OpenDNS to surf safely with a few tweaks

OpenDNS is a better DNS service. It makes your Internet safer, faster, smarter and more reliable. It's free, and there's nothing to download. OpenDNS offers DNS resolution for consumers and businesses as an alternative to using their Internet service provider's DNS servers. By placing company servers in strategic locations and employing a large cache of the domain names, OpenDNS usually processes queries much more quickly,[1] thereby increasing page retrieval speed. DNS query results are sometimes cached by the local operating system and/or applications, so this speed increase may not be noticeable with every request, but only with requests that are not stored in a local cache. OpenDNS is not, as its name might seem to imply, open source software.


Type :DNS Resolution Service
Founded :2005
Headquarters :San Francisco, California
Key people :Nand Mulchandani (CEO) David Ulevitch (Founder & CTO)
Employees :20
Website :www.opendns.com

When you type a domain name, the conversion to an IP address goes through OpenDNS instead to your ISP's server in converting domain names. OpenDNS uses a global network of servers that can be redirected in case of overload or failure which eliminate the intermittent server outages that many broadband subscribers experience. OpenDNS claims to resolve requests quicker than the DNS servers of most ISPs, which means pages should load faster. As a defense against Web-based malware attacks it is second to none.

By filtering the URL requests that come to you through its servers, OpenDNS can block your browser from surfing to phishing sites and other kinds of undesirable content. The service also corrects typos you make, such as google.cmo, and lets you create URL shortcuts for quick access to the sites you visit most often. OpenDNS is currently beta-testing a new SmartCache feature that loads the last known-good address for a Web site, even if its nameserver is offline. This kind of outage can happen due to distributed denial of service attacks. With SmartCache, OpenDNS users can access these sites even though other Internet users cannot.

Setting up OpenDNS:


Create an account on OpenDNS.com. for without an account you're stuck using the default preferences. An account means you are in full control to to access a VPN (virtual private network) or Windows Home Server, take advantage of OpenDNS's powerful filtering options, add more to block sites in such categories as pornography, illegal downloads, social networking, or video sharing in PhishTank list to block phishing sites.

Set up a free account at OpenDNS.com and sign up. Change the DNS servers in your router to two OpenDNS-controlled IP addresses: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. Customize your OpenDNS settings via the service's Dashboard. To customize OpenDNS for a typical home PC user, you would first add your home network using the Networks tab. By configuring OpenDNS in your router and adding your home network, you can protect all your computers and network devices — including smartphones that connect via Wi-Fi — with the same account settings. If you use multiple networks, you can add them all under the same account. When you travel, you can change the DNS settings for your laptop's Wi-Fi and Ethernet adapters to connect to OpenDNS directly, rather than relying on your home network to make the connection. Instructions for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers are available on the OpenDNS Change DNS settings page. (It's fine to use both computer and router OpenDNS at the same time.) Next, click the Settings tab to choose and customize your Web-filtering preferences. You can also create custom lists of allowed and blocked sites, regardless of the level of protection you select. Click Settings, Advanced Settings. The OpenDNS Advanced Settings page lets you customize your use of the proxy service. This is where you can add your VPN or Web server, activate the SmartCache feature, and enable dynamic IP updating — which is particularly useful for travelers. To reach a VPN or corporate intranet domain, or to access such resources as network printers and network shares, you have two options. For home networks, simply add a "Domain typo exception" in the name of your VPN server or network domain; for example, vpn.mycompany.com. Together with dynamic IP updating, this solves a problem with remote access and Windows Home Server. If you're already running a local DNS server such as Windows Server 2008 with Active Directory, your second option is to forward only external DNS requests to the OpenDNS servers and continue to resolve local domains locally. In this case, you update the external DNS settings to OpenDNS on your server, not in your router or client computers. People who rely on a dynamic IP address from their ISP or who travel frequently can download and install the OpenDNS Updater, which is available on the OpenDNS Support page.

