Topics

26

Found Deals and Discounts / WinPatrol PLUS at 50% off until April 7

« on: March 29, 2010, 01:20 PM »

Just found this offer in Bill Pytlovany's blog: http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/.  I think VERY highly of WinPatrol PLUS--it's one of the first programs I install on any Windows-based computer.  Also, once you've bought the PLUS version (which at 50% off is $14.95, I think), you have a license for life.  You never have to pay for upgrades.  

27

General Software Discussion / Questions re Windows 7 Starter on a Netbook

« on: December 13, 2009, 10:36 AM »

I've been eager to get a netbook for some time now, but I wanted to wait until Windows 7 became available.  Now that it is, I find myself uncertain what I'm getting or giving up with Windows 7 on a netbook. I'm hoping some of you have had some experience with Windows 7 on a netbook  and can help.

Almost all the netbooks seem to come with Windows 7 Starter, including the Toshiba NB205, the one I'm most interested in.  I'm most interested in using a netbook for the following, especially when I'm traveling:

1) reading and sending email (I use Mulberry as my main email client, and Gmail for some personal email)
2) going to web sites (like Donation Coder :-) )
3) playing large video files, some downloaded from the web and others converted from DVDs I own.  I currently play most of these files with KMPlayer 2.9.4.1435.  I'd definitely want to be able to continue to play these files--e.g., when I have a long plane ride.  What I've read about Starter is very unclear concerning its capability to play video files.  I don't care at all that it doesn't have Windows Media Center, but I do want to be sure that I can put a player such as KMPlayer on it and play the videos smoothly.
4) playing CDs and DVDs with an added piece of hardware such as Samsung Super-Writer Master.  I don't plan to take this with me on trips, just use it for adding software or watching DVDs when I'm at home but not at my desktop.

I'm planning to increase the RAM from 1GB to 2GB.  I don't care about Aero, nor even about not being able to change the wallpaper, etc., though I do want to be able to put shortcuts on the desktop and arrange them as I want them.  Will Starter meet my needs, or will I find that I've bought an expensive paperweight?  Also, I've heard conflicting things about whether the Intel 1.66GHz Atom Processor (N280) can support the more full-featured versions of Windows 7 such as Enterprise.  I'm pretty sure it can't support XP compatibility mode, since that's very resource intensive, but can it run, say, Enterprise, on a netbook so that I have access to a few other features? (I can get Enterprise through my university at a reasonable price, but not other full versions such as Home Premium.)

So...should I go ahead and buy a netbook with Starter and see how it works out, or are there too many pitfalls?  Thanks very much for your help.

28

General Software Discussion / Lazarus-type program for plain text editors?

« on: December 07, 2009, 03:27 PM »

Thanks to some messages on Donation Coder, I added the Lazarus add-on to Firefox.  Now, whenever my computer crashes or I accidentally press the wrong key and lose everything I've been typing anywhere in my browser, I call upon Lazarus and it retrieves it for me.  What a pleasure!  However, much of what I write is composed in UltraEdit, a plain text editor.  As far as I know, Lazarus won't work with such an editor.  Is there another program that will?  Something unobtrusive that works much like Lazarus?

Thanks in advance.

29

Found Deals and Discounts / WinPatrol PLUS $10 off through end of September

« on: September 06, 2009, 09:39 PM »

Bill Pytlovany, the developer of WinPatrol, has announced a "back to school" offer of $10 off on WinPatrol PLUS, which normally sells for $29.95.  He says explicitly that you don't have to be a student to take advantage of the offer, which runs through the end of September.  More details can be found on his blog at http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/2009/09/winpatrol-plus-back-to-school-special.html

WinPatrol is a terrific program for monitoring your computer. It will warn you of any changes made to your system (e.g., if a program adds itself to your startup menu or tries to modify your HOSTS file), and you can approve or reject the changes. You can also use WinPatrol to see and control what programs are already scheduled to start when you turn on your computer, what programs are currently running, and a lot more. WinPatrol comes in a free version, but I'd recommend taking advantage of the above offer for the PLUS version, which offers real-time detection of newly-installed programs and a huge database of easy-to-understand information about the files it detects. The developer provides very prompt and helpful responses to questions, as well as a guarantee that once you pay for the PLUS version, all upgrades are free: you never have to pay for new versions. I bought WinPatrol PLUS several years ago after reading the unanimously glowing reviews of the Neat Net Tricks Software Review Panel, and I've been delighted with it. Available for all versions of Windows from Windows 98 through Windows 7, including x64 systems.

