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!

gBurner Virtual Drive is a freeware app for Windows users. The lightweight application, whose download size is only 389KB, lets you create and manage up to 16 virtual drives on your computer. Users who are always working with ISO images or other proprietary CD/DVD images or gamers will find gBurner Virtual Drive very useful. With the large number of CD/DVD image file formats, that includes ISO, GBI/GBP, DAA, NRG, MDF/MDS, BIN/CUE, UIF, ISZ, ASHDISC, DMG, GI, BWI/B5I, IMG, CDI, PDI, NCD, LCD, CIF, P01, PXI, C2D, FCD, VCD, it is a must have solution for every computer user.

gBurner Virtual Drive allows you to easily mount any supported CD/DVD image file to get access to your favorite games, music, or software programs. Since, this is a virtual drive, so if you mount and run any image file, it will run at a very fast speed than when you would have run it through your optical drive.

How to use gBurner Virtual Drive?

After downloading the gBurner setup file, proceed to install it. After installation completes, you will notice gBurner Virtual Drive running in the system tray.

Right-click on the gBurner icon to show options for: Mount image file to drive, Unmount drive, Set Number of Drives, Unmount all drives and Options. Through the “Set number of drives” option, you can create up to 16 virtual drives.

When you select “Configuration” from “Options” menu, you can get access to the “gBurner Virtual Drive Configuration” window.

Through this window, you can set ”Virtual Drive Options” like setting the “Number of Virtual Drives”, enable or disable “Autostart” and “Automount“. You can also manually drive letters from the Virtual Drive Letter Assignment menu.

gBurner Virtual Drive works on all Windows editions starting from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows 7 (both 32-bit and 64-bit supported).

Download gBurner Virtual Drive

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.

CloudShot is an open source screenshot application for Windows users that features Dropbox account integration. The program allows you to take screenshots of selected region, just a window, menu, or tooltip. You can use it with multiple monitors, and it includes a history with the 10 most recent screenshots. With its unique Dropbox account integration feature, the program uploads the screenshots taken by it to your Dropbox account. Thus allowing you to freely accesses all your screenshots from multiple computing devices. The program allows you to save the screenshots in JPG and PNG format and keeps a history of the 10 most recent screenshots.

Dropbox is an awesome service to keep your files in the cloud and we use it extensively. It also lets you share files publicly and collaborate with others within a folder. If you are a Dropbox “power user,” you should check out CloudShot.

How to use CloudShot and upload screenshots directly to your Dropbox account?

Download and install CloudShot from the download link given at the end of this article. You should also have official Dropbox application installed on your system. CloudShot requires the official application installed on your system for uploading the screenshots. Upon first install, CloudShot takes you directly to the Settings dialog box. From this dialog box you can change the image format between PNG and JPG. Select options to Copy Image to Clipboard, Copy Image Path to Clipboard and Open Image After Shot. You can set a custom hotkey (or keyboard shortcut) for taking screenshots to avoid conflict with other screenshot taking applications.

The program supports two modes for taking screenshots: Custom Screen Area Capture (taken by pressing the hotkey) and Window Capture (simply press the hotkey and click on the desired window to capture it). When a screenshot is captured, CloudShot automatically uploads the image to your Dropbox account. You can get access to the 10 most recent screenshots by right-clicking on the system tray icon of the program and selecting Recent Shots option.

Watch a small video demonstrating the program below.

CloudShot is a freeware download for Windows operating system.

Download CloudShot

RunAsDate is a freeware portable application for Windows users.

Developed by NirSoft, RunAsDate allows you to run a program in the date and time that you specify. The program doesn’t change the current system date and time of your computer, instead it injects the date/time that you specify into the desired application. One of the advanced feature offered by this software is it allows you to run multiple applications simultaneously. Each application works with different date and time, while the system date/time remains unaffected. We have covered many useful utilities developed by NirSoft: DevManView, WebSiteSniffer, CleanAfterMe, and WhatInStartup.

The developer reports that the mechanism behind RunAsDate is it intercepts the kernel API calls that returns the current date and time (GetSystemTime, GetLocalTime, GetSystemTimeAsFileTime). After that it replaces the current date/time with the date/time that you specify.

How to use RunAsDate?

RunAsDate is completely portable and doesn’t need any additional DLL files. To start using RunAsDate, simply download and copy the executable file (RunAsDate.exe) to any folder you like, and run it. In the main window of RunAsDate, select the desired date and time and the application that you want to run. There is also an option to Move the time forward, and then there is a new mode called “Immediate Mode.” Optionally, you can also specify the command-line parameters to run the program. Press the “Run” button to start the application with custom date/time set by you.

