Rainmeter 2.1 'NowPlaying' rocks
It has taken a while, but after months of beta testing, desktop customization tool Rainmeter 2.1 has finally been released -- and it includes one of the most interesting new features for some time, in the "NowPlaying" plugin. You won’t see this by default, at least not initially. Install the program and you’ll be presented with the more usual monitoring tools, displaying date, time, CPU and RAM use, hard drive stats, RSS feeds and so on.
But install and configure an appropriate skin and you’ll see a neat “Now Playing” console, which not only displays the details of whatever audio track you’re playing right now, but also allows control to your player: you can stop, pause or restart a tune, rate it, step backwards and forwards through your tracks, toggle shuffle and repeat settings, adjust volume and more.
O&O Defrag 15 Professional review
When you’re looking to squeeze the very maximum speed from your system, a good defrag session, optimizing your hard drive layout for the best performance, remains one of the more effective techniques you can apply -- and there are few more feature-packed and versatile defraggers than O&O Defrag 15 Professional.
The program offers multiple ways to report on your drive’s levels of fragmentation, for instance. You get eight built-in defrag strategies, and it’s also possible to customize the final results further, by, say, sorting specified files by name, last access or modification date, and repositioning large files to better optimize your overall system performance.
Microsoft WebMatrix 2 beta available -- get it now!
Microsoft has released the first beta of WebMatrix 2, a powerful development tool that makes it easier than ever to build web applications; and as with the previous version, the program packs a raft of essential features into a simple and straightforward interface.
The installation process equips your PC with several core development components, for instance, including SQL Server Compact 4.0 and IIS 7.5 Express. And then you can build sites from an improved set of templates (“Bakery”, “Photo Gallery”, “Calendar”, “Personal Site”, and so on) or a lengthy list of popular web applications: DotNetNuke, WordPress, Drupal, SugarCRM, phpBB, Tiki Wiki, Joomla! and more (there’s support for 59 in total). Just choose your preferred application and WebMatrix 2 will download and install it for you.
O&O Defrag 15 boasts 40% performance gains
Hard drive utility specialist O&O Software has released the latest edition of its flagship defrag tool, Defrag 15. And the emphasis this time is on performance, with the company claiming improvements to the program’s algorithms have cut defrag times by anything up to 40 percent.
Exactly what sort of speeds you might see is difficult to say, as every situation is different. We took a lightly fragmented drive, though, typical of how a system might be after a few days of work, and tested how long it took to optimise. The built-in Windows 7 defrag tool needed almost four minutes; Defrag 15′s fastest optimisation method required only 12 seconds.
Take control of Windows Sysinternals
Sysinternals products are some of the best Windows system utilities around, packed with features, and perfect for troubleshooting or just generally finding out more about what’s happening on your PC.
Launching them can be a problem, though, because they’re portable. So you’ll typically have to save them all in a folder somewhere, remember that location, switch to it as and when required, remember which file name corresponds to which utility, and so on. Or, alternatively, you could simply use the Sysinternals Suite Installer, which does just about everything a Sysinternals installer would do, including creating a Start menu group and shortcuts so it’s easy to locate and launch whatever tool you need.
Minus: No frills online storage plus 10GB free
There are plenty of free online storage providers around, but most provide only one or two gigabytes of space in their basic accounts: not much, by modern standards.
Minus stands out, though, by offering a whole 10GB, free of charge. The service supports files up to 2GB in size; these can be private, shared individually through links, or entirely open to public view; and there are no transfer limits, very useful if you’ve large files you’d like to distribute and you’re worried about potential bandwidth costs. And these are just some of the plus points of the Minus service.
Few files are out of reach with OpenWith Enhanced
If you discover a file type on your system which you can’t open, then you’ll probably start searching the web for applications that might be able to help. But while this will return plenty of information, it’ll probably take a while to sort through everything to discover your best options. And so a better solution may be to try OpenWith Enhanced, which provides everything you need on your own desktop.
