DriveImageXML

Sorry for the late posting, for those of you who follow my site. My wife and I have been going through a lot recently. I have switched jobs again, we just a had baby boy March 23, and my little girl is getting rotten as ever. Everything went well though. Now onto the update. I recently discovered a program that can back up your windows installation. It is really great. It is called DriveImageXML. It is really great to use after doing a complete reinstall, with all of your drivers and games. Then you back it up with DriveImage. The next reinstall after you back up your windows installation will be with DriveImageXML. Within fifteen minutes, you are back to all your games and drivers installed. It is nice to be able to reinstall Windows without reinstalling countless number of programs, drivers, games, etc. It usually takes me a couple of days, due to work and the kids, to do a reinstall without DriveImage. It does only work while windows is active, (unless you build a windows live cd with BartPE). Later I will give instructions on how to do this, but for now I will give a link to someone who already has them listed. You can access the steps by going to http://tipsfor.us/ghost-windows-xp-for-free/. The windows live (BartPE) disc will allow to restore the image even if you can't boot into windows. So if you get a bsod (Blue Screen of Death), just use the BartPE disc and restore from it. You will either need an extra partition, hard drive, or maybe compress it enough to fit on a disk for the DriveImage. But if you put it on a disk, you need 2 cd drives (1 CD drive and one DVD drive). I just put my backup on another partition. As always, if you have any questions or advice, feel free to suggest or ask. Have a great day everyone.

Unlocker

This is a really neat program. Have you ever tried to delete a file or folder and get this message?

Cannot delete file: Access is denied
There has been a sharing violation.
The source or destination file may be in use.
The file is in use by another program or user.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

Well this free program will unlock the file and allow you to delete, stop or modify it. I used it for the file atapi.sys, which is needed to install Service Pack 3. It can also be useful for removing harmful files from your PC. You can download and read more on this program from http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

DVD Flick

This is a great program for converting almost any video file to DVD format. Best of all, it is free. I have used this program and haven't had any issues. Although, this program may be a little tricky for new user's. You can read a short guide for this program at http://www.dvdflick.net/guide/index_en.html. If you want to download this program, then visit http://www.dvdflick.net/download.php.

Game Booster

This free program seems to be really great. I have only used it a couple of times, but it seems to do really well. It stops useless processes from running so you can run your game's with the full potential of your PC. I am not sure if it works with LAN games or online games, so if anyone tests this, let me know. You can download this program from http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

DownloadHelper

This add-on for Firefox is free and completely legal. It allows you to download many different types of streaming video's that you normally are unable to download. Youtube is a good example. You just click on the video you want to download, then click the downloadhelper tool on your toolbar, select the file and download it. I have used it for many different video's. This add-on is available at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

CD Check

This is a great, free program for corrupted or damaged CD's. It can detect and discover which files are corrupted or damaged, and it can detect and recover damaged files. So if you have a CD with important data that is scratched or damaged, then try this program to recover the file. You can download this program from http://www.kvipu.com/CDCheck/download.php

Linux

I am not very familiar with Linux. I have installed and experienced Linux a little but, due to the fact of not being able to play Directx games without a Directx Emulator, I decided not to stick with it. Now I have heard great things about this OS. I mean, after all, it is free. It is also, according to some reliable resources, very stable and secure. If you are not a gamer, then this free OS may be worth your while. You can read more on this OS at http://www.linux.org/

Iobit Smart Defrag

This is an excellent defragmenter. It is quick, efficient, and even has a couple options to optimize your defragmentation. This is yet another great utility provided by Iobit. If you would like to give this program a try, you can do so at http://iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html?Str=download

WinRaR

This is a widely used compression tool. Usually used for transferring large file sizes over the internet. If you download a lot of files, chances are you already know about this tool. It compresses the file to a smaller size for quick uploading/downloading of the file. It can also split a file to upload/download in sections. You can download this program from http://rarlabs.com/download.htm

Real Alternative

This neat installer allows you to play Realplayer files without having to install it. Realplayer is not one of my favorite players but I had it to play certain videos. With this I no longer need Realplayer and it is one less program consuming my resources. You can download this installer from http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm

K-Lite Codec Pack

This is a great pack for video and audio codecs. If you have some video or audio files you can't play, this pack may just help you out. It even comes with a really good media player. This pack is free and you can get it from http://k-lite-codec-pack.en.softonic.com/

VLC

VLC is a free video player with many options. You can stream over network, internet, etc. You can even open iso's directly. Opens almost any type of video file. I use this program daily. It is the best video player I have used. It even opens incomplete video files. You can download this program from http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ if you would like to give this program a try. Best of all, it's free.

DVD Shrink

DVD Shrink is an excellent program for shrinking DVD content to smaller size. You can also edit the DVD. I have used this program for a while and it works great. May not be compatible with some DVD's security though. Of course I haven't updated mine either. You can download this program from http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4020

Mozilla Firefox

This is an excellent web browser. This free, open source program is great for faster surfing, blocking popups, and it's user friendly addons, which make this browser a must have. I would recommend this program to everyone. You can download the latest Firefox browser from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

Speedfan

This program will monitor various temperatures and fan speeds if your motherboard, graphics card, or hard drives have the sensors. It will also monitor voltages of your PSU but may be inaccurate. It is a nice tool to try. I have real good success with the fan speeds and temps. This is a free program. You can download it from http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

CPU-Z

This program is a great, free program for gathering specifications of your motherboard, cpu, memory, etc. This program comes in handy for finding drivers for certain chipsets. You can download CPU-Z from http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php .