run the kit on other machines) or extract it to your local hard-drive. To start up Emsisoft Emergency Kit, simply double-click the start.exe executable file. This launches a choice screen for you to choose one of the four main programs included in the kit. Each of these programs can be launched with a double-click. You can also launch the programs directly from the kit’s directory.

Emsisoft Emergency Kit Scanner

The main interface of the scanner displays the current security status of the system as well as update and scan buttons. It looks very similar to the Emsisoft Anti-Malware 5 security status screen, which we have reviewed earlier. The scanner may want to retrieve the latest definition files before scanning, from an online server, it is recommended to allow this if your firewall asks for confirmation.

Clicking on the scan button opens a new window, with options to do a quick, smart, deep or custom scan of the system (again looks like Emsisoft Anti-Malware 5 scanner).

• Quick Scan: Scans all active programs, spyware traces and tracking cookies.
• Smart Scan: Scans same as Quick Scan plug programs and Windows files.
• Deep Scan: Scans all files on the hard drive.
• Custom Scan: Option to do a custom scan of the PC.

Emsisoft Command line Scanner

The command line scanner tool is the same scanner sans the graphical user interface, made for the experienced advance users and can be used perfectly for batch jobs. You can get all the command line options and help on how to use it here.

Emsisoft HiJackFree

HiJackFree included with both this emergency kit and the Anti-malware app is the same app. It helps advanced users to detect, remove and manage processes, services, drivers, autorun entries, open ports, hosts file entries and more.

It’s offers similar function like the old HiJackThis app, except that it offers detailed information by using its online analysis function for advice and the results are color coded directly in the listing. Green for instance is given to safe entries.

Emsisoft BlitzBlank

BlitzBlank is a tool for experienced users and for all those who deal with Malware on a daily basis. Malware infections are not always easy to clean up.

BlitzBlank deletes files, Registry entries and drivers at boot time before Windows and all other programs are loaded.

Note: Use BlitzBlank only if you know what you are doing.

After using Emsisoft Emergency kit, we can safely conclude that it is one of the best computer security emergency kit that will be praised by both normal and advanced users for its usefulness and effectively cleaning any infected computer system.

When Windows becomes too slow and doing a simple task like refreshing the desktop takes ages, it is generally result of fragmented hard disk, junk files, and a badly maintained Windows registry. If you want to speed up your Windows and bring back the performance you used to get when it was freshly installed, then check out TuneUp Utilities 2011, an application that can dramatically speed up Windows performance.

TuneUp Utilities 2011 edition got released few days back and I got a chance to test it. I am testing it for the last few days on both my Windows XP and Windows 7 installation. It comes with a promising new feature TuneUp Program Deactivator with TuneUp Programs-On-Demand (more on this later) while including all the features from the successful 2010 edition. It also includes the new Overview of All Functions interface, Tuning Status, an enhanced Turbo Mode and a revamped Start Center. Read on to find out about our experience using TuneUp Utilities 2011 and how it became my favorite ultimate system utility.

Overview

TuneUp Utilities 2011 can revitalize your PC, notebook, or netbook system. TuneUp Program Deactivator lets you drastically reduce load on your computer system, giving you a true performance boost. It lets you easily customize the operating system to suit your needs by turning off annoying animation and effects, tighten security of your system by disabling services or settings, add useful functions to Internet Explorer, Firefox or Opera. Using TuneUp Styler you can customize Windows look to your heart’s content. You can change the Windows Log on-screen look, change icons, or change Windows user interface.

System Requirements

TuneUp Utilities 2011 is compatible with Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or higher), Windows Vista or Windows 7 (all 32-bit or 64-bit versions). It requires a minimum of 300MHz processor with 256 MB RAM.

Installation

TuneUp Utilities 2011 installation process is simple and doesn’t take up much time to complete. You can custom install or let the installer do a standard install automatically.

Features and Ease of Use

At first launch, you will see TuneUp 1-Click Maintenance window with a big “Start Analysis Now” button.

It lets you clean registry, defragment registry, remove broken shortcuts, delete temporary files, optimize system startup and shutdown, and defragment hard-disks. After completion of the 1-Click Maintenance, you will see the Start Center.

