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Top 6 Windows Spyware Scanners

Raj — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:29:37 +0000

Spyware is a type of malware that is installed on computers and collects information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user’s personal computer. Sometimes, however, spywares such as keyloggers are installed by the owner of a shared, corporate, or public computer on purpose in order to secretly monitor other users. Following are a selection of the best adware and spyware scanning tools to ferret out these often hidden menaces. If you go the standalone route, make sure you back it up with antivirus software and a firewall.

See Also: 10 best Free Online Virus Scanners
See Also: 12 Free Windows Antivirus of 2009

1. McAfee VirusScan

McAfee AntiSpyware 2006 is no longer sold as a standalone product, but don’t despair. McAfee VirusScan (2006) includes the same stellar protection. In our tests, both products nabbed 98% of running processes associated with adware and spyware, effectively neutering the infestation. At $39.99 for both stellar spyware protection and a top-notch virus scanner, McAfee VirusScan (2006) is a steal.

2. Windows Defender

Windows Defender is offered free and, like CounterSpy, sports above average detection rates. The product is still considered beta and tech support is not provided. Despite these setbacks, it can provide a good second opinion. However, Microsoft AntiSpyware and CounterSpy should not be installed on the same system, as they both share common components.

3. Spybot Search & Destroy

Free for personal use, Spybot doesn’t have stellar removal rates. It does, however, provide TeaTimer and SDHelper which are extremely effective at preventing adware and spyware from gaining a foothold on your computer. So while you may not want to rely on it for detection and removal, you may want to install and activate it alongside other protection to help keep your system spyware-free.

4. Webroot Spy Sweeper

Spy Sweeper removed 100% of the miscreant BHOs and Toolbars in our tests and stopped 84% of the active processes associated with adware and spyware. Spy Sweeper is a standalone spyware scanner and not a full-fledged Internet security suite, thus it is best used in conjunction with antivirus and firewall software.

5. Sunbelt CounterSpy

Sunbelt’s CounterSpy removed 90% of the miscreant Browser Helper Objects (BHOs) in our tests. Sporting above average detection for only $19.99, CounterSpy offers inexpensive protection, an easy-to-use interface and US-based tech support.

6. Hijack This

Another free utility, Hijack This isn’t a traditional spyware scanner. It will, however, provide a full report of what’s active on your system. Experienced users can peruse the report, identify the miscreants, and use Hijack This to disable the unwanted loading (or do so manually). Less experienced users can save the Hijack This log and send it to a more savvy friend for advice.

5 Free Windows 7 Tweak Tools

Raj — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:11:51 +0000

Windows 7 is the next OS from Microsft and Windows 7 is fast and it is quite satisfying in the role of replacing Windows XP and Vista. So am here posting some of the best Free Tools which can help you to Tweak Windows 7. Check out these cool list of 5 Best and Free Windows 7 Tweaks Tools:-

1. EnhanceMySe7en:- EnhanceMySe7en helps users to control many aspects of the system with maximum convenience. You will get everything needed for maintaining Windows 7 in a perfect condition. The program offers tools that take care of the registry, disk space and its defragmentation, installed software, HDD temperature and all sorts of things related to system’s health. Also there are lots of other options helping to boost your system’s performance.

2. Ultimate Windows Tweaker:- Ultimate Windows Tweaker v 2.0 for tweaking and optimizing Windows 7 & Windows Vista, 32-bit & 64-bit. With judicious tweaking, It can make your system faster, more stable, and more secure with just a few mouse clicks. The tweaker detects whether you have IE 7 or IE 8 installed and accordingly offers you the relevant tweaks only.

3. TweakNow PowerPack :- TweakNow PowerPack is a fully-integrated suite of utilities that let you fine-tune every aspect of your computer’s operating system and Web browser. The RAM Idle program manages the free memory that is available to run Windows programs. It prevents performance from degrading as you swap files and programs in and out of memory. The AutoShutdown program lets you suspend, hibernate, or shut down your computer after a specified period of time.

4. Windows 7 Manager:- Windows 7 Manager is a system utility that helps you optimize, tweak, and clean up Windows 7. It will increase your system speed, improve system security, and meet all of your expectations.

5. XdN Tweaker:- XdN Tweaker is a free tweaking program for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. It has Lots of Features and it works so smoothly in above mentioned Windows OS. This will help you to improve the performace of your PC.

Edit & Modify PDF files in OpenOffice

Raj — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:03:09 +0000

Sun PDF Import Extension is a useful add-in for OpenOffice.org that enables you to modify PDF files when the original source is not available anymore. PDF documents are imported in Draw and Impress to preserve the layout and to allow basic editing. It is the perfect solution for changing dates, numbers or small portions of text. Native PDF forms are not yet imported.