Try OpenDNS's speed claims with the handy DNS Performance Test from Silverwolf's Auditorium once you've got it configured properly. Run the test on your regular ISP's DNS servers and on OpenDNS's servers.

Even if you find a small performance deficit from OpenDNS, the minor slowdown should be evaluated against the security and reliability benefits OpenDNS can bring. If you find a larger difference, this may argue against using OpenDNS from your area. In that case, you can also try DNS Advantage, a similar service from NeuStar. DNS Advantage is still under development but will soon be adding site-blocking and typo-correction services similar to those offered by OpenDNS.


OpenDNS directs you to a search page, which contains advertising that supports the servic if there's no easy match when a user types a domain name that doesn't exist is an OpenDNS feature. Few Internet services as useful as OpenDNS are truly free and as long as the ads don't get in the way this is a small price to pay.

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Vista Services Optimizer

Vista Services Optimizer enables you to safely optimize Windows services based on how you use your computer. The program does not require any technical knowledge and provides easy to understand checkbox options to tune your system for your personal needs. It also includes a system restore feature that allows you to restore Windows service settings to their defaults at any time.

Publisher: Smart Pc Utilities, Ltd.
File Size: 1904 kb
Version: February 05, 2009 version 1.1.42.2 released.
License: Freeware
Windows: Windows Vista x64
Requirements: .NET Framework 3

* Vista Services Optimizer is a free and perfect tweaking utility that can improve your Windows Vista Performance and security with a simple mouse click, by tweaking Windows services in an automatic and a very safe way according to the way you use your computer and which software are installed on your system.


* Vista Services Optimizer also enables you to tweak Windows Vista services manually for advanced users who need more control over Windows services in an easy and safe way.
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2009 Windows Utility Guide

2009 Windows Utility Guide
Check out the biggest collection of time-saving utilities for Windows XP, vista, and even Win 7 ever assembled. The best part? Most of them are free.

