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Google Wants to Monitor Your Domestic Power Usage

Ryan Whitwam — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:39:08 -0500

Google already knows more about you than you probably care to think about. In the not too distant future, they might also know about your power usage patterns. Google’s PowerMeter utility monitoring service has finally found its first partners. First Utility in the UK, and Yello Strom, a German utility, have both signed up to deliver customer usage data to Google (provided the customer agrees).

PowerMeter will collect electricity data every half hour and gas data once a day. Customers can view the aggregated data on the PowerMeter website where it will have been used to generate some nifty graphs and tables. Participating customers will receive the service at no charge.

The hope is that PoweMeter users will be more conscious of their energy use. Yello Strom executive director, Martin Vesper, said of the service, “When people know exactly what is going on with their energy usage, they can use energy efficiently without sacrificing convenience.” Google indicated that PowerMeter is a project from Google.org, Google’s philanthropic foundation. So, would you sign up if you could?

5 Free Utilities that Should be Included in Windows

The Maximum PC Staff — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:00:00 -0500

C'mon, Microsoft, save us some time and just fold these must-haves into the OS

Windows 7 is out, and many of you have gone through the process of upgrading to the new OS with a clean install. And while you'll enjoy the new features like Aero Snap and an ISO burner (finally!), Windows 7 still lacks some basic functionality that we've come to expect from using PCs on a daily basis. For example, cloud storage file syncing and wide compression format compatibility are things we've taken for granted from essential freeware and open-source applications. Here's our list of five utilities that we really wish Microsoft bundled with Windows 7. And if you agree with us, use one of our recommended user-friendly auto-installers to get these apps.

1. WinDirStat

WinDirStat (http://windirstat.info) creates a graphical representation of the files on your hard drive. Bigger blocks represent larger files, and the different colors equate to different file types. What does this mean? WinDirStat is essential for figuring out why your hard drive is full. Clicking a block takes you to its location in the file tree, allowing for easy cleanup. Intuitive navigation and easy “open in Explorer” options make this a must-have.

2. Dropbox

What if you could drag any file to a folder on your computer, and a magical app immediately syncs that file to every machine you own? What if that magical app also made up to five older versions of those files available via a web interface? Dropbox (www.getdropbox.com) does both of those things, and it has the added bonus of being cross-platform and free for up to 2GB of storage, with more storage available for fees between $8/month and $20/month.

3. TrueCrypt

Windows Ultimate and Enterprise editions have BitLocker for encrypting volumes, but what about other editions of the OS? TrueCrypt (www.truecrypt.org) can hide a virtual partition inside a file, encrypt entire disks (even boot disks), and even create a hidden volume within another TrueCrypt volume. Real-time encryption works entirely in RAM without slowing down your system. Plus, it’s portable and uses AES-256 (and stronger) encryption. Why pay for something that does less when you can get TrueCrypt for free?

4. 7-Zip

Windows’ Compressed Folders Extraction Wizard is so last century. Instead, we wish Microsoft would package something as useful as 7-Zip (www.7-zip.org), which can unpack practically any compression format, from TGZ to RAR. It even opens image files, including ISO and UDF. It also creates encrypted and self-extracting ZIP archives, and includes a command-line version for scripting wizards.

5. Secunia PSI

Hackers and malware writers routinely discover new security flaws in software. Most companies are quick to update their programs to close the loop, but users aren’t always quick to install these updates. The Conficker worm spread through a Java exploit that had been patched long before, but millions of users with out-of-date software were affected. Secunia (http://secunia.com) shows your unpatched and exploitable programs so you can get them up to date. If Microsoft cares about security, it should include the same functionality in Windows.

AMD Releases Version 2.1.6 of its Overdrive Overclocking Tool

Justin Kerr — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:33:17 -0600

Normally we don’t track every software revision to every overclocking utility on the net, and for good reason. If we did, we wouldn’t get any other work done. The overclocker’s tool kit consists of dozens of applications to vary the speed of the fans, set and modify clocks, and a few more for benchmarking and checking stability. The ability to wrap all these utilities up into a single easy to use application was the goal of AMD when it created its Overdrive Tool, and the new version 2.1.6 delivers some impressive improvements. The new version has several stability and bug fixes as well as support for newer chipsets and full compatibility with Catalyst 9.2.

For those that haven’t been following the utilities development, the goal of the project was to create a single overclocking utility for AMD / ATI customers that would be a one stop utility for tweaking your system. AMD Marketing Manager Sami Maekinen has also released a series of video demonstrations showing how both enthusiasts and novices alike will find everything they need to dial in the best performance.

Have you given the Overdrive utility a spin? If so hit the jump and let us know how it’s been working for you.

