Here’s a handy little app that undeletes and recovers lost files from your hard drive, memory cards, USB flash drives. If you accidentally deleted some documents or photos from your computer, reformatted your camera’s memory card, or want to see what files are lurking on an old USB drive, DiskDigger xan do the dirty work for you. DiskDigger works with Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP, and best of all, it’s portable!

Obligatory LOL Cat Recovery Screen Shot

It finds all of these deleted filetypes:

Supported file types include:

• Photos and images:
  • JPG – Pictures stored in digital cameras and on the Web (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
  • PNG - Portable Network Graphics
  • GIF - Graphics Interchange Format
  • BMP – Windows and OS/2 bitmap image
  • TIFF - Tagged Image File Format
  • ICO – Windows Icon
  • ANI – Windows Animated Cursor
  • CR2 – Canon RAW image
  • SR2 – Sony RAW image
  • NEF – Nikon RAW image
  • DCR – Kodak RAW image
  • PEF – Pentax RAW image
  • DNG - Adobe Digital Negative
  • SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics
  • PSD – Adobe Photoshop Image
  • RAS – Sun raster image
  • PSP – Paint Shop Pro image
  • Thumbcache – Windows thumbnail cache
• Documents:
  • DOC – Microsoft Word document (2003 and below)
  • DOCX – Microsoft Word document (2007 and above)
  • XLS – Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (2003 and below)
  • XLSX – Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (2007 and above)
  • PPT – Microsoft PowerPoint presentation (2003 and below)
  • PPTX – Microsoft PowerPoint presentation (2007 and above)
  • VSD – Microsoft Visio document
  • PDF - Portable Document Format
  • XML – eXtensible Markup Language
  • HTML – HyperText Markup Language
  • RTF – Rich Text Format
  • WPD – WordPerfect document
  • WPS – Microsoft Works document
  • PUB – Microsoft Publisher document
  • XPS - XML Paper Specification
• Audio and video:
  • MP3 – Audio format widely used in digital media players (MPEG layer 3)
  • WMA – Windows Media Audio
  • AVI – Audio Video Interleave
  • WAV – Wave audio
  • MID -Musical Instrument Digital Interface
  • FLV – Adobe Flash Video
  • WMV – Windows Media Video
  • MOV – QuickTime video
  • M4A – MPEG-4 audio
  • M4V – MPEG-4 video
  • 3GP – Third Generation Partnership video
  • F4V – Adobe Flash video based on MPEG-4 Part 12
  • RM – RealMedia video
  • RMVB – RealMedia video (variable bitrate)
  • MKV - Matroska video
  • MPEG - Motion Picture Experts Group
• Compressed archives:
  • ZIP – Widely used compressed format developed by PKWARE,
  • RAR – Roshal ARchive, used by WinRAR
  • 7Z – Compressed format used by 7-Zip
  • GZ – Compressed format used by gzip
  • SIT – Compressed format used by StuffIt for Mac
  • CAB – Microsoft Cabinet archive
  • SZDD – Compressed files created by COMPRESS.EXE from MS-DOS
• Miscellaneous:
  • ISO – Images of optical media, such as CDs and DVDs
  • EXE – Windows or MS-DOS executable file
  • DLL – Windows or MS-DOS dynamic-link library
  • MDB – Microsoft Access database (2003 and below)
  • ACCDB – Microsoft Access database (2007 and above)
  • XAC – GnuCash data file
  • KMY – KMyMoney data file
  • DWG – AutoCAD drawing
  • DXF – Drawing Interchange Format

Hey, just bringing another software review, this time it’s a defrag utility called Mydefrag.

MyDefrag Logo

MyDefrag is fully functional freeware, no cost, no time limit, no advertisements.

I like MyDefrag because it is so well designed. It’s based on the standard defragmentation API by Microsoft, a system library that is included in Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, 2008, and Win7. Most defragmenters are based on this API, including the free defragmenter that comes with Windows and many commercial defragmenters. Basically all MyDefrag does is send “move this file to that location” commands to the API. The API is part of the operating system and can safely move almost any file on the disk, without risk and while the computer is in full use.

Mydefrag attempts to move all your data to the front of the drive, it’s a known fact the the front of the drive can be up to 200 times faster than the end! My Defrag also organizes files into different zones, like directories, Windows files, files used while booting, regular files, and rarely used files. Frequently accessed files are placed at the beginning of the harddisk, and files that are commonly used together are placed in close proximity to each other. This results in a dramatic speed increase, and is in fact more important than defragmentation. The program comes with scripts with a zone organization suitable for most users, power users can customize the zones through scripts.

