Download Squad http://www.downloadsquad.com Download Squad http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/%SiteURL%/media/feedlogo.gif Download Squad http://www.downloadsquad.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[Help! I need a free app to convert DAA and UIF files!]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/18/help-i-need-a-free-app-to-convert-daa-and-uif-files/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/18/help-i-need-a-free-app-to-convert-daa-and-uif-files/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/18/help-i-need-a-free-app-to-convert-daa-and-uif-files/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Download Squad reader David contacted us, asking for a solution to his problem and it's one I've dealt with myself: fighting with the proprietary disc image formats of MagicISO and UltraISO.

"I've been looking through the web for some free program to do this for me and I haven't had any luck. UltraISO and MagicISO are great programs, but I just don't have the money to dish 30 bucks on each [one]."

First off, let's be honest. If you're dealing with a UIF or DAA, it's very likely a disc image of a program or game you torrented (this may or may not have been my own experience). If you're extracting, mounting, or burning something like that, you may as well just torrent MagicISO or UltraISO too and be done with it. I'm certainly not going to judge anyone for doing that.

Continue reading Help! I need a free app to convert DAA and UIF files!

Help! I need a free app to convert DAA and UIF files! originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>burningcd-imageconversiondaaisouifTue, 18 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Help! Some idiot partitioned my giant hard drive!]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/16/help-some-idiot-partitioned-my-giant-hard-drive/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/16/help-some-idiot-partitioned-my-giant-hard-drive/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/16/help-some-idiot-partitioned-my-giant-hard-drive/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Steve, a loyal DS reader, left this comment on my listing of five apps to clone hard drives:

"Some idiot (my friend) partitioned my 1TB drive @ 10gb just to start me off and I can't do anything. I have partitioned/formatted the rest of my drive and cloned onto the new partition but I can't get rid of my C drive to use my new partition as my main drive. Any suggestions? Please help."

Ah, yes. The well-meaning friend with just enough computer knowledge to be dangerous. While it's certainly a good idea to partition a large drive, ten gigs may have been a bit on the miserly side - and it sounds like our reader didn't really want his new drive partitioned in the first place.

Now what? Fortunately, there are a number of good, free apps that will allow him to combine the two partitions into a single large one, or resize them to more reasonable capacities.

Continue reading Help! Some idiot partitioned my giant hard drive!

Help! Some idiot partitioned my giant hard drive! originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:00:00 EST<![CDATA[ShutDownGuard tells Windows where to stick automatic restarts]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/14/shutdownguard-tells-windows-where-to-stick-automatic-restarts/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/14/shutdownguard-tells-windows-where-to-stick-automatic-restarts/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/14/shutdownguard-tells-windows-where-to-stick-automatic-restarts/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

My office workstations - which runs Windows Vista - has an annoying tendency to restart following updates, even though I've told it not to. Via the radio button, of course, though I have tried actually yelling, and that's not working either.

It's a pain, but I'm not about to disable Windows Updates. All I want is for it to be my choice when my system gets restarted.

ShutdownGuard waits in your system tray like a thug in the shadows, waiting to leap out and beat unwanted shutdown requests into submission. It uses about 2mb of memory and blocks shutdown, restart, and logoff attempts.

When it springs into action, you'll receive a balloon tip notification. Click the message to continue shutting down, click the x to close the alert, or just ignore it. If tips aren't being displayed, grab this .VBS from Kelly's Corner ( # 11 ) to re-enable them.

It's a free, tiny (7kb) download for Windows only. ShutdownGuard is packaged as a .7z file, so you'll need 7zip or a compatible app to extract it.