AppeArAnce BumpTop www.Bumptop.com Make your Windows desk- top look like a regular three-dimensional desk, complete with piles (repre- senting fles) you can toss around or fip through and walls you can stick things to. Works with Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Free; Pro edition, $29 Minime www.saphua.com/blog/?page_id=18 Minime minimizes all windows to the System Tray with a single hotkey. Plus it hides them behind a single icon, which you can then click for a menu of what’s running. Free Nimi visuals www.mynimi.net This portable app (no installation required, just run the EXE fle) gives Windows visual effects similar to those found on Mac OS or Linux add-on Compiz, including better trans- parency, sparkles, blurred backgrounds, and more. Nimi Visuals is fun, albeit not useful, and best run on very fast systems. Free QTTabBar qttabbar.wikidot.com Did you fall in love with tabs in your Web browser? Add the feature to Windows Explorer and fall in love all over again. Free Taskbar Shuffe nerdcave.webs.com Portable and simple, Taskbar Shuffe does one thing: It lets you move around the but- tons for open applications usually found on the Windows taskbar. Free TrayIt! www.teamcti.com/trayit/trayit.htm This lightweight, portable app installs a Sys- tem Tray icon that lists the programs run- ning on your PC; that’s where you’ll access them when minimized, rather than on the taskbar, saving valuable real estate. Free ObjectDesktop www.stardock.com Give XP or Vista a whole new look. This col- lection includes WindowBlinds for new skins, DesktopX for building widgets, DeskScape animated wallpaper, and more; the Ultimate version adds ObjectBar for customizing your desktop and TweakVista, which does just what it says. $39.95; Ultimate, $69.95 UBitMenu www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages Do you love Microsoft Office 2007 but hate the ribbon interface that replaced the menus of yore? UBitMenu puts the drop- downs back in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, just as they appeared in Offce 2003. Switch back and forth from menus to ribbon when- ever you want. Free; $13.50 for businesses vista Start Menu www.vistastartmenu.com Vastly improve the look of the Start Menu in Windows and get faster access to just about all aspects of the OS with this replacement menu tool. It’s also accessible from the sys- tem tray. Free; Pro edition, $19.99 Winroll www.palma.com.au/winroll Right-click the title bar of any window and you can roll the window inside of it, and do the same to all open windows at the same time. Free BAckup/Sync BackUp Maker www. ascomp.de/index.php?php= prog&prog=backupmaker This simple interface might make all the difference for average users saving their data. It sends fles to another drive (including USB drives), a CD/DVD, or an FTP site. It also handles fle restoration if you lose something. Works with Windows 7. Free Carbonite Carbonite.com Carbonite monitors important files and backs them up online for future restoration, should you need it. It also provides remote fle access, so you can access your data from any computer. $54.95 per year for unlimited space Cucku Backup www.cucku.com Why back up to extra storage or online when you can stash fles with friends? This social-backup tool sends encrypted files to storage you share on your buddies’ PCs using Skype’s fle transfer abilities (without Skype, Cucku handles only local storage). You, of course, should share back. Free DriveImage XML www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm This utility will create a disk image even while the PC is in use (using Microsoft’s Vol- ume Shadow Services feature). Later you can restore a drive entirely, or browse that image to retrieve select fles. Free Dropbox www.getdropbox.com The darling of the world of online sync is Dropbox: Put all your fles in the My Drop- box folder and they’re immediately stored online; set up the software on other com- puters (even Macs and Linux PCs) and the fles synchronize whenever changed. Free for up to 2GB; Pro plan, $9.99 per month or $99 per year for 50GB Dimio's Tools hDhacker dimio.altervista.org/eng On start-up, your PC looks for the master boot record (MBR), typically the frst sec- tor in the frst partition of the disk. The MBR reads the partition table that tells your PC where the OS is—it’s essential to booting properly, in other words. Make sure your PC’s MBR is backed up so the PC is always bootable. HDHacker will back up and restore the MBR instantly when you’re in Windows. Free Mozyhome mozy.com/home Running completely in the background, MozyHome monitors folders you specify, and when all is idle on your PC, it backs up those fles into the cloud. Dead simple. Free for 2GB; $4.95 a month for unlimited space OffiSync - Enabling Collaboration If you’re a big user of Google Docs and Apps but can’t get away from Microsoft Offce (or vice versa), OffSync combines both worlds. Manage and open all your Google Docs fles from Office apps, and store all new