Need to zip files for Free – 7-Zip to the rescue

Ok Ok I know the first thing you say to me is why would I need to zip files. Gmail allows me to send 10MB files . However Zipping might be one way to utilize and leverage this space further. Winzip/ Winrar comes to the mind immediately doesn’t it?

Whereas we all have used Winzip and Winrar those beautiful utilities little do we know or care that they are not free. They are trialware and to use them beyond the time limit is illegal. So what do you do? What utility exists which can replace these products for free and yet provide the same productivity…The reply is 7-Zip

Want to Blog – How about Windows Live Writer?

For all those bloggers out there, there are various options which are available to you like Blogger, WordPress, Livejournal etc. These all feature online editors which allow you rich editing on their website. The limitation with these is your requirement to be connected to the web. The moment you get offline/ your browser hangs (Three cheers for IE for that) you are completely stranded (I don’t trust the save draft feature). And guess what a software from Microsoft actually comes to your rescue…

McAfee SiteAdvisor – Ensure your safe navigation on the web

Have you ever searched on the web? If you are like the millions of people who use the web search functions from google, yahoo (dont roll your eyes some ppl do!!) and MSN (I would really like to know who but apparently there are) then you know that the search results depend on your keywords entered. Consequently the sites that show up are a combination of good and bad sites. The bad sites can do a host of things from throwing up millions of popup windows to installing malware onto your machine.

Similarly many people today use Online banking. With a host of phishing scams out there many are cheated out of their hard earned money. Phishing scams are so sophisticated sometimes that it’s difficult to discern the scam site from the original. Other phishing scams including hacking email account passwords, identity thefts and so on.

If you have encountered such problem and are looking for a solution or want to take preemptive action then the software I review today McAfee SiteAdvisor is just what you need.

System Information for Windows (Can I know what’s going on under the hood?)

The software in review today is SIW – System Information for Windows.

For all you techies and importantly non techies have you ever wondered what’s inside your computer? Sure enough if it is a desktop you might crank it open someday.But if you are a laptop user like me (who loves his laptop ) or a desktop user who would rather not open the system up just for the heck of it, this is where SIW comes in. It displays everything from the Processor to the RAM installed to BIOS, Windows Version, Serial numbers and much more.

IE7 Pro (Internet Explorer has a pro version?) – Read on to find out…

For those of you who don’t use Firefox (and to all my fellow engineers/techies who stand there with their mouths wide open, let me tell you there are many), you are losing out on a lot of productivity with Internet Explorer 7 the Standard browser as you get it from Microsoft.

I face many problems with IE7 (not talking about bugs), the two below hurting the browsing experience the most:

Flash based Ads: How many of you are tired/ annoyed/ down right mad, when you come across flash based ads, ads which can range from a mild distraction to downright loud sounds being played like those crazy emoticons talking or one of those things where you are congratulated for winning a free Apple Ipod?

No Crash Recovery in IE7: You are in the middle of doing some work on the office webmail, you have your other email account open, you just happen to read the latest score and are so thrilled that India might win the one day match against Australia and a couple of other sites (as is the norm with tabbed browsing) and suddenly the good ol’ Internet Explorer crashes (oh I donno from the thousands of reasons) and you loose all your work.

The problem here is you could easily switch to Firefox but some sites like Outlook Webmail and those with Sopcast links serving cricket or your favorite movie online work or best work only with IE so you have to use it. Read on to find out how to resolve this..

Utility apps – About every day applications that increase your productivity

Hi guys,

This is Pranav. Recently we got an assignment in our class to start a blog. Something which would be both fun and challenging to do.
I started one on Telecommunications networks but it seems to be too technical for many not to mention too narrow in scope.

The next best thing I know about is Software and technology. Have been bitten by this bug ever since I first browsed the Internet back in 1998(yeah that late!!).

This blog is about utility apps. These are everyday applications/ software that I have come across and which I found really useful(and cool) and which I find might be quite useful to many.

How many times has it happened that you had more than one thing to copy and paste but couldnt do so or you were one of the unfortunate ones who were on IE(because it is mandatory at several places due to legacy web apps for example) and had multiple tabs open and suddenly IE crashed for you to loose all your web links and having to open them again referencing them from the history.

Sounds familiar? If that’s the case keep visiting to find a list of applications which will help you increase your productivity. Most of the times I will be reviewing free software only. The only time I review shareware is when it has no free alternative.

So come use these utility apps…