Category: Geek Software of the Week

This week’s entry to our “Hall of Fame” – Peppermint Linux… a distro billed as the “cloud client”… it looks REALLY promising!

Peppermint Linux

“Peppermint was designed for enhanced mobility, efficiency and ease of use. While other operating systems are taking 10 minutes to load, you are already connected, communicating and getting things done. And, unlike other operating systems, Peppermint is ready to use out of the box. Why spend hours tinkering and tweaking? Install Peppermint and get going!!

Built for Speed

Peppermint OS was designed to be easy on your processor and system resources so you can get going and get things done…

Lightweight

Peppermint OS is under 512MB and easy to run as a Live CD or USB. Loads and Shuts down in Seconds…

User Friendly

Step-by-step installation, Works out of the box, Easy to Navigate with Automatic Updates….”

Peppermint Linux boots in 25 seconds… even on a older system! I like that in a OS! So, try it… it is free as in speech!

Free backup software? You have to be kidding! Nope! Check it out… free and nice features!

Paragon DB Express

“Non-commercial use only – NEW 10.1 Edition – Total PC Protection for Serious Users!
Take complete control of your PC’s safety. Based on solid commercial backup and recovery software from Paragon, the new Backup & Recovery 10.1 Free Edition will give you a rich set of features that you can trust.
Smart people backup; Backup & Recovery is smart backup.”

From the folks at Piriform that gave us the great CCleaner… now, there is Speccy! It reports the details of the hardware in your system. Very nice! Especially useful if you are looking for drivers, say, if you wanted to move to Windows 7!

Piriform Speccy

This is a VERY handy little utility… particularly, if, like me, you are a Citrix XenApp admin. It allows you to pull the icon out of an executable and save it as a .ico file. Very cool!

IconExtract from Nirsoft!

Try it… it is free, and works great!

So, you want a free image backup utility before you do the inevitable upgrade to Windows 7? Well, here you go!

Macrium Reflect Free

Macrium Reflect disk imaging software is a good basic program that can easily help you back up your files and folders, as well as entire disks. It can also create restore disks and can save at a variety of compression levels.

We liked that this software can save to any type of CD or DVD and it supports an array of drives including IDE, SATA, SCSI, USB and FireWire. It also supports many common file types including all types of NTFS and several FAT types.

Macrium Reflect Standout Features:

* Integrated VBScript generator
* Windowless recovery options
* XML Backup definitions

Ever needed to resize a live disk volume? I did recently… and you know me… I gotta find a free way to do it! So, another GSotW! EASEUS Partition Master! This program rocks! There is a free home version, and a very reasonably priced Pro and/or Server Version if you need 64 bit support!

EASEUS Partition Master!

Check this one out! “EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition is a FREE disk partitioning utility for extending system partition, better disk space management, settling low disk space problem under Windows 2000/XP/Vista (for 32bit Only.) What’s more, the freeware works perfectly with hardware RAID and laptops like HP, Dell, etc. Your data is completely protected during all operations. Why not free download this free magic partition software and enjoy it like the commercial partition program? If your computer is running 64 bit Windows systems, please check Professional or Server editions.”

This is AWESOME!!!! I mean, really, it may be one of the best GSoTW’s ever! This shows EVERYTHING about your system!

SIW Software Utility

“SIW is an advanced System Information for Windows tool that gathers detailed information about your system properties and settings and displays it in an extremely comprehensive manner.

The system information is divided into few major categories:

* Software Information: Operating System, Installed Software and Hotfixes, Processes, Services, Users, Open Files, System Uptime, Installed Codecs, Software Licenses (Product Keys / Serial Numbers / CD Key), Secrets (Password Recovery).
* Hardware Information: Motherboard, Sensors, BIOS, CPU, chipset, PCI/AGP, USB and ISA/PnP Devices, Memory, Video Card, Monitor, Disk Drives, CD/DVD Devices, SCSI Devices, S.M.A.R.T., Ports, Printers.
* Network Information: Network Cards, Network Shares, currently active Network Connections, Open Ports.
* Network Tools: MAC Address Changer, Neighborhood Scan, Ping, Trace, Statistics
* Miscellaneous Tools: Eureka! (Reveal lost passwords hidden behind asterisks), Monitor Test, Shutdown / Restart.
* Real-time monitors: CPU, Memory, Page File usage and Network Traffic.

SIW is a standalone utility that does not require installation (Portable Freeware) – one less installed program on your PC as well the fact that you can run the program directly from an USB flash drive, from a floppy, from a network drive or from a domain login script.”

This is a MUST HAVE for the geek!

Ever wanted to pull just the raw text from a secured PDF file? Well, with this freeware tool, you can!

A-PDF Text Extractor

“A-PDF Text Extractor is a free utility designed to extract text from Adobe PDF files for use in other applications. There are three mode of output text: In PDF Order, Smart Rearrange and With Position. Learn more about the output type here. The program is freeware, which means that you can use it either personally or commercially for free. The program is a standalone application; no Adobe Acrobat needed. A command line version is available also to allow you to call in your program or script. If you want to grab images from PDF files, you may check out the A-PDF Image Extractor.”

How cool is that!?!?

The Geek Software of the Week this week is a free, Open Source disk defrag utility that is small, fast and has a Scheduler so that you can schedule regular defrags of your disk drives! Very nice!

UltraDefrag – Open Source Defrag Utility

“UltraDefrag has the following features:

* Very fast defragmentation, the work is done via a kernel mode driver which has an optimal defraging algorithm.
* Very small engine written in pure C.
* Nice graphical interface – compact and functional.
* Safety, because the file moving is accomplished with Microsoft’s own Defrag API.
* Simple to use.
* Ability to generate html reports of fragmentation status.
* Ability to include/exclude files based on simple filters.
* Native x64 support.
* Free: Distributed with full source code under the GNU General Public License.”

This week we have a better interface for the start menu in Vista! As you know, Vista is a dog with fleas, and sticks! But, other than that, if you are stuck with it, there is hope for the ugly, stupid start menu! A guy has written a better start menu than Microsoft (sad, isn’t it?!) Anyway, check it out!

Vista Start Menu

“Vista Start Menu is the convenient alternative to the plain Start menu you find in Windows XP and Windows Vista. The program uses your cognitive abilities (visual memory, reflexes,etc.); however, while it is easily understandable for beginners, it is also highly efficient for experienced users. Go ahead and try replacing your Start menu right now! It is safe because Vista Start Menu does not change your system settings, thus making it easy to install, as well as simple to remove. Each detail in Vista Start Menu is well thought-out and the program will allow you to accomplish all your tasks with ease and comfort. Vista Start Menu was designed specifically to make it possible for users to quickly access any information simply by using the keyboard or the mouse. Enable the unique feature called “one-click launch” and customize your menu the way you like it by getting the PRO version.”

Check out the demo for more information:

Demo of Vista Start Menu