Internet, Website Software
This is quite a difficult choice, do you go for a software application that performs numerous tasks or just sticks to Registry cleaning and nothing else. For starters there is a bewildering choice of both types of programs to choose from.
Multipurpose cleaners
These have a set of functions that can perform numerous cleaning and optimizing tasks, common actions for many multipurpose cleaners are;
- Registry Cleaning
- Registry Fixing
- Registry Optimization
- Registry Backups
- Internet privacy
- File shredder
- Resource Monitor
- Start up management
- Optimizing Windows usually through services or performance options
- Speed increase, turbo boost
- Junk file cleaning
- Hard drive space optimizing
- Spyware cleaning and blocking
If you have no type of cleaning or optimizing program on your system then it may be worth trying one out especially if your system has been giving you problems such as performing very slowly or starting to lock up, freeze or crash on a regular basis.
A few are free and many are on a trial period so you can have a test and see what you think although those on trial tend to have most of the features turned off or at least limited in their actions. The benefits for using these cleaners are that they act like a control centre for all the Windows tasks and everything is in one place with many of them just needing one click of a button to start cleaning and optimizing.
If there are downsides then some of the programs are quite thirsty on the resources so if you have limited memory installed then running one of these programs could make your system perform slower than having one without. Also if you want a thorough registry cleaner then these programs may not be detailed enough for your needs, it is something you will have to check out.
Find Reviews about Registry Cleaner here…
Today we are going to look at Registry Easy, a registry suite that does far more than just scan the registry for problems. News has it that Registry Easy has some notoriety behind it for being a rogue program and loaded with Trojans and viruses. Unfortunately the Web of Trust website has given the Registry Easy website a poor reputation rating based on visitors and consumer ratings, so I thought what the heck I’ll live dangerously and give it a go.
The website looks very professional and now has a McAfee Secure badge sitting on the top right hand corner of the website. This is a reassuring sign that the company is getting its house in order and putting things right where it needed to. Next I downloaded the software and then scanned it with Malwarebytes Antimalware, I also have an antivirus running constantly which scans all downloads and running programs and that gave it a thorough scan as well. Registry Easy passed on both counts so no nasties to worry about which means I can now proceed to see how it works and how effective it is.
Main Screen
The main screen is clear and uncluttered and is easy to navigate around while looking just slightly basic with the colour and icons compared to some of the others that I have reviewed.
As you can see there are several options on the left hand menu and some of these are broken down further into sub-menus.
Scan & Clean
Normally with registry cleaners the Scan option initiates a deep scan of the registry which covers all sorts of areas such as missing shortcuts, ActiveX components, uninstalled leftovers and many more but in this case there are only two options that the scan covers, Junk file cleaner and Duplicate cleaner. All the other areas of the registry that get scanned are dealt with under separate menus. The duplicate cleaner is quite a handy feature and looks for identical files that reside on your system that invariably get copied and pasted to all sorts of places.
Backups
Easily the most comprehensive back up option I have seen on any registry utility program, it is split into three sections, Restore Point, Favourites Backup and Folder Backup. If you have Vista or Win 7 then this will not work for you as its Win2000 and XP only so moving on, next is Favourites Backup which backs up all your favourites in Internet Explorer to a place of your choice. Finally there is Folder Backup where you can browse to any folder and select to back it up to anywhere on your system or on to pen drive or a networked pc.
Optimize System
Again another three sub menus to play with, the first one is System Optimizer and presents you with numerous settings such as Office Model or Internet Café Model to run your system as fast as possible depending on what your main needs are. The best way to get a handle on what System Optimizer does is to choose Custom and look at all the services and settings that you can manually turn off or leave on. There are definite improvements if you turn off certain services and settings but if your system is running at a decent pace then it may be something that you might want to leave alone.
The next is Optimize Internet; you choose what your Internet speed you have then the program chooses the best settings to get the best speed, I didn’t see any difference when I tried it.
Last is Tweak Memory where memory which is tied up somehow in windows is then freed, this can often happen where an application you have stopped using and then closed is still being kept in windows memory system.
System Fix
There are more sub-menus here which are;
- Easy Repair Wizard
- Error Utilities
- File Association
- Register ActiveX
- Shortcuts Fix
- Winsock2 Repair
Easy Repair Wizard breaks down further into seven areas and has been designed to fix the most common problems experienced by users. You simply select what problems you are having and click next and hopefully your problem will then get fixed. I haven’t been able to try this out as my system is perfect with no issues. Lucky me.
System Fix – Easy Repair Wizard, lists common problems that you can select to fix.
Error Utilities, ever had one of those error messages that says something like Invalid Page Fault Error 0×0000045464? If you get an error message it could be listed in the program and if it is then just select it and choose Repair.
