AutoRuns for Windows is a free utility from Microsoft (that they inherited when they bought SysInternals). It shows absolutely everything that starts when Windows starts and when you logon. It doesn’t just show the programs, it goes deeper to show the DLL’s loaded. There’s 15 different categories, from “Logon” to “Network Providers”. The screenshot below shows the main screen (click image to load full size). Clicking on a startup item shows you the information about it in the bottom pane. The information is similar to the information in file properties. [...] Read the rest »
Process Explorer For Windows
Have you noticed in Taks Manager that the svchost.exe process has multiple instances and uses a lot of memory, it may even be the biggest memory user on your Windows PC. Have you then tried to figure out what it does? In this KB article Microsoft says it’s …a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) This isn’t much help. But Process Explorer For Windows is a free utility from Microsoft (that they inherited when they bought SysInternals) that can answer that question. Process Viewer [...] Read the rest »
Thunderbird 2.0 First Look
Thunderbird 2.0 was just released. Thunderbird is the email client I’ve been using since my problems with Apple Mail so I was eager to get the upgrade. While I like Thunderbird I haven’t been completly comfortable with it and I’m hoping the upgrade helps Thunderbird grow on me. Download and Install Thunderbird 2.0 is available here. It will automatically present the download for the OS and language you’re using at the time. There’s also a link to download the install for other OS’s and languages. For the Mac the download [...] Read the rest »
Avast Antivirus Sound Tip
I’ve noticed that people are complaining that Avast announcing “Virus database has been updated” is an annoying feature. A compaint I whole heartily agree with. Here’s how to turn that off: Start Avast AntiVirus Select Settings from the menu Select “Sounds” from the settings dialog Click the “Settings” button (or just check “disable all sounds” and be done with it, if that’s what you want.) In the “Program Events” window, scroll down until you find “avast! abtivirus”. These are all the Avast sounds. (Speaker icon means enabled) The first one [...] Read the rest »
Configuring Thunderbird for AOL My eAddress
Here’s how to configure AOL My eAddress accounts in Thunderbird (at least what works for me). Version 1.5.0.10 is used for the screen shots. The rest of this post contains several screen shots and may take awhile to display, depending upon your connection. Read the rest »
Avast! Antivirus – Free Windows Anti-Virus Software
I avoided the “Must Have” label for this one but it was tough. If you don’t like your current AV software or are about to spend money on some you should look here first. Avast Personal Edition is free (for home/non-commercial use) and is complete anti-virus software that does well in independent tests. I use it on all my Windows machines and recommend it whenever I can. When I was looking for AV software a couple years ago Avast came to my attention because it had scored 100% in Virus [...] Read the rest »
Windows Defender Leaves Beta
Windows Defender, Microsoft’s anti-spyware utility, has been updated, left beta and had it’s production release. It remains free. The Windows Defender beta software running on my PC notified me of the updated version. When I clicked on the link to download it just brought me to Microsoft’s Windows Defender web page. When clicking on the download link there I first had to install the “Windows Genuine Advantage” plug-in and validate my copy of Windows. Then I was able to download 4.9MB installer. The install was straight-forward but the Windows Defender [...] Read the rest »
Firefox: One Too Many Closed Tabs
When Firefox 2 came out and had a close button on every tab I thought it would be great. Convenient and easy to find. Then I started closing tabs accidentally. Sure, they can be re-opened using “History” -> “Recently Close Tabs” but that doesn’t always get back the data when I’m using a web based app. So it’s back to the old style with the close button and the end of the tab strip. This has the added bonus of giving more space for the tab titles. To do this [...] Read the rest »
Thunderbird (E-Mail Client)
With my recent mail fiasco and the continued increase in the number of e-mail addresses I have, I’ve decided it’s time to organize things. Apple Mail is my primary e-mail client but it runs only on my Mac. One of the things I like about the e-mail provided by .Mac is that it supports IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol). This keeps my local mailbox synchronized with the server. By using Apple Mail as the mail client for all my mailboxes I can save important e-mails to folders which are kept [...] Read the rest »
FileZilla FTP Client and FileZilla FTP Server
FileZilla is a open source (GPL License) FTP program. It supports FTP and SFTP. It’s a Windows only program (Windows 2000 and Windows XP). There’s a FileZilla client and a FileZilla server. I’ll be installing both on my Windows XP SP2 box. The client will mainly be used for accessing my website. The server will be used to back up files from my other PCs. The server won’t be facing the Internet. The client is version 2.2.29 and the server is version 0.920. Read the rest »