The program replaces the standard Windows “Open With” dialog with an extended version, so it’s easy to use. Just right-click a file type, and select Open With, or Open With > Choose Default Program.
Lost your laptop? Norton Anti-Theft could recover it
If you’re worried about losing your smartphone or tablet then there’s no shortage of services around that claim they can help you to protect it. There’s not quite as much choice for laptop and PC owners, of course. But if you’re worried about thieves, help is at hand in the shape of a new Symantec web service, Norton Anti-Theft, released this week in beta form.
If you’ve ever tried one of the mobile device location and recovery services then Symantec’s take will seem quite familiar. After creating a Norton Beta account, all you have to do is install the Anti-Theft client and leave it running on your system. And if your laptop is stolen, then logging in to the Anti-Theft website will provide all the recovery features you’d expect, as well as one or two you might not.
Don't wait for Windows 8! Download it now!
Microsoft has used its BUILD developer conference to make available a developer preview edition of Windows 8, which gives the closest look yet at what the next generation of the operating system is going to offer.
And it’s going to provoke plenty of debate.
Norton Internet Security 2012: Nothing radically new, but plenty to like
The 2012 security suite party is now well under way, and Symantec are the latest company to join in with the release of Norton Internet Security 2012. The 2011 edition was excellent, and perhaps as a result this build is more about building on that, than providing anything radically new. Still, there’s plenty to like here.
Identity Safe, for instance, the browser tool for storing your logons and other information, then automatically completing web forms, can now hold your data in the cloud so it’s accessible from anywhere. Symantec’s reputation-based system, Insight, is now being used to check your downloads, and even try to identify brand-new malware.
There's a better way to troubleshoot Win32 crashes
Figuring out exactly why an application has crashed can be tricky. Especially if you don’t see any useful error messages. And while Windows 7 does its best, the most you’re likely to see -- much, much later -- is a message suggesting that you upgrade to a new version.
Prolific freeware developer Nir Sofer has just released a new tool that can help, however, in WinCrashView. And although it’s targeted at developers and other expert users, anyone may be able to gain some useful crash troubleshooting clues from the data this program has to offer.
AVG Internet Security 2012 in-depth review
Some security companies appear to think that enhancing their software is just about adding new functionality. But while this can make for an enticing feature list, there’s usually a price to pay, in terms of extra complexity and layers of overweight code that slows down the rest of your PC.
So it’s good to see AVG take a different approach with their latest Internet Security 2012 release.
AVG 2012 security software cuts the bloat, runs faster
If you’ve felt that AVG’s security tools have become a little bloated in the last few years, then we’ve some good news: the 2012 range, released today, focuses strongly on improving performance and reducing their impact on your PC’s speed. And their efforts do seem to have produced some worthwhile results.
Grab a copy of the new AVG Internet Security 2012, for instance, and you’ll find the download is half the size, installation is faster, and the suite’s footprint on your hard drive is cut by an average of 45 percent when compared to the previous edition.
Monitor Windows activity with DiskLED
At first glance, DiskLED doesn’t exactly appear to be the most interesting of programs. Flashing a system tray icon to indicate hard drive activity can be useful, but it’s nothing new and there are plenty of other tools that do the same thing.
What makes DiskLED a little different, though, is that it’s not tied to highlighting hard drive accesses alone. The program can also monitor any Windows performance counter in the current PC, enabling you to keep a close eye on whatever activity you like.
Acronis True Image Home 2012 is worthy
Most backup programs specialize in a particular form of data protection: file-based backups, continuous data protection, online backups, whatever it might be. Acronis True Image Home 2012, though, takes a different approach, cramming just about every backup type and feature there is into a single, straightforward interface.
The program can create images of partitions or entire hard drives, for instance. If this is more than you need then you can simply point True Image Home 2012 at the files or folders you’d like to protect. Alternatively, aim the program’s Nonstop Backup module at a key location – your Documents folder, say -- and it’ll monitor that folder for you, backing up new or modified files as they appear.
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