ShutDownGuard tells Windows where to stick automatic restarts originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>rebootshutdownwindows-updatesFri, 14 Nov 2008 11:00:00 EST<![CDATA[What's really on your iPhone? Find out with iPhone Backup Extractor]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/14/whats-really-on-your-iphone-find-out-with-iphone-backup-extrac/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/14/whats-really-on-your-iphone-find-out-with-iphone-backup-extrac/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/14/whats-really-on-your-iphone-find-out-with-iphone-backup-extrac/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

When you back up your iPhone or iPod Touch, iTunes can use the backup to do a restore, but not much else. It's nice when Apple's stuff "just works," but what if you want to see inside the black box and interact with the data on your phone? This is especially important for developers, who can fix bugs a lot more easily if they can look at a user's backup to figure out what's causing problems with an app. iPhone Backup Extractor is a tool that makes this possible.

With iPhone Backup Extractor, you can convert an iPhone/iPod Touch backup to make it readable by the OS X Finder. This lets developers get access to application resources that there's no way to see in iTunes. It might be of some interested to curious non-developers, too, if you just to figure out what files a 3rd-party app has created on your phone.

[via furbo.org]

What's really on your iPhone? Find out with iPhone Backup Extractor originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>backupdeveloperiPhoneipod-touchFri, 14 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Two tools to remove locked Windows files on restart]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/12/two-tools-to-remove-locked-windows-files-on-restart/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/12/two-tools-to-remove-locked-windows-files-on-restart/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/12/two-tools-to-remove-locked-windows-files-on-restart/#commentsFiled under: , , ,


While it's not something you have to do often, removing files that are locked by Windows can be a pain.

To make things easier on yourself, grab Boot Deleter, a tiny application that you can integrate into Windows'
right-click context menu.

Locate the problem file on your drive, click it, and choose delete on reboot. When your system restarts, Boot Deleter will remove them automatically before Windows starts up. It's a handy utility to clean up files left over from a malware cleanup.

Boot Deleter is freeware for Windows only, and requires the VB runtimes.

Continue reading Two tools to remove locked Windows files on restart

Two tools to remove locked Windows files on restart originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>deletelocked-filesWed, 12 Nov 2008 14:30:00 EST<![CDATA[5 Windows tools to remove damaged antivirus programs]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/11/5-windows-tools-to-remove-damaged-antivirus-programs/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/11/5-windows-tools-to-remove-damaged-antivirus-programs/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/11/5-windows-tools-to-remove-damaged-antivirus-programs/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

One frustrating problem I have to fight with on customer computers is damaged antivirus and internet security program installs. Much of the time there's no simple way to get rid of them once something has gone wrong, and they can cause all kinds of headaches.

Fortunately, some of the companies are good enough to provide uninstall tools to help us out.

McAfee: MCPR
While I was putting this post together, their web site starter throwing random errors at me. You should be able to download the remover from this page. If not, get it directly from McAffee or Softpedia.

Norton: Norton Removal Tool
Back when I first used SymNRT (the old name for this app), it did a pretty good job of cleaning things up. I'll warn you in advance: Norton Removal Tool will probably miss some files, folders, and registry keys. Still, it will at least get the program out of your way. It's availble through this Symantec article, or directly from the Symantec FTP or MajorGeeks. [download] and run a quick registry sweep to tidy up.

Continue reading 5 Windows tools to remove damaged antivirus programs

5 Windows tools to remove damaged antivirus programs originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>antivirusmalwareremovaluninstallTue, 11 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Pogue's tech tips for basic computer users]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/11/pogues-tech-tips-for-basic-computer-users/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/11/pogues-tech-tips-for-basic-computer-users/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/11/pogues-tech-tips-for-basic-computer-users/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Tech Tips for Basic Computer UsersI have a confession. A friend of mine sent me a link to a list of tech tips written by David Pogue in the New York Times. Upon reading the title, Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User, I basically ignored it. Then this week, it showed up in my Instapaper list of articles to read, and I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did!

While I don't want to toot my own horn, I have to admit that I would not consider myself a basic computer user. Yet this article pointed out at least two tips that I had not heard before. I'd love to send it to all of my computer-using friends and colleagues (essentially, everyone I know), but I'm afraid of them interpreting it as an insult. So instead, I'll write about it here and hope that some of them notice and go read it.