Office documents online so you can access them anywhere with Google Docs. Free SyncToy 2.0 A Windows XP PowerToy that also works fne with Vista, SyncToy does a good job of making sure folders on your system are syn- chronized with their counterparts on exter- nal drives or network-attached storage. Free SyncBackSE www.2brightsparks.com A perennial fave, SyncBackSE is the mid- range uti l ity in 2BrightSparks’ l ine of backup tools, complete with fle versioning, smart two-way sync between folders, auto- start at log-in, and more. If you want even more features, like backup to single or mul- tiple CDs or DVDs, try the Pro version. $30; Pro version, $49.95 compreSSion 7-Zip 7-zip.org Compress fles in ZIP or 7z format (and get AES-256 encryption), and get support to compact or unpack formats from CAB to RAR. Free PortableApps.com AppCompactor If you like running apps from a USB flash drive but your drive doesn’t have lots of room, turn to the AppCompactor. This pro- gram will compress apps as much as pos- sible (how much varies depending on the app) to fit your drive and still function. Free SecureZIP Desktop www.pkware.com This PCMag.com Editors’ Choice is all about the ZIP format, because it’s from the cre- ators of the ZIP format. It does everything an archive manager should, such as inte- grating with MS Offce and Outlook. $39.95 DiSk utilitieS Defraggler www.defraggler.com Why defragment an entire drive? Defraggler is one of the few tools that allow drag-and- drop of individual fles or folders for defrag work. Free for home or business Easeus Partition Master home Edition www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm Resize, copy, or create new disk partitions from within Windows (2000 up to Vista, 32-bit only with Home Edition). It can con- vert existing partitions from FAT to NTFS on drives up to 1.5 terabytes in size. Free for home use FileAlyzer www.safer-networking.org/en/flealyzer Learn just about every property of fles on your system when FileAlyzer analyzes them. Seriously, it’s a lot of info. Free DiSplAyS Edgeless www.fxc.btinternet.co.uk/assistive.htm Why let the cursor stop at the edge of your display? Edgeless lets it wrap from one side to the other, even when using multiple mon- itors. Free Fences www.stardock.com/products/fences Easily unclutter your desktop shortcuts and icons with Fences. It groups the items on your desktop into transparent containers you can hide or unhide at will. Works with Windows 7, too. Free MaxTo www.maxto.net On a big monitor with a lot of screen real estate, it just doesn’t make sense to run every application full-screen. MaxTo seg- ments a display into regions so that you can easily tile windows as you see ft. It works with Windows 7. Free Maxivista www.maxivista.com Turn your laptop (or any second computer with a monitor) into a second monitor for your main system. What you’re really doing is controlling as many as four computers on your network using one keyboard and one mouse, to extend your primary computer’s desktop space. (Issues with Vista and Win- dows 7 are still being worked out.) Free 14- day trial, then $29.95 Powerresizer Dock windows to the edges of the screen, and when you resize them with Power- Resizer, they stay docked. If you put the windows side by side or atop each other, dragging one to resize will also resize the other so they never overlap. Free Switcher insentient.net Exposé on the Mac instantly shows you the desktop, or all your open windows in vari- ous views, when you invoke a keystroke. Switcher brings that same function to Win- dows, and it works with a multi-monitor setup. The utility runs only on Vista, how- ever. Free DisplayFusion www.binaryfortress.com Give each of your moni- tors its own Windows taskbar or wallpaper, span one long wallpaper across displays, move windows to new screens with a single click, and more. DisplayFusion is ready to work with Win- dows 7. Free UltraMon www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon UltraMon is all about multiple monitors: It adds icons to title bars to make moving win- dows from one screen to another faster (no dragging), creates shortcuts that open pro- grams on the monitor you prefer, and puts separate wallpaper images or screensavers on each display. And there are even more tools to handle all that real estate. $39.95 virtuaWin virtuawin.sourceforge.net Add up to nine virtual desktops to your sys- tem, on computers running Windows 98 all the way up to Vista. Access the other desk- tops via an icon in the system tray. Free WinSplit revolution winsplit-revolution.com Split your big screen into multiple smaller “monitors.” Drag program windows around with the mouse while holding Ctrl-Alt to bring up a shaded area—that’s the grid section that the window will snap to when released. If there are multiple targets, pick one with the mouse scroll wheel. Free encryption File & Folder Unlocker A locked file on Windows isn’t encrypted, but it can be a pain to work with. Unlocker will change files from locked to unlocked