The PDF Import extension will also enable the PDF export into a hybrid PDF file, which is a PDF with the embedded source file as ODF. Hybrid PDF files will be opened in StarOffice as an ODF file without any layout differences, while users without StarOffice can open the PDF part of the hybrid file.

Features:

* Text attributes like font family, font size, weight (bold, not bold), style (italic, not italic) are imported together with their respective text
* Retain font appearance, when a PDF file uses a font not installed on your system, the font is replaced with the best alternative font
* Converts images and vector graphics
* Each line in a paragraph is converted into one text object
* Import of password-protected PDF files
* Import shapes with default style
* Support for colors and bitmaps
* Backgrounds remain behind other elements

Not supported:

* Native PDF forms
* Proper paragraphs
* Processing layout of LaTeX PDF
* Import of complex vector graphics elements
* Conversion of tables
* Import of EPS graphics
* RTL (right-to-left) text/font support

Download Sun PDF Import Extension – Via [Ghacks]

Build your own Start menu with Portable Start Menu

Raj — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:10:39 +0000

Wanna Quickly build up your own start menu that you can access from the system tray using Portable Start Menu. Yes you can, Portable Start Menu is a lightweight start menu application that can be installed on both USB sticks and local PC’s. It allows you to organize your programs in a simple menu system and launch them via a tray icon. If you close Portable Start Menu on an USB-Stick, running applications will be closed automatically.

Features:

· Organize and launch applications via a tray menu
· Automatically closes running applications on USB-Sticks
· Checks if an application has been changed before execution
· Runs on USB-Sticks without leaving any traces on a host PC

Download Portable Start Menu

Speedup and Tweak Windows 7 with EnhanceMySe7en

Raj — Sun, 31 May 2009 07:28:19 +0000

Windows 7 is fast and it is quite satisfying in the role of replacing Windows XP and Vista, but you can make it much faster and responsible with EnhanceMySe7en. EnhanceMySe7en helps users to control many aspects of the system with maximum convenience.
You will get everything needed for maintaining Windows 7 in a perfect condition. The program offers tools that take care of the registry, disk space and its defragmentation, installed software, HDD temperature and all sorts of things related to system’s health. Also there are lots of other options helping to boost your system’s performance.

With a clean and simple interface it brings you an All-in-One set of powerful and neatly classified tools, settings and tweaks.

Features:

* Process Identification – Identify unrecognized software
* Start-Up Management – Disable unnecessary software increasing performance
* Registry Cleaner – Can easily checks your registry and repair incorrectly linked registry entries, automatically remove invalid entries
* Disk Cleaner – Find out which files or folders engross your disk space and shown with chart
* Registry Defragmenter – Rebuilds and re-indexs your registry to reduce application response time and registry access time
* Disk Defragmenter – Reduces the amount of fragmentation in file systems
* Hard Drive Monitor – Gives the current values of various hard disk parameters such as Temperature, Head Flying Height, Spin-Up Time etc.
* System Tools, File, Network and Security Tools
* Security – EnhanceMySe7en has easy to configure security settings for managing the new security features of Windows Vista
* Optimization – Optimize settings for maximum speed and stability
* Customization – customize system desktop, menus, toolbar and notifications settings
* Network – Optimize your Internet connection speed

Download EnhanceMySe7en here

Zamzar Converts text to Mp3 Files

Raj — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:06:26 +0000

Zamzar is one of my Fav Online Converter tool, which have so many features. Now you can convert Your Text Document to MP3 audio Files with a Single Click. How it works, Just upload a Word, PDF, TXT, Wordperfect, Works, or OpenDocument Text docment to Zamzar and select MP3 as format. Enter your email address and after a few moments it will send you a link to an MP3 file.

See Also: 7 easy ways to Open docx Files

The full list of supported files which you can convert into mp3 is listed below:

* doc – Microsoft Word Document
* docx – Microsoft Word 2007 Document
* odt – OpenDocument Text Document
* pdf – Portable Document Format
* pub – Microsoft Publisher
* txt – Plain Text document
* wpd – Wordperfect Document
* wps – Microsoft Works Document

Just click to try out Zamzar’s document to speech magic right now – Via [Downloadsquad]

MainMenu: Mac Maintenance, Optimization & cleaning Tool

Raj — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:59:01 +0000

Don’t have time to run all the various tools and scripts to keep your Mac running smoothly? MainMenu makes these tasks quick and easy, right from your menubar. MainMenu is the tool you will need if you don’t have time to run all the various tools and scripts to keep your Mac running smoothly. MainMenu is full of powerful maintenance tools to keep your Mac running like new, within a slick, simplistic interface.

Read Also: 1000+ Free Mac softwares

Rebuilding your Spotlight library for faster searching, repairing permissions, cleaning caches to improve application performance, and even more advanced settings “such as enabling and disabling the Dashboard” are no more than two clicks away.