Probably my favorite tips from Pogue's post relate to digital cameras:
  • The number of megapixels does not determine a camera's picture quality; that's a marketing myth. The sensor size is far more important. (Use Google to find it. For example, search for "sensor size Nikon D90.")
  • Forcing the camera's flash to go off prevents silhouetted, too-dark faces when you're outdoors.
The one I most wish people knew about is:
  • You generally can't send someone more than a couple of full-size digital photos as an e-mail attachment; those files are too big, and they'll bounce back to you. (Instead, use iPhoto or Picasa-photo-organizing programs that can automatically scale down photos in the process of e-mailing them.)
And a great tip when searching:
  • When you're searching for something on the Web using, say, Google, put quotes around phrases that must be searched together. For example, if you put quotes around "electric curtains," Google won't waste your time finding one set of Web pages containing the word "electric" and another set containing the word "curtains."
I would add one more search-related tip that in my experience most people don't know about. If your search seems to be full of information about something different than what you're looking for, you can remove search terms so that Google ignores pages with the words specified. So if you're looking for information about the Java programming language, but not coffee, you can search for Java -coffee, though I'd probably add the word programming to make it more specific: Java programming -coffee.

There are a ton more great tips in Pogue's blog post. What tips do you wish your friends and colleagues would learn?

Pogue's tech tips for basic computer users originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>basic-usercomputer-tipsdavid-poguesearch-tipstech-tipsTue, 11 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Portable WSCC simplifies access to SysInternals, Nirsoft utilities]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/31/portable-wscc-simplifies-access-to-sysinternals-nirsoft-utiliti/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/31/portable-wscc-simplifies-access-to-sysinternals-nirsoft-utiliti/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/31/portable-wscc-simplifies-access-to-sysinternals-nirsoft-utiliti/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,


SysInternals and Nirsoft make a lot of really, really useful applications, but they're all standalone. Keeping them organized for easy access can get to be a bit of a pain, and that's when Windows System Control Center comes to the rescue.

WSCC is a free, portable application designed to centralize and simplify access to these utilities. Think of it as the Swiss Army shell for your "knife blades."

Launch the program and enter the location for your apps. Relative paths are supported, so don't forget to adjust the directories accordingly if you plan on running it from your flash drive. On my drive, I created a WSCC folder in the root placed the other applications in two subfolders (NS and SI). I find it helpful to check the "hide missing items" box since I don't use every app WSCC supports.

The group buttons on the left side of the main program window make finding specific utilties fast and easy. At the top of the window, there's a search box - which is also a great help in quickly locating an app.

Keep in mind, the download is only the WSCC - you'll need to fetch the actual programs from Nirsoft and SysInternals yourself. Save some time, and grab the SI apps in a single file and Nir's from the Web Panel.

It's free for both private and commercial us, and should be a welcome addition to any Window's admin's flash drive.

[ via Freeware Files ]

Portable WSCC simplifies access to SysInternals, Nirsoft utilities originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>adminnirsoftportablesysinternalstechnicianutilitiesFri, 31 Oct 2008 08:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Lee's Favorite Apps: Teamviewer]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/09/lees-favorite-apps-teamviewer/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/09/lees-favorite-apps-teamviewer/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/09/lees-favorite-apps-teamviewer/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

There are a ton of remote control apps to choose from, and I've used plenty. Normally I'm all about the free alternative, but this is one case where I'm completely ok with paying for a product. For ease of setup and use out of the box, I haven't found anything as good as Teamviewer.

Yes, Teamviewer is completely free for personal use - and if you're doing the "friend that knows about computers" thing for people, you need this app. Here's why.

1) It's portable. Drop it on your flash drive, and you can fire it up and help a buddy out no matter where you are or who's computer you need to run it from.