30

Found Deals and Discounts / ClipMate at $19.95 on BitsduJour today - Sept. 4

« on: September 04, 2009, 07:53 AM »

BitsduJour is offering the fantastic clipboard manager ClipMate for $19.95 today.  That's 43% off the normal price.  I've used ClipMate for many years--it's probably the piece of software I use most and can least do without.  I tried it after someone said to me, "Once you try it, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it."  She was right.

31

LaunchBar Commander / Updating did me in again

« on: July 05, 2009, 08:28 AM »

I updated recently to version 1.108.01.  When I started my computer today, I was surprised to see a box telling me that I shouldn't use the same name for my LBC files as the sample, MyFirstLaunchbar.  Well, I DIDN'T call my LBC file MyFirstLaunchbar, I called it launch1.  I wasn't sure why LBC thought I had called it MyFirstLaunchbar, but I didn't give it much thought.  Then I clicked on the LBC icon in the system tray and got a more unpleasant surprise: it claims it's looking at launch1, but all it shows are the three entries that came with the program, My Control Panel, My Documents, and Start Menu.

I then went into the LBC folder in Program Files, and found lots of backup files (sigh).  I want to get rid of almost all of them eventually, but right now my more pressing problem is how to restore my REAL launch1.mcf file.  The one listed in LBC seems to be the right size, 5.78MB (as are all the backups), but for some reason LBC isn't showing me any of my nodes.  I have no idea what's gone wrong here and would welcome some help.

Thanks in advance.

32

LaunchBar Commander / Too many backups

« on: July 01, 2009, 11:03 AM »

I took a look today at my LBC directory and was dismayed to find it filled with backup files, often more than one per day.  On one day, there were six for LaunchBarCommander alone!  I see that you've made some change to the frequency with which backups are made, but I'm finding this really excessive.   How can I stop all these backup files from accumulating?  I don't mind having the most recent backup files, but I don't want my directory cluttered with all these older ones.  And no, I don't want them simply moved elsewhere.  I appreciate backups, but I really don't think I need more than the most recent, or at most the backups from the most recent date.  I'm running version 1.105.02, simply because I saw no need to upgrade.  I'd be happy to upgrade if that would cure the backup accumulation.  Will it?

EDIT:  I just noticed something else strange.  My file containing all my nodes and the like (I think) is called launch1.mcf.  The most recent launch1.mcf file is dated 6-29-09, but there are 4 backup files for launch1.mcf that are more recent--2 from 6-30 and two from 7-01.  I don't understand why this is so.  I'm also a little concerned, since I think I may have updated launch1.mcf yesterday, but the file is dated 6-29.  I'm not SURE I updated it yesterday rather than the day before, but I kinda think so. 

Sorry to raise more problems.  Thanks as always for this wonderful program and for your help.

33

Find And Run Robot / FARR can't find .exe file - Newbie question

« on: June 29, 2009, 10:23 AM »

Mouser, after reading your recent comment about FARR being useful even if one already uses LBC, I decided to give FARR a try.  I asked it to find Quick View Plus, which I have in an old version (version 6).  I typed Quick View, and FARR came up with two possibilities: Quick View Plus and the uninstall link.  I clicked on Quick View Plus, but instead of opening the program, it simply took me to the directory C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Quick View Plus.  That directory has only two items--the uninstaller and a shortcut called, oddly, View a File...lnk.  Clicking on that opens Quick View Plus.  That seemed very strange to me, especially since there's an entire Quick View Plus directory under Program Files, and it includes a 40 KB file called qvp32.exe (in Program Files\Quick View Plus\Program), which is apparently the file that launches the program.