MainMenu is discrete but powerful, the pulldown menu includes:

* typical maintenance scripts
* permission and disk repairs
* spotlight index rebuilding
* cleaning of system caches and browser caches
* various finder tweaks
* cleaning of log and temporary files
* removal of those pesky DS_Store files
* disable Dashboard and clear its cache

Download MainMenu Mac here

Clean and Speed up Your PC with DiskMax

Raj — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:32:26 +0000

If your PC is Slow and Takes So much time to open the new Apps and Games and Don,t know how to Fix it and Don,t know why this Problem Comes. It’s because of the accumulation of junk files and other data on your system coupled with inefficient layout of your files. So what can you do about it? DiskMax application was designed to keep your system clean. Your system will be peppier, applications will launch faster, files will open quicker, games will run better, and so on. Running DiskMax from time to time is recommended to keep your system in shape.

See Also: 7 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer

Features of DiskMax

1. Automates emptying your recycle bin (if specified), cleaning up of installation remnants, and debugging information.
2. Cleans up every user’s History, Temp, Temporary Internet Files, Cookies (if specified), Recently opened documents list, explorer thumbnail cache and windows error reporting logs.
3. Clears out Windows cache, unused legacy cursors (on Vista, if specified), debugging info, internet logs, help center caches, repair information, DLL caches, Logs, temporary files and windows update roll-back files.
4. Cleans up after Vista SP1 install (if specified).
5. Removes registry entries for multiple Most Recently Used lists.
6. Clears out Windows Vista event logs (no other application out there does this).
7. Deep scans your hard-disk to remove all files of type log, old, prv, chk, swp, bak, gid, wbk, tmp and dmp. This can be cancelled if you are an advanced user who needs these types of files for immediate troubleshooting.
8. Defragments your HDD(s) – basically rearranges files around so that they can be accessed faster.
9. Displays a log of all the activities performed along with associated time stamps.

Download DiskMax here

Toolbox of PDF utilities: Quick PDF Tools

Raj — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:34:48 +0000

Quick PDF Tools is a free Windows PDF utility for editing and managing PDFs. It lets you convert images to PDF, edit PDF properties, add and remove open passwords, merge PDFs together, edit the initial view for PDFs, remove all bookmarks from PDFs and much more. Furthermore, you will be able to access all these features from the comfort of the shell menu from your Windows Explorer.

Read Also: 10 Free Cool PDF tools

Features of Quick PDF Tools:

· Edit PDF properties (Title, Author, Subject and Keywords)
· Edit PDF layout and magnification
· Modify PDF viewer preferences
· Add / Remove passwords for PDF
· Merge selected PDF files
· Convert (almost) any image to PDF
· Remove all bookmarks from a PDF

Download Quick PDF Tools here

View, Record, and Stream TV with DV Scheduler

Raj — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:05:23 +0000

DV Scheduler is an application for TV viewing, recording, and streaming. It currently supports DVB-C, DVB-S, DVB-T, ATSC (work in progress), analogue TV, FM radio, USB cameras, and other DirectShow enabled devices. Once installed it allows control and use of the capture devices through a standard web browser, either locally or through a network or internet. You need Java Virtual Machine in order to run this program.

Read Also: Watch High Quality Live TV on PC

Installation
To install DV Scheduler simply run the installer. This will start the installation.

DV Scheduler uses several external programs (DVPiper, ffmpeg, DVBTextSub) that have been included in the package, except for Preview and Stream. For Preview and Stream DV Scheduler by default uses VLC to play the media stream so you will need to have VLC installed.

Preview and Stream is simply a capture type. You can modify and define new capture types by modifying and adding .ini files found in the util folder of where DV Scheduler was installed.

Features of “DV Scheduler”:

· Unrestricted multiple recording, viewing, and streaming of channels in the same frequency multiplex with one capture card. Multiple recording, viewing, and streaming of different channels in the same frequency multiplex will use only one
· card, optimizing card usage.
· Watch TV locally and over a network/LAN. The TV client is multi-platform including Windows, Linux and Mac.
· Preview and watch multiple channels at the same time on multiple independent windows.
· Saving recording as an MPEG program stream (MPEG-PS) and at the same time saving the teletext subtitle in SubViewer format (SRT).
· Streaming over a network (UDP, RTP, HTTP, etc).
· Vertical and horizontal EPG themes with color categories. If used in conjunction with XMLTVedt multiple EPG sources can be combined and conflicting EPG times can be shown in red.
· One-click recording and Auto-Add feature to automatically schedule recordings based on keywords.
· Customizable output format to allow watching, network streaming, on-the-fly transcoding, and more, of the digital broadcast.
· Capture engine(s) used are configurable, allowing use of different capture engines.

Download DV Scheduler here