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

Open source, portable Mail Browser Backup does what it says

Windowsby Lee Mathews Sep 4th 2009


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.

Tags: backup, browser, email, instant messaging, InstantMessaging, preferences, restore, settings

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

NetSetMan Makes Managing Windows Network Settings Easy

Windowsby Lee Mathews Sep 15th 2008


If there's one thing I hate having to talk a user through over and over, it's how to change their IP settings in Windows (especially Vista).

NetSetMan provides a simpler way to manage these settings. It allows you to set up profiles for any number of networking situations. Need to hard code an IP or leave it up to DHCP? Alter your hostname and workgroup? Map a printer and network drive? Create a profile, and NetSetMan will tackle all those tasks with a couple of clicks next time.

The system tray icon provides quick access to profile switching, and mousing over it will give you a detailed heads up display of all the adapters in your system. It's a nice feature, especially on a machine with 4 nics - it gives me all the info I need about my adapters in a hurry.

It's free for private, personal use and 12€ for the Pro license, and a nice way for any stressed-out technician to avoid some annoying phone calls.

Tags: network-profile, networking, settings

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Windows Mobile, Web services, Google

Google Reader gets UI face lift, settings page

WindowsMacLinuxby David Chartier Jun 28th 2006


Google Reader has received a major UI overhaul and joined its sibling Google apps with the introduction of a full-blown "Settings" page. Users finally have a powerful management panel for their Subscriptions and Labels, allowing batch operations for deleting, renaming and shuffling subscriptions around. The Google Reader team even went so far as to allow you to toggle whether animations play when you're using gReader.


The face lift doesn't stop at Google Reader's settings and preferences though. There is a new Labels menu to accompany Subscriptions, and both are ripe with AJAX-y pull-down goodness. Gone is that clunky Subscriptions section that folds out; now they're both handy menus that allow you to chose single feeds or entire labels. But if you aren't a menu and mousing kind of reader, the translucent label selector you can access from a keyboard shortcut (g + l) is still present.

All in all this is a spectacular (and necessary) update to my personal favorite of the online newsreader offerings. Call me crazy, but I think this finally makes Google Reader feel like it has the necessary features to stack up to the competition - even though it's still in the Labs.

Tags: google, greader, labels, reader, rss, settings, subscriptions, UI, update, upgrade

Featured Time Waster

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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