Skip to Content

Submit your nominations for the Luxist Awards' Best in Decor
AOL Tech

imaging posts

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Windows x64

Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 is a great free imaging and partitioning tool


Paragon has long been a name respected by technicians and IT professionals. Their latest release is aimed squarely at home users, and it's a program well worth trying out.

Backup & Recovery 10 Free Edition is an excellent, multi-talented hard drive management app. So, what can you do with it? For starters, it will create and restore images of your hard drives and partitions. There's also a built-in tool for creating bootable rescue media (either CD or USB flash drive).

Tasks can be scheduled to run at regular intervals, and you can also create differential jobs (which only back up files that have changed since the previous backup). On massive partitions, the differential option can really speed up the imaging process.

You can also mount previously created images so you can explore them like any other folder or disk on your computer - or manually add additional files.

In addition to backup and imaging tasks, Backup & Recovery can also perform a number of partition management tasks. Use it to create, format (FAT32, NTFS, EXT2/3/4, Linux Swap), and hide partitions as well as check filesystem integrity and check for surface defects.

Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Free is loaded with great features. It's simple enough for casual users and powerful enough to be of use to seasoned veterans.

It's free for non-commercial use and downloads are provided for both 32 and 64-bit Windows. You will need to register for a serial number, but it's well worth the minimal effort (just be sure uncheck any 'email me special offers' boxes).

Filed under: OS Updates, Utilities, Windows, Microsoft, Freeware

Microsoft offers tool to burn Windows 7 ISO - or put it on a USB flash drive

If you have already downloaded - or plan on downloading - a purchased copy of Windows 7, you may need a tool to help you turn the bits into something bootable so you can actually start installing your new OS.

By some amazing coincidence, Microsoft has a tool designed to handle just such an emergency! Grab the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool and follow the on-screen instructions and you'll have a bootable DVD or USB flash drive in no time. You'll also need your downloaded Windows .ISO file, of course. If you plan on using a flash drive, it needs to be 4Gb or larger.

Microsoft's page includes exhaustive (and I mean exhaustive) instructions and a list of frequently asked questions on the download tool page.

More experienced users may want to stick with the app I've mentioned before - WinToFlash. It's fully portable, whereas the Microsoft app has to be installed.

Filed under: Photo, Windows, Macintosh, Microsoft

JPEG 'XR': courtesy of Microsoft.

Earlier in the year, on the Windows Media HD photo format. According to Computer Buyer UK, the JPEG group is now working on a successor to the venerable JPEG image format - and making extensive use of Microsoft's HD Photo standard within the format.

According to the site, "JPEG says it has received assurances from Microsoft that it will make patents necessary for implementation available free-of charge" - a surprising move, but definitely a welcome one, given the huge "proprietary standard" reservations people generally had toward HD Photo not too long ago. Don't expect to see this new format any time soon, however: it could be the better part of 18 months before the standard is finalised.

Filed under: Photo

Get rid of red-eye in Paint Shop Pro


We've all taken one of those pictures. It's perfect. There we are with our family around us, and we all look like something out of a horror film. It's not that your family is unattractive, it's just that the lash has created a red-eye effect making you all look evil.

Removing red-eye can be easy. This quick tutorial shows you how to remove red-eye like a pro, and take the demon looks away from your family and friends. Best of all, it doesn't require Photoshop, or other really expensive applications; Just plain of Paint Shop Pro, available for $59 bucks!

Filed under: Photo, Text, Utilities, Windows, Office, Productivity, Freeware, Open Source, Imaging Tips

SimpleOCR

SimpleOCRSo, simple American boy meets an attractive American flatbed scanner. It is a story we have all heard a hundred times, right? What happens in the story is the boy falls in love with the scanner, pledges it all his paper and digital bliss for as long as the scanners warranty is good. So he takes the scanner home, carries it over the threshold, and plugs it into the wall and into the back of his computer. A match made in NewEgg? The boy cares for the scanner, gets the latest drivers, makes sure he buys the best high speed shielded USB cable, and everything is peachy. Wait, what, no OCR software? Why wasn't that in the prenup? Where's my PaperPort disc? "I don't have Textbridge" he thinks, "maybe I was getting into this a little too fast, I mean I didn't even read the quick-start manual!"

Never fear, SimpleOCR is here. Available for free download, SimpleOCR is a great addition or even replacement for your OCR software. It is especially handy for those who do not have a good OCR software with which to recognize text from scanned documents. It has a fairly solid accuracy ratio, and learns as you go. Give it a shot! I use it at work right now, and it seems to do a bit better than others I have tried.

Filed under: Design, Photo, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Shareware

Imaging tip of the day: Automation

automator logoAutomation seems to be all the rage in computing these days. I guess making computers do more of the work is finally catching on. A couple of weeks ago I posted an Imaging Tip on OSX Tiger Automator actions for Photoshop CS/CS2, and I figured it was time to expand our horizons to include a few more programs and and get Windows users in on the fun. More after the jump.

Read more →

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio

Joystiq

TUAW

Daily Finance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse