DiskDigger is a file recovery program that goes “beneath the file system” to recover data on a sector-by-sector basis from hard drives, thumb drives, etc. This program is very simple to use. Choose a drive, decide the types of files to be recovered (jpeg, mp3, documents, etc.) and select next.

One thing is that if the filetype you’re attempting to recover isn’t in the DiskDigger’s list, it can’t find it. It would be nice to have a wildcard option or the ability to specify more filetypes. Even so, the most popular filetypes are there and that should be sufficient for most users.

It can scan FAT12 (floppy disks), FAT16 (older memory cards), FAT32 (newer memory cards and hard disks), NTFS (newer hard disks), and exFAT (Microsoft’s new successor to FAT32). It’s also portable as the whole program runs from a self contained *.exe file.

So here’s the deal: DiskDigger is a freeware, simple-to-use data recovery program that works almost as good as similar pay software.

For further info or to download it and try to get those missing files back, head over to the website here.

Teamviewer is a remote access/remote support tool for multiple platforms. As this program has over 15 million users, it is definitely worth considering if you’re in need of such a utility. It doesn’t hurt that its absolutely free too!

Both computers (the client and server) simply run the *.exe file (no installation required!) when they wish to connect to each other. It also works it’s magic in being able to somehow bypass any potential firewall issues! Also, there is no need to go hunting for IP addresses etc, as this program runs with “ID’s” which reference the client and server to each other.

For a more detailed explanation and to check it out for yourself, visit the homepage here.

For many a reason one may want to block specific web sites. The site may be a known malware site, a known phishing site, could be a porno site you want to block from viewing by children and so on. This utility helps you do that by letting you edit and thereby add or delete or correct mistakes in the Windows Hosts file. Hosts file is the file looked up during access to various websites and if there is an entry blocking the URL then none of the browsers used in your system will access the URL. You are able to change, backup / restore settings easily. Block website using entries to hosts file, due to which all browsers will not allow navigation to the blocked website.

The interface is simple. It shows the current content of the Hosts file. The interface has controls “add new entry”, “comment selected”, “Un-comment selected” and “save changes”. The way this would work is when you click on the new entry there’s a pop up that take the URL as well as the IP address of the host to be blocked. If for some reason you want to permit access to an existing blocked entry, simply comment it out. This is actually a temporary change. If need be one just has to un-comment the entry to introduce the ban again.

Overall: Easy to use simple utility meant for a specific task.

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Advanced Windows Optimizer is a collection of tools to optimize and speedup your system performance. It contains utilities to clean registry, temporary files on your disks, erase your application and internet browser history.

Features: Advanced Windows Optimizer is a set of tools that help keep Windows running optimally. The interface represents the arrangement of tools available. On the left there’s a list of major group of functions and as each is selected the interface area on the right shows the tools available in that group. For example the main groups are system cleaners, system optimizers, system control, system tools, registry tools and file tools. System cleaner group contains Disk cleaner, registry cleaner, history cleaner and task scheduler. Disk cleaner cleans up all junk files. Registry cleaner clears off all invalid entries and references from the registry. It is safer to create a back up of the registry first, just in case something goes wrong.

System optimizer group contains duplicate files finder, shortcut fixers and memory optimizer. Duplicate files finder finds and removes un-needed files. Short cut finder finds all the un-connected shortcuts. Memory optimizer optimizes the memory management functions. System control group has system control, BHO remover, startup cleaner and auto shutdown features. System control helps organize & manage system settings. BHO remover helps get rid of un needed browser help objects. Startup cleaner helps clean up the list of start up programs. Auto shutdown helps specify auto shutdown times. System tools group has a process manager, uninstall manager, system information and Windows tools. Process manager and the uninstaller are obvious functions, the Windows Tools is a place where you can startup most important system tools built into Windows. The Registry Editor, Disk Defragmenter or DirectX Diagnostic Tool are just some of them.

Overall: AWO is a fast, small and easy to use power collection of tools that you may need every day. The set of tools is quite extensive, may be you can add a couple of more tools but this set is quite powerful and works well.

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WinUtilities Disk Cleaner securely clears obsolete/junk files, duplicate files and broken shortcuts from your computer. By clearing out these unwanted files WinUtilities Disk Cleaner can help you utilize your amount of available hard drive space.

Features: WinUtilities Disk Cleaner lets you free up space in the hard disk by cleaning up unnecessary junk. The junk that is both unnecessary and unwanted. More free space on the disk ensures better performance of your system. Many a Windows applications create quite a few temporary files. When closed they should clean up these temp files. But they pile quite often because some applications do not do this clean up well. A program error that cause unnatural termination of the program, badly designed application and may the shut down was not proper. When installing many applications add folders as well as shortcuts to the desktop and start menu.

