Topics

76

Screenshot Captor / Screenshot Captor Places Small Window on Desktop

« on: April 25, 2008, 10:28 PM »

@mouser,

Recently Screenshot Captor has started placing a small window on the Windows desktop on my desktop and notebook computers.  I closed it earlier and it might take a restart to get it back.  It is really just the title bar - the rest of the window is not showing - and it is only about 2" long, but when I maximized it the full SSC window showed.  I have SSC configured to start minimized and to minimize and close to the systray (Windows Notification Taskbar).  Currently I just click on the close X at the top right of the title bar and it disappears - actually it is just "closing to the systray.

This appears to be a fairly recent thing, as I do not remember seeing this for very long.  I'm not sure what version or build it started with as SSC is automatically updated with Dcupdater.  It definitely did not do this in most earlier versions I have used.  It is occurring on both my desktop computer running XP Pro SP2 and my notebook running Vista Ultimate, both of which are presently running SSC 2.37.03.

This is not a problem; just a very tiny annoyance, and that only because I'm so anal!  But I just wanted to report it.

Thanks!

Jim

77

Found Deals and Discounts / CSE HTML Validator Standard at Bits DuJour Friday, 25-Apr-2008

« on: April 24, 2008, 11:16 PM »

CSE HTML Validator Standard version is at Bits DuJour Friday, 25-Apr-2008 for $44.85.

While that still seems pretty darned high, it is discounted 35% from $69.00.  I don't use it but some of my web site designer friends seem to always have it open on a desktop.

Also says that this price gives you a free upgrade to CSE HTML Validator Standard 9.0 when released, though I don;t know when that will be.

Jim

78

Living Room / Another Reason to Hate DRM - Microsoft nuking MSN Music DRM Keys

« on: April 23, 2008, 11:57 AM »

According to this post on Ars Technica, Microsoft is shutting down the music DRM license server for the now-defunct MSN Music service.  Any music you purchased there will now be limited to playing on the particular computer(s) that you have them installed on.  Change your OS (like an XP to Vista upgrade), and it will no longer play. Even though you paid for it.

Somehow I don't think this was the intent of DRM - though I personally hate it passionately.

This is just pointing out how truly sick a concept DRM is...

Jim

79

Living Room / Windows is Trying Hard to Push Me Over To a Mac...

« on: April 21, 2008, 11:43 PM »

Frustration level is about at the boiling point all the time now with Windows.  If not one version, then another.

My desktop PC has been the absolute buggiest piece of expensive junk I have ever owned - and I've had some real junker cars in my time.  Lots of Windows issues along the way using XP Pro -- but then again this machine seems to have a myriad of hardware gremlins also.

Now it's my new Dell XPS M-1330 notebook.  Pretty high-end computer, and also not cheap. Decent dual-core Intel processor, 4 GB RAM, lots of other fancy crap on it. And Vista Ultimate along with Office 2007.

First, the fingerprint login disappeared.  Stayed away for three or four startups.  Then returned as if nothing had happened.  Also, a handful of icons on the desktop went away - gone from the computer altogether!  Fixed that manually - the hard way.  I also noticed that a number of shortcuts in the Start>All Programs menu are bad.  All those had to replaced manually.  Some fun on a new machine.

Next, Microsoft Updates.  What else.  It has had 2 critical Office 2007 updates for me for two weeks now, but installation fails every time I install them.  One is Office 2007 SP1.  No good reason noted anywhere for failing.  Just tells me the the installation failed.  Actually it tells me this every time I turn it on.  Of course it always checks my patches, sees that those two are missing, and tries to install them again.  But they have failed 16 times now, so I ignore the update notification.  Pretty persistent, though.  I have searched the MS site, the MSDN site, and everywhere else, but though it seems a lot of users are getting this, there are no good fixes for it.  Reinstall Office, Windows, sacrifice a live chicken and dance around swinging it over my head - no deal.

Next, my brand new, very light Firefox 2.0.0.12 installation crashes often all of a sudden.  If I am on this PC for an hour Firefox will crash 6 or 8 times.  After plenty of troubleshooting, I am using Opera on the notebook.  Can't use RoboForm or other extensions, but at least it isn't crashing.