The 32 Totally Essential (and Free) Apps for Every New PC

The Maximum PC Staff — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:00:00 -0600

You have to admit, Windows is a pretty barebones operating system, feature-wise. After a fresh install of XP or Vista (perhaps following a Clean Start), you're faced with a barren Start Menu and an empty desktop that's beaming with limitless potential. The problem is that it's up to you to hunt and download those applications that you really need in your day-to-day computing experience. And chances are, it's often difficult to find good software that's also free. That's where this guide comes in.

We've put together a list of what we think are the most essential PC apps for every Maximum PC reader. These are all free programs (except one) that should be immediately installed after a fresh build or reformat; 32 indispensable programs and utilities that we couldn't imagine computing without. From the best IM client to FTP browser and Notepad replacement, these essentials truly enhance the Windows experience (much more so than Microsoft's own Windows LIVE Essentials). We're not saying you'd use all 32 entries in our list on a daily basis, but if you are at all serious about utilizing your PC, we promise our picks will not go unused.

And at the end of the feature, we'll even show you how to install these apps in one fell swoop with a special configuration file we've created. Because if it were up to us, this is software that should be bundled with every copy of Windows.

WinDirStat

Have you ever sorted a folder by file size, hoping to track down a hard disk hog, only to be frustrated by the fact that Windows doesn’t let you see the size of nested folders’ contents? So have we, and that’s why we make sure that we’ve always got WinDirStat close at hand.

WinDirStat, short for Windows Directory Statistics, is an application which analyzes the composition of your hard drive, allowing you to identify which files are eating up your disk space. It presents this information in a size-ordered directory view, or as a colorful treemap, making it a snap to see exactly what is using up your hard drive space. Once you’ve figured out which files are taking up more than their fair share of your drive, you can get rid of them with WinDirStat’s built-in cleanup operations.

AnyDVD

For hassle free rips of DVD, Blu-ray, and even HD-DVD content, there's no simpler app to use than AnyDVD. Unlike more traditional DVD ripping tools, AnyDVD decrypts, unlocks the region code, and even removes annoying ads and that pesky FBI warning on the fly. It's not free, but it's well worth the cost for anyone who wants to exercise his fair use rights on Blu-ray or DVD discs. Your money is well spent, typically the brain trust at Slysoft manage to disable new copy protection tricks just a few short days after they go public, which is more than worth a few bucks a year. (standard version is 50EUR for 2 years, HD edition is 79EUR for 2 years)

Foxit PDF Reader

There are few things that can ruin your internet browsing groove like the painfully long wait you have to endure when opening an Adobe PDF file. Acrobat reader, as a program and browser plugin, is notoriously cumbersome and drains not only your time but gobs of memory as well. That's why we use Foxit Reader, a free lightweight application that weights in only at 3MB. The program launches with the speediness of a roadrunner, and gives you access to welcome features like text extraction and comment annotation. Just be careful when you install Foxit to uncheck the Ask.com toolbar and eBay icon options. A professional version of Foxit ($40), gives you advanced editing tools, but we're more than happy with the free offering.

VMWare Server

Virtualization isn't just one of the hot buzzwords in tech, it's a practical way to test software, patches, and operative systems. VMware is our pick for a robust and easy-to-use virtualization option, and VMWare Server is the company's free product. It runs on top of a host Windows or Linux machine to deploy multiple virtual machines by provisioning your hardware resources. The only big limitation of VMWare Server is that it doesn't currently support 3D acceleration, not is it officially compatible with Vista 64-bit. Still, it's relatively the easiest way to create and run virtual machines, even those created by Microsoft Virtual PC.

Steam

Remember when Steam first launched with Half-Life 2, and trolls all over the internet complained about the service's mandatory online connection? What fools, we were. Today, we can't imagine gaming on our PCs without Steam. Valve's app isn't just an ultra-convenient online store, it's our preferred method of staying connected to fellow online gamers. Gabe Newell recently remarked that Steam is more than just about combating illegally downloaded content, the program is Valve's way of catching up to the convenience and instant-access appeal of piracy. We think it's doing a fine job.

Dropbox

Get this: a Windows app that "just works." Yes, we're being serious. Dropbox came out of nowhere last year to stun us with its amazingly intuitive approach to online storage. The program creates a user folder that acts just like a folder on your hard drive. You can drag, drop, copy, and even save up to 2GB worth of files to the cloud ($100/year for 50GB), while the service works its magic and syncs up your documents in the background. The online interface lets you track your file transfer history and download any file remotely, as well as restore any files that may have been accidentally deleted. You can even create shared or public folders to pass files along to your friends and family. And you don't even have ot bear any online ads. Of course we're smitten.

Copernic Desktop Search

While we'll concede that both Google Desktop Search and the Windows Search 4.0 are both vast improvements over the default Windows XP search function (death to that useless dog!), we have to side with Copernic when we want a powerful desktop search client. Copernic is not only comprehensive in its indexing -- it quickly searches emails, office documents, and web pages -- it also is light on system resources and processor utilization. We like its ability to sort, group, and refine searches, which is particularly useful for navigating through densely packed network drives. Our only gripe? The newest version of Copernic Free removes realtime results as you type -- a feature reserved for the $50 professional edition.

TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt is an open source app which lets you create and mount an encrypted virtual drive. You can store whatever you want in this drive, and it will be completely inaccessible and invisible to anyone who doesn’t have the passphrase.

And even if you’re not an international man of mystery, you never know when you might want to encrypt something, like sensitive financial data, or a list of passwords. Since TrueCrypt is a tiny file (about 3 MB) that can be setup to run without installing anything, we feel very comfortable giving it a “download it, keep it on your disk, you never know when you might need it” recommendation.

Skype

Skype, like many of the apps on this list, is not here because it did something new, but because it did something better than anyone had done it before. Offering high quality, peer-to-peer VOIP with a convenient client and a bevy of features, Skype easily earns our recommendation for all your internet telephony needs. Skype also has video conferencing functionality, and allows for conference calls, a feature which we put to good use making our very own Maximum PC podcast.

Fraps

Like to play games on your PC? So do we. That's why one app we absolutely cannot live without is Fraps, a lightweight app that lets you benchmark your games to monitor graphical performance. When running, Fraps hides in your system tray, but runs a tiny numerical overlay on top of any DirectX and OpenGL game to show you your current framerate. You can also capture high quality screenshots and AVI videos (with sound) for Youtube posting. The free version has a limit on how long you can capture video, as well as watermarks your footage.

Firefox

There's not much we haven't said about Firefox, our current favorite internet browser. The sheer amount of useful plug-ins available make it a no-brainer for anyone who spends most of their day on the web. Firefox 3 amazed us with its smart search bar and it still remains the most secure browser we've ever tested. It might not be as fast as Google Chrome in rendering pages, but we'll take functionality and unobtrusive features (ahem Internet Explorer 8) over a minor speed difference any day.

CPU-Z

If you haven’t used CPU-Z, you’re not an enthusiast. This tiny CPU interrogator has become the standard tool of anyone who thinks they’re a PC expert and wants to, say, query your cousin’s PC to find out what the hell is actually installed in the machine. CPU Z will tell you the model, code name, process, core voltage, stepping and revision number as well as the core speed, FSB and multiplier the PC is running. You can also find out what speed your DRAM is running at and check the SPDs on some machines too.

GPU-Z

Sure, you know you have a GeForce 295 card, but what do you know about it? If you want something that’ll brace the card for all of its specs, GPU-Z (no relation to CPU-Z) will do the dirty work for you. Offered for free by techpowerup.com, this handy utility will tell you the clocks, the card revision, the number of transistors on the card as well as the process technology used to build the card.

Media Player Classic + ffdshow-tryouts

There are lots of different ways to play videos on your PC, but the best performing, most compatible one-two punch we've tested is ffdshow-tryouts and Media Player Classic. There are literally hundreds of different codecs and container formats that the video you want to watch can be trapped inside, and while you could install a codec pack to get support for them, ffdshow-tryouts just looks better, performs better, and causes fewer problems than traditional codec packs. And, while ffdshow-tryouts enables video playback in a wide variety of apps, our favorite is Media Player Classic. This clone of Windows Media Player 6 features support for soft subtitles, alternate audio tracks, and other power user features. The fact that it's extremely lightweight just reinforces our admiration for the app.

Filezilla

Cloud storage may be the next hot thing, but we still like using FTP to back up files to our own home servers. And we've found no better way to utilize FTP than with Filezilla, an open source FTP client. Filezilla's site manager lets us bookmark and maintain connections to multiple servers, drag and drop our files from the desktop, and deftly handles large files and large numbers of files. Both client and server versions are offered free, distributed under GNU General Public License.

SyncBack Free

Though it may be hard to believe, a surprising majority of PC users still back up their files to CD and DVD media. As experienced users, we're a little smarter than that, so we recommend using SyncBack Freeware to back up important documents to more reliable storage mediums like hard disks and network servers. The free version of SyncBack lets you automatically archive copies of your files to any destination (though it won't perform incremental backups), and then restore those files after any unforeseen disaster. A more functional SE version ($30 or 30-day trial) offers faster backup and versioning features, though the free counterpart should be more than enough for most users. And yes, it does back up to optical media as well.

IsoBurn

Burning ISO files is a native feature in the upcoming Windows 7, but XP and Vista users are forced to use third party apps if they want to mount a disc image on a CD or DVD. For this simple yet essential task, we prefer IsoBurn, a 50k (talk about lightweight) standalone executable that provides a no-nonsense interface to burning discs. You just pick the ISO file location, destination drive, and whether you want to burn as a CD or DVD. We still don't know why this feature isn't bundled in Windows.

