Winextra » utility

Software FYI: Outlook Tools

Steven — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 23:15:47 +0000

I don’t use Outlook myself being quite happy for the most part with Windows Live Mail but I know that there is a crapload of you out there who do so this Software FYI is for you.

Outlook Tools is a self-contained tool chest of goodies for gaining control over your Outlook email client as well as providing you with a whole bunch of tweaks for it. With Outlook tools you can easily find out , and change, the paths to things like your OST files, PST files, archive files among others. IT also gives you direct access to things like ScanPst and ScanOst saving you from having to go on a folder hunt in order to find them.

In separate tabs you can also enable or disable the various startup switches available for Outlook and you can also select which types of files you want to block Outlook from accessing as attachments.

You can grab your copy at HowTo-Outlook

Software FYI: Outlook Tools is a post from: winextra
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Software FYI: Instant Elevator Music – for your downloading listening pleasure

Steven — Wed, 12 May 2010 23:22:56 +0000

I’ll be you’re going WTF is he going on about? Not only does that headline make absolutely no sense who wants to listen to elevator music if not being forced to?

Well I haven’t lost my mind (yet) and this isn’t about actually downloading any elevator music but rather a little utility that lets you tell Windows to play a music file of your choice while any of the supported programs are downloading files. Now personally I can’t see much reason for wanting to do this but just in case someone out there thinks this might be a cool idea here’s a list of supported applications.

Windows Explorer: while copying/moving/deleting files
Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox: while waiting for downloads to finish
Microsoft Office and Visual Studio: while waiting for programs to load
7-Zip: while waiting for archives to extract
TeraCopy: while waiting for files to copy/move
Audacity: while waiting for music files to open/save
Eclipse: while waiting for it to load, complete a build or refresh the workspace
VMWare: while waiting for a virtual machine to resume
Virtual PC: also while waiting for a virtual machine to resume
Most installers

As you can see in the screen shots (courtesy of the team at Addictive Tips) you have more than a few options to control the utility with.

You can grab your copy of Instant Elevator Music here

Software FYI: Instant Elevator Music – for your downloading listening pleasure is a post from: winextra
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Software FYI: Windows Error Code Lookup Tool

Steven — Fri, 07 May 2010 20:26:35 +0000

One of the more irritating things about all versions of Windows (ya ya I know it’s hard to keep track of them all blah blah) is its use of insanely cryptic error codes when something goes wrong. After all just what is 0×80070570 suppose3 to mean?

Yes you could take the time to try and find the answer using Google or Bing but then you have to sort through some equally cryptic pages to find an answer you can understand.

However, if you just happen to have a little handy app from FavesSoft called (very boring Microsoft like naming) Windows Error Code Lookup you would know that the error actually is: “The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.”

So much better right?

So what are you still doing here – go and grab a copy for yourself (halfway down the page) and be ready for the next inevitable error message that shows up.

image of Windows Error Code Lookup courtesy of Addictive Tips

Software FYI: Windows Error Code Lookup Tool is a post from: winextra
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Free Software: O&O DiskStat Pro

Steven — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:28:57 +0000

I have used O&O software in the past so I have no problem recommending their products id you find yourself in a situation where their products fit the bill. Best known of their products is O&O Defrag which is one of the best defrag for the Windows platform.

So when I saw this offer for a free copy of their DiskStat program I quickly got a copy for myself. From their website product page for DiskStat

Current storage volume capacities have now skyrocketed into the terabyte range, a fact that was, only a few years ago, completely unimaginable. Naturally, the notion of so much space combined with the wide world of internet downloads has lead to ever increasingly diverse contents on today’s hard disks: from installed programs and games to videos, pictures and music. To store a backup of so much data is no easy task. Even more challenging, however, is separating the important files for backup from the unimportant ones.
O&O DiskStat is a high-power tool for analyzing the used disk space on your storage volumes. With an easy-to-use interface based on the design of the Windows Explorer, you can take a closer look at the file and folder structure of your internal and external drives. Through intuitive and beautiful graphical representations you will find out which files, file types and folders are taking up the most space.

You can grab your copy here (you will need to provide a valid email address).

hat tip to Techie Buzz

Free Software: O&O DiskStat Pro is a post from: winextra
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Software FYI: Glint System Activity Monitor

Steven — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:01:31 +0000

While not for everyone I know that there are a large number of folks who love nothing better than being able to see how their system is behaving at the drop of a hat using all manner of graphical displays. I know this because I use to be one of those people which is why I thought I would pass along this little gem called Glint.

Apparently, from the author page, you can monitor up to 200 different things that might be happening under the hood. While Glint does provide a few standard ‘suggested’ views you can also go wild using keyboard shortcuts or the program’s option area to deck out the display with all kinds of displays.

Glint Homepage and download.

Settings dialog image courtesy of Addictive Tips

Software FYI: Glint System Activity Monitor is a post from: winextra
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Is Svhost.exe killing your CPU? Fix it with this handy utility

Steven — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:34:02 +0000

You’re quietly working away minding your own business when you start to find that programs are taking a coffee break amount of time to open and everything seems to be taking forever to complete (never mind the it’s Windows what do you expect jokes – heard them all).

As the frustration mounts you wonder what could be causing the problem so you fire up Task Manager to take a look (Windows 7 users will have to click on the Show processes from all users). As you scroll through the list you suddenly spot the culprit that is jacking your CPU up to a 100%.

It’s a Windows services called Svhost.exe and it’s acting like a drunk at a free bar but the problem is that this is a required service in Windows and is actually a number of Svhosts processes all rolled into one. So how does one find out which Svhost.exe is causing all the grief and then fix the problem.

Well thanks to the crew at Addictive Tips you can now use a nice little util called Svhost Viewer (which you can download here). With the utility program you will be able to find out more information about which Svhost.exe is causing the grief and then turn it off.

As an added bonus the util is portable so you can add it to your USB tool chest of handy dandy utilities.

Is Svhost.exe killing your CPU? Fix it with this handy utility is a post from: winextra
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