2) It's small. The QuickSupport module is a 1.3mb download, and telling someone where and how to get it is dead simple.

3) It runs on Windows and Mac. Linux support would be nice, but it's kind of a non-issue - most of the people you offer personal support probably aren't running Linux anyway.

4) It's fast, and secure. Teamviewer runs 256-bit encryption based on RSA key exchange and AES. Their code - including your own custom designed QuickSupport modules - are signed by Verisign.

Continue reading Lee's Favorite Apps: Teamviewer

Lee's Favorite Apps: Teamviewer originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>favorite appsfavorite-appsFavoriteAppsremote supportRemoteSupportteamviewerThu, 09 Oct 2008 10:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Get A Windows Run Box Even if Run & Task Manager are Disabled]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/27/get-a-windows-run-box-even-if-run-and-task-manager-are-disabled/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/27/get-a-windows-run-box-even-if-run-and-task-manager-are-disabled/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/27/get-a-windows-run-box-even-if-run-and-task-manager-are-disabled/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

I use Win + R a lot on my own computers, so when a customer's machine comes in with a crippled explorer interface I get a little irked.

Thankfully, I discovered RunMimic to help me get around that annoying little issue. The 21k portable executable looks almost exactly like the regular Windows run box and it's just as functional.

All of the commands I normally need to issue worked without a hitch: services.msc, compmgmt.msc, control, appwiz.cpl, regedt32, cmd. RunMimic also had no problem getting Explorer to access my network file shares.

Since it's portable, this is a nice little app to keep on a flash drive in case of emergencies. RunMimic is not the kind of program I need often, but I tend to work by the old Boy Scout motto: "Be prepared."

Get A Windows Run Box Even if Run & Task Manager are Disabled originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 27 Sep 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>run boxrun dialogRunBoxRunDialogSat, 27 Sep 2008 11:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Sitemeter bug takes down thousands of web sites (for Internet Explorer users)]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/02/sitemeter-bug-takes-down-thousands-of-web-sites-for-internet-ex/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/02/sitemeter-bug-takes-down-thousands-of-web-sites-for-internet-ex/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/02/sitemeter-bug-takes-down-thousands-of-web-sites-for-internet-ex/#commentsFiled under: ,

Sitemeter crash
Thousands of web sites are currently inaccessible to Internet Explorer 5.5, 6, and 7 users thanks to a new Sitemeter bug. Sitemeter is a free web analytics service used by many popular blogs and web sites including Lifehacker, Gizmodo, and Consumerist. They all appear to be affected as of this morning. It's worth noting that the bug only affects Internet Explorer users. The web sites load just fine in Firefox, Safari, and Opera.

It's likely that the bug is due to tracking code changes Sitemeter has been rolling out. Visitors to web sites using the code who are using IE will see the page start to load, and then get an error message. When you click OK to make the error message go away, the entire site goes with it. Nice.

If your site has been affected it looks like you have two options. You can either remove the code altogether until Sitemeter gets its act together, or you can try modifying your code by using the plain HTML version instead of the Javascript version. If you take the latter route, your counter won't show up thanks to another bug, but at least it will continue tracking visits to your site.

Thanks Darren Paul!

Update: It looks like the bug has been fixed.

Sitemeter bug takes down thousands of web sites (for Internet Explorer users) originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>bugcrashoutagesitemeterweb-analyticsSat, 02 Aug 2008 08:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Inline PDF viewing for Firefox 3? There's a plugin for that]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/06/24/inline-pdf-viewing-for-firefox-3-theres-a-plugin-for-that/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/06/24/inline-pdf-viewing-for-firefox-3-theres-a-plugin-for-that/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/06/24/inline-pdf-viewing-for-firefox-3-theres-a-plugin-for-that/#commentsFiled under: , , ,



If you've recently switched to Firefox for Mac, you're probably getting used to hearing all your problems answered with "there's a plugin for that." Well, here's one more problem plugins can solve: inline PDF viewing. Safari does it automatically, and you might be missing it if you've switched recently.