Then yesterday shortly after starting the notebook I got a good, old-fashioned BSOD!  Damn!  Couldn't see what it said because it restarted too quickly.  So I figured I would look at the Event Viewer to see what happened.  Nope.  Event Viewer cannot start.  Service has not started.  Try to start that manually - won't do it.  Again, I searched high and low, and though a lot of users are seeing this, there are no official solutions from MS. Event Viewer WAS working just fine before.  Now it appears to be gone.

I did read, from a poster on a forum somewhere, that NOD32 was causing similar issues with the latter Vista betas.  So I figured I would shut it down for a while and see if things worked any better.  Guess what?!?!  Can't shut down NOD32!!!  I can on my XP Pro machine.  But not on Vista.  Searched for a workaround for that.  Only solution is to remove it from the startup folder!!

Man, this machine is only a month and a half old!!

When I think back to all the trials and tribulations of Windows 95, 98, and Me, I fully realize that....  it is not rose-colored glasses that are blinding me;  none of those were actually as buggy - at least for me -- as these two computers!!

Sorry - Just needed a good whine.

Jim

80

Living Room / How Do You Use Your USB Flash Drive(s)?

« on: April 20, 2008, 03:14 PM »

Just curious as to how different folks use their little tiny tremendously useful USB Flash drives - the little "keychain" drives, as opposed to full-size external drives.

I have about a half dozen of these little buggers, and I could not tell you exactly what is on which!  I used to use them for transporting files from one PC to another - especially when I was working.  However now I use my home network and other online storage dumps to move most of what I need to move.  Some of mine have photos on them, some simply have something I wanted to back up quickly before trying a certain software when I was concerned that it would mess up some data.

But I have so many redundant backup methods now that it is difficult to imagine all failing at once. But occasionally it is still convenient to just pop the flash drive onto a USB port and load it up with some stuff I'll need when I'm heading out to work on another computer somewhere.  Another example is that I have all of the Nirsoft and other similar software on one flash drive. These are the programs that NOD32 eats up and deletes whenever it finds them on my PC. Some programs aren't even remotely threatening, but NOD32's heuristic analysis doesn't like them and deletes them even when I have them listed as exclusions in the settings.  I just turn NOD32 off, download and transfer these all to a flash drive, and then remove it. Then I restart NOD32. This way they are always available to me. If I need to use any of these I first must turn the A-V off.  But otherwise I can't keep these on my computer at all.

Surely there are other cool ways people are using their flash drives.  Let's hear 'em!

Thanks!

Jim

81

Living Room / Fujitsu Scansnap S300 - Looks Nice; Anyone Using One?

« on: April 20, 2008, 12:34 PM »

Since reading this review for the Scansnap at Lifehacker I've been interested in it.  Though if it is not quite as good as advertised, it's a lot of cash to lay out for a relatively limited scanner.

It only scans documents - no photos - and only outputs to PDF files.  It has software that apparently is something like Paperport, though I would imagine it is more like a Paperport "Lite" version.  Virtually all reviews I have read thus far have been glowing.  Extremely portable, it really does sound great for pure document scanning, though I will have to also maintain another scanner for my photos. My Canon MP830 handles those well enough.  This scanner is NOT TWAIN compliant, so you it will not be recognized by your applications as a source for scanned documents.

Is anyone here using this, or another model, Fujitsu scanner?  I'm curious to hear from folks I know rather than just reading reviews.

Thanks!

Jim

82

Found Deals and Discounts / Agenda At Once At Bits DuJour - $19.95 - Thursday, 17-Apr-2008

« on: April 17, 2008, 12:46 AM »

Agenda at Once is the Bits DuJour product today, Thursday, April 17, 2008.  $19.95.

Jim

83

Living Room / Home Network Recommendations?

« on: April 13, 2008, 02:13 PM »

Hello all.

I have a fairly simple home wireless network that has been working OK for me for a few years now. However I want to make it a little better!

Currently I have a Linksys wireless router (WRT54G), 2 desktop computers connected via Cat V cables, and my notebook connects from all over the house/yard wirelessly. The router gets its feed to my ISP through an eMTA phone/high speed cable internet connection. Also, a wireless adapter that picks up the signal from a Slingbox Pro and feeds it to the router.

So the 3 computers are able to see one another and share files and one Canon All-in-One printer/scanner/fax machine.

All is working - except when it ain't, of course! I have to power cycle the router now and then when it just loses the connection to all computers - it is getting kind of old so I will probably upgrade that, though I'm not certain to what yet.