One of the reasons these files may get overlooked is they are no real problems most often until a sizeable volume builds up. Most of these residue files are small by themselves. However thy can pile up to a substantial amount quite quickly. With WinUtilities Disk Cleaner you can safely, easily and effectively remove these unwanted and unnecessary files from you computer. The utility also has other tools that help you easily & securely delete these files. Clearing up such unnecessary muck out of the hard disk periodically helps improve performance. The program works with Windows 95, NT4, 98, Me, 2000, XP, 2003 Server and Vista.

Overall: Nice enough utility when you are substantially full in the hard disk. But that may be difficult in these days of monster hard disks with capacities in 500 GB to 1 TB of storage. It’d take a lot of time to do a scan of such huge disks too.

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A tool for find and replace across multiple text files. Supports regular expressions and provides an expression tester, batch processing and library facility. It also features an interactive file list and highlighted search results.

Features: A tool for work with text files. TextCrawler enables you to instantly find and replace words and phrases across multiple files and folders. It utilizes a Regular Expression engine that helps you create sophisticated searches, perform batch operations, extract text from files etc. Varied search parameters could be used.

To make sure the regular expressions specified are workable, the program provides a regular expression tester. Save the regular expressions that work in a library for future use. You can save the search & replace scripts too. Search results are highlighted by the program. Multiple operations can be batched to operate on a file. Search and replace results can be exported to another program.

The extract feature lets you mine of specific information from a set of files. For example you can specify a regular expression to define an e-mail address and extract these addresses. The results are displayed on a separate window and can be saved. You can specify a set of files starting with a “start location”. There are couple of viewing modes. In one all the files that were searched are listed. In the second mode all files searched are displayed in preview window at the same time. The interface is simple and quite intuitive. It is easy to use.

Overall: Simple to use text processing application and is quite powerful.

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CHM Decoder may decompile your CHM file (Compiled Windows HTML Help) or e-book and extract all source files. This tool free for use and work easily and quickly. This tool free for use and work easily and quickly.

Features: CHM Decoder can help you decompile CHM files. Any of the compiled Windows HTML file or e-books can be decompiled into the component items. This could be an easy means of converting the CHM content into HTML and viewing in Pocket PC or in web pages. This is free to use. The program supports command line. Using batch mode, you can convert several documents simultaneously.

The interface is simple and takes you step by step through the process. Initial screen is a tabbed Interface. It lets you load the file to be decompiled and then actually decode it. When a file is loaded and ready for de-compilation you can view the relevant statistics on screen. When decompiling you get to see the progress bar.

Overall: Nice and simple application for a niche use. Dealing with content one should be aware of copyright issues and be careful about infringements.

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Ever feel like it’s becoming more and more difficult to see all the information packed onto your computer screen? This is especially true if you’re producing (or editing) images, and really need to adjust or edit it on a pixel-by-pixel level.

This really necessitates being able to increase the size of the images that you’re working with. What would be truly useful in this scenario is an on-screen version of a trusty old magnifying glass. Magical Glass might be the answer you’re seeking.

Comparable with your typical magnifying glass, this “virtual” magnifying glass allows you zoom in on just the area of the screen that you need to be able to see in greater detail for photo or graphics editing, etc, but without completely losing the view of the surrounding screen area as is usually the case with regular “zoom” functions. It has its other uses too, such as using it to blow up the “fine print” at the end of the certain websites, as well as just drilling down to the exact pixels you have to adjust in your images.

It stays out of the way in your system tray until you need to use it, when it can be called up with a hotkey.

Here’s the Magical Glass homepage.

Many full filing cabinets and full wastepaper baskets later, and it looks like an entirely “paperless” office is not as easy as it seems.

I’m sure you’ve probably had the experience of printing things out and ending up having to throw unnecessary pages in the trash immediately. Usually this is due to your mindless printer insisting on printing ever page you don’t need along with the single one you do need, these are usually the ones filled with legal smallprint, etc.

GreenPrint World is an interesting (and free) program that can help you reduce some of the wasted paper in your business or home. It views what you’re printing out and tries to work out if there’s a way to print less.

It’ll show you what’s about to be printed, with the choice of not printing those useless pages, saving you from wasting paper and trees! Get rid of images if all you really need is the text, or vice versa.

A cool feature is how it keeps track of how much paper and ink you’ve saved! Alternatively, it gives you the choice to simply PDF the output, and save all the paper that would have been needed!

You can download this freeware for both pc and mac by visiting the Greenprint website.

Easeus Partition Manager is a free (for home users) partition management software.

It has features which equal those found in similar paid partition management software. These are more than enough for the requirements of most users. Using the simple, intuitive interface, you can easily create, resize, move, delete, format, hide and unhide partitions on internal or external hard drives.

Tip: its a good idea to have a separate partition on your main drive. Use this partition to store your downloads and important files. Then if you should have the misfortune to have troubles with your main C drive that require a reformat or reinstall of the operating system, these files will still be safely on the extra partition you created!

Just be careful to exercise caution when using this program so as to avoid accidentally deleting partitions!

Here’s the homepage