The specialty of ‘Immediate Mode’ is that when it is enabled, RunAsDate inject the date/time immediately when the process starts, without waiting for the kernel to load first. However, this mode can sometime cause trouble, especially if they were written in .NET. If executing of an application from RunAsDate cause it to crash, you should turn off the ‘Immediate Mode’.

RunAsDate Limitations:

• RunAsDate only works on 32-bit Windows applications. You cannot use it for old DOS 16-bit programs or for 64-bit Windows applications.
• RunAsDate will not affect applications that take the current date/time from another source. For example: application that loads the current date from remote server.

RunAsDate works under Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Older versions of Windows are not supported. The is also x64 version available in a separated download, for using with x64 applications.

Information: According to the developer, AVG Antivirus falsely reports that RunAsDate is infected with “Trojan horse Generic 10.THK”.

Download RunAsDate | Download RunAsDate for x64

Playing games is always a great way to relax yourself and have fun. Now, you can increase the level of fun and further enjoy playing 100′s of new free games without the trouble of searching for them. Game Downloader for Windows is a small open source portable game download client that lets you download open source, indie or freeware games.

Game Downloader basically has a large server-side library of free games. You can use the Windows client program of Game Downloader to browse and download the games easily. It makes your life easy by letting you download games without even visiting the official website. Other than making your life easy, using Game Downloader you can discover new games. It divides the games into several categories. And each category lists many free and open source games. Further, the program displays a description of the game, displays a screenshot of the game, allows you to view YouTube videos related to the game you want to play, lets you visit the official home page of the game, lets you know the estimated download size before downloading, and obviously lets you download the game of your choice.

Game Downloader’s main user interface is divided into six parts. At the top, you will find the Category drop down menu. Available categories include Action, Adventure, Arcade, Board games, Card Games, Fighting, First Person Shooter, Music, Platform, Puzzle, Racing, Real-Time Strategy, RPG, Simulators, and Turn based strategy. Below the drop down menu, you will find the Games list and Version information, Further you will find the About information of the game and a Screenshot of the game. At the bottom of the user interface, you will find four buttons: YouTube button lets you search the game on YouTube, Game Website button takes you to the home page of the game, Get File Size button gets the download file size of a game and the Download Game button lets you download the selected game. If you want to change the download folder and change other settings, right-click on the program’s tray icon and access Settings.

Update: Game Downloader 2.5 is released with a revamped user interface. You can now search for your favorite games. The file size is displayed along and now you don’t have to click on a button to get it. Also the settings menu has been added to the main interface. Using the right-click context menu, from the tray icon of the program, you can now check for new version of the program.

To download a game using Game Downloader, you have to follow a simple procedure. At first, you have to select a Game Category using the Category drop down menu. Upon choosing a category, the Games section is populated by a list of games available in that category. Select a game from the list to see a small description about the game in the About section, a small screenshot, latest version number. The Yes/No flags are used to show whether the game is single player or multiplayer. If you want to download the game, simply click on the Download Game button to start the download.

Game Downloader will run on any computer system that boots into Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating system. It requires .NET Framework 3.5 to run. You can download the program from SourceForge.

P.S. We are resuming normal daily updates, My Technology Guide will now be back to normal.

DevManView is a very good free alternative to the standard Device Manager of Windows.

The standard Windows Device Manager is a simple and handy tool when troubleshooting Windows problems related to device drivers. It basically lets you browse through all the devices to check for device properties and driver conflicts or driver errors. But in terms of user experience, it doesn’t offer much of a good experience. Sometimes while using it, we here have also felt how cumbersome it is to use sometimes.

DevManView is a freeware program from the popular NirSoft developers. The program takes a different approach in displaying all devices and their properties. Instead of displaying the devices in a tree viewer like in the standard Windows Device Manager, it displays them in a flat table view. In addition to displaying the devices of your local computer, DevManView is an advanced device troubleshooting program that also allows you to view the devices list of another computer on your network, as long as you have administrator access rights to this computer. The program is also capable of loading the devices list from external instance of Windows and lets you disable unwanted devices. This feature is very useful if you have a Windows operating system which is not booting, and you want to disable the problematic device to boot into the operating system.