Also, I am thinking of setting up a server here and keeping all files stored on it - or at the very least store all my media files there. Just so I am not taking up gobs of hard drive space on all the computers so that I have access to my photos, music, and videos on all of them.

Anyone care to comment on the most effective setup? Equipment to use? Server format/OS? Also, any other advice is appreciated, like should I continue to share the one Canon AIO as it is currently connected only to my main desktop and that shares it with the others -- or should I set up the printing capabilities directly on the network itself?

Thanks!

Jim

84

Site/Forum Features / Saving Personal/Private Messages?

« on: April 05, 2008, 10:03 PM »

I have a number of PMs in my mailbox - not as many as I'm sure some of you have, but enough to get me concerned about if and/or when are the mailboxes purged. Some forums I belong to purge all PM messages above a certain amount. And some, I think using Invision PowerBoard, have a stated limit of messages you can keep in your mailbox, but they do allow you to archive your messages by selecting them with a checkmark and then download them to your PC in .csv format.

So I guess I have two questions:

• Is there a maximum number of PMs you can have in your PM mailbox here at DC?

• Is there a download or export feature in the SMC forum software that can be "turned on"?

Thanks!

Jim

85

General Software Discussion / Drafting/Architectural Software?

« on: April 05, 2008, 03:09 AM »

A request for recommendations for another application:  A drafting/architectural application for home/personal use.

I have used 3D Home Architect for a number of years, but it has been bounced around from developer to developer so many times that at this point "upgrades" seem sometimes to be just a name change to indicate new ownership.

Back around version 4 or 5 the program came from Broderbund. That lasted for two or three versions and then it became a part of Punch Software, a maker of more professional drafting applications.  Then to a company that might have been affiliated with Punch that called itself 3D Home Architect, and now it has moved again.

Oftentimes that software is sold without the mailing list and I have to search around after a couple years to see who has it!  And support is a group with a whole new large learning curve each time it moves. I used to be able to get help from one support tech who moderated one of the various forums that hosted 3DHA at one time or another, but he moved into a position last year that does not allow him to do this anymore.  (I can still get some help from him on the sly now and then, but very sparsely).

I mostly use it for projects within my house and property, but it is a 100+ year old monster and most of the building/architectural elements in it are very much different from these contained in the various catalogs of elements that can be used with these drafting programs.  The latest version of 3DHA seems to have made it a much longer process to modify elements to make them match what is in this old house. So I am hoping to find something that is more amanable to such customization.

Most of the stuff I have looked at the last week or two make a jump from the approximate cost of about $70 or $80 for 3DHA Deluxe Suites to several hundred - or even a few thousand for what is mostly professional-grade software.  I can't quite do that, plus that is much more than I need!

Thanks for any help and advice.

Jim

86

General Software Discussion / PC Games that DON'T Use an "Arcade"-Type Portal?

« on: April 05, 2008, 02:52 AM »

What is the best source for PC games that do not use a portal, like RealArcade or similar?

My wife doesn't use a computer very much at all, but she does love to play games on the PC! Last tear I subscribed to Real Arcade for the singular purpose of obtaining the type pf games that she likes. She isn't into any of the heavy-duty 3D games like Halo or Splinter Cell - and no RPG's with 6 million levels or anything. Mostly just minor arcade-type games.  Wheel of Fortune, Deal or No Deal, various card/casino games.  (Me? I'm purely a puzzle/brain teaser type!)

Real Arcade could be decent if it really wanted to be, but they are pushing more and more games at you all the time - a good 20% or more of her time was rejecting downloads for "…games we have selected just for you…" offers thrown across the game she's playing.  I abandoned Real several months ago and hacked the downloaded games so that she could open them like any other application and play them without the Arcade. But Real must have little time bombs that render the games unusable after a time and they must again be downloaded via the Arcade.

I looked at a few other sites that did not appear to require a portal but once you get ready to purchase a game they let you know about their own arcade-type setup.   

Anyone know of a site with these arcade-type games that can be purchased on a standalone basis?

I thank you, my wife thanks you, and anyone who has had contact with my wife shortly after Real has scarfed up her games yet again also thanks you!!

Jim

EDIT:  BTW, when I say I "hacked" the games to allow them to be opened independent of the arcade portal, I am speaking of games which were purchased from Real for $20 apiece.  Just thought I should clarify that!  --- Jim

87

General Software Discussion / All My Google Search Results Now Showing Redirect Page

« on: April 02, 2008, 11:15 PM »

Grrrr...