Sorting the files on your disk can give you even more speed. There are several sorting strategies to choose from. Most of them will take a lot of data shuffling, taking a lot of time for MyDefrag to complete, and therefore should only be used occasionally.

Features:

• Intelligent design.
• User scripts for different configurations.
• Can be ran from Scheduled Tasks, Network Scripts (Active Directory for example) or even run as a screensaver.
• 64 bit support for enhanced performance.
• Good for novices as well as experts.

MyDefrag is fully functional freeware, no cost, no time limit, no advertisements. The MyDefrag site is http://www.MyDefrag.com/.

A NOTE ABOUT DEFRAGGING: Defragmentation and optimization will not only make a hard drive faster, butit can also lengthen it’s life span, because the disk will have less work to do and therefore have less wear and tear. Also, it will refresh and strengthen the magnetic data on the harddisk by simply reading the (weakened) data and rewriting it fresh. However, defragmenting and optimizing is work, so excessive defragmenting and optimizing can actually cause more wear and tear than it prevents.

Download:

http://www.mydefrag.com/Manual-DownloadAndInstall.html

Screenshots:

Dubaron is a software company that makes Freeware, Open source libraries, &
Commercial libraries. I still can’t believe they just give this away!

Dubaron: Incredible Disk Utility Software!

Usage examples

• Calculate MD5 sum of an file or iso
• Backup and restore USB keys
• Dump cd’s to iso
• Hexedit files, floppies and disks
• View partition information
• Backup and restore data on non-native partitions
• Search in file or disk for textual or binary data
• Clone a harddisk
• Copy contents of one partition to another

This is an app that’s useful for people with a LOT of information on their system, or if you need to work on someone else’s computer and they had no idea where they were saving everything. (Or maybe they don’t want you to know *wink wink*)

WinDirStat is a disk usage stats viewer and cleanup tool with many handy features like:

• Directory list, Treemap and Extension list views so you can view your files the way you want
• Coupling. Select an item in the directory list: The treemap highlights it; and vice versa
• Zooming
• Built-in cleanup actions including Open, Show Properties, Delete
• Works with network drives and UNC paths
• ‘Create disk usage report’ option
• Language can be set to Czech, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, German, English, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Russian
• ANSI and Unicode: The ANSI and Unicode versions of WinDirStat are both included with the launcher automatically launching the correct version depending on the operating system

You can grab a portable copy here: http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/windirstat_portable
Or the original with Installer here: http://blog.windirstat.info/

Screenshots!

Why use VBR MP3s? Well unlike regular lower bit-rate codecs, LAME can use VBR to provides the best Sound Quality to space ratio, and WinLAME makes the process as easy as 1 2 3. I use WinLame to rip CDs and convert them into VBR MP3s on the fly.

winLAME MP3 + CD Ripper

Lame is a Codec, and WinLAME is a GUI for that codec. It’s a superior codec than most and best of all it’s completely FREE. You can grab the latest version over at http://winlame.sourceforge.net/ Give it a spin, it’s open source and contains NO SPYWARE or Adware.
I ♥ winLAME, and I think you will too. It’s way better than using Windows Media Player, but easier than Exact Audio Copy.

]]> http://green.cx/software/free-software/cd-ripper/feed/ 0 http://green.cx/troubleshooting/windows/fix-zip-handler-windows7/ http://green.cx/troubleshooting/windows/fix-zip-handler-windows7/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:00:46 +0000 +Jason http://green.cx/?p=892 Sometimes our favorite Archive software (7Zip, WinRar, WinZip to name a few) can break the native Windows’s zipped folder behavior. To fix it back to the way it was before, just unregister zipfldr.dll and re-register it. To unregister Windows 7 built-in zip file compression, and then to re-register it, use these two commands in a CMD prompt opened [...]]]>

Sometimes our favorite Archive software (7Zip, WinRar, WinZip to name a few) can break the native Windows’s zipped folder behavior. To fix it back to the way it was before, just unregister zipfldr.dll and re-register it.

7Zip is our friend

To unregister Windows 7 built-in zip file compression, and then to re-register it, use these two commands in a CMD prompt opened with Administrative privileges (“Command Prompt” under Accessories in the Start Menu, then right click and select Run as Administrator):

(Unregister Zipped Folders)
regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll

(Reregister Zipped Folders)
regsvr32 /i zipfldr.dll

This is useful if you are installing a Zip program like 7Zip or WinRAR and the install blows up, you can use this to fix the way Windows handles Zip files.