I then tried typing qvp in FARR, but that just brought up two identical entries leading to the Documents and Settings directory I mentioned above, plus the uninstall program.  And typing qvp32 in FARR yielded NO results.  I have no idea why FARR isn't going to the right place and giving me a result that will directly open Quick View Plus.

I decided that perhaps I needed to create an alias for this program.  I went to the Help file and found this statement: "These .alias files are located in the AliasGroups\ subdirectory of FARR, and are further broken up into AliasGroups\Installed and AliasGroups\MyCustom."  When I went into Options and selected AliasGroups, I found nothing that corresponded to Installed or MyCustom.

I'd welcome some help with this.  Many thanks in advance.

34

Found Deals and Discounts / Acronis True Image Home 2009 35% off til end of June

« on: June 24, 2009, 04:33 PM »

I just went on the WindowsBBS.com forum and immediately came upon an ad for Acronis True Image Home 2009 at 35% off through the end of June 2009.  The page with the ad on the top was this one: http://www.windowsbbs.com/index.php?s=.  I've never used this software and am making no claims for it, just passing along the information.

35

Found Deals and Discounts / 1AVCapture 60% off on B du J - any good?

« on: June 20, 2009, 08:36 AM »

Hi.  Bits du Jour today (June 20, 2009) is offering 1AVCapture for $23.98 instead of $59.95.  The software claims to capture and record "ANYTHING You Can Hear or See on Your PC!"  I've been looking for something simple that will do this, but I don't have time to test the program before the discount expires and I don't feel like plunking down $$ without knowing whether the program is any good (or whether there are other programs that are as good or better for less).  Is anyone familiar with 1AVCapture.  I'm not familiar with the company that makes this, PCWinSoft Systems Ltd, and there are no reviews on Bits du Jour.  If anyone has some info, I'd appreciate it.

36

General Software Discussion / Software to capture onscreen video (not youtube)

« on: May 21, 2009, 12:50 PM »

Hi.  Does anyone know of software that can capture video shown on a website in a format other than the one used for YouTube?  Some TV websites, for example, allow you to watch episodes of programs, but I'd much rather be able to capture those episodes, put them on a DVD, and watch them on my DVD player while I use the treadmill.  I think I can probably convert the file to something I can put on a DVD, but the problem is to get the file onto my computer in the first place.   Is there software that can capture such video?  (Movie Extractor Scout can capture most YouTube videos, but I think not video in other formats.)

Thanks in advance.

37

Found Deals and Discounts / Button Shop at 25% off

« on: April 28, 2009, 12:24 PM »

I'm not sure how many people on Donation Coder make buttons for their websites, but one rather nice program for making a variety of attractive web buttons is Button Shop.  In a newsletter I received today, they're offering a 25% discount on this program, making the price $29.95 rather than $39.95.  The discount is good only for a week: until May 5, 2009.  Here's a link to the newsletter in which the offer appears: http://ymlp14.com/zfn5Ju.  Bits du Jour (I think) had it at an even more substantial discount a few months ago, but that was only for a day, and whether that offer is likely to be repeated anytime soon, I don't know.

38

General Software Discussion / Software to monitor computer start-up?

« on: March 29, 2009, 02:31 PM »

I've become increasingly frustrated over the amount of time my computer takes to boot up.  Today, it took approximately 3 1/2 minutes.  It's a 3-year-old Dell Optiplex GX 620 desktop running Windows XP Pro with a 3.20 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 1 GB RAM, well over 100 GB of free hard drive space, etc.

I do have some carefully considered programs that load at startup, but not an excessive number.  I know what they are, and both WinPatrol Plus and The Ultimate Troubleshooter help me keep the number in check.  But does anyone know of a program that can monitor what happens at startup--i.e., software that will tell me how long each program takes to load?  I'd like to have a better idea of why things have slowed down.  (I should add that I do very frequent scans for viruses and other malware; my computer does not currently need defragging; my registry is in good shape.) 