The Start Center is now divided into five tabs and now also displays all functions at once. The five tabs are Status & Recommendations, Optimize System, Gain Disk Space, Fix Problems, and Customize Windows. Each of these tabs are very well-organized and finding the exact function is very easy. If you are like me who wants to explore each of these (don’t ask me how many, check them out yourself!), you will surely find a gold mine of customization and Windows tweaking.

But if you prefer an easy life, then let TuneUp Utilities maintain your PC automatically, you don’t have to change a single setting. Every three days, while your system is idle, the program will hunt down each and every Windows problems and fix them for you all in the background, while you can get on with more important things that matters. TuneUp Utilities is able to make intelligent recommendations on how the performance can be optimized safely.

TuneUp Utilities 2011 features a Tuning Status indicator that gives you a quick overview of the optimizations that have been performed, and the amount of optimisation that is still possible.

TuneUp Utilities 2011 ships with a range of new features that is designed to help you keep your PC optimized to its core. The most unique of the features is the TuneUp Program Deactivator that lets you switch-off installed applications, without you having to remove any of them from your computer. It can disable rarely used programs with just a click by removing startup entries of the program, turns off their services, stops their scheduled tasks, etc which is slowing down the computer, while leaving the program files, your data, and everything else intact.

This is really a very unique and interesting feature of TuneUp Utilities 2011. I wanted to make sure if Program Deactivator actually works or not. To my surprise, it did improve my system performance, including boot time and shutdown time of both Windows XP and Windows 7. My desktop was ready in just 30 seconds after booting, when earlier, I used to wait for more than 1 minute for my desktop to be ready. This is a huge performance improvement overall and that’s why I have specially mentioned about Program Deactivator in my review.

The other utilities are all very useful. Under Optimize tab, you will find Disable Programs (Program Deactivator), Uninstall unneeded programs, Disable startup programs, Configure Turbo mode. You also find buttons for manually performing a number of maintenance tasks.

Coming to the Gain disk space tab, you will find a super utility to clean your hard drive off junk files and get back some precious disk space. In my case, I gained back around 2 GB of disk space back in my system drive. It also comes bundled with a disk explorer, using which, you can easily find out which files or folders are taking up the largest chunk of disk space. If you don’t need them, you can easily get rid of them and get back disk space. Here you will also find a tool to securely delete your sensitive data.

The Fix problems tab has some very useful utilities to fix common Windows problems. It also shows detailed system information, you can check disk for errors, restore deleted files and use the custom task manager to close processes.

The Customize Windows is the tab that I like very much. It is very easy to use and allowed me to customize almost all aspects of Windows, including System Elements, icons, themes, boot screen, logon screen, and more. Just play around it and you will never need any other customize tool ever.

Verdict

For: TuneUp Utilities 2011 is one of the most complete system utility. It features a memory optimizer, registry cleaner, registry defragment, disk cleaner, disk defragment, disk space explorer, system tweaker, secure file shredder, deleted file recovery (undelete), process explorer, turbo mode for instant performance gain, program deactivator, uninstaller and more.

Against: I do want TuneUp Utilities to improve their disk defragment utility, it is pretty basic and doesn’t offer much value when compared with other freely available disk defragment apps.

Verdict: Overall, TuneUp Utilities 2011 does a great job and is an ultimate tool if you want to improve computer performance.

Giveaway

We are going to host a giveaway of the latest version of TuneUp Utilities 2011. More details about the giveaway will be published soon. Keep your fingers crossed! Thanks to TuneUp Corporation for the giveaway license.

[ Download TuneUp Utilities 2011 (15 days trial version) ]

AudialsOne 8, the latest version of AudialsOne, is released few days back. We were very impressed by the earlier version of AudialsOne 4. Let me first give you some overview about what AudialsOne is capable of. AudialsOne gives you instant access to over 50,000 Internet radio stations along with millions of songs, international video, music and podcast portals. It offers unbeatable capabilities for targeting and downloading unlimited quantities of the free entertainment you’re looking for.