so you can manipulate them again without getting errors. Free See also Unlocker FreeOTFE www.freeotfe.org OTFE stands for “on-the-fly encryption,” and that’s just what FreeOTFE does, cre- ating a virtual disk where copied files are instantly encrypted and stored. It’s portable and works on thumb drives, and FreeOTFE has its own Explorer to access encrypted fles without installing software. Free TrueCrypt www.truecrypt.org A granddaddy in disk-encryption software TrueCrypt will encode an entire drive—even a thumb drive—for security in real-time Wizard software provides help with deci- sions like how big the virtual drive should be (just one fle or the whole hard disk). Free See also Maintain XP well until Windows 7 arrives My Lockbox www.fspro.net/my-lockbox This utility locks down or hides a special folder, not just from snoops on the same PC (even those with admin privileges) but also from any kind of remote access, all with a single password. Free erase and delete Autodelete Set time limits for folders on your drive and Autodelete will automatically delete files that are too old. It’s great for getting rid of older backup archives taking up space. Free Darik’s Boot And Nuke www.dban.org Download DBAN, write the software to a bootable CD, and then use the disc to com- pletely and utterly erase the contents of a hard drive. After that, those files will never come back. Free DeleteOnClick Rather than send an unwanted file to the recycle bin for “deletion”—where it can potentially be recovered—this utility securely deletes the space the fle took up, making it impossible for you to get it back. Free DoubleKiller www.bigbangenterprises.de/en/doublekiller Remove duplicate files across your local and network drives, including pictures and music. DoubleKiller compares size, name, date, and content to see what fles may be a bit too similar. The Pro version supports multiple languages and can search on extra criteria. Free; Pro edition, $19.95 Download DoubleKiller Pro 2.1.0.104 Images IrfanView www.irfanview.com A compact classic dating back to 1996, Irfan- View can view any kind of image thrown at it (some video and audio too), plus convert and edit it. Free See Also Unable to open PSD files in Photoshop JPEGsnoop impulseadventure.com/photo/jpeg-snoop.html Wondering if that beautiful-looking JPG fle you’re viewing is an original right off the digital camera? JPEGsnoop looks at the metadata inside to see if the file has been modifed, and if so, how it’s changed. Free RIOT luci.criosweb.ro/riot Radical Image Optimization Tool (RIOT) reduces image size—not the dimensions, but the actual fle size. Smaller GIFs, JPGs, and PNGs on Web pages mean faster load times. RIOT will display old and new side by side for comparison. It’s also an IrfanView plug-in. Free Fotosizer www.fotosizer.com Three steps are all it takes: Pick a bunch of digital photos, select resize settings, and let it rip. All the images are reduced, replacing the original images or duplicating the source, as specifed. Free networking Comodo EasyvPN easy-vpn.comodo.com Secure the connection between you and other computers with this simple-to-install virtual private network. Free for personal use GoToMyPC www.gotomypc.com We all know this one: GoToMyPC makes connecting to a PC remotely almost as easy as using it live. Download the free trial to access one PC for 30 days. $19.95 per month to access one PC, $29.95 per month to access two PCs Leaf for Windows www.leafnetworks.net Get ready for peer-to-peer network shar- ing, to stay connected to your network on the road (even through Facebook), share data with friends, or even set up Xbox and Xbox360 consoles for head-to-head games. Leaf’s client is free for Windows, and coming soon to Linux. Free LogMeIn hamachi secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/vpn.asp With LogMeIn Hamachi, you can put mul- tiple remote computers on a virtual private network (VPN) so that they all appear to be in the same building—perfect for remotely sharing fles. With the free version, one user can join 256 Hamachi networks, each of them able to handle 16 users; networks can handle 50 users if registered with the Pro version. Free; commercial license, $4.95 per month per PC orgAnizAtion Advanced renamer aren.hulubulu.net There are eight different ways to create batch-renaming jobs for your files with Advanced Renamer, including adding extra characters, changing the case of letters in the flenames, and changing the fles’ attri- butes and timestamps; it also supports ID3 functions to work with MP3 audio fles. Free everything you can imagine doing in Win- dows, using prearranged keystrokes and mouse clicks or just about any input button. Free Autohotkey www.autohotkey.com Set up macros to automate just about everything you can imagine doing in Win- dows, using prearranged keystrokes and mouse clicks or just about any input button. Free See also HotKicks ( Hotkey Utility ) CubicExplorer www.cubicreality.com/ce This file viewer and Windows Explorer replacement