You could always download the PDFs and open them with the notoriously slow Acrobat Reader or a faster 3rd-party app, but if you want them to open right in your browser, just grab this plugin. No frills here, the description on Google Code simply says it, "uses PDFKit to display PDFs in the browser." We tested it out on some huge PDF magazines, and it handles them just as well as Safari can.

[via Daring Fireball]

Inline PDF viewing for Firefox 3? There's a plugin for that originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>AcrobatFirefox 3Firefox3inlinePDFpdf viewerPdfViewerpluginTue, 24 Jun 2008 13:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Switching to Camino? CookieThief can help]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/06/14/switching-to-camino-cookiethief-can-help/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/06/14/switching-to-camino-cookiethief-can-help/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/06/14/switching-to-camino-cookiethief-can-help/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Besides having one of the coolest names for an app that we've seen in a while, CookieThief is pretty handy if you're thinking about switching to the sexy, lightweight Mac browser Camino. Sure, a lot of people prefer Camino's speedy, no-frills browsing experience to flashier, more bloated browsers like Firefox and Safari, but Camino apparently forgot one handy little feature for switchers: moving your cookies over from your old browser.

Retyping those passwords is a pain, so you can use CookieThief to steal all your login cookies from Safari and put them right into Camino. No fuss, no muss, just cookies. We'll admit this is an app with a pretty limited scope, and you'll probably only use it once, but if you can't be bothered to do it yourself, it might be just what you're looking for. (Oh, and if you happen to be going from Camino to Safari, CookieThief can copy your cookies that way, too!)

Switching to Camino? CookieThief can help originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>browserscaminoos xOsXsafariSat, 14 Jun 2008 10:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The right way to erase your iPhone]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/21/the-right-way-to-erase-your-iphone/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/21/the-right-way-to-erase-your-iphone/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/21/the-right-way-to-erase-your-iphone/#commentsFiled under: ,

erasing iPhoneWith rumors flying about a summer release for the next-generation iPhone, a lot of people are going to selling off their current iPhones on eBay or Craigslist. Of course, you'll probably wipe the data from your phone before you let it go, but how can you be sure it's completely erased? Files have been recovered from refurbished iPhones already, so it doesn't hurt to take precautions.

First, do a restore of the phone from iTunes, with all syncing options turned off. That means clicking through each tab in the iPhone menu to make sure photos, videos, contacts and calendars aren't syncing to the phone anymore. Next, make 3 new playlists that are each big enough to use all of your iPhone's storage. Set one of them to sync, and fill up your phone with it. Then switch to the next one, sync it, and do the same with the third. These playlists should write over any remaining personal data, and leave your device lemony-fresh and ready to change hands.

[Via Hack a Day]

The right way to erase your iPhone originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 21 May 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>dataeraseiPhonesecuritywipeWed, 21 May 2008 09:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Things GTD app expires, causes stir amongst users]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/16/things-gtd-app-expires-causes-stir-amongst-users/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/16/things-gtd-app-expires-causes-stir-amongst-users/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/16/things-gtd-app-expires-causes-stir-amongst-users/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Things, the popular personal organization application from Cultured Code, is still in testing, but it already has a large userbase that is thoroughly addicted to its attractive to-do list features. It's no surprise, then, that when the clock turned to midnight in Australia and Things suddenly expired, users were up in arms. Hours later, users in the US experienced the same problem. Several people congregated on the official Things help forum, which had nearly 50 postings on the problem as of 2:30 this morning.

Cultured Code hasn't yet responded with an explanation of why Things was set to expire. The application is still free, but users have already come to rely on it, with more than one person posting that they would gladly pay the $49 pricetag Cultured Code will charge for the 1.0 release to continue using Things right now. Why the expiration, though? We expect to see either a quick fix or an update pushed out this morning -- as the app is currently at version .9.1.1, the highly anticipated 1.0 release is possible, but not likely.