KeePass

KeePass is a password safe—a program that maintains a list of your passwords, strongly encrypted, with a single master passphrase/keyfile. The benefit to using a password safe is that you can use a different, secure password on every site you log in to, without having to write them all down or remember them all. This helps to protect you by making it so that if one of your passwords is compromised, (through a data breach at a website you have an account with, for instance) you don’t have to worry about that same password working on other sites you log into.

OpenOffice.org

We’ve long recommended OpenOffice's suite of programs as one of the must-have open-source applications on your PC. Simply put, it’s as close to Microsoft’s Office suite as you’re going to get without plunking down a small fortune. It doesn’t contain any unpleasantries in design and functionality that the idea of a “free office suite” might conjure up. And its newest 3.0 incarnation—all of .6 somethings greater than the last full OpenOffice release—adds even more versatility to the suite.

Speedfan

Most of your PC components include hardware monitoring chips that track the varying voltages, fan speeds, and temperatures inside your rig. Speedfan gives you access to all of that information by tapping into the numerous digital temperature sensors of important parts like your CPU and GPU. This free app can also access SMART technology in hard drives to diagnose potential disk failures. And as the name implies, you can also adjust fan speeds for extra performance or reduced noise.

Handbrake

Handbrake makes ripping DVDs a lead-pipe cinch, especially when paired with AnyDVD (or DVD43, a free, less awesome program that works similarly to AnyDVD, http://www.dvd43.com/). Whether you're ripping for archival storage and streaming to your living room, or simply want to watch Enchanted on your pink iPod Nano, Handbrake's excellent preset system makes ripping easy enough that anyone can do it. Just point Handbrake to your DVD drive and it scans the disc and automatically selects the settings necessary to ensure you get the best possible playback on the device you chose. Heck, it will even help you avoid potential pitfalls, like proper subtitle rendering. The next version will even include preliminary support for Blu-ray rips, so what's not to like!

Notepad++

Windows Notepad is competent as the most basic text editor, but if you're a programmer or even casual website designer, you'll be able to appreciate the vigorous language support of Notepad ++ . From HTML to Java and over 40 other languages, Notepad++ makes parsing code easy with clear syntax highlighting and auto-completion intelligence. The program is compact, but has no-brainer features like tabbed documents and plug-in support. Think of it as the Firefox of text editors.

Digsby

First, there was instant messaging, and that was pretty cool. But before long before we started asking questions like “Why can we only talk with people using the same client?” and the first multi-platform clients (like Trillian) were born. And those were cool. But it wasn’t too long after that, we started to ask “Why can’t we use our IM client to check our email? And our Facebook account? And how come, if I log in on another computer, all my preferences don’t carry over?”

And then there was Digsby. And it is very cool.

(However! Digsby loses big points for trying to sneak a bunch of crappy search bars onto your computer when it installs. If you make sure to hit “Decline” you can get away clean, but if you want to avoid the hassle, try Pidgin instead.)

Avira AntiVir

At first glance, you might be inclined to dismiss Avira’s AntiVir as nothing more than a run-of-the-mill virus scanner with a feature set that’s as meager as its price. The sparse interface certainly won’t wow any power users, but it would be a mistake to cast AntiVir aside based solely on appearance. A tiny checkbox in the upper-left corner of the configuration screen unlocks the program’s Expert mode, and with it a heap of options previously unavailable. You’re given enough control not to feel cheated, even for software you didn’t have to pay for. AntiVir’s biggest strength lies in its detection rate. It’s the only scanner in our AntiVirus roundup to triumph with a near clean sweep during Virus Bulletin’s latest testing, and it did so without reporting any false positives. That’s impressive.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

For even the savviest of PC users, it’s a real challenge to go very long without picking up some sort of malware. A good antivirus program and firewall are important for keeping the baddies at bay, but for when you do happen to get an infection, it’s important to have a strong anti-malware program at hand. It’s a broad field, and (as we discuss in this article) a thorough sweep needs more than a single program, but for most simple cleaning tasks Malwarebytes Anti-malware should be all you need.

uTorrent

Bittorrent may be the software pirate's preferred method of conducting illegal downloads, but the protocol also been adopted for legitimate software distribution, such as game patches and large open-source programs. When we need to tap into legal peer-to-peer downloads, we use uTorrent, a 250K application that lets you oversee bandwidth allocation, file selection, and peer/seeder connections with ease. You don't even need to install the program -- uTorrent runs right fine from its executable.

foobar2000

The days of Winamp are long past. For audiophiles with massive music libraries, foobar2000 is our chosen alternative to the memory-intensive iTunes organizer. Created by a former Winamp developer, foobar2000 has won the hearts and minds of savvy album collectors with its highly customizable interface, comprehensive audio format support (including OGG, Flac, and AAC), and gapless playback. There's even a rich SDK for third party coders to tinker with to add more functionality. Sure beats sorting through all your music in long playlist.