is portable and relatively uncomplicated, supporting tabs for multi- ple browsing sessions to take place at once. Free Free Commander www.Free commander.com Get dual panes of data (side by side or stacked) with this Windows Explorer replacement, plus features like FTP, tabs, fi le-renaming tools, and compressed archive support. Free Gladinet www.gladinet.com Get access to your online files—such as those in Google Docs or Windows Live Sky- drive—as if they’re stored locally. Gladinet mounts the services like network drives that are accessed from Windows Explorer. Free (for now) Portable Snowbird lmadhavan.com/software/snowbird Snowbird is built for speed as well as porta- bility (run it from a USB flash drive on any Windows system). The main window has the typical tree on the left, breadcrumbs at the top, and a list of recently visited files—but what it lacks in features it makes up for in performance. Free xplorer2 zabkat.com/x2lite.htm You want two panes of fle listings, a folder tree, tabs, and FTP access? That’s just the beginning with this longtime favorite Win- dows Explorer replacement. The free version also comes in a portable version. Pro adds individual folder settings, “hyperfilters,” scrap containers, duplicate cleanup, and more. Free; professional version, $29.95 recover AnD reStore AntiFreeze www.resplendence.com/antifreeze We all know the Ctrl-Alt-Delete salute to get out of a borked computer (or to get to the running processes list and kill an offending program). But AntiFreeze may offer a bet- ter way. It waits in the background for trou- ble, and when called, it displays all running processes, suspending most without killing them until necessary. Free GoneIn60s www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index .html#GoneIn60s If you closed an application within the last minute, you can open it up again without los- ing anything by right-clicking the icon in the system tray—but only if your PC is already running GoneIn60s. Free (donationware) UndeletePlus www.undelete-plus.com No matter the volume type (FAT12 on up to NTFS5), UndeletePlus promises to restore fles you’ve junked but want back. Great fl- tering makes it easy to fnd one fle among the many you’ve deleted. Free trial, then $29.95 per year Download Portable_Undelete_Plus_2.96 recuva www.recuva.com Pronounced “recover” (what accent are they using?), Recuva has one goal: to bring back fles you accidentally trashed (or that were trashed by crashes and other errors) using a simple-to-grasp interface. Free (donation- ware) Screen cApture FastStone Capture www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm Capture and annotate whatever is on your screen with this little toolbar, then send it to a fle, printer, e-mail, Web site via FTP, or to another application (like Word or Power- Point). $19.95 SiteShoter www.nirsoft.net/utils/web_site_screenshot.html Good in any version of Windows from XP to 7, SiteShoter works with IE to take grabs of entire Web pages, even the areas you’d have to scroll because they aren’t visible on screen. Free SnagIt www.techsmith.com TechSmith (which is also behind Jing, next page) has upped the price of SnagIt by $10 this year, but this perennial PCMag favorite is worth the money. Version 9 is completely rewritten and includes new features like a live preview, a mini-toolbar (like the one for formatting selections in Word 2007), an software stamps you can slap into capture images. 30-day free trial, then $49.95 SeArch Copernic Desktop Search www.copernic.com An old hand at indexing and searching your fles, Copernic continues to look inside 150 different types of files so you can search their contents. Now you can search the Web via the same interface, and even make Copernic a default Web search engine. Free; Professional version, $49.99 Everything www.voidtools.com For NTFS drives only, this program promises to search, well, everything, and fast. Really fast. It’s for NTFS format only because it uses the drivers for the hard drive to create its index. It also comes in a portable version, and will work with Windows 7. Free Jing www.jingproject.com You can do more than take a picture of your screen and annotate it with Jing; it will also record video of actions you take on the computer. Using social networking to show people how to do stuff on the PC, it integrates quick ways to share your captures via IM, e-mail, or on a blog. Free Google Desktop desktop.google.com Integrate your Web searches with your hard- disk searches, throw in a gadget engine for the thousands of widgets available for iGoogle, and you’ve got a four-star product. Free ShutDown/Boot Edison www.verdiem.com/edison.aspx A truly green utility, Edison helps you adjust the power settings and schemes for XP SP2 and Vista, so your hard drive, monitors, and CPU all power down after a certain amount of inactivity. It will also calculate how much you’ll save, in money and energy. Free Marxio Timer www.marxio-tools.net/en/marxio-timer.htm Marxio Timer can perform any action (or