Web Dev Without the Web: Or how to create your own local server for building and testing websites.

XAMPP - Rocks!

The nice guys over at Apache Friends have made it easy to get your own webserver up in no time! Just goto http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html and grab the file you need for your type of computer (Windows, Linux, or even Mac) and run 1 application that fires up a real Perl/PHP environment,MySQL Database, and Apache HTTP daemon ALL IN ONE!

Requirements and features

XAMPP requires only one exe file to be downloaded and run, and little or no configuration of the various components that make up the web server is required. XAMPP is regularly updated to incorporate the latest releases of Apache/MySQL/PHPand Perl. It also comes with a number of other modules including OpenSSL and phpMyAdmin.

Installing XAMPP takes less time than installing each of its components separately. Self-contained, multiple instances of XAMPP can exist on a single computer, and any given instance can be copied from one computer to another.

It is offered in both a full, standard version and a smaller version (known as XAMPP Lite). Add-on extension modules also are available for free.

What’s it for?

Officially, XAMPP’s designers intended it for use only as a development tool, to allow website designers and programmers to test their work on their own computers without any access to the Internet. To make this as easy as possible, many important security features are disabled by default. In practice, however, XAMPP is sometimes used to actually serve web pages on the web. A special tool is provided to password-protect the most important parts of the package.

XAMPP also provides support for creating and editing databases in MySQL and SQLite among others.

GRAB IT HERE:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xampp/

Well I was really hoping with the release of Win7 Microsoft would have reinstated the default install state of telnet.

To my dismay, I received the old ‘telnet’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,operable program or batch file.

Fortunately, to get access to Telnet all you need to follow are these simple steps and the functionality will return to normal.

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Go to Programs -> Programs and Features there should be something that says Turn Windows features on or off.
3. Click Turn Windows features on or off then on the list that appears simply check the box for Telnet Client.
4. Click ok. (Wait a long time)

And that’s all there is to it!

Filemon and Regmon have been replace by a new application called Process Monitor, which combines the two and adds many new features.

Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity.

It combines two legacy Sysinternals apps, Filemon and Regmon, and adds these features:

• rich and non-destructive filtering
• comprehensive event properties such session IDs and user names
• reliable process information
• full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation
• simultaneous logging to a file,  and much more.

Its uniquely powerful features will make Process Monitor a core utility in your system troubleshooting and malware hunting toolkit.

In case you’re new to filemon and regmon, what this app can do for you is watch what a program does on your computer. You start Process Monitor first, (No installation needed) and then proceed to set up filters. The easiest way to get started is to drag the sniper scope icon to any other programs window. Clear the current view by pressing Ctrl-X. Then Process Monitor will show you every file that your application that you have filtered, reads/writes/creates/deletes, as well as every touch it makes to the registry. You can see this would be very helpful if saw, you wanted to know exactly what your application was doing at any given time.

The Program Process Monitor was recently updated November 3rd 2009, and you can download it here for free:

http://green.cx/procmon

Or Run it Live from the web anytime, by going to start -> Run -> “http://green.cx/procmon.exe” (Without quotes) and pressing ok.

If you’re on Vista or Windows7 just press the Windows key + r to bring up the run box.

The direct Download link is: http://green.cx/procmon.exe

Ok If you haven’t heard, Notepad++ is basically the end-all editor for writing code, FAST.While it’s not a true IDE for writing full scale applications like Java’s NETBeans, Visual Studio, Dreamweaver, etc., it’s makes life so much easier for those of us who only need to do editing, quick code-revision, editing, and even as just a syntax highlighter.

It Supports all these computer languages:

It also supports FTP, Themes, Macros, and a LOT more!! When Installing it even asks if you want to install it to a Thumb drive to make it portable!!

Clone Mode, for example lets you open the SAME document twice, so you can edit the Top of a file on the left pane, and the bottom on the right pane, and what changes in one pane, also changes in the other. I know of NO OTHER EDITING APPLICATION that does this! (See Screenshot)

Multi View Clone Mode

Well go give it a try, it even comes with Themes you should check out too, that change the colors of the Syntax highlighting to make it look like anything from a Green screen terminal to a neon or neo gothic l33t script editor.

It’s great for those tweaks to your website here and there, I mean, I have used it ALOT on this very site!

Download it here: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

And some juicy Screenshots!:

Jason's Notepad++