Picasa

With disk storage space so cheap, no wonder it's so easy to amass gigabytes upon gigabytes of photos snapped from our camera phone and DSLR. But if you're like us, you don't want to sort through photos with Windows Explorer. Google's Picasa 3 is an all-in-one monitoring service for your photo folders. It offers less overall editing functionality than alternatives like XnView, but comes packaged in a more elegant interface with additional options for Internet-related tasks. For example, you can add geotags to your photos via Google Earth and then have Picasa 3 automatically upload your shots to a Web album, FTP site, or straight to your Blogger blog. Picasa 3 also interfaces with online shops for easy photo printing, and can turn a batch of your images into collages, movies, and screensavers. Included backup functionality helps keep your precious photographic memories safe from an errant hard drive failure, provided you select an appropriate backup locale. But our favorite feature, by far, is Picasa's ability to search through your photographs by dominant color.

Secunia PSI

Every geek knows to make sure that the OS and browser is updated but what about the version of Flash, Java or QuickTime that you’re running? Not to mention the dozens of other applications that you have installed. Have no fear, Secunia.com’s Personal Software Inspector tracks a massive amount of security exploits in applications and will monitor your PC for known exploits. If one is found, it will point you to any known patch. Even among our paranoid members we have yet to find a machine that PSI didn’t find something with an exploit. And like the other apps on this list, this app is free.

Audacity

Planning on recording your own podcast (and who isn't, these days?) or creating a customized ringtone from your favorite dance song? You'll need Audacity, the best free audio editor on the internet (we use it to edit the No BS Podcast). Audacity lets you drop in audio files of any format (or record from any hardware source) to cut, copy, and add to an unlimited number of tracks to mix. Built-in effects and pitch adjustment let you manipulate your samples, and you can output your compositions at up to 96kHz. Sounds good to us.

7-Zip

Just about any operating system nowadays comes with built-in support for the ZIP archive format, which has been around since the 80s and generally does a good enough job of making things smaller and tidier. So, do we really need an archiver program on this list?

Of course we do. We’re PC users, gosh darnit, and that means that “good enough” is never good enough. We don’t just want ZIPs, we want RARs, CABs, JARs, DEBs and whatever else we can think up, and we want it all open source (as long as it’s not too inconvenient). And for all that, there’s 7-Zip: an elegant, open source file archiver that can handle just about any compressed file you throw at it.

GIMP

When it comes to image manipulation, there’s really only two options right now: Photoshop and GIMP. GIMP doesn’t quite capture the usability and polish of Adobe’s offering, but where it does beat Photoshop is in price—totally free and open source is a whole lot easier on the pocketbook than the $700 or so that a legal copy of Photoshop will run you. And even if it’s not totally perfect, GIMP is full-featured enough for almost any photo manipulation needs you might have.

Best of the Rest

Not satisfied with 32 apps? Here are 10 more programs that didn't make our "essentials" list, but are well worth your attention.

Synergy

A KVM switch (short for Keyboard, Video, Mouse) is a device that lets you control multiple computer with a single set of peripherals. And really, for the nerd elite, there’s no better way to show off than to use not just two monitors, but two whole computers at once. But KVM switches are sort of clunky, because not only do they add more clutter and cables to your setup, they require hitting some sort of switch to move between computers.

That’s where Synergy comes in. It’s a software KVM switch, allowing you to connect two or more computers over a network, and control them with a single keyboard and mouse, even if they’re running different operating systems. If you’ve got two computers running side by side (a big “if” that kept Synergy off our Essentials list), this app is an absolute must-have.

RipBot264

Ripping Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs used to be a perplexing affair, requiring multiple applications and hours upon hours of ripping, demuxing, transcoding, and remuxing before finally, often as not, you ended up with a file that was broken somehow. RipBot264 has made the high-def ripping game much, much easier. Install the application, as well as the three helper apps it requires, and you'll be up and ripping your Blu-ray collection in no time flat. While it's not as easy to use as Handbrake, we've found you typically get better results because the app uses a more recent version of the X264 codec than Handbrake does. While it's definitely not perfect (RipBot264 lacks an easy way to convert on-disc subtitles to a format that works with ripped video), but it's the easiest Blu-ray ripping app we've tested.

Google Earth

It kills us to have to put Google Earth on the “best of the rest” list, really it does. Sure, it’s not really essential—you can get all your mapping needs met at its web-based cousin maps.google.com, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of our very favorite apps. Does Google maps let you explore New York in glorious 3D? Does it let you check out what it’s like at the bottom of the Mariana Trench? Does it have maps of Mars?

We didn’t think so.

PuTTY

What is PuTTY? Like so much in life, if you have to ask, you probably don’t need it. Still, we’ll fill you in: Putty is a multi-protocol client application which is our longtime favorite choice for all our SSH needs. To many PC power-users an SSH client is absolutely vital to their everyday operations, and PuTTY’s the most popular windows client for a reason.

Still, these days most people’s “SSH needs” are pretty nonexistent, so we’ve got to let PuTTY wallow here with the best of the rest.

VLC Player

Playing media files on your computer can be tricky business. There’s a huge number of codecs and containers, which can have any number of weird interactions, making a mess of the business of playing your HD media files. Fortunately, there’s VLC, an application which will play basically any file, and doesn’t rely on any external codecs. It’s a welcome breath of fresh air in a morass of formats and players.

So why isn’t it on the list? Even though it can be a little tough, once you do manage to get your codecs set up, we think that Media Player Classic provides a better experience and better reliability than VLC.

Thunderbird

We absolutely abhor the sluggishness of Microsoft Outlook. That's why we prefer web-based email clients, like Gmail. But when we want to manage multiple email accounts, including POP and Exchange, we turn to Thunderbird. Mozilla's mail program gives us all the basic functions we want out of email, like fast searching and phishing protection. Like Firefox, Thunderbird can also be enhanced with an array of plug-ins, all including Mozilla's Lightning, which adds calendar and appointment management to the client.

Boxee

Here's one application, that just one week ago, would've made our Essentials list. Boxee (still in Alpha, with Windows version coming soon) is a slick internet video streaming frontend that taps into network feeds like CBS, ABC, and Comedy Central. It's great for watching video podcasts and youtube clips without bringing up a browser window, and features nifty social networking features so you can see what friends have been watching. Unfortunately, Boxee has just discontinued support for Hulu, their largest and most popular content provider. Until Hulu support comes back, we can't deem Boxee a must-have.

Virutaldub

Need to capture or process raw video from your digital camcorder? Virtualdub is the go-to application for converting AVI files into a large number of encoded formats and container packages. You won't be able to mix or significantly edit video files like you can with Adobe Premiere or even Windows Movie Maker, but for quick capture and encoding of your family vacation, look no further than Virtualdub.

TinySpell

Firefox already offers built-in spellcheck for text windows and forms, but what about every other Windows app? TinySpell is a free spell checker that monitors your text input in any program (including any words copied to the clipboard), and gives you replacement suggestions from its database of 110,000 words. The free version, unfortunately, doesn't give you a visual indicator of your typos (like a red underline). Instead, your mistakes are pointed out with an audio cue, which we eventually found to be a bit too annoying to keep on all the time. Maybe it's training us to be better spellers.

Recuva

Sometimes you just need someone to tell you everything will be okay, and that's what Recuva attempts to do. From start to finish, Recuva holds your hand through the process of getting your data back with a user-friendly Wizard. The first prompt asks what type of files you're looking for (pictures, music, documents, video, or all files), followed by where you want Recuva to look. If you don't know, select 'I'm not sure' and Recuva will rummage through your entire computer. Alternately, you can limit searches to the Recycle Bin, My Documents, a media card, or any other specific location you specify. Considering Piriform packs a powerful scanner wrapped up in a user friendly interface with a few useful advanced features sprinkled in, we have no trouble recommending Recuva as our favorite free file recovery app.

Now that we’ve finished our list, we’ve got one more cool app to show you. It’s called InstallPad, and it does something that’s very simple and very useful: It install applications for you. You just feed it a list of setup files available online, and it takes care of the rest. There are other programs that do essentially the same thing, such as AppSnap, but we’re sticking with InstallPad because it makes it the easiest to create custom software lists.

We covered a whole lot of apps in our Essentials list, and now we’re going to use InstallPad to make it easy for you to install them all (or just whichever ones you want) at once. Read on to download our InstallPad essential applications list, and learn how to use it.

Step 1: Get InstallPad

Even installers need to be installed, so we’ll take care of that first. The app can be found in the download section of the InstallPad website. It requires the Microsoft .NET framework 2, which you can get here if it’s not already on your system. InstallPad was written for XP, and isn’t guaranteed to work with Vista, though we were able to run it on a Vista box with no major problems.

There’s no installation necessary beyond unzipping the InstallPad .zip file somewhere on your drive. Make sure to remember the location, because we’re going to put another file there later on.

Step 2: Get the Maximum PC Essential InstallPad Application List

InstallPad comes with a default list of software, but it’s not nearly as complete as ours and is badly outdated, besides. We’ll replace it with a custom list, created from the apps on our Essential 33 list.

Unfortunately, because some companies make their setup files inaccessible to direct links, not every app on the list works with InstallPad. Still, almost all of the apps do work, and you can download the list right here. That archive contains two list files. The file called MaxPCAppList.XML is set to try and install the files in silent mode, meaning you won’t see the installer, and default setting will be used. This makes for a much faster install of multiple programs, but at the cost of some control. If you’d rather run the installers normally,use the other file, called MaxPCAppList-nosilent.XML

Extract whichever list file you choose to the directory containing the InstallPad executable.