After we got our hands on the latest version, the first thing that we did was check out what is new and what has improved since our previous review. We noticed a lot of improvements in the program that can be seen spread throughout the user-interface, the way it records multimedia content like songs, video, podcasts, and remove DRM from media.

Installation

Installation procedure is very simple for AudialsOne 8. It also provides the option to install it as a regular program or do a portable install. It is a nice option if you want to carry AudialsOne with you in a USB flash drive. Definitely a boon for portable application users.

Features

After the installation is completed, which we noticed took less time then the earlier version of AudialsOne, we launched AudialsOne and just like earlier versions, AudialsOne greeted us by showing the splash screen.

The user-interface feels much more polished than earlier versions and now accessing different functions are lot more easy for end-users, as you can see from the screenshot below:

As you can see above, the first tab that is default is the Radio tab. If you don’t want to waste any time and want to record some music from your favourite genre, simply select your genre of choice and click on the Start Recording button. If you have your favorite internet radio station in mind, from which you want to record, simply click on the Stations button. Select the radio station and click on the Record button present at the top of the Manage Stations window. Scheduling is also possible by clicking on the Schedule button. You can also Favor, Delete, Ban or visit the radio stations website from this window. If you have a manual list of Radio Stations, you can also import that using the Load button.

You can use the Search tab to search for music or videos of a particular artist or song.

One of the most notable feature of AudialsOne, also present in the earlier version, is the WishList. Using Wishlist, you can search the web or your local music collection for music and videos by artists that you have specified. You can compile several wish lists, and switch between them. AudialsOne saves all your wish lists automatically and records music of the selected artists automatically.

Capture is the new proper name given to the tab Web. As the name suggests you can capture media from the web as you browse sites like Last.Fm, Pandora, YouTube, etc from your browser. If you are a fan of Podcasts, AudialsOne comes with a very powerful Podcast support. You can subscribe from an already extensive list of Podcasts or add your own.

AudialsOne 8′s Converter tab is what you should be looking for if you want to DRM free your media. It is very powerful and accurately removes DRM from media while keeping the quality intact. You can remove DRM from AudioBooks, DVDs and other media.

Other improved features of AudialsOne 8 are Organizer, Media Converter. You can organize all your multimedia files and categorize them into Artists and Genres. You can let AudialsOne automatically reorganize all your media. Using the latest version you can even import and export from the Cloud Storage, Esnips.com, MP3Tunes and TunesBag. It also includes a ring-tone creator, if you want to create ring-tones for your mobile device. The in-built burner allows you to burn tracks to a disc.

Ease of Use

AudialsOne 8 is fully feature packed and it has improved a lot since the earlier version. Everything is well laid out and is just a click away. Even though AudialsOne comes packed with so many functions, still its very easy to use, thanks to the well thought design of the user interface. It allows you to easily find millions of streaming music and video from around the web to view, listen to or download to your local drive. On the fly conversion of the downloaded media is also a plus.

Performance

We can easily find a notable performance improvement from the earlier version of AudialsOne.

Support

RapidSolution Software offers free customer support for AudialsOne through a variety of channels that includes FAQ, a dedicated forum for each of their products and email support answered within three working days.

Conclusion

AudialsOne is still one of our favorite online media downloader and recording solution. With the latest avatar, we are very happy to see the improvements done to it. This time we will award AudialsOne 8 a rating of 4.5 out of 5.

Discount Code

RapidSolution Software is giving our readers a 40% discount if you buy AudialsOne 8 using the link below:

AudialsOne 8 40% Discount

AudialsOne 8 Exclusive Giveaway

We are also going to held a giveaway of the latest version of AudialsOne 8. More details about the giveaway will be published in our next article. The giveaway is live now. Visit AudialsOne 8 Giveaway page here.

Safe Returner is the new application in the anti-malware app market. It aids in the removal of Malware like Trojan Horses, Worms, Adware, Spyware, when standard antivirus software either fails to detect them or fails to effectively remove them. It relies on malware signatures and its own heuristic engine, which analyzes files for activity that is generally associated with malware.