DevManView is completely portable and doesn’t need any installation process or additional dll files. In order to start using it, simply download and run the executable file, “DevManView.exe”. After running DevManView, the main window displays the list of all devices found in your system. By default, the program doesn’t display non-plug and play drivers (LegacyDriver) are not displayed. If you want to show them, you can select the “Show Non-Plug And Play Drivers” in the Options menu. One of the advantages the program offers upon the standard Windows Device Manager is, you can select one or more devices from the list, and then save their details into text/html/xml/csv file (Ctrl+S) or copy them to the clipboard (Ctrl+C) and then paste the data to Excel or other spreadsheet application. Which you can use later for advanced troubleshooting.

DevManView allows you to easily disable, enable, and uninstall the selected devices. However, always be cautioned while using these system utilities. You must be very careful when using the disable/uninstall options, because disabling or uninstalling an essential device might cause troubles to your operating system.

As mentioned earlier, DevManView allows you to connect another computer on your LAN, and view the devices list in the remote computer. But, to successfully connect the remote computer, you must have full administrator access to this computer. The program allows you to view the devices list stored in the Registry of another instance of Windows operating system. In order to use this feature, simply go to Advanced Options (or Press F9 key), choose “External Windows Directory,” and then type or choose the right Windows directory.

Using this feature, you can disable/enable the selected devices. The program will write the disabled/enabled information into the SYSTEM Registry file of the selected Windows operating system. The next time when you start this Windows, the device will be disabled/enabled according to what you’ve set.

Warning: Use this feature only in emergency cases (for instance, when a system cannot boot properly). You should also backup the SYSTEM registry file before making any change on the external Windows system.

Another advanced feature offered by DevManView, the program by default loads the devices from the default ControlSet, which is loaded by Windows. However, through “Advanced Options” window of the program, you can choose to view the devices of “Last Known Good” ControlSet or any other ControlSet by its number. When you use non-default ControlSet, disabling/enabling a device, and save the changes in the Registry. The next time that Windows is loaded with the selected ControlSet.

DevManView works on any version of Windows, starting from Windows 2000 and up to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. It is compatible with both x86 (32-bit) and x64 (64-bit) version of Windows. You should download the x64 version of DevManView for 64-bit Windows, because the 32-bit version of DevManView cannot disable/enable devices on x64 operating system.

Download DevManView for x86 systems (32-bit) | Download DevManView for x64 systems (64-bit)

While in the quest to find the best Windows security program, we install trial and free version of different security suites. Ranging from Anti-virus programs, anti-spyware to full-fledged total security suites (basically called Internet Security Suites by different vendors) gets installed. We always use the program’s inbuilt uninstaller to uninstall the security program. But in the long run Windows takes the blow when the suites left behinds drivers, registry entries and other unwanted stuffs. The operating system becomes slow and starts showing different kinds of errors.

One solution to this problem is to completely uninstall the security suite using the special uninstall tool developed by the vendor of the security suite. Earlier we’ve posted an article titled “Ultimate Collection of Popular Antivirus/ Security Suite Removal Tools” covering almost all the special uninstall tools of popular antivirus and security suites. We’ve also covered article’s on How To Completely Remove Kaspersky Anti-Virus/Internet Security and How To Completely Remove AVG Antivirus. You can follow those articles for removing all the left-over files, left by the antivirus and security suites.

Just like SSDownloader which basically lets you download different security programs and Windows utilities, AV Uninstall Tools Pack is a freeware collection of the special uninstallers. The package comes bundled with around 40 different official tools to completely remove antivirus software, anti-spyware programs and firewalls. These utilities completely remove all files, drivers, services and registry entries that are left behind by the inbuilt antivirus programs uninstallers.

AV Uninstall Tools Pack contains tools to remove the following products:

Avast, AVG, Avira, BitDefender, BullGuard, CA, Comodo, Dr.Web, eScan, ESET, F-PROT, F-Secure, G Data, K7, Kaspersky, Max SpywareDetector, MBAM, McAfee, Microsoft Security Essentials, Norman, Norton, nProtect, Outpost, Panda, PC Tools, Prevx, QuickHeal, Radialpoint Security, SPAMfighter, Sunbelt, SUPERAntiSpyware, Symantec, Trend Micro, Vexira, Vipre, VirusBuster, Webroot, Windows Live OneCare, Zondex Guard, and ZoneAlarm.

Note: Some of these tools are NOT intended for use as a primary means of uninstalling. Before using them, try to uninstall the standard way using “Programs and Features” in Control Panel.

AV Uninstall Tools Pack also comes bundled with two popular Windows utilities: Autoruns, and Windows Installer CleanUp Utility. Both of which are very useful utilities.

The homepage of the developer of the pack is in Russian language but the pack is available in English and Russia language. You can download AV Uninstall Tools Pack from here or here.

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.