Step 3: Run InstallPad

Now that you’ve got all the files you need, it’s time to start InstallPad. Run the executable, and a Window will pop up showing the default software list. We don’t want any of that business, so click the “Open an application list” text in the bottom left corner. In the browser that pops up, select the application list file that you downloaded (either MaxPCAppList.xml or MaxPCAppList-nosilent.xml).

That’s pretty much all there is to it. Now InstallPad should show a list of applications from our Essential 33 list. You can check whichever ones you want, and then press the “Install Checked” button in the bottom right to automatically download and install them all.

How to Automate Your File Management... for Free!

David Murphy — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:05:59 -0600

Need to keep your hard drive from being crapped up? Are you a power-downloader with no organizational skills? Do you want to see exactly where the space on your hard drive is going and have your computer automatically shuffle and sort new files around?

You're in luck. We've assembled a batch of freeware utilities that are, without a doubt, the most essential file management tools you'll want to have on your PC. We use them to automate mundane tasks like file moving and deletion, and better still, to determine exactly where all the wasted space on our drives are going. We would kill to have these feature integrated into Windows Explorer, but no dice thus far. But we can't complain much, because we've saved so much time with these small utilities that we can't ever think about going back to a life without them.

Auto Delete

What it does: Specify a target folder and a time period. The utility will automatically crawl through this folder and nuke anything that falls outside of the window you specify. This is perfect for temporary file locations, default download directories, or anywhere else where you don't want forgotten clutter to fill up your machine. And you can even exclude certain files from the axe, just in case you really need to separate your mission-critical files from potential junk.

Download it here!

SysExporter

What it does: If your computer is already in dire straits, with files and directories in every possible place and stretched out to an endless amount of nested folders... chill out. SysExporter is a handy way for mapping out your directories in a different format, like an Excel spreadsheet or HTML page. It captures the nesting information of a directory tree and allows you to convert that into a searchable database. You can then parse out exactly how you've structured your hard drive and make the necessary fixes without having to click back and forth between an infinite number of folders.

Download it here!

SpaceMonger

What it does: So you just picked up that brand new terabyte drive only to find that you've filled 80% of it with your data. But you swear that you don't have that much on your drive, so where's the bulk? Enter SpaceMonger -- a utility that charts out exactly where your biggest files are residing in a graphical or table-based format. Once you've run a detailed analysis, you can make simple file commands directly in the program itself. There' s no need to switch back and forth between SpaceMonger and Windows Explorer when purging your drive of unnecessary junk!

Download it here!

WinDirStat

What it does: In essence, this program performs a similar function to SpaceMonger. We include it because we appreciate its graphical representation of your drive, which is far prettier than SpaceMonger's. If you want to chart out your storage issues with a bit of flair, opt for WinDirStat over SpaceMonger.

Download it here!

Download Mover

What it does: Here's the biggie. This tiny utility constantly scans folders you specify. When files of a given type hit the folder, they're automatically moved to a location of your choosing. If you use, say, any Internet browser under the sun, this means that you can just download all of your files to a single, default directory. Download Mover will work behind-the-scenes to make sure that your MP3s always end up in your music folder, your JPGs in your pictures folder, and your ZIPs in your... um. Compressed files folder. Hey, people can get pretty thorough...

Download it here!

Windows Live's Third Wave Now Ready to Try

Mark Edward Soper — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:06:05 -0500

Windows Live has come a long way since it was first introduced as a Microsoft brand in 2006. The first wave bolted Hotmail, Messenger, and Spaces into a single download. In last year's second wave, tools like SkyDrive, Events, Photo Gallery, LiveWriter, Calendar, and Family Safety joined the family, along with support for mobile devices. This week, Microsoft rolled out its third wave, adding a new member to the Windows Live family and new features to several existing programs. We've already told you about the new features in Hotmail, so here's what else that's new:

Movie Maker beta joins the Live family, getting an easier to use interface and support for publishing your creations to popular video-sharing sites. Note that this Live product is for Windows Vista only, and requires an ATI Radeon 9500 or NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 or better GPU.
Messenger beta adds customization options as well as drag and drop photo sharing during chats.
Photo Gallery beta adds face detection to make it easier to tag people in photos, but don't confuse this with Google's Web Album's new face recognition feature. Photo Gallery also displays photos from friends in your gallery view.
Writer beta adds WYSIWIG previewing, photo border and tilting options, and support for publishing videos to MSN or YouTube, so you can more easily add videos to your blog.
Toolbar beta maps addresses and provides directions, provides custom buttons for one-click access to favorite websites, and adds Smart Menu popups with more information for selected text.

There are also betas of new versions of Family Safety and the Microsoft Outlook Connector.