Safe Returner is a complementary solution for users who are already having security software installed, designed to take care of malware which is already present in the system. You have 30 days to test it with absolutely no limitations imposed. The price tag of the program says $29.95 if you decide to buy it. But, if you want to win a free 1 year license of Safe Returner Anti-Malware, then we are having 10 licenses to giveaway, read about the giveaway at the end of this article.

Installing Safe Returner is very, easy as simple as clicking Next, Next and Install, like any other typical Windows app. It comes with a minimalist user interface for carrying out tasks and setting up the program is a piece of cake, which will definitely appeal to beginners and expert users alike.

The four buttons present in the main window lets you check the current state of the software (update, status, subscription status, etc), start new scans, configure the program or find help in using the program. The “Overview” screen offers details about the time and date of the last scan and lets you update the malware database signature. The “Scan” screen as the name suggests is for scanning the computer system, quarantine detected malware objects, etc. The “Settings” window is the place where you configure the app. The “Help” screen provides access to help and support for the app.

During our test, Safe Returner finished its full scan in less than 4 minutes even with other high-resource programs running. It has a self-developed heuristic malware detection engine which displays severity of the Spyware threat, used ranging from High Risk, Moderate Risk, and Low Risk. Besides the normal mode, which displays the threats detected after the scanning is complete, there is also an “Expert” mode available. If you turn on “Expert mode,” it shows valid processes and malware together, no segregation being involved; also, all items in this section have a threat score. This might be confusing for many users.

It examines all the system files, the Windows Registry and the programs and files loaded at boot time. Majority of malicious programs (once triggered) load this way. Safe Returner is designed specifically to disable/remove Malware without the user having to manually edit system files or the Registry. False positives were reported during our test, which we were expecting because of the aggressive heuristics engine Safe Returner relies on. The program comes in-built with VirusTotal uploader which is a plus, since, you can confirm if the marked program is really a malware or it is a false positive before dealing with it.

Before running a scan of the computer with Safe Returner, you have to be perfectly aware, the application will automatically stop some processes, if you click on “Yes” in the dialog box that comes up before starting the scan. In our case, Foobar2000 was forced to shut down so that the scanning could start.

Safe Returner does not come with any kind of proactive protection, but it detects threats that may have slipped through your regular antivirus software and have already infected the system. Safe Returner is a smart version of Sysinternal’s Autoruns which also shows you what programs are configured to run during system boot up.

Safe Returner Anti-Malware 1 year valid Free License Giveaway

Thanks to the makers of Safe Returner for providing us 10 licensed copies of Safe Returner valid for 1 year, for giving away to our readers.

To win, simply, subscribe us and write a comment below using the same email registered for subscription, so that we can verify that the entry is valid. If you are already a subscriber, simply comment below using the same email address, you don’t have to subscribe again.

It will great if you share the word about the giveaway with your friends and colleagues, so that they too can take part in the giveaway.

Note: For new subscribers, don’t forget to click on the confirmation email sent to you by FeedBurner to start our email subscription. If we find that your subscription is incomplete than your entry for the giveaway will not be considered.

Please enter your correct e-mail address that you used to subscribe us in the email field of the comment form (the email is kept hidden from the public) so that we can send you the license key, if you are one of the lucky winner.

You can take part in this giveaway until November 12, 2010. The winners will be randomly picked and announced on November 13, 2010. Good Luck!

Winners will receive their free licenses soon in their email address. Thank you for participating.

[ Download Safe Returner Anti-Malware (30-days trial copy for evaluation) ]

Application launchers serve one and only one important purpose, to provide you fast access to your frequently used items. Zum is the new kid in application launcher market. It is simple but doesn’t compromises on functionality. It provides an easy way to organize and access your frequently used application shortcuts.

Zum is completely free application launcher for Windows. Zum is small and the installation procedure does not take too long to complete. After installation, it will ask you if you want to manage applications and websites. On clicking the manage button, it displays the following window:

Zum categorizes your shortcuts for easy access. The categories available are: Bookmarks (for website addresses), Communication (for instant messaging software or VoIP shortcuts), Games (very obvious what shortcuts you will put in here!), Office (text processors, spreadsheet programs, presentation software, etc), Other (everything else), Players (media players) and Web tools (browsers). Shortcuts to apps related to graphic and video editing and programming share the same spot on the bar.