This is what I am seeing tonight every darned time I click on a search result in Google:



Nothing I knowingly did should be causing this. Granted I have seen this - or similar redirect notices - very occasionally in the past, but this is every single search result link I click on.  With the exception of any results that lead to another Google page of course.  And it is not to suspect pages; I have gotten it tonight for the Red Cross, Wikipedia, and even DonationCoder!

Any idea what could be doing this?  Is anyone else seeing this just today?

Thanks!

Jim

88

Living Room / Gmail's "Custom Time" April Fools Feature!

« on: April 01, 2008, 02:15 AM »

Take a look:   http://mail.google.com/mail/help/customtime/index.html

It is accessed via a new link at the upper right of the regular Gmail screen, saying, "New! Gmail Custom Time" next to the Settings link.

I actually read the first line or two and got a "Huh?" out before I remembered what day it was!

Jim

89

General Software Discussion / Share Large Files Immediately With Eatlime

« on: March 22, 2008, 11:49 PM »

Saw an article about this web site at LifeHacker recently:

http://www.eatlime.com/

If you register you can upload files up to 1 GB. Without registering you can go as large as 100 MB.

And the really neat part is that your friends can start downloading the file while you are uploading it!  If you test it by uploading a large file there and then start downloading the same file, you are getting the file back virtually in real time.  Brilliant!!

Jim

Follow-up Notes:

1) In the comments at LifeHacker some are recommending http://www.pipebytes.com/ because they have no size limit on files uploaded. However they allow only one download and then auto-delete the file.   

2) Also, a commenter at LifeHacker says that Eatlime previously did business as YouSwap.com and that many times uploads would suddenly fail with I/O errors. I haven't yet confirmed this myself though.   

Jim

90

Found Deals and Discounts / Almeza Multiset At Half Price on Bits DuJour

« on: March 22, 2008, 12:14 AM »

For those recently asking about this application, it is available today, 3/22/2008, at BitsDuJour.com.

Jim

91

Find And Run Robot / Default Hotkey Not Working - Vista on Dell XPS Notebook

« on: March 07, 2008, 09:54 AM »

Brand new Dell XPS M-1330 notebook running Vista Ultimate. The default hotkey, Pause/Break, doesn't exist on this notebook! There is an Insert/Pause button and a Delete/Break button, but neither bring up FARR.  I tried to edit this hotkey but it is not editable.  The Alt/Space key combination works but I cannot seem to remember that combination -- I always use that after hitting the Insert/Pause key several times; I'm having trouble getting used to the Alt/Space combination. Too accustomed to the Pause/Break key - which I apparently no longer have on this computer!  I had to deselect the Ctrl/Space hotkey, as I use that quite often in another application.

Is there a way I can be permitted to edit the Pause/Break hotkey and replace it with the Insert/Pause?  (I don't want to make it the Delete/Break key, as I'm concerned that will kill the "Delete" function).

Thanks,

Jim

92

General Software Discussion / Direct Access Question - Line Feeds?

« on: February 20, 2008, 12:50 PM »

Hello all.

I purchased Direct Access about a month ago and I am really enjoying it as much as I can.  Excellent application, and a great developer -- very supportive and quick to act on requests whenever possible.  (Wish there were more like Nagarsoft and Andrea!)

I noticed an issue recently with any autotext commands that I had set up that are on more than one line:  For me, they work in some applications, but not others.  I used the Enter key to insert line feeds but as I said, in some - actually most - programs in which I input text the phrase shows all on one line.  Yet in other programs it shows on multiple lines as it should.  I have corresponded with Andrea of Nagarsoft about this and she indicated that this is unusual.  She did offer me a workaround but I am curious to know what I have on my PC that is causing the line feeds not to occur in certain applications.  Therefore I am asking anyone using Direct Access to let me know what behavior they are seeing in the applications listed below.  What I am seeing after executing the command with a line feed is also shown.  To test the line feed function I used a street address and an email signature.  For example:

Street Address:

• Name on first line
• Street and number on second line
• City, State or Province, Postal Code on third line.

Email Signature:

• Name on first line
• Email address on second line.