Although Windows Live continues to leave 64-bit Windows XP out of the loop, it works with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and with 32-bit Windows XP SP2 and above (except for Movie Maker). Grab complete system requirements and Movie Maker release notes here. Keep in mind that you can download individual programs as well as the Live suite. To keep track of what's happening with Windows Live, check out the Windows Live Wire blog.

Illustration courtesy Microsoft Windows Live.

Windows Vista Compatibility Center Helps Users Determine What Works

Mark Edward Soper — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:32:42 -0500

Microsoft has long offered hardware compatibility information for different versions of Windows, including Windows Vista. Remember the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)? You can access the current versions of the HCL and Windows Catalog listings for Windows versions from NT 4.0 and 98 through Windows Vista here. The Windows Vista HCL, now known as the Windows Logo'd Products List, is available here.

Until now, though, Microsoft has dropped the ball on making software compatibility easy to determine. With a renewed emphasis on marketing and customer satisfaction this summer, Microsoft has now created an easy-to-use one-stop shop for determining which hardware and software products will work with Windows Vista, the new Windows Vista Compatibility Center (WVCC).

Using the WVCC

To track down compatibility information, you can either search by product category (hardware and software) and product name, or browse hardware and software categories. Use Search to find one or two products; I recommend using Browse to find information for several products from the same vendor, or different vendors' products in a common category or sub-category.

Categories Galore

Hardware categories include Cameras & Photo; Printers & Scanners; MP3 & Media Players; TV Devices; Communications Devices; Mice, Keyboard & Input Devices; Displays; Networking; Graphics Cards & Components; Storage Devices.

Software categories include Business & Home Office; Communications & Internet; Graphics & Printing; PC Gaming; Kids' & Educational; Hobbies & Personal Improvement; Photo & Video; Music & MP3; Utilities; Assistive Technology; Development Tools; Enterprise Applications.

Within each category, you can select a subcategory to help focus your search, and you can then scroll through the list, arranged by vendor, to find your product. To help you find products more quickly, though, I recommend you use the filters on the left side of the screen to help find results more quickly: a list of common vendors for each product category, compatibility levels (certified, works with, or not compatible), 32-bit or 64-bit.

By default, the WVCC lists items in terms of relevance, but you're better off changing the sort option to product name (A-Z or Z-A) or, for products made by different companies now listed under the new owner's name, use publisher's name (A-Z or Z-A).

Getting the Details

The individual listing for each product uses a green checkmark to indicate Compatible, a yellow triangle with ! to indicate Action Recommended (such as an upgrade), a red X to indicate Not Compatible, or a black ? to indicate Status Unknown.

Even if a product is listed as Compatible, click the product listing for more information, as you might need to install updated drivers using the provided link. Other links provided include the vendor's website, support site, and contact information, as well as more detailed product information. Separate tabs for 32-bit and 64-bit compatibility help you determine if a particular product is 64-bit ready.

Redmond Says: Feedback Wanted

A thumb-up/thumb-down voting system on each product entry gives you the opportunity to indicate if the information is accurate. To correct inaccurate compatibility information, or to fill in the blanks for Status Unknown products, click the Let Us Know link and provide the information requested.

Maximum PC Says: Ditto!

You might already have a handle on most of the information provided by the WVCC for your favorite products, but do you think it will help you with unfamiliar products? Will you be using it to answer other users' questions? If you're on the fence about moving to Vista, does this website help you make up your mind? Have you found any mistakes? Tell us.

Windows News: The Living, Loving, Upgrading Edition

Mark 'Marcus_Soperus' Soper — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:14:01 -0500

Love XP? Your Vote Counts!

Neowin.net reports that Microsoft is now logging calls from users requesting a life extension for Windows XP. If you want to see Windows XP live on, US users should call (866)234-6020 (see the article for more numbers). Remember, your call must concern extending the life of Windows XP. If you also have a different problem, call back later.

More "Live" to Love

The Microsoft TechNet Sysinternals website, home of some of the best Windows utilities in the world, now offers those utilities in an instant-on, ready-to-use format.

As ZDNet's Ed Bott reports, the new Sysinternals Live page lists all of the Sysinternals tools and enables you to run them from the command prompt using Universal Naming Convention (UNC) syntax. For example, to run BGInfo (which displays system configuration information on the Windows desktop), open a command prompt window and enter the command \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\bginfo.exe.

If you don't want to click Agree to agree to the license terms for the utility, add /accepteula to the command and it runs immediately:

If you prefer, you can also enter the command into a Windows Explorer address box:

To learn more about a specific Sysinternals utility, visit the Sysinternals website.

Catalyst 8.5 Gives ATI a Big Boost of HDTV Support, Performance, and Reliability

The Catalyst 8.5 driver set for ATI GPUs adds:

- Lots of new features for HDTV support
- Support for Windows XP SP3
- An improved uninstaller
- Significant performance improvements for a number of DirectX 10 and DirectX 9-based games
- Many bug fixes for both Windows XP and Vista users.

Download it here.