File Association is in the same meld as above, if you try to run a program and Windows complains that it can’t open it due to the fact that it has no association with it then a quick hop to this area can repair the broken association. The file formats are the usual ones such as .exe, .com, .bat, .reg and .vbs plus several others.
Register ActiveX is a very useful utility and can solve the niggly issues that can make life quite annoying for the user. If you start receiving DLL or ActiveX errors then this is the section to try, just press Re-Register and see if that helps.
Shortcut Fixer is probably something we are all familiar with and obviously fixes any missing or invalid shortcuts from the system, just press Scan Now to do the search.
Winsock2 Repair, having problems accessing the Internet then it could be broken dll files; the repair button will search all the dll files and fix any that are broken.
The next menu is System Tools which comprises of another set of tools to fix or recover areas of your system.
System Tools
Block ActiveX which acts like a firewall disabling or blocking certain ActiveX components, these can be in the form of dodgy toolbars or sneaky Hijack diallers that call expensive premium telephone numbers. A list is presented here.
File Recoveryer. No that isn’t a spelling mistake that’s how it is written on the menu. For some reason there is a file recovery utility included here, it’s somewhat limited but it does the job of finding deleted files and you can save the files to an external drive or a memory pen.
File Splitter and Joiner, another surprise entry for the all-encompassing registry suite. If you have very large files you can use this utility to split the file into smaller segments and rather cleverly you can reassemble them back together without the need of using Registry Easy.
Password Recovery, this will find all the passwords that are residing on your system should you happen to forget one of them. This applies to MSN, Outlook, Yahoo Messenger and even MS Access up to 2003.
Start Up Manager utility is becoming more common in Registry Cleaning programs and is a welcome addition as this is always useful compared to the limited function of msconfig.
Uninstall Manager again is another common utility which offers a bit more functionality then the usual uninstall applet from control panel namely the power to delete entries that have been left behind.
IE Tools
The last menu which is geared to the functionality of Internet Explorer and again has sub menus.
BHO Manager which stands for Browser Helper Object and is aimed at the IE plugins and toolbars, a list is supplied for you to look over and gives you the option to turn certain plugins or toolbars on or off which will speed up your browsing experience and make it more secure.
IE Restore allows you to repair and tweak settings in Internet Explorer, sometimes they can get damaged or corrupted by virus removal or a dodgy toolbar and the fix can be applied here.
IE Management, this offers near complete control over the behaviour of Internet Explorer. There are many facets that you can alter and some of them are just the same as in Internet Explorer options in control panel.
Lots of options to control Internet Explorer from the homepage to cleaning out the IE Cache.
Conclusion
This is one comprehensive all in one registry suite and includes applications that no other program offers, there are the usual fixes that you expect and several others you certainly wouldn’t such as the file and password recovery utilities.
If there is one major criticism with the program, it’s that it is not simple enough, whereas with most programs you can just hit the Scan button and let it do the work and review the results here you need to go through most of the menu sub headings to achieve the same thing. It certainly gives you a lot of flexibility but at the same time takes away the simplicity and usability as well. It isn’t hard to use by any means and there is a very comprehensive help file included which explains all the terms and functions that the program performs.
The tasks are very accomplished and thorough with the option of undoing the changes as backups are performed before each scan. This can all be scheduled or started on windows start up.
There is no doubt that the past problems have been dealt with as far as I could tell and Registry Easy performed without any problems at all, it has a small footprint and runs very quickly.
It has a lot of competition as the Registry Cleaning market is quite a crowded one and to try and distinguish itself from the pack it has bundled in some useful extra utilities. I wouldn’t say it was quite enough to make it number one but it does warrant a look if you’re in the market to buy a suite like this. Merging some of the tasks would make it even better.
Find more information about Registry Easy as well as some other Registry Cleaner Software here…
Possibly one of the least updated items on any system is the drivers. What’s a driver? It’s software that enables hardware components to function, so if you bought a webcam and plugged it in there’s a fair chance that it won’t work properly or at the least give you the very basic operation of that webcam but pop in the accompanying cd or visit the website to download the program for the webcam and install it then (usually after a reboot) your webcam will spring in to life and perform all the functions that it is meant to do.
With today’s Windows 7 things are changing for the better, the webcam scenario above is now unlikely to happen although it still can but usually Windows 7 will help you out greatly. If you plug something in and Windows cannot locate the driver for it then it will simply head off in to the Internet and perform a search to find it for you. It doesn’t always work but it’s far better than Windows XP efforts used to be, in the case Windows fails to find the required driver then it’s a manual search from yours truly which can be like a lucky dip. Some manufacturers websites are excellent and provide easy links for you to find what drivers you need however other sites are just plain miserable and will cause you a lot of grief.