FavBackup is a freeware portable software for Windows users that lets you save and migrate almost any major web browser settings. It archives all your personal settings and data such as bookmarks, history, cookies, and saved passwords from all major web browsers: Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari and Flock.

In this digital age, one just can’t afford to lose their personal settings and data. As the number of web browser choices have increased, most of us like to use multiple web browsers for surfing the Internet. Keeping a backup of all the data, spread over all these different browsers is difficult, thanks to FavBackup it is less of a hassle now. FavBackup offers an easy and comprehensive way to back up all the data and even lets you migrate easily to a browser on a different computer.

FavBackup is completely portable application and requires no installation. The program has an intuitive Ribbon user interface, so getting started with it is easy and quick. After downloading the program, extract the FavBackup executable file in your choice of folder, run the executable.

Backing Up a Browser Profile

The “Backup” option allows you to choose which items you want to save for a specific profile, while “Full Backup” saves all settings for all profiles. FavBackup saves all your personal settings and data into a default.dat file.

Choose either “Backup” or “Full Backup” option according to your needs and select the browser that you would like to back up. Browse to the place where you want to keep the backup and click on “Next”. After the backup is completed, click “Finish” to close the program.

Note: In case of “Backup,” all items are selected by default. The Backup process for all the other browsers are identical (pictured above).

Restoring a Backed Up Browser Profile

To import all your personal settings and data which you backed up using the steps above, use either “Restore” or “Full Restore,” and select the backup file “default.dat”.

If you choose the “Restore” option, you can selectively import items from the backup file. “Full Restore” lets you restore the complete data back.

Choose the option that best suits your needs and select the browser that you would like to restore. Select the backup file and click “Next”. The program will restore your browser settings and data. Click on “Finish” to close the program.

Note: In case of “Restore”, all items are selected by default. The Restore process for all the other browsers are identical (pictured above). If you are restoring portable browser data and custom location is not provided, it may overwrite your regular browser settings. If you don’t want this to happen, please provide portable browser’s backup location.

Convert Opera 10 Profile

FavBackup also lets you convert Opera 10 profiles from Windows XP to Windows 7/Vista in both 32-bit and 64-bit format. Simply select the options available under conversion and click on “Next.”

Conclusion

FavBackup is a powerful backup and restore program which is extremely easy to use. It is definitely a recommended software by us which lets even the most novice users to keep their browser settings. You can download FavBackup from the author’s page.

Joulemeter is a freeware software tool developed by Microsoft Research that estimates the power consumption of your computer and improves energy efficiency. It tracks computer resources, such as CPU utilization and screen brightness, and estimates power usage.

Joulemeter provides a modeling tool to measure the energy usage of virtual machines (VM), servers, desktops, laptops, and even individual software applications running on a computer. The application helps improve power provisioning costs for data centers, virtualized power budgeting, desktop energy optimizations, and mobile battery management.

The Joulemeter project focuses on the following aspects related to energy optimization:

• Modeling — Joulemeter provides a software tool to estimate the energy usage of a virtual machine (VM), a computer, server, or software application. It also allows modeling the impact of power management of various components such as the CPU, screen, memory, and storage on total power use. Many of these power measurements are not possible in hardware since software components such as VM do not have a single wire supplying their power where a hardware power meter may be installed.
• Optimization — We use the visibility provided by Joulemeter’s modeling techniques to improve power provisioning and consumption costs in various scenarios ranging from data centers, enterprise computing, and battery operated machines.

How to use Microsoft Joulemeter?

Download Joulemeter setup file (JoulementerSetup.msi) from the Microsoft Research website and install it. It is available only to Windows 7 users.

Laptops, notebooks or netbooks users do not need any extra hardware. Desktop computer users will need a WattsUp power meter (WattsUp Pro with USB connection) for learning an accurate power model. The software will also work without a power meter as well.

Run the application and select your setup for calibration. On the Calibration tab, select the option that best describes your setup:

• Running on batteries: For laptops; disconnect the power cord and make sure the battery charge level is above 50%.
• WattsUp PRO (Monitor(s) not on WattsUp): Desktop is plugged into a WattsUp PRO, but monitors are not plugged into the WattsUp.
• WattsUp PRO (Laptop OR Monitor(s) also on WattsUp): Desktop and monitor (one or more) are plugged into a power strip that is in turn plugged into a WattsUp PRO; Or if the computer and its monitor(s) are powered by a single power outlet (such as for laptops) from a WattsUp PRO.
• If none of these options apply, you have to do a manual calibration (see at the end of this article).

Close other open programs and click on “Perform Calibration” button. Leave the machine unused for 15 or more minutes. Joulemeter will switch to “Power Usage” after calibration is over.

