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Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Open Source

Pick up where you left off before a reboot with Cache My Work

Getting your desktop situated "just so" following a reboot can be a hassle. As with so many other Windows annoyances, there's a handy little application which can help.

Cache My Work was created to tackle the task of restoring your windows following a restart. Launch the app and a list of your cacheable programs is displayed - you also have the option of re-opening all your open Explorer windows. Check off what you want restored, click save, and reboot.

Once Windows is up and running again, Cache My Work's preparations make your programs reappear. It's a simple but effective little app - all it really does is zap a few lines into your registry under the Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce key.

You'll still need to re-open your files -- except, of course, in apps like Firefox where you have the option to restore your previous session automatically.

While the project hasn't seen an update in just over a year, it still works nicely - even on WIndows 7 (both 32 and 64-bit builds).

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Web services

Easily restore Windows services to default settings with a web app


I don't know how they manage to do it, but they do. Every now and then a customer drops off a system for repair and things that a home user should ever need to monkey with - things like TCP/IP settings, registry entries, Windows services - have been mangled beyond recognition.

Services in particular can be a big pain to reset, simply because of how many their are. Fortunately, there's an incredibly handy web app which makes the process a whole lot easier.

Serviceseditor.com supports Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Click the appropriate version, and you're presented with a comprehensive list of radio buttons covering all the built-in services. Scroll through the list and toggle any values you don't want set to the default Microsoft settings and press the submit button. You'll receive a .reg file which you can then merge with the Windows registry.

It's quite a bit faster than clicking through services.msc manually to get things back to normal and (obviously) doesn't even require an install. Slick!

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, E-mail, Open Source, Browsers

Open source, portable Mail Browser Backup does what it says


Looking for a simple way to back up (and restore) several different Windows email clients and web browsers? Open source MailBrowserBackup supports a lengthy list:
Browsers: Mozilla Firefox, Flock, Internet Explorer (Favorities ONLY), Mozilla Thunderbird, Opera (browser profile and mails), Apple Safari, Google Chrome, SRWare Iron

EMail: Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail, Outlook 2003/2007

Instant Messaging: Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Messenger Plus!, Pidgin

Others: FileZilla, Windows Contacts, Windows Calendar
Now, MBB isn't portable in the truest sense of the word. It does require the .Net 2.0 runtimes but nearly every machine I work on has those installed at this point. As the image attests, it's best to close all the applications you want to back up before starting the process. If you don't, you will be prompted to do so and things will carry on without a hitch after you shut things down. Restoring your data is just as easy and speedy.

MailBrowserBackup is a free download, ridiculously small at about 130Kb, and totally open source - so you're free to hack in support for your favorite not-yet-supported app.

Filed under: Utilities, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware, Open Source

13 Great Free Backup Programs for Windows, Mac, and Linux


Making sure you've got a reliable backup solution is a must for any user - and more so for an administrator. Why? Well, mostly because your users probably aren't very good at remembering to back up their own files. And so it falls to you to provide the right software for the job!

Backup software is a difficult category to tackle nowadays as the distinction between backup and synchronization apps has become a little blurred. Prices being what they are, my personal choice is to use external or removable hard drives for my backup chores - my current favorites are Bonkey and Cobian.

To make sure you've got plenty of options to choose from, I've split this list into three different categories so that you can choose from the options that are best suited to your environment.

Read more →

Filed under: Security, Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Backup your flash drives with USB Image Tool

USB Image Tool
USB Image Tool is a utility for creating an exact image of pretty much anything you plug into your USB port. This isn't the same thing as copying and pasting all the files on a flash drive to a new directory or zip file. Instead, every chunk of data on your flash drive is saved in a single file that you can then burn to a disc, upload to an offsite storage location, or just save on your hard drive.