Having something like Driver Detective is like having your very own butler looking after your system’s drivers, it keeps an eye on all of them and there are a lot of them, more than you realise. It will also notify you of any updates that have been released which is where many users fail to keep on top of, let’s face it if it works then why would you? However on a few occasions I have fixed clients systems problems just by installing an updated driver and gamers really need to keep on top of the graphic card drivers as these can make a massive difference to the graphic cards performance.
A pie chart showing system and other drivers (green and blue)
while the red is out of day and yellow signifies no drivers at all.
After the program installs you will be taken through a couple of screens to set up your system, it’s mainly to check that the program has identified your system correctly. After that a scan is performed and a list will show what drivers you have and if they are currently the latest versions.
There are a few tabs across the top of the screen and they are all basic in their functions and easy to follow.
History
Any drivers that need downloading on to your system will be shown here, you can find the driver information, download alternative drivers (which can sometimes be very useful with graphic cards as they can be very fussy with their drivers), install drivers and backup drivers.
Tools
Only a few options here which is in keeping with simple layout of the program. Basically you can choose where the drivers are downloaded to, show alternative drivers, search Microsoft for drivers and include items that are USB devices plugged in or not. The System Restore function as you would expect will allow you to rollback and use the previous drivers.
EZ Migrator
This is a great utility that I have now incorporated in my arsenal of weapons when dealing with clients computers, it is an absolute bugbear when upgrading users systems to a newer operating system and then having to find the drivers to go on it. With EZ Migrator you can transfer drivers to another system that’s using a newer or even an older operating system and just use the cd created by EZ Migrator, easy peasy, or just wipe your system and reload Windows with drivers using EZ Migrator.
Conclusion
This is a very simple program to use without looking too basic and being ineffective, it can currently find over 27 million drivers including those that are specific to big named companies such as Dell, HP and Toshiba. It works on all operating systems 32 and 64bit as well and is especially useful in that it works on Server 2003 and 2008 flavours, servers can be a pain to get the right drivers for.
Seeing the price at $29.99 I was concerned that this was quite high but for the money this covers ten computers for a year, not sure how many of us have ten systems but it can be very useful for small businesses and for a further $9.99 you can extend the license for an extra year. If you are sitting on the fence on whether to buy it or not you’ll find it comes with a 30 day money back guarantee so you can take it for a spin with no risk.
If you have difficulty with doing anything slightly technical then this program will take the headache away from you and keep tabs on the drivers without you having to worry about them. It’s also a useful tool for computer techies although the price tag may be a bit of putting for them.
Get more information about Driver Detective here…
There are 4 web browsers that almost everybody has heard of. These are Internet Explorer (in its various versions), Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera. However, there is one major player missing from this list, and one which Apple Mac users have been aware of for quite some time, and this is Apple Safari.
The reason it is less known is due to the fact that until recently, there was not an up to date version available for the PC, this has now changed with the launch of Apple Safari 4.0, a mighty PC browser.
Initial performance benchmarks put Apple Safari in second place to Google Chrome (no surprise there, Chrome is renowned for its performance), although not far behind in second place. This has been a major surprise for some people.
Where Apple Safari does win over other browsers, is in its interface. Safari uses an intelligent startup screen, which learns which sites you visit frequently, creating thumbnails and shortcuts to them.
You can easily flip between these sites using keyboard shortcuts or mouse gestures. This works much the same way as Google Chrome does, but it is implemented better in Safari. Safari also has a native Windows look and feel, so it generally looks nicer than Chrome in most ways.
Safari is also built around the award winning Nitro Engine, the blisteringly fast rendering engine, which has claimed “Fastest Browser in the World” more than once. The Nitro Engine has long been an Apple Mac only tool, not so now, the PC is now gifted with this incredible piece of coding.
If you are on the lookout for a new browser for your PC, then it could be worth checking out Apple Safari 4.0. Safari is fast, robust and secure, as well as being stylish and fun to use.
To get more information about Safari click here…
No you did not read the title of this blog post wrong, IE8 has indeed passed Acid3, with flying colours! However, there is a slight caveat to the test being passed. It required the installation of Google Chrome Frame. OK so this means the IE8 rendering engine didn’t actually pass Acid3, the Google Chrome rendering engine, working within an IE8 window actually passed it. So I guess we can’t really count this as a triumph for Microsoft, but it is a good way of introducing Google Chrome Frame!
Google Chrome Frame is basically a version of the Chrome rendering engine, being forced to run inside a frame within IE8.
Google have explained that they have released this application to enable IE8 users to use Google Wave when it is finally made available to the public.
Google Chrome Frame is quite cleverly coded, it requires special code within a web page to switch it on, without this code being present the frame is not loaded and the standard IE8 rendering engine is used.
Whilst testing this clever little application, I discovered that it was possible, via a registry entry, to enable Google Chrome Frame at all times.