If you're a Things user, visit the help forum for some unofficial ways of resolving the problem. So far, most people are either setting their computers' dates back or using a hex editor to change the expiration date. Despite all the fuss, this could end up working in favor of Cultured Code. Our take: any publicity is good publicity when people are this frantic about your product.

Update: Version 0.9.1.2 is now available.

[via Duncan Riley]

Things GTD app expires, causes stir amongst users originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 16 May 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>cultured codeCulturedCodeGTDproblemsupportThingstroubleshootingFri, 16 May 2008 08:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Quicksys RegDefrag: Defrag your Windows registry]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/13/quicksys-regdefrag-defrag-your-windows-registry/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/13/quicksys-regdefrag-defrag-your-windows-registry/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/13/quicksys-regdefrag-defrag-your-windows-registry/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Who doesn't love defragmenting? Here at Download Squad, we defragment everything we can get our hands on: hard drives, registries, jigsaw puzzles. Our daily defragment fix can be found here, with Quicksys RegDefrag.

In case you didn't piece it together from the name, RegDefrag will defragment your registry. In layman's terms: the program works to optimize your registry by removing gaps, fragments and wasted space in Windows registry files.

RegDefrag begins by analyzing your system's registry. If your registry is sufficiently fragmented, RegDefrag will give you the option to defragment. Unfortunately, there are no backup options (unless RegDefrag performs them behind the scenes, but we wouldn't count on it), which means you're out of luck should RegDefrag decide to remove or defragment the wrong files.

In our tests, RegDefrag recovered over 3 MB of space, which was about 10% of our computer's registry. Not too shabby.

RegDefrag is free, and compatible with Windows Vista, XP, and the ghosts of Windows past.

Quicksys RegDefrag: Defrag your Windows registry originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 13 May 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>defragdefragmentregistryTue, 13 May 2008 16:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Stupid Ubuntu tricks: 5 Steps for resetting a forgotten password]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/12/stupid-ubuntu-tricks-5-steps-for-resetting-a-forgotten-password/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/12/stupid-ubuntu-tricks-5-steps-for-resetting-a-forgotten-password/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/05/12/stupid-ubuntu-tricks-5-steps-for-resetting-a-forgotten-password/#commentsFiled under: ,

GRUB

It happens to everyone. You have so many usernames and passwords that you can't remember them all. Fortunately, Facebook, Gmail, and about a billion other online services have a "forgot password" link. Just click it and the web service will either email your password to you or allow you to reset it and enter a new one.

But what happens when you forget the password for your operating system. Not that this has ever happened to us, but hypothetically let's say we were trying to perform a fresh install of Ubuntu on a laptop this afternoon. We zipped through the installation screens so quickly that we may have accidentally inclued a typo in our password. So when the installation was complete, our (still hypothetical) computer booted up, loaded a splash screen, and then wouldn't let us login no matter how many variations of our password we type.

While you might think the easiest thing to do is reinstall Ubuntu, (after all, this is a clean install so it's not like we'd be losing any data on our hypothetical system), you can save yourself 15-30 minutes by changing the password. It turns out you don't have login to change your password. As we discovered thanks to a useful post on the Ubuntu forums, you can do it from the bootloader screen. Check out the 5 easy steps after the jump.

Continue reading Stupid Ubuntu tricks: 5 Steps for resetting a forgotten password

Stupid Ubuntu tricks: 5 Steps for resetting a forgotten password originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 12 May 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Broken Image. Well, not really.Back on April 24th, we happily installed a clean version of the 64-bit Ubuntu Hardy Heron release. For a few days, life was sweet. Hardy had Firefox, and we very easily installed Flash from the Hardy repositories. It all seemed to work fine, at first glance.