The results I get are as follows:

• Microsoft Word (in Office 2003 -------> Working - Text shows on multiple lines
• Notepad ----------------------------> Working
• Fastmail's Webmail Interface ---------> Working
• NoteTab Pro v. 4.95 -----------------> Not working - all shows on one long line
• Wordpad ----------------------------> Not working
• AM-Notebook Pro, v5 beta 3 ---------> Not working
• Evernote Pro 2.2 --------------------> Not working
• OneNote 2007 -----------------------> Not working

Of course I know that not everyone will have all the same applications, but if you get a chance please try multi-line commands in whatever program you have in which you commonly enter text and see how this works for you.  If anyone has the same or similar issues, maybe we can determine what other programs we have installed and/or running that may be contributing to this behavior.

Any help at all is appreciated!

Jim

93

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Process Kill Killed FARR

« on: February 17, 2008, 09:02 AM »

I just noticed a blinking DCUpdater icon in my SysTray. Turns out it was showing an available update to the Process Kill plugin for FARR.  I clicked on the "Install All Available Updates" button and just as the update was completing an error message popped up saying FARR had to terminate due to an undefined error. I started it up again and all seems to be OK.

Possibly a planned restart after updating? Just an odd message.

Jim

94

Living Room / Weird Mozilla Firefox Page

« on: February 13, 2008, 12:24 AM »

OK, I've been using Firefox from quite early on, but this is a first for me!  This page appears to be simply a test page for standards compliance -- or at least I hope it is!

Take a look:  Type "about:Mozilla" into Firefox's address bar (Without the quotes, of course) and see what you get.

Some coders have a really strange sense of.... humor? 

Jim

95

Living Room / Microsoft Disavowing Vista?

« on: February 02, 2008, 02:24 PM »

Interesting article I saw in eWeek today:
 

http://www.eweek.com...c=EWKNLBOE020208STR1

Jim


edit by jgpaiva: added screenshot

(EDIT:  A hearty "Thank you" to jgpaiva for replacing the Tinyurl link I had posted to the eWeek article and going through the trouble of replacing it with a screenshot!  I didn't know about the tinyurl link rule, but I do now!  Thanks again! - Jim     )

96

General Software Discussion / Almeza MultiSet - Anyone Use It?

« on: February 01, 2008, 02:09 PM »

I saw - too late for the discount - the posting about Almeza MultiSet. Reinstalls Windows and installed software?  Sounds too good to be true.

Has anyone here tried it yet?  I hate to soend $100 to find out it doesn't work well.

Thanks.

Jim

97

Clipboard Help+Spell / Opening CH+S From Systray? Hotkeys?

« on: January 27, 2008, 10:41 PM »

A couple of hopefully easy questions:

• How can I quickly open or show the CH+S full window from the systray icon?  I can always right-click on the icon and then click on "Show...", but that isn't quick at all! Double-clicking the left mouse button does open CH+S but it also two separate but identical popup menus appearing, which I don't need.  Is there a way to quickly and cleanly cause CH+S to show the full window? Lie maybe a hotkey, which brings me to...

•   ...Hotkeys in CH+S. In "Options" on the Hotkey tab, there are five hotkeys shown.  Or actually two are shown and the rest have no keys assigned. "Capture/View/Spell" and "Quick Paste Menu" have hotkeys assigned, while "Quick Note Add", "Count Characters", and "Spell Windows Object" have none.  I understand that Spell Windows Object is not yet operative and so would naturally have no hotkey assigned to it.  But are the other two also not yet working?  I cannot edit/overwrite the "None" in the hotkey box.  For that matter I cannot change the hotkeys that are assigned for the first two shortcuts; the box is not editable - I can't highlight or type over the pre-assigned hotkey shortcuts there.

Any help is very much appreciated!

Jim

98

General Software Discussion / Time to Wipe this Machine! Clean install? Or XP Repair?

« on: January 24, 2008, 02:15 PM »

This nice, pretty, high-powered Falcon-Northwest Mach V PC sure does look good. Shame it is such a rotten PC otherwise!!

I have had problems since the first week I had it - it's 18 months old now.  Whatever its problems, I have no doubt that I need to start over again.

What I don't know is whether I should just wipe it and perform a clean install of XP Pro, or run a Windows Repair.  Searching for tech help on repairs, it looks like if I go that way I would probably do well to use Autostreamer and stream all MS update patches along with XP Pro.  I haven't done this before so this will be a learning experience.  I can't remember whether or not this PC came with SP2 already installed or not, so I'm not sure whether or not I need to autostream that also.

