Author Topic: Shareware that don't have freeware replacements (Read 56,386 times)

zeemar · « **Reply #25 on:** September 28, 2007, 06:48 PM »

Alternative to PS Tray Factory could be Tray Manager from

http://wittswallpapers.com/Oldies/indexoldies.html

Zero3K · « **Reply #26 on:** September 29, 2007, 03:01 AM »

Tray Manager isn't that good. It hasn't been updated in 7 years, doesn't integrate with Windows XP, etc. unless you have it run at startup, and doesn't detect all of the system tray icons that were displayed on my PC. So, while searching for info on it, I found another freeware tray manager called Tray Wizard. I would have to say that its just as good as PS Tray Factory.

Here's a link to download it (since the official site has been abandoned):

http://www.divshare.com/download/2149572-3fb

Grorgy · « **Reply #27 on:** September 29, 2007, 03:27 AM »

ohh nice find Zero3K, it actually works better for me than the PSTrayFactory trial i tried ever did

. It puts a link to their sponsors in the start menu (and program folder) but it doesnt seem to download anything.

ppass · « **Reply #28 on:** September 29, 2007, 03:31 AM »

Website Watcher - check websites for updates
http://www.aignes.com/download.htm

SpaceMonger Displays files and folders as boxes, with sizes relative to space taken on disk.
http://www.sixty-five.cc/download/
Even though there are some freewares approaching SpaceMonger, SpaceMonger is still far ahead of the lot.

sri · « **Reply #29 on:** September 29, 2007, 02:09 PM »

Here's a free alternative (may be less featured) to Website Watcher:

http://www.btinternet.com/~markwell/webmon/

normeus · « **Reply #30 on:** September 30, 2007, 04:54 AM »

to manage any kind of datafiles nothing works like http://www.guysoftware.com/parserat.HTML ParseRAT
I haven't found anything that comes close to it:
take a file (any file fixed length, csv,txt,HTML,dbf) use parserat and turn it into any file (csv,txt,dbf,etc...)
split fields combine fields parse names , address, city state , female? male? it will tell you.

by the way the best program I use on all my computers is http://powerpro.webeddie.com/ PowerPro!!!
the learning curve is steep (if you want to do fancy stuff) but it is worth learning it. click on an icon run a program or
open a menu a folder run a PowerPro script, etc.......

rjbull · « **Reply #31 on:** September 30, 2007, 04:38 PM »

Quote from: normeus on September 30, 2007, 04:54 AM

to manage any kind of datafiles nothing works like http://www.guysoftware.com/parserat.HTML ParseRAT
I haven't found anything that comes close to it:
take a file (any file fixed length, csv,txt,HTML,dbf) use parserat and turn it into any file (csv,txt,dbf,etc...)
split fields combine fields parse names , address, city state , female? male? it will tell you.

Don't kow how close they get but for a free alternative, try Bruce Guthrie's Utilities

Quote

by the way the best program I use on all my computers is http://powerpro.webeddie.com/ PowerPro!!!

PowerPro

heinziten · « **Reply #32 on:** October 01, 2007, 06:04 AM »

Thanks guys for all the replies, but I have been there - done that (no t-shirt). Cute partition Manager really is cute, but no resizing capability. Ranish Partition Manager (seems to be abandoned years ago) and partition resizer (also abandoned) can both do the job, but only on FAT partitions.

Yes, I know about UBCD4WIN - I made a combination of UBCD and UBCD4WIN. It is great, and it can do anything - except making coffee and resizing NTFS partitions.

I guess I will have to learn to use LINUX boot disks. I only get a strange command prompt, and then I have no idea how to get started.

Armando · « **Reply #33 on:** October 01, 2007, 06:48 AM »

Quote from: heinziten on October 01, 2007, 06:04 AM

I guess I will have to learn to use LINUX boot disks. I only get a strange command prompt, and then I have no idea how to get started.

Which linux boot disk are you using ?

tomos · « **Reply #34 on:** October 01, 2007, 07:40 AM »

Quote from: heinziten on October 01, 2007, 06:04 AM

Thanks guys for all the replies, but I have been there - done that (no t-shirt). Cute partition Manager really is cute, but no resizing capability. Ranish Partition Manager (seems to be abandoned years ago) and partition resizer (also abandoned) can both do the job, but only on FAT partitions.