Populating these categories is very easy as Zum makes available a list of all the programs available in Program Files folder on the system drive. This feature is very handy as it practically takes the burden of typing in a custom name for the entry and nothing more. You can add new elements, update old elements or delete them entirely. Sadly, there is no way you can move the entries to a different place, as by default they are arranged alphabetically. Also, the shortcuts doesn’t display software-specific icons. Although this is not an absolute must but it is handy for them those who rely on icons to recognize the apps.

After configuring all your favorite shortcuts in the relevant categories, you will find Zum bar in the desktop. For convenience, Zum’s category bar can be placed anywhere on the desktop. Also, when it is inactive, it is dimmed down to almost invisible. Zum comes pre-installed with some pretty skins, out of which Darth Vader my favorite. Zum also allows you to create your own custom skin for the application, if you want to give it a custom look!

Zum is a very promising application launcher, but it lacks some features. At this stage, Zum lacks support of any keyboard shortcuts (hotkey) support to control the menus and you cannot customize the categories. On the positive side, you can minimize Zum to system tray and access all the shortcuts from the context menu there.

[ Download Zum ]

If you are looking for a software that will backup your flash drive automatically when you are inserting it, but you never found a good useful one, then check USBFlashCopy which makes the process really simple and painless for you. It comes with automatic backups feature that is profile based for individual flash drives, if you have many.

Every time you plug a new USB flash drive into your computer, USBFlashCopy identifies it and asks you if you want to make a new profile, use the default profile, or never backup the contents of the flash drive. If you choose “new profile” USBFlashCopy then offers you an array of options like where you want to store the backup to, name the backup, select copy speed, and filter out file types that you don’t want to back up.

After the profile for that particular flash drive is saved, the task of taking backups using USBFlashCopy becomes automated. Now, when you plug that device to your computer, USBFlashCopy automatically scans it, and according to the filters and rules set by you, it starts backing up the new files. These new files can either be copied or overwritten to the backup according to the profile rules set by you.

USBFlashCopy is a portable freeware Windows application that helps you take automatic backups of portable devices when you plug them in your computer. The app keeps all its settings in an INI file, which is automatically created in the folder it is running from. Simply copy USBFlashCopy.ini along with executable to keep your settings intact across all your computers. It is just 300KB in download size but offers great features and functionality.

Are you using any other application or methods (like using automated scripts) for backing up your flash drive contents? Share them in the comments!

[ Download USBFlashCopy ]

iSkysoft Video Converter is an “all-in-one” video converter that will help you easily convert all types of videos from one format to another one or extract audio from any video. By the term “all-in-one” I meant to say that iSkysoft Video Converter supports almost all popular input and output formats, and can convert WMV to MPEG, AVI to MPEG, WMV to MPEG etc. and supports video formats including MP4, AVI, RM, WMV, MOV, 3GP, MPEG, ASF etc., and audio formats including MP3 WAV, WMA, AAC, AC3, OGG, APE, M4A, etc.

iSkysoft Video Converter lets you set video brightness, contrast, saturation, crop video, trim video, batch convert your video files, and even merge multiple files into one file. With iSkysoft Video Converter, you can convert your videos to any format and put them on the most popular portable players. You can even extract audio only from a video.

Using the app is very easy, you just have to add the files (or put a folder that contains the files, or import from a device) you want to convert (batch processing is supported), select the output format you want to convert the input files to, customize optional output settings or edit or crop the files, and hit the big “Convert” button to start the conversion process. It supports drag and drop so you can also easily drag and drop your media files into the app for conversion.

iSkysoft Video Converter also comes with a very basic video editor. You can use this video editor to trim videos, crop videos, adjust image quality like brightness, contrast, saturation and apply fancy effects like embossed, negative, and old film and watermark.

It also comes with a simple video cutter using which you can cut videos.

All in all, iSkysoft Video Converter is a good video converter that is feature rich and also comes with NVidia CUDA Support, and if you have the hardware that supports it, then you may decrease the conversion time.

You can download the trial version of iSkysoft Video Converter using the download link below:

[box type="download"]Download[/box]