Note: During calibration, the monitor may turn off and change brightness. Do not use the mouse or keyboard during calibration.

After calibration is complete, measure the power use of the computer. In the “Power Usage” tab to see the power consumption. The WattsUp meter, if used, may now be disconnected.

All power values are in Watts. Base power is computer’s power consumption when powered on but sitting idle. CPU power is the extra power used when some program(s) or the OS use the CPU. Disk power is the extra power consumed by the disk due to IO activity (disk spinning power is included in the base power). Monitor power, if shown, is the additional power consumption of the monitor and may change with brightness.

To estimate power consumption by a particular application, in the Power Usage tab, under Application Power, enter the name of the program executable, such as “myProgram.exe” and click “Start.” If the “myProgram.exe” is not yet running, Joulemeter will wait for it to be started.

Power consumption data is saved in comma separated values (CSV) format that can be opened in Microsoft Excel for easy plotting, or viewed in any text editor.

How to perform Manual Calibration in Joulemeter?

If the computing device is not a laptop or runs on battery or WattsUp based setups is unavailable, the expected range of power values can be manually entered.

• On the Calibration tab, click the “Manual Entry” button. Select the Model type to be a laptop, desktop, or one of the values shown. Joulemeter will recommend typical values to be entered.
• Edit the “Base power” to be the value when the computer is simply turned on but not performing much work.
• In “Processor peak power (high frequency)” enter the power consumed at 100% CPU utilization with the processor using its highest frequency. This power value may be available in your processor’s data sheet as the Thermal Design Power (TDP) value.
• In “Processor peak power (low-frequency)” enter the power consumed at 100% CPU utilization with the processor using its lowest P-state frequency.
• In “Monitor power” enter the power consumption of your monitor (available from the monitor user manual). If using more than one monitor, add up the power consumption of all monitors.
• Please consult the User Manual of the respective devices for more details.

The impact of hardware components on the battery life of your laptop allows you to tweak the power management settings. Thus you can improve battery life of your laptop. Managing and tracking PC sleep, combined with remote wakeup, allows optimizing desktop power consumption. Measuring the VM power allows developing power budgeting techniques for virtualized data centers.

WebSiteSniffer is a freeware portable packet sniffer tool developed by NirSoft. The application captures all files downloaded by your web browser while you browse the Internet. After capturing the files, it stores them on your hard drive under the folder “Website Files” in the folder where the program resides.

WebSiteSniffer allows you to filter the files types which are captured and saved. It offers the following choices: HTML Files, Text Files, XML Files, CSS Files, Video/Audio Files, Images, Scripts, and Flash (.swf) files. By default all supported file types are selected but you can customize it from Options dialog box. While the packet sniffer is capturing the website files, the main window displays general statistics about the downloaded files for every website or host name. The statistic includes the total size of all files (compressed and uncompressed) and the total number of files for every file type (HTML, Text, Images, etc).

For effectively capturing, you will need WinPcap packet capture driver. Other options for capturing are Raw Sockets which work in some systems and Network Monitor Driver. You can download WinPcap driver from here. Except the capture driver needed for capturing network packets, WebSiteSniffer doesn’t need any installation process or additional dll files. To start using WebSiteSniffer, simply download it from the developer’s website and extract the archive to a folder of your choice. Now, simply run the executable file “WebSiteSniffer.exe“.

When you run WebSiteSniffer for the first time, the “Capture Options” window appears on the screen. Here you can choose the folder where you want to download and extract all Web site files, filter the file types that you want to capture, the capture method (if you have installed WinPcap, keep it selected), and the desired network adapter. This options screen is presented to you only once, when you first run the application. If you want to change any settings later, simply click on Options menu and select Capture Options or Press F9 key on your keyboard. After changing the options press OK and you will see all the files getting saved automatically to your hard drive as you surf the Internet.

You can also select the desired Web site item and press F8 (Open Website Folder) to open the folder of the selected website in Windows Explorer, and easily view all files captured from this Web site. For every website or host name, WebSiteSniffer creates a separated sub folder under the main download folder. For example, if you browse into www.mytechguide.org, all files downloaded from www.mytechguide.org are stored under www.mytechguide.org sub folder.

WebSiteSniffer is a very powerful packet sniffer tool which is very easy to use. WebSiteSniffer works on any version of Windows, starting from Windows 2000 and up to Windows 7, including 64-bit systems. It is available for download from the developer’s website.