The honeymoon ended really quickly. We started to notice that Firefox was doing exceedingly odd things when we tried to upload images to our blogging software. It would try its damnedest to upload, but there was just no love.

After much frustration and swearing, we were reminded of a neat little script put together by Kilz on the Ubuntu Forums. We had used FF3in1 previously, with great success. It was a slightly different situation that time (Flash wouldn't install), but all signs pointed to it being a 64-bit versus 32-bit issue this time around, as well.

FF3in1 conveniently installs the 32-bit version of your choice of browsers on your 64-bit Ubuntu system. It also installs various plugins. It's pretty simple. Enable universe and multiverse in your repositories, unzip and run FF3in1. It'll install the proper dependencies (though it did skip lib32nss-mdns on our system, which is necessary for the browser to see the internet connection). It even allows you to opt out of plugin installations.

FF3in1 gives the option for several browser installs -- Flock, Firefox 2, Swiftweasel and IceCat. The script works on Dapper, Edgy, Feisty, Gutsy and Hardy. It can also be used to install multiple browsers (for web developers, or maybe because you can never have too many?).

Best of all, it did indeed solve our problem. We'd definitely recommend giving FF3in1 a whirl to those 64-bit Ubuntu'ers out there that are having some odd glitches with the default install of Firefox.

64-bits of frustration, eliminated with FF3in1 originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 09 May 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>32 bit32Bit64 bit64Bitbrowserff3in1FirefoxkilzlinuxubuntuFri, 09 May 2008 14:00:00 EST<![CDATA[RegToy: All-purpose utility for Windows]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/04/15/regtoy-all-purpose-utility-for-windows/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/04/15/regtoy-all-purpose-utility-for-windows/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/04/15/regtoy-all-purpose-utility-for-windows/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

It used to be that you would need four or five different programs to optimize your system, clean the registry, rename files, capture screens, etc...

That was before RegToy.

RegToy is a freeware utility that is basically a collection of utilities. The program sidebar is broken up into three main categories: System, User, and Others.

The System section allows you to perform seriously arcane apothecary, such as enabling a large system cache, forcing Windows to unload DLLs from memory, setting prefetch and MFT settings, tweaking your video card settings, and more.

In the User section, you have a whole screen dedicated to tweaking Windows Explorer, as well as different customization options for your Taskbar and Start Menu, Icon settings, Logon settings, and more.

In fact, if there's a statement that best personifies RegToy, it has to be "and more."

We'll let you search out what else RegToy has to offer, but if you're looking for a window manager, registry cleaner, file renamer, screen capturer, memory and disk cleaner, and more...then you should give RegToy a shot.

One warning: the home page loads very slowly. But trust us: it's worth the wait.

RegToy: All-purpose utility for Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>cleanerRegToytweakerwindowsTue, 15 Apr 2008 17:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Shidewin: Show or hide all of your windows]]>http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/04/03/shidewin-show-or-hide-all-of-your-windows/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/04/03/shidewin-show-or-hide-all-of-your-windows/http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/04/03/shidewin-show-or-hide-all-of-your-windows/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Shidewin is a simple program that allows you to reclaim all of your wayward windows, applications or otherwise.

Tell us if this has happened to you before: In a dual display setup, you need to unplug the second monitor for some reason, only to find that the programs that were displaying on the second monitor decided not to move back over to the primary one. Where are they?

Why, on the second monitor, of course. You know, the one that's now unplugged.

To rectify this situation in the past, you would have to plug in the second monitor again, then drag your programs back over to the primary monitor.

Shidewin will take care of this problem and more. Once launched, it will show you all open windows, including applications. To make a window appear (or, in the above case, reappear), simply click on its name. Voila!

Shidewin is also useful when your multiple virtual desktop software crashes, or if a window is only accessible via the system tray and the icon disappeared (when explorer.exe is killed, for example).

Shidewin is free, and Windows only.

(Thanks for the tip, Brett!)

Shidewin: Show or hide all of your windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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