AutoRun and the companion feature AutoPlay was introduced in Windows 95 to ease application installation for non-technical users and reduce the cost of software support calls. It dictates what actions the system takes when a drive is mounted. Autorun causes a certain file to open or a certain program to run automatically as soon as a compact disc (CD) is inserted into the CD drive. The feature works via a file named autorun.inf. When a drive is accessed, Windows checks for the presence of autorun.inf and, if found, follows the instructions contained within that file. If there is an AUTORUN.INF file
Read MoreProEject (free, Windows)is a utility that safely dismounts any removable drive by closing running applications and windows that are based on the drive. It can do this while automatically cleaning the registry and folders of the host computer from any trace the USB drive may have left behind. ProEject removes the most recently used sections of Windows Registry, entries created on the ‘Run on Startup' key, and shortcuts created in SendTo, Recent, Quick Launch, Windows Firewall, and Pinned (for Win7) applications and settings. The utility can be installed on the removable drive itself or on your system's hard drive. If installed
Read MorePrey (free, Windows, Mac OS, Ubuntu, Linux, Android) is lightweight, open source software lets you keep track of your phone or laptop at all times, and will help you find it if it ever gets lost or stolen. Basically you install a tiny agent in your PC or phone, which silently waits for a remote signal to wake up and work its magic. This signal is sent either from the Internet or through an SMS message, and allows you to gather information regarding the device's location, hardware and network status, and optionally trigger specific actions on it. The first thing that
Read MoreIt happens so often running application hangs, the user interface abruptly stops responding, and you cannot determine what has caused the problem or how to troubleshoot the issue. WhatIsHang (Windows 2000 up to Windows 7/2008) is a mini freeware utility which helps you to detect applications that stopped responding (hang) and displays some information that may help the user to understand what exactly may cause the hang problem. WhatIsHang's report, like Call Stack, Stack Data, Processor Registers, and Memory Data is designed for users with Windows programming knowledge. However, WhatIsHang also presents a list of strings and dll files
Read MoreGoogle Takeout which allows you to export your data from several Google products in one simple download. Currently Takeout supports mass exodus from Buzz, Contacts and Circles , Picasa Web Albums, your Profile, and Stream. Google Takeout lets you take your data out of multiple Google products in one fell swoop. Moreover, you’ll find that all your data is in portable and open formats‚ so it’s easy to import to other services quickly. If you want export data without the help of Google Cloud Export (opensource, free,Windows XP, Windows Vista , Windows 7) is a Windows app that will back up
Read MoreHotmail's added a helpful new feature to distinguish plain old spam from the kind that comes form a trusted source. Now, when you get an email from a friend that smells of something say a plea for some extra scratch from abroad you can select "My friend's been hacked!" from the "Mark as" menu, alerting that your friend's account has been hacked. Likewise you can click a box that reads: "I think this person was hacked!" Once that's done, the spammers are kicked to the curb, and your friend is put through an "account recovery flow" the next time
Read MoreSpent hours downloading a huge Zip archive only to discover its corrupt. Avoid it with Zip2Fix (Windows, free), a utility that won't fix corrupt archives, but will extract any and all undamaged files from it. Its a small program that can salvage files from damaged zip archives. It will not ‘fix’ a corrupt zip file, but rather extract any undamaged files that might be within it. When it comes to file archiving in Windows, we prefer 7-Zip, and we are not talking about replacement. What Zip2Fix does, however, makes it worth a spot on your hard drive if you run
Read MorePhotoGrabber (free, Windows, Mac)a simple app for easily downloading photos from Facebook. You can now either specify a photos or an entire albums contain photos tagged of you (or another user), a friend's albums, as well as comments and tags. To use just authorize it to access your Facebook account to generate a login token. After pasting in your login token, you'll be able to select which user's photos to download. The application is portable and does not require any installation and can be directly run using the exe file. The application is very easy to use and you can
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