Windows operating system comes with a built-in firewall to protect the system. Windows Firewall like all other software firewalls available out there, protects your Windows system from unauthorized access while allowing legit network to pass through. Unfortunately, configuring the firewall settings is a daunting task for most users.

For all users who are looking for the ease of use in configuring Windows Firewall should check out Windows Firewall Notifier.

Windows Firewall Notifier is a freeware portable application for managing Windows Firewall rules in Windows 7 and Vista. Using this small portable application, configuring both inbound and outbound firewall rules is very easy.

After you have downloaded Windows Firewall Notifier and extracted it to your preferred location, launch it. It will enable the Windows Firewall, if not already enabled. It then blocks all inbound and outbound network connections for which no rules exist. Then it enables inbound connection notifications and outbound connections logging, if disabled. It will then show a notification balloon allowing or disabling incoming and outgoing connections, just like you see in many advanced commercial and freeware firewalls. From these prompts, you can choose to allow (temporarily or permanently) or block connections from being established by applications.

Upon clicking on the notification, you will see the following prompt on the screen with options to: temporarily allow the application, create a rule for the application, block the application once only, always block the application.

As you can see, the prompt also displays more information such as the application name, system path and target IP or hostname.

The application is intelligently built and creates a task in the Windows Task Scheduler. This task is basically linked to the firewall event log entries. Thus, whenever any network activity occurs for which no firewall rule exists, this task will automatically launch Windows Firewall Notifier. Thus this application will not even run in the background and hog any system resource.

If you ever felt that you do not need Windows Firewall Notifier anymore, you can be easily disable it by launching the executable file of the program again and selecting Yes. The program will also provided the option to disable the firewall and revert back the settings to default.

Windows Firewall Notifier is a must have application for Windows Vista and Windows 7 (compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit edition) users who rely on the built-in firewall. It is available as a free download from the developer’s website.

Windows Firewall is a built-in, host-based, stateful firewall that is included in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and later, and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 and later. Windows Firewall drops incoming traffic that does not correspond to either traffic sent in response to a request of the computer (solicited traffic) or unsolicited traffic that has been specified as allowed (excepted traffic). Windows Firewall helps provide protection from malicious users and programs that rely on unsolicited incoming traffic to attack computers. In Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Windows Firewall can also drop outgoing traffic and is configured using the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security snap-in, which integrates rules for both firewall behavior and traffic protection with Internet Protocol security (IPsec).
Microsoft Technet

EASEUS Partition Master is a comprehensive Windows application for easily managing hard disk partitions. Its convenient user-interface simplifies your tasks by offering many functions to manage your partitions. The Professional Edition can let you enjoy all the powerful basic and advanced partition functions.

Windows default partition manager is very basic and doesn’t offer advanced partition options. EaseUS Partition Master with Partition Recovery Wizard integrated is a comprehensive toolkit for computer users. It covers a full range of features including Partition Manager, Partition Recovery Wizard and disk & partition copy and more.

EaseUS Partition Master also allows users to create bootable disk. Using this bootable disk, you can manage hard disk partitions when the Operating System crashes. You can also resize the primary drive to reinstall other Operating Systems or even manage partitions on a computer without Operating System.

We received a trial version of EASEUS Partition Master Professional Edition for review. It came along with Linux bootable disk option.

Key Advantages of EaseUS Partition Master:

• It is an ALL-IN-ONE partition solution and the easiest and most convenient hard disk partition manager toolkit including Partition Manager, Disk & Partition Copy Wizard and Partition Recovery Wizard.
• Its built-in Linux-based bootable disk enable you manage hard disk partitions when Operating System inaccessible.
• Copy Wizard to copy partition or migrate entire hard disk to another without Windows reinstallation.
• Partition Recovery Wizard to recover deleted or lost partitions.
• Stable partition management which will protect your data.

Interface and Usability

EaseUS Partition Manager comes enriched with a hefty set of functions. The Operations area will be handy when you want to do some disk management tasks. If you are are not happy with Windows built-in backup feature; you can use the wizard and do backup and recovery tasks. This can be accomplished by using the Copy disk wizard, Copy partition wizard and Partition recovery wizard. Using the software it’s very easy to create the Linux bootable disks. Using these disks, you can rebuild MBR and can also create/delete/format partitions before installing OS. You can make bootable USB disk, CD/DVD and can export ISO image as well. The program lets you resize other NTFS partitions excluding NTFS system partition without reboot. Before that you must make sure all applications in the partition are closed.