Yes, I know about UBCD4WIN - I made a combination of UBCD and UBCD4WIN. It is great, and it can do anything - except making coffee and resizing NTFS partitions.

I guess I will have to learn to use LINUX boot disks. I only get a strange command prompt, and then I have no idea how to get started.

I used Parted Magic as recommended by Amando (I think!)

Have a look at documentation here:
http://partedmagic.com/docs/gparted.html

Boot disc starts up a dream -
it does take a little while to load everything but interface is with GUIs and *fairly* easy to use (fairly=good mark in my book!)
i.e. no command prompts necessary for partitioning at any rate.
You do have to remember to click on apply after telling it to do something ...

There was a very good tutorial for use in this forum thread
http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1187446572/15#18
but for some reason pages 2 & 3 (& tutorial) gone

EDIT: it's been reposted:
http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1191223327/4#4
It's for a blank drive or one you dont mind formatting, see documentation link above for use resizing

tomos · « **Reply #35 on:** October 01, 2007, 07:46 AM »

might get something on partitioning in this thread
alternatives to partition magic/paragon?

[deXter] · « **Reply #36 on:** October 02, 2007, 05:52 AM »

Quote from: ppass on September 29, 2007, 03:31 AM

Website Watcher - check websites for updates
http://www.aignes.com/download.htm

SpaceMonger Displays files and folders as boxes, with sizes relative to space taken on disk.
http://www.sixty-five.cc/download/
Even though there are some freewares approaching SpaceMonger, SpaceMonger is still far ahead of the lot.

I use http://www.changedetection.com/ and http://www.watchthatpage.com/ to check websites for updates. The best thing is, I don't need to run any application on my PC. They provide free page monitoring services and will report changes to your e-mail.

As for SpaceMonger, I've never heard of it, but the original idea was developed by TU/e - it's called Sequoia View, and I've been using that since many, many years. You can get it from here: http://www.win.tue.nl/cgi-bin/usr/sequoia/download3.cgi

[deXter] · « **Reply #37 on:** October 02, 2007, 05:54 AM »

Personally, I couldn't find a freeware replacement for SpinRite.

heinziten · « **Reply #38 on:** October 02, 2007, 07:16 AM »

Which linux boot disk are you using ?
[/quote]

I tried 'System Rescue CD', 'Insert', and 'Tom's Boot Disk (floppy). I could not get anything intelligent from any of them, but I heard they are fantastic - for those who know how to use them.

I also tried the Ubuntu live CD. Looks great, but how do I get access to my hard disk?

tomos · « **Reply #39 on:** October 02, 2007, 07:33 AM »

just for the record edited post above about Parted Magic.

Also found their comment about limitation

Quote

Shrinking an NTFS filesystem and its partition is a safe operation for GParted, but moving a large partition has proven to be fatal in too many cases. Moving large partitions with GParted also proves to be slower than just backing up the data and creating a new partition instead. GParted is a great program, but its move feature is too buggy to be trusted.

(also from http://partedmagic.com/docs/gparted.html )
me,
I used it to increase first partition on drive but I erased other partitions first which worked fine

f0dder · « **Reply #40 on:** October 02, 2007, 08:38 AM »

Quote from: [deXter

link=topic=10129.msg79045#msg79045 date=1191304474]
Personally, I couldn't find a freeware replacement for SpinRite.

Snake Oil works just as well.

Nighted · « **Reply #41 on:** October 02, 2007, 09:07 AM »

Quote from: f0dder on October 02, 2007, 08:38 AM

Quote from: [deXter
link=topic=10129.msg79045#msg79045 date=1191304474]
Personally, I couldn't find a freeware replacement for SpinRite.
Snake Oil works just as well.

[attach]

iphigenie · « **Reply #42 on:** October 02, 2007, 09:19 AM »

That's not fair. Spinrite recovered data of a dying drive for me once, when all else failed and the other alternative was spend £400 for recovery services. It also recovered everything on a drive where the partitioning had been messed up by a linux installation.