This I quickly tried, as I still use IE8 due to its superior operating system integration, but I loathe its performance, I thought this would be the ultimate fix.
Unfortunately this was not to be so, as loading Google Chrome Frame also changes all the right click menu options to the standard Google Chrome ones, replacing the IE8 ones that I find so useful.
Yet the fact remains that for those people who do not want to switch to a new browser, yet still wish to use advanced application such as Google Wave, then Google Chrome Frame is going to be a godsend.
Nobody can dispute the fact that the spell checking options found within IE8 (Internet Explorer Version 
are pretty bad.
Well they are worse than bad actually, they are non-existent! It’s true; this mainstream browser lacks any form of spellchecking capability out of the box. However, help is at hand in the form of an excellent plug-in named ieSpell.
Why is ieSpell so special?
ieSpell is special for two reasons. The first reason is simply the fact that it does such a good job, in an easy to understand way. No feature bloat, just an efficient and dependable spellchecker.
The second thing which makes ieSpell so special is the price; this is because it is entirely free! This is a must have plug-in for every Internet Explorer user.
Is ieSpell easy to install?
Yes, very easy, could not be simpler. A short download followed by a quick install routine has the plug-in up and running.
Simply select the default spell-check dictionary, and add any extra ones you may need, many are available in the ieSpell archives.
How does ieSpell work?
ieSpell functions quite simply. Once you have finished filling in form data on a web page, simply right click inside one of the fields, and select “check spelling” from the context menu. ieSpell will then highlight all of the words it thinks are spelled wrong, and pop open a window allowing you to select alternate words, replace all occurrences of the bad spelling, and all of the other kinds of options we are used to with word processor spell-checkers.
Anybody who still uses IE in any of its versions really should grab themselves a copy of this excellent plug-in, there is no reason not to, it does not cost a penny, all it does is add excellent spell-checking functions to a browser that has none to start with.
One of the most useful features of Firefox is the fact it can be extended using plug-ins. This is not to say that Firefox is the only browser to support this kind of extension. However, the sheer number of excellent plug-ins available for Firefox makes it arguably the most flexible browser ever.
Below we will take a look at five essential Firefox plug-ins that everybody should consider installing.
- XMarks – The worlds coolest bookmark manager, available as a plug-in for not only Firefox but Internet Explorer and Safari as well. XMarks will use a cloud to keep bookmarks, or the user can optionally choose to store their bookmarks locally.
- Greasemonkey – On its own this plug-in does very little out of the box. What it does do is add an incredibly powerful scripting language to Firefox, which is then used to write browser applications. Without Greasemonkey many of the excellent Firefox extensions we see today could not exist.
- Adblock Plus – A plain and simple advertisement blocker, easy to configure and exceptionally effective, a must have for every Firefox user.
- Tab Mix Plus – An amazingly useful plug-in, which adds extensive tabbed browsing control to Firefox. It allows the browser user to decide which kinds of links open in new tabs instead of new windows, and allows tabs to be renamed and highlighted.
- Down Them All – A batch downloader, very cool for those times you want to grab every image on a page, or kick off a download of an entire list of .MP3 files. Once you use this plug-in you will wonder how you ever did without it.
So there we have it, five of the top plug-ins available for Mozilla Firefox, which help to extend and enhance the browsing experience, whilst keeping Firefox lightweight and stable.
There are two longstanding phrases within the Internet Marketing and Webmaster circles. The first of these is that “Content is King”, meaning fresh, organic content brings traffic. The second is that “The money is in the list”, and it is this second phrase, which pertains to extracting maximum value from a mailing list, that GroupMail can help with.
There are many types of mass mailing solutions to be found, from simple PHP scripts that can be run upon a web server, to expensive subscription services, which are designed to manage mailings for you. GroupMail is an entirely different option, a local client application, which is run on the user’s PC to manage mass mailing.
The advantages of running something like GroupMail locally are quite clear. Firstly, you incur a single one off cost to procure the software, no more expensive monthly subscriptions to an autoresponder service. Secondly, your contact information is entirely secure, as it is stored locally upon your own PC. Thirdly, you have the flexibility to manage your mailing list the way you want to, and not how your autoresponder or mailing provider forces you too. This last point is quite a major one, as email policies imposed by autoresponder services can be heavy and harsh.
The great thing about GroupMail is it is free to try. The free version has limited features, but it does allow you to evaluate the software and decide in a client based solution for managing your mailing list is right for you.
If you decide that GroupMail works for you, simply upgrade to the personal, business or marketing version. One thing to note, only the marketing version provides analytics, and if you are serious about your email marketing you will need this, as without it you cannot split test or perform performance comparisons. We will be running a series of posts giving tips and tricks on how to use GroupMail effectively, so check back soon.
To get more information about GroupMail click here…