The Disk Copy is designed to copy your entire disk to a new hard drive. There was a time when upgrading to a new hard drive meant hours of downloading your data, applications, and operating systems to disks; then more hours of reinstalling everything to the new hard drive. With Disk and Partition Copy Wizard, you can quickly and easily create an exact copy of your hard disk, including the operating system, applications, preferences, settings, and data. Partition Copy is designed to back up your partitions before the partition operations applied to the hard disk to prevent any data lost from program error or some other accidental incidents. Disk and Partition Copy Wizard can also copy dynamic volume safely to basic disk and resize it indirectly.

Partition Recovery Wizard included into EaseUS Partition Master completely protects your partition, allowing you to recover deleted or lost partitions due to a hardware or software failure. Together with Partition Manager, Copy Wizard and other useful features, you can do mostly anything you want on hard disk with EaseUS Partition Master. You must have this Partition Recovery Wizard if you care for safety of your partition and wish to be fully armed and ready for any personal, hardware or software failure, virus attack, or hacker’s intrusive destruction partition loss. You can recover the deleted or lost partition with Partition Recovery Wizard – a reliable partition recovery tool.

Other Features

• Resize dynamic volume – resize dynamic volume without data loss.
• Support command line – for easier disk management and run a batch file with no need for program running.
• Repair RAID-5 volume – repair RAID-5 by reconstructing the data of the failed member on another disk.
• Convert FAT partition to NTFS – to use the advantages of NTFS.
• Wipe data on free space – to offer a safer space for the new data.
• Disk surface test – check or find bad sectors.
• Convert primary to logical and vice versa – convert a primary volume to logical to create a fifth volume on a disk with 4 existed primary volumes.
• Defragmentation – speed up your computer.

Conclusion

EASEUS Partition Master Professional Edition with built-in Linux bootable disk license retails at $19.95. It is definitely a good software which provides great value. If you want a comprehensive solution then we must recommend going for EASEUS Partition Master with WinPE bootable disk.

Download EaseUS Partition Master

For those who may have missed this giveaway, you all can get any EASEUS product at 30% discount. Simply visit EaseUS store at http://www.easeus.com/buynow.htm, select the product you want to buy and use the coupon code: CHEN-9SCN-GIVE

EASEUS Partition Master Professional Edition with built-in Linux bootable disk License Giveaway [Expired]

Thanks to EASEUS for sponsoring 10 EASEUS Partition Master Professional Edition with built-in Linux bootable disk licenses. Being a reader of My Technology Guide, you stand a chance to win one license. All you have to do is become a subscriber and comment below. We’ll announce the winners in one week from the date of publishing this contest. For increasing your chances, you can like us, follow us and share the word about the campaign using the share buttons below.

Update: Winners are announced here.

Security Software Downloader in-short SSDownloader is a Windows application which helps Windows users to directly download any security software. The application is very handy when you have reformatted Windows or have brought a new PC. It provides direct download links to various free/trial security suites. Using the user interface of the application, you can download your favorite security software directly from the official makers of the suite.

Security Software Downloader 2, the latest version released by its developers features a completely revamped user interface. SSDownloader 2 is an Open Source software hosted at SourceForge.net.

Using this program you can easily download various security software like Microsoft Security Essentials, AVG Antivirus, Avast! Antivirus, Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and many more. The program also provides download links to many popular trialware like Kaspersky Internet Security, Norton Internet Security. You can also download various Windows utilities like CCleaner, AutoRuns, AppRemover and more. In total the program offers around 50 download links to useful software.

The latest version features tabs which categorizes the security applications in different categories. This approach will cut a lot of confusion among novice computer users. Earlier version had all the links in one single window which looked clumsy and confusing to first-time users. You can see below, the first screenshot is that of its earlier version and the second screenshot is that of the latest version.

SSDownloader earlier version GUI

SSDownloader v2 user interface

The program can find the operating system on which it is running automatically. The developer has also provided options to manually override the auto detect function for when it did not detect the operating system and version correctly. By default, the download directory is your Windows Desktop. If you don’t want your desktop to get cluttered, you can change the download directory by clicking on the “Change Download Dir” button.

For downloading a security software, all you need to do is select the check-box present before it and click on the download button. As simple as that. It supports downloading multiple programs. For that simply select the check-boxes beside the names of the software and after choice, click on download. If you want to get details about any software available for download through this program, you can click on the Website button present next to the title of the software.

You can download SSDownloader from the project website at Sourceforge.net.

Wondershare LiveBoot 2012 will help you boot into Windows when you can’t due to the dreaded Blue/Black Screen of Death.