Then again, there is another option - I have a restore CD that came with the PC from Falcon Northwest.  I'll have to read up on exactly what they included with that.  There wasn't any "junk software" pre-installed on this PC - I made sure to specify that when I had it built.  Actually there were a few performance benchmark demos and a cheap version of Nero that they used to test the PC before shipping it, but no other junk that I can remember.

I also have my Acronis images that I could restore, but wouldn't they contain a lot of whatever crap/corrupted stuff that I am trying to clean out now?  I didn't have Acronis at the beginning, so there is no image of a fresh installation.  Personally I think that is the best way to use Acronis - an image immediately after a fresh install and then keep up with regular images from there.  Starting six or eight months into PC usage may restore some of the junk I am hoping to lose.

Prior to doing any of this I am going to use SFFS to sync ALL folders that might have any user data.  I already use SFFS to sync all my important data and media files, but I don't necessarily have synced versions of the C:\Program Files folders that might have important data, nor all of the folders in the various Application Data folders.  So I am taking a Seagate 500 GB external USB drive that is hardly used, formatting it, and I'm going to sync ALL possible locations of any user data scattered around my PC.  That way if - after I am finished with whatever recovery that I end up choosing - whenever I manage to get back up and running if I notice I am missing something important that I cannot find in any of the My Documents data folders, hopefully I can search through that external drive and find it in one of the other folders.  I am also scouring the PC to find any purchased applications that were downloaded and burn them - along with their registration keys, etc. - to CDs.

Any suggestions about which method I should use to clean up this PC and start over again?  Or any other tips and hints before I get started?  Not having done this before I am sure that some have discovered some things that I would rather not find out the hard way, if possible!!  All advice is appreciated!!  Thanks!

Jim

99

General Software Discussion / Wacom Tablet - Bundled Software Question

« on: January 21, 2008, 12:02 AM »

A short while back there was a thread discussing Tablets for Windows PCs, including Wacom and a few others.  Well I did end up with a nice little Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet for Christmas - and I do love it! A little tough to get used to the scaling, as I remember some members here mentioned in the other thread.  But I'm getting there.  Actually it is nice and easy to use with Art Rage and a few other apps.  Paint Shop Pro X is fun - I use it for when I am altering the background of an image, and the like.

But my question for now is about the software that comes bundled with the Bamboo Fun tablet.  As I have for years, I completely ignored the software setups that came on the CD with the tablet driver, since everything I can ever remember installing from a software bundle included with a PC peripheral has always been either plain old junk, or a crippled, severely limited trial or mini-version.  I took a look at the CD label for the tablet driver and automatically figured it was more of the same.

However when cataloging the CD in a new CD case, along with about a million other old software and hardware CDs and DVDs, I was reading labels carefully to ensure I cataloged everything correctly and removing all the CD sleeves that CDs were in and checking to make sure I captured any registration or serial codes.  I suddenly noticed that saw that the codes on the Wacom CD appeared to be full version codes!  Could it be?

Before I install these and then turn right around and uninstall them, has anyone else installed these programs?  Are they truly full versions?  The titles included are:

• Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 and 5
• Corel Painter Essentials 3
• Nik Color Efex Pro 2

I'm really interested in using Photoshop Elements 5, and I'd like to give Corel Painter a try also.  But neither if they are only limited trialware.

Thanks!

Jim

100

General Software Discussion / Deleting Files From the ..\Local Settings\Temp\ Folder

« on: January 13, 2008, 03:51 PM »

I have just read at least a dozen articles on respected websites saying that it is perfectly OK to delete all files from the ..\Local Settings\Temp\ folder in my user folder.  However I also read three or four which warned against it.

In the past, when that folder just gets too darned big, I make a copy of the file to a different drive and then delete away!  However something always gets broken that way and I end up moving the copied folder back and then carefully scrutinizing each file before deleting.  But that always takes me hours and hours - and I still only end up removing only a fraction of them.

Does anyone here clean all of these out regularly?  If I delete all what is the worst that can happen as a direct result?  (Be nice!)  I could test the programs and those that break just reinstall them.  Though it is a pain that developers would ever place files there permanently that are needed to run the program -- it's not the place for that!

Thanks.

Jim