Software Tip: Initial Software

Well, after spending around 2 hours yesterday re-installing a clean copy of Windows Vista, I have decided to release a list of what software immediately went onto my computer in case it serves as a guide for others. Other than the obvious ones (Firefox and Thunderbird), all of these are open source programs, meaning they are available freely over the Internet and cost no money to use.

• The OpenOffice.org Suite

This one is a must for anyone who doesn’t want to spend the outrageous amount of money the Microsoft charges for MS Office. OpenOffice is absolutely FREE and supports all major office formats. It comes with 6 programs:

• Base (Database program) = MS Access
• Calc (Spreadsheet Program) = MS Excel
• Draw (Graphics Package) = MS Publisher
• Impress (Presentation Maker) = MS Powerpoint
• Math (Equation Editor) = MS ???
• Writer (Word Processer) = MSWord

As you can see, OpenOffice does everything MSOffice does, and more. It was designed as an All-In-One suite, so although you can download each of these programs separately, you are better off getting the entire suite.

Homepage: Here

Download: Here

• Foxit Reader

Foxit Reader is the open source alternative to Adobe’s bloated and slow Acrobat Reader. With a small footprint, and tiny installation size, this is a must for anyone that open PDF files on a regular basis. It does everything Acrobat reader does, and does it faster using less memory.

My only complaint so far is that the free version does not install a browser plug-in. What this means is that for users used to having a PDF file open right in your browser window, this will not longer be the case. Instead, you will have to download the PDF file first, then open that file in Foxit.

Homepage: Here

Download: Here

• InfraRecorder

InfraRecorder is an open source CD/DVD authoring program. It offers many of the same features as the big name programs (Nero, Roxio, CloneCD, etc..). It will allow you to burn image files (.iso, .cue, .bin). It also includes an express menus for burning a music or data CD quickly. Advanced users will find many extra features included for everyday use.

Homepage: Here

Download: Here

• IZArc

IZArc is an archiving program not unlike Winzip. The 2 main differences are that Winzip costs money and supports very few compression methods. IZArc on the other hand is completely free and supports a wide variety of compression schemes. Some of these include:

• .tar
• .zip
• .7z
• .gz
• .bz2

Well, I’m sure you get the idea. For anyone that opens up TAR or ZIP files on a regular basis, I highly recommend this program.

Homepage: Here

Download: Here

NET Tip: OpenDNS.com

For those of you who worry about internet security and reliability. I recommend the OpenDNS.com free service. Simply visit their website and follow the setup steps to configure it. You can use it as either a simple DNS solution, or you can create a free account and access their advanced features. Some of these include:

• One-Click Adult Site Blocking
• One-Click Phishing Site Blocking
• Domain Blocking
• Typo Correction (i.e. www.gogle.cpm would resolve to www.google.com)
• Address Bar shortcuts (i.e. ‘mail’ could be resolved to ‘http://mail.yahoo.com’)

That is just a quick overview of the features that OpenDNS offers. Also, you can set it up on a single computer, or for home networks, you can setup OpenDNS on your router for full network protection. Their site offers many tutorials on setting up both.

Windows Tip: Disable UAC

Hands down, one of he most annoying new “features” of Windows Vista is the User Account Control, or UAC. The UAC was supposed to be an advanced warning system for when a major change was made on the system. It ended up being more of an irritation than anything else. Simple tasks like removing an item from your Start menu means having to go through as many as 5 separate pop-ups confirming that this is *really* what you wanted to do. This may not be bad for a person completely unfamiliar with computers in general, for users that have been around computers for a few years, this quickly becomes frustrating. The purpose of this post is to describe how to disable the UAC feature if you haven’t already.

1. Open up the Control Panel.
2. Open User Accounts.
3. Click on Turn User Account Control on or off.
4. Uncheck the Use User Account Control box.
5. Click on Okay. (NOTE: The changes will not take effect until the next time you reboot your computer.)

Once done, you won’t see as many annoying confirmation screens every time you do something to the OS.

Windows Tip: Disable Hibernation

 Alright, if you are anything like me, you NEVER use the Windows hibernation feature. In case you don’t know, it was introduced in Windows XP, and here is a brief explanation of what this feature does.

When you shutdown a computer, everything gets released from your memory and the power is completely shutoff on your computer, so any unsaved work would be lost. With the Windows hibernation feature, the operating system takes a snapshot of all your open programs and most information stored in your RAM and proceeds to save all this into a BIG (~1-2 GB) file on your hard drive called “hiberfile.sys”.

That said, if you don’t use it, you may still have this big file on your HD “just in case”. The easiest way to get rid of it is to simply turn off the hibernation feature, therefore ridding the OS of any need for this file. The way to do this varies between XP and Vista, so I will cover both.

XP:

1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Open the Power Options icon. (NOTE: If you are using category view, click on the Performance and Maintenance link, then click Power Options.)
3. Select the Hibernation tab
4. Clear the Enable Hibernation checkbox and then click on OK.

The next time you restart your machine, it will automatically rid your HD of the “hiberfile.sys” file.

Vista:

Disabling this feature in Vista is a little more complicated as the Vista Power Option GUI as changed and no longer offers the choice to turn hibernation off. Instead you need to use the command line.

1. Click the Start button.
2. In the Search box, type ‘cmd’ (without the quotes), but *DON’T* press ENTER.
3. Right-Click in the search box and choose ‘Run As Administrator’. (NOTE: if you are using the Classic Start menu, simply ignore steps 2 and 3 and click ‘Run’, type in ‘cmd’ and press enter.)
4. If a UAC prompt comes up, click ‘Continue’.
5. In the command window, type ‘powercfg -h off’ (without the quotes) and press ENTER.

Voila, you have successfully turned of the hibernation feature in Windows Vista.