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Post by plutronus on Jul 9, 2020 0:27:24 GMT
Ok...I'm starting a list of interesting, safe, useful (and generally free, sometime not) software that I've used through the years, for Windows(tm)(c)(you'll burn in hell if you try to steal this)(r) weenies.. I'll update this thread occassionally as I think of or remember different tools.
Here is one of my favorite and truely useful utilities. It is free, has no back-doors or trojan viruses embedded within it. The program recovers **INSTALLED** laptop and workstations device drivers for people who have either lost, or never had the installation driver disc. This can be done on disc drives for which the operating system will not boot!! The program scans, collects, backs-up, and stores all the drivers installed into an indexed directory, which can be zipped or burned onto a FlashDrive and-or a CDrom for later re-install. It works with WinXP, Vista(yech) and Win7. It might also work with Win8 & Win10, but I have not tested it. In anycase it won't damage anything if it doesn't work with the newer OS's.
How cool is that?!
Double Driver by BooZet (Budy Setiawan Kusumah)
(To be on the safe side, always scan for viruses when downloading programs, one can be nailed by a man-in-the-middle attack...)
See:
plutronus
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Post by HAL on Jul 9, 2020 15:23:56 GMT
Got any Linux suggestions ?
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Post by plutronus on Jul 14, 2020 3:38:39 GMT
HAL, and All,
Its been awhile since I've regularly used Linux, but I looked around on the 'Net to help me remember a few of the tools that I I've found useful for Linux usage. One of those which has been a crunched-ball saver for me was a utility by the name of TestDisk. It has the ability to recover fried and-or corrupted HD allocation tables.
"TestDisk is powerful free open-source data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software: certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy."
TestDisk also supports other OSs as well, such as MacOS, Windoze and of course...Linux!!
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Post by HAL on Jul 19, 2020 20:27:14 GMT
Hard to believe, or unbelievable hard ?
You choose.
Oh yeah, Mods, wake up.
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Post by HAL on Jul 19, 2020 20:28:25 GMT
Plutronus,
Thanks for the tip. I'll take a look at it.
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Post by SysConfig on Jul 20, 2020 17:45:23 GMT
For Linux just download Hirams bootdisk for flash drives . and use any of its many dated albeit very useful tools..such as testing your smart drives before they crash..
I'm using the latest Linux but if you into games there is a steam centric version of linux too ..thank you Petronius for your help. Tommi was very knowledgeable of some sites as she does PC repairs.
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Post by HAL on Jul 23, 2020 20:57:23 GMT
Sys,
Which version do you call 'latest' ?
I have Suse Lead 15.1
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Post by SysConfig on Jul 25, 2020 14:13:23 GMT
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Post by HAL on Jul 25, 2020 19:11:47 GMT
I went to over Linux to avoid the continual need to upgrade with Windows.
My Linux is also far faster than the XP I am using at the moment on this laptop. Mind, the Linux machine is an Acer Asus 64 Bit machine with an AMD Phenom X4; that helps.
And being brought up on DOS 6.2 makes the Linux Terminal feel sort of friendly.
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Post by plutronus on Jul 25, 2020 20:58:45 GMT
Another installment of Cool Software for Techies....
Another program I use and find very useful is 'GIMP', which is an acronym for, "Gnu Image Manipulation Program". This program is a graphical image tool, much like PhotoShop or Paint Shop. Paint Shop used to be my go-to program for doing photo massaging, but it has become so clunky in its usage and has become too pricey for what it can do, I no longer use it. On the other hand while many Windows user consider that PhotoShop is the defactor 'cadillac' of the graphics massage world, that program is tooooooo pricey AND it is now a subscription program, which I absolutely REFUSE to use.
GIMP is OpenSource, meaning that the source code for the program is available for download, so that a user can modify or tailor the program to their own liking and-or compile the source themselves. And also, it is completely free software. But unlike many free software programs GIMP is very robust, works very well because it is a stable program and it is safe, as it is supported by the World's hobbyiest/professional software gurus who enjoy artistically 'painting' the world with useful code! How cool is that?