Wondershare LiveBoot 2012 integrates the latest Microsoft WinPE technology to boot into Windows. Using the application, you can easily create a bootable LiveBoot CD or LiveBoot USB drive. Upon booting into Windows using it allows you to fix your computer boot up problem, rescue data, backup and restore file or system, clone and deep wipe disk, manage disk, etc. The LiveBoot CD/USB created by the application features over 40+ utility functions in total.

LiveBoot 2012 Features

• Windows Recovery – Provide a complete solution set for all Windows crash and booting problems including booting failure, virus affection, blue/black screen, and more.
• Data Recovery – Rescue any data from your internal/removal hard disk or partitions no matter deleted, formatted, or whole disk corrupted, including documents, archives, emails, photos, videos, and audio files.
• Disk Management – Complete disk management solutions including partition management, disk/partition cloning, disk/partition wipe, and more.
• Password & Key Finder – Reset Windows password when you forget the login password and find Windows or Office product key when you want to reinstall them.

Download the installer and install LiveBoot 2012 in your system.

After launching it for the first time, it will ask you to create a LiveBoot CD/USB.

The application itself comes with an extensive help which will guide you through the rest of the process.

After creating the LiveBoot CD/USB boot up your computer using it and use the utilities to recover your computer.

How to get a free license of Wondershare LiveBoot 2012?

Wondershare is running a giveaway promotion of LiveBoot 2012 for My Technology Guide readers. Through this giveaway, you can get yourself a free license of Wondershare LiveBoot 2012 which normally retails for $59.95.

Visit the promotion URL here and fill up the form.

You will receive your free license in your email address. The promotion will be live until August 12, 3 PM (GMT+8).

Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8 is coming with a unique feature called “System Reset“. System Reset will let users restore Windows 8 to factory defaults. This feature will save a lot of time for system administrators and users alike, and will save you from having to reinstall Windows.

RefreshPC is a free program developed for Windows that offers similar system reset option to current Microsoft Windows operating systems. Though this freeware application will not restore the operating system like Windows 8′s “System Reset” feature, but it will restore only a few sections of the operating system.

RefreshPC will be handy for users, who love to experimenting with Windows Registry settings and system services. Another example would be users who have used Windows system optimizer and have caused more harm to the system than good. Malicious virus, spyware, trojan attack that changed critical system settings can also be restored back to default after cleaning it using your favorite antivirus.

After you have downloaded RefreshPC, you need to install the program and create a System Restore point (recommended). The program than detects your operating system and version, and displays the information. You will find only a single button that will let you restore the settings to their factory defaults when clicked on.

RefreshPC will do the following:

The freeware application is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system, from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Download RefreshPC for refreshing your Windows back to defaults.

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.

Do you like the new Windows 8 Metro UI or the Windows 7 Phone Interface? If you like it and want to transform your Windows desktop to the new look, Omnimo UI. Using Omnimo UI you can now enjoy the tile based Windows 8 layout, Microsoft showed off at the D9 conference.

If you joined later, Windows 8 supports two types of applications; Classic desktop Windows apps and HTML5 web apps. Microsoft’s new start screen includes easy touch icons to allow users of touch based devices to easily navigate through the operating system. The user interface and new apps will work with or without a keyboard and mouse on a broad range of screen sizes and pixel densities, from small slates to laptops, desktops, all-in-ones, and even classroom-sized displays.

Omnimo v4, developed by fediaFedia, is a Rainmeter skin originally inspired by Windows Phone 7 inspired that brings the awesome Metro UI look to your Windows desktop. It will turn your desktop into a productive and attractive work area, delivering only the information you need. Rainmeter is a desktop customization platform. Through Rainmeter, you can enhance your Windows computer at home or work with skins: handy, compact applets which float freely on your desktop, much like Windows Sidebar gadgets, or dashboard widgets for the Mac.

How to install Omnimo 4?

• Before you can install Omnimo, you’ll first need to download and install the latest version of Rainmeter specific for your Windows platform. So, if you’re running 64-bit Windows, download Rainmeter 64-bit edition else download the 32-bit edition.
• After installing Rainmeter launch it once before proceeding to download and install the Omnimo 4.
• Now, download and extract the archive to find SETUP.rmskin file.
• Double-click on the SETUP.rmskin file to install Omnimo, you will be greeted by the Intro.

  

• After installation, select your settings and then the theme+resolution to apply the best layout. Don’t worry if your desktop resolution is not included, you can move things around to your liking anyway.

  

  

  

You can now play around the settings and customize Omnimo 4 to your heart’s consent. Do remember, if you press Windows + D to show desktop, Rainmeter along with all Omnimo widgets gets minimized.

Thanks to our reader Shook Are for the tip.