Thanks in advance for your help.

39

LaunchBar Commander / Transfer backup files or start from scratch?

« on: February 13, 2009, 07:58 PM »

I managed to wipe out some key LaunchBarCommander files on my hard drive, and the program no longer worked.  I then uninstalled it, reinstalled it, and tried to transfer what I thought were three key backup files I had saved on a flash drive: launch1.mcf (my main file with all my nodes, etc.), LaunchBarCommander.ini, and LaunchBarCommander.mcp.  To my surprise, these didn't succeed in restoring my old settings.  Is there some way I can use these files to restore what I had, or do I have to start all over again, adding each program individually?   

40

Site/Forum Features / Finding Recently Read Messages or Messages Posted Today

« on: February 02, 2009, 12:46 PM »

I love the Unread Posts feature.  More often than I'd like to admit, however, I'll mark something as Read, either because I've read it or because I have no interest in reading it, and then later the same day I'll decide I want to read or re-read the thread.  Sometimes, I can find it without too much effort, but at times I search and search and apparently don't remember the right words that would help the forum's search mechanism find it.  I'm not sure what feature to suggest that would enable me to find threads whose words I can't recall correctly--perhaps a list of all the posts that had appeared that day in my Unread Posts listing.  I don't know how feasible that is, but short of a brain transplant, that's all I can think of.  I'd welcome other suggestions (well, most other suggestions  ).

41

LaunchBar Commander / Excessively Large Node Listing

« on: January 29, 2009, 08:57 PM »

One of the sections in my LBC is excessively large.  I don't mean that it has too many entries, but rather that it takes up an excessive and needless amount of space.   When I open most sections, they look more or less like this:



But one is absurdly larger:



I see no reason for this section to be so large.  Certainly the names of the files aren't very long.  The one difference I can identify is that included in this listing is one that is a menu with its own child nodes, but none of these has a long name.  As you can see, the size is really excessive.  Is there anything that can be done to make this listing be more like the others in size?

42

LaunchBar Commander / Cannot make a visible window modal

« on: January 16, 2009, 07:18 PM »

I have no idea what the error message in my subject header means, but when I tried today to set up LBC (version 1.86.01) on my laptop (IBM ThinkPad T40 running WinXP Pro SP2), I installed it, minimized it to the system tray, and then started to configure it.  At one point, I tried to right-click on it to add more nodes in Preferences, and I got an error message box that said "Cannot make a visible window modal."  Since I had no idea what the problem was, I decided to reboot and see whether that helped.  It did not.   I noticed that it had not started with Windows (I suspect I had somehow not checked that option), so I clicked on the destop LBC icon, and I again got the error message.  At that point, I decided to uninstall LBC and start again.  However, before I do, I'd like to understand what had happened so I don't encounter the same problem again.  I should note that I had no trouble installing LBC on my desktop a week or so ago.  It's working beautifully.  That's why I wanted to put it on my laptop as well.

43

LaunchBar Commander / Hot key for Control Panel combines CP with apps in other nodes

« on: December 28, 2008, 03:01 PM »

I've just started to configure LaunchBar Commander.  I've created seven nodes in addition to the three it came with (Control Panel, My Documents, and Start Menu).  For most of the seven, I've set hot keys using CTL + Win + a letter.  I did this as well for the Control Panel node.  All the hot keys work fine, but as soon as I use the Control Panel hot key, from then on all the other hotkeys open a menu that show the applications in the node PLUS all the parts of Control Panel.  Thus, normally CTL + Win + M will open the Microsoft Office Node, showing Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.  But if I've opened Control Panel (using CTL + Win + C), the next time I hit CTL + Win + M to open MS Office, I'll get a menu that shows the four office apps followed by Accessibility Options, Add Hardware, Add or Remove Programs, etc. etc.  This was true under version 1.83.01 and is still true under 1.85.01.  (If need be, I can post a screen shot, but I suspect this is clear without one.)