GIMP is also available in compiled binary forms for Windows (7, 8, 10), Linux, OSX and Mac users.
There are many tutorials on how to use GIMP via the InterNet around the world. For instance, since my memory is starting to fade, I need to resize a photo of a wearable vitamin C sensor, but I've forgotton how to do so. I am going to use www.duckduckgo.com (the html only version, with javascript disabled using the FireFox plugin from 'NoScript', to prevent a lot of InterNet usage tracking).
I entered into DuckDuckGo: How to resize photo in gimp?
A tutorial by a college prof..
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Post by plutronus on Jul 26, 2020 9:42:39 GMT
Here is another really useful tool for MacNazi$oft Windows(tm)(r)(c) 'keyboard warriors'.
Yea...are ya growin' weary using that poor excuse of a file-manager known as Windows Explorer? There is an excellent replacement for that junk. If you think WinExplorer is "good" or "ok", then there is just no hope for you. So ignore my recomendation for this gem, 'cause if ya don't and ya use it, it'll pop your brain-socket!!
Currently, I am mainly using Win7 Pro and that is because, sadly, only certain SW development and HW development FPGA tools only run in Windows. The file-manager replacement program, my favorite tool, while it is not free, if you get the super-duper version, I think costs around $40, with unlimited updates. I used the standard version for 4 years, and the super-duper version since 2008. It is really worth the money, but I think most Windows users are now so dummed down that the $29 Dollar version is probably more than adequate for most Windows users.
However, if you don't want to buy before you try, there is a Free Trial version for download, which as I recall works for around 2 weeks. Try it.
Myself, I don't like computers thinking for me, especially MacNazi$oft, so I do not rely on the Windows pre-created directories such as,"My Documents" or "My Photos", or "My Music", etc. For one thing if your hard drive hiccups and the NTFS 'hive' gets a glitch, all of those pseudo MyCrappola directories can disappear like a stinky MacNazi$oft flatullant in an office hallway, --it still stinks, but ya can't find it, just like those directories. It can be a nightmare recovering files from pseudo directories. So I create my own directories, in-lieu of "My Documents", I create "My Documants" which is an authentic directory, but in doing so, MS WinOS interferes with those type of operations in various ways, and its all managed by their terminal excuse for a file-manager...Windows Explorer! Using Explorer2 resolves those type nusances.
So, here is the replacement: Xplorer2.
What can't one do with it? How about mass file renaming? Or re-dating a file? Or print a directory listing, complete with header column names? One of my favorites is mass file moving, and if there is a file copy, move, replace, issue and the source file doesn't move or copy for some reason, instead of just stopping after 120 minutes of copying, with no idea of why the action stopped, Xplorer2 it skips to the next file, but writes a log entry, if you decided to log the files. And then the Xplorer2 program's ability to search for files is, just outright frakkin awesome!! And really fast! It also sports a single/dual windows + a directory tree if you desire it, also sports a user customizable tool bar, and God Forbid, if ya'r one of those dummies out there who actually likes that 'ribbon' interface, yep, you can use it instead of the old Xerox X11 Unix style user interface that MacNazi$oft copied as standard Windows user interface. What did they not steal?
Then there are MS compliant third party shell extensions that are available for this slick file-manager utility:
Extensible architecture with shell extension handlers
I highly recommend the usage of this slick program. Frankly, I love it! I've been using this program for around 25 years now, and I still have not used all of its useful features, and every time I've needed some feature (which is typically and automatically available in standard Unix and-or the Unix Linux clones), Xplorer2 has a method for accomplishing the task. And unlike M$ Windows Explorer, I have never experienced an Xplorer2 crash or have it break a file, in over 25 years of usage!!!
So that's it for now.
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