I don't necessarily know enough to determine whether the "preventive" claims of spinrite are anything, but the recovery tools are real.

f0dder · « **Reply #43 on:** October 02, 2007, 11:58 AM »

Quote from: "iphigenie"

That's not fair. Spinrite recovered data of a dying drive for me once, when all else failed and the other alternative was spend £400 for recovery services.

It is fair - Gibson's marketing is full of made-up buzzwords, without much description of what's actually performed. He has all his friends and paid minions write rave reviews, and say oh-how-much it has saved their butts.

And what does it really do? Read and re-write sectors, thus utilizing drives built-in scratch-sector relocation mechanism. Fancy ascii graphics to make it look techy. Oh yeah, and "writing magic patterns to re-magnetize the drive". Yeah. Right.

Also, because of what it does, it might actually make your situation worse, at it puts a lot of stress on your drive. never use spinrite on a defective disk without imaging it first.

Yes, I'm harsh, but I have a really big distaste for people that are close to the conman level, but pretend they're gurus.

Quote from: "iphigenie"

It also recovered everything on a drive where the partitioning had been messed up by a linux installation.

Spinrite doesn't do filesystem recovery, it only "fixes bad sectors" - so you must have used some other application as well.

Armando · « **Reply #44 on:** October 02, 2007, 03:24 PM »

Quote from: heinziten on October 02, 2007, 07:16 AM

I tried 'System Rescue CD', 'Insert', and 'Tom's Boot Disk (floppy). I could not get anything intelligent from any of them, but I heard they are fantastic - for those who know how to use them.

I also tried the Ubuntu live CD. Looks great, but how do I get access to my hard disk?

Try gparted or partimage. You'll need a CD burning software to make your boot CD or DVD. With gparted, if you end up at the console, just type "vesa" for your graphic driver — but everything is very clearly explained on the screen anyhow.

You could definitely use your Ubuntu CD (it will take much longer to boot the CD though...). I don't have Ubuntu now, but just find the partition manager : System -> Administration -> GNOME Partition Editor.

You could also read these short explanations :

1.10.7 Hard Drive
1.14 Windows
(http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty)
But I’m pretty sure it’d be easier and quicker with the gparted or partimage editors.

Zero3K · « **Reply #45 on:** October 03, 2007, 01:17 AM »

Well, I gave up on Tray Wizard. It kept on forgetting that I hid some icons and also didn't allow some of them to display. So, now I'm using TraySaver which is better at managing the system tray. You can get it from http://www.mlin.net/files/TraySaverB10.exe. The source for it can be found at http://www.mlin.net/files/TraySaverSource.zip.

heinziten · « **Reply #46 on:** October 03, 2007, 05:58 AM »

Quote from: Armando on October 02, 2007, 03:24 PM

You could definitely use your Ubuntu CD (it will take much longer to boot the CD though...). I don't have Ubuntu now, but just find the partition manager : System -> Administration -> GNOME Partition Editor.

You could also read these short explanations :

1.10.7 Hard Drive
1.14 Windows
(http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty)
But I’m pretty sure it’d be easier and quicker with the gparted or partimage editors.

Thanks, I will try that.

edit by jgpaiva: fixing quote tag

normeus · « **Reply #47 on:** October 09, 2007, 07:31 PM »

I forgot about SpinRite and I guess only if the program has saved your butt then you see
how useful it is. if your computer cannot read your partition info and you run SpinRite which tells you
that the sector is bad you run SpinRite then it is good, you'll worship it.

I got SpinRite when the $1,000.00 / 10meg (thats meg not gig circa 1984) drive wouldnt work anymore and it did its magic and the company was saved. I think that in this days of $100.00/ 500 gig drives all you have to do ( like I do ) is always have a second copy of your drive. ( I do a daily back up) just swap a drive and you are back in business.

but for the record SpinRite does work.

Tuxman · « **Reply #48 on:** October 10, 2007, 01:18 PM »

Quote from: Zero3K on October 03, 2007, 01:17 AM

Well, I gave up on Tray Wizard.

Ever tried RBTray?

Zero3K · « **Reply #49 on:** October 10, 2007, 06:19 PM »

I've just tried it. It doesn't do what I want it to do (which is hiding icons already in the system tray).