If you keep work documents, portable applications, or other important data on a flash drive, it's a good idea to back it up occasionally. USB Image Tool makes the process about as simple as can be. You plug in a drive, hit backup, and choose a location to store the image. You can also select a compressed file format if you want to save a little bit of space, but it takes longer to create a compressed image.

[via gHacks]

Filed under: Security, Windows, Productivity, Microsoft

"Previous Version" file system support coming to Vista

Ars Technica is reporting that versioning support will be implemented in Vista at the file system level, allowing users who have System Protection (enabled by default) running to simply right-click a file to access a "Previous Versions" menu (now I know why Vista's hard drive requirements are so steep). Previous Versions will also monitor backups made of files with Vista-aware backup applications, so it will only show versions of the file made after the last backup.

As usual, there could easily be privacy and security concerns among the corporate IT crowd, as Previous Versions can make copies and track versions of files on network drives as well. As icing on the cake, the term 'deleted file' might also become a thing of the past, as Previous Versions can restore files even after being removed from the recycle bin.

Check out Ars Technica's full writeup of everything Previous Versions will have to offer.

Filed under: Security, Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware

Restoration - file undelete for Windows XP

RestorationFor some reason Microsoft has not seen fit to provide a decent file undeletion (is that even a word?) utility in Windows like they did back in the DOS days. Luckily, Restoration exists. Restoration is a free utility that does not require an installer, and can scour your drive for deleted files and attempt to restore them. The user interface is fairly plain, but gives you all the information you need about the files you are attempting restore, including a search feature to assist you in finding the accidentally deleted file you need back. Restoration is compatible with all Windows versions from Windows 95 onward, and should even work on FAT formatted removable media.

Restoration also provides a file deletion tool that will make it very difficult to restore a file, by replacing sectors. Obviously use this functionality at your own risk.


[via Jameser's Tech Tips]

Filed under: Windows, Microsoft

How to repair Windows with eight commands

BrokenI'm happy to say that I've only had this happen to me once before: Windows really, really won't boot. You can't even get to safe mode. All you get is "Windows NT could not start because the below file is missing or corrupt" and a prompt to reboot over and over again. This usually seems like a reinstall moment (especially if you ask tech support), but it doesn't have to be so: Short-Media is running a guide called Repairing Windows XP in Eight Commands. The trick is getting into the Windows Recovery Console (which requires your XP install disc), rebuilding Windows' boot files, running CHKDSK, and fixing the boot sector. It may sound complex, but it really is just eight commands. However, be sure to read the whole article to avoid a few common gotchas.

[Via Digg]

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Mozilla, Open Source

Firefox 2.0 alpha 2 released

Mozilla has released a 2nd alpha version of Firefox 2.0. As usual, this release is not recommended for any kind of serious use, but if you're salivating at some of the new version's features, check out what has been incorporated in this 2nd development milestone:
  • Links default to opening in new tabs, not new windows
  • Close buttons now appear on every tab, and the close behavior is slightly different
  • Inline spell checking in text boxes (Works well, though apparently not on all sites yet)
  • Automatic restoration of your browsing session if there is a crash
  • Search suggestions now appear in the search box auto-complete for Google and Yahoo!
  • New search plugin manager for removing and re-ordering search engines
  • Improved support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds
  • New microsummaries feature for bookmarks (Really interesting new feature)
  • New Add-Ons manager improves the user interface for managing extensions and themes
  • Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions
  • New search service that supports Sherlock and OpenSearch engines
  • Support for SVG text using svg:textPath
A mouthful, I know. I typed this post using this development version (Bon Echo, as they call it) on Mac OS X and I have to say, it's nice so far. Of course, none of my extensions were compatible, and I highly recommend backing up your Firefox app support folder before testing this, no matter what OS you're using. When I tried the last Bon Echo development version, it rendered my support folder incompatible with the latest stable release of Firefox. Just another one of those hazards of playing with dev editions.

If you want more details of this release, check out its download page and Mozilla's release notes.

[via diggdot.us]

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Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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