actions) you preset for a select time, every- thing from shutting down to logging off to hibernating to displaying text to running a program. It can even simulate the press of a specifc key on the keyboard, or take a screen grab, or grabs, one after the other. Free WinPatrol 2009 winpatrol.com WinPatrol does a lot—it is a security monitor alerting you to changes you may not have made, and it even comes in a (slightly less powerful) portable version. Where it excels is in assisting your Windows system at start- up, delaying or deactivating processes as you see ft. Free; Plus edition, $29.95 SyStem cleAnerS CCleaner www.ccleaner.com It’s no secret that the first C in this program stands for “crap,” and that’s exactly what it goes after, in the browser, the Registry, and all the other spots in Windows where fotsam like temp fles and log fles accumulates. Its creator, Piriform, updates the app frequently and promises it is malware-free. Free Little registry Cleaner sourceforge.net/projects/littlecleaner Another portable tool for the USB fash drive arsenal, this app checks the Registry for unneeded items and cleans them—a must for tackling your family’s and friends’ com- puter issues. It also has options for speeding start-up and creating restore points. Free Norton removal Tool service1.symantec.com/support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/ 2005033108162039?Open&docid=2004030411260104 Symantec’s Norton products are super- popular but not always perfect. Getting rid of one to try a different security suite is so hard with the built-in Windows tools that even Symantec had to admit it and built this tool with only one job: Uninstall Nor- ton 2003 to 2009, and a few other titles like SystemWork and Norton 360. Free SyStem monitorS WinDirStat windirstat.info Need to know how much space on your disk is in use, and what’s using it? Win- dows Directory Statistics (WinDirStat) eliminates the guesswork, providing mul- tiple views—including some graphically beautiful color- coded views—that spell it out for you. Free Disk Usage Analyzer www.extensoft.com/?p=free_disk_analyzer This program does one thing: It creates a list of all the fles on your hard disks and tells you which are taking up the most room. Put it to use when running out of disk space, to quickly determine what should get tossed, or at least given permanent berth on a backup drive. Free FreeMeter www.tiler.com/freemeter When monitoring performance, your per- formance monitor should not impact per- formance. FreeMeter’s 888KB free version fills the bill, looking at drive space, CPU usage, memory usage, system up time and five more stats; the Pro version has 19 different monitors. Free; Pro version, $22.95 Process Explorer technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653 .aspx This extra from Microsoft is a major step up from the Windows built-in Task Manager, especially for power users. Rather than just show processes alone, it also displays han- dles or DLLs in use by that process. Use the search to fnd problem areas, or to skip out to Google and look up what a listed process does. Once you’ve downloaded it, it’s fully portable, or you can run it right from the Web. Free SpyMe Tools www.lcibrossolutions.com/spyme_tools.htm Sometimes things happen to the Windows Registry that shouldn’t—such as changes made by malware. SpyMe dumps a copy of the Registry from before and after a change, so you can restore the older version if you detect something amiss. It’ll also make Reg- stry backups. Free Xinorbis freshney.org/xinorbis You can analyze one folder, one drive, or multiples—even network drives—in a single eport. What you get is graphs galore, all of which can be saved for report comparison at a later date. Free tweAkerS Game Booster www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html Get more out of your game by making it the most important thing on your computer. Game Booster will do that by temporar- ily shutting down background processes, cleaning up leaky RAM, and giving the game processor priority. Works with Win 7. Free Ultimate Windows Tweaker www.winvistaclub.com/uwtf.html Ready to tweak Windows 7? So is Ultimate Windows Tweaker, building on the vast array of what it can do for Vista and the IE Web browser. Free XdN Tweaker xenomorph.net It doesn’t offer as many tweaks as the paid tweak tools, but XdN makes up for it with a price that can’t be beat. It requires Windows .NET to run on XP; .NET is a given with Vista and Windows 7, both of which XdN sup- ports. Free upDAterS Filehippo Update Checker www.flehippo.com/updatechecker Run this utility once in a while and it will compare installed apps against the vast collection at FileHippo.com, even against updates still in beta. The results come up in a Web page where you can download new versions to install. Free Update Notifier cleansofts.org/view/update-notifier.html Linux users know the joys of having not only their OS kept up to date, but also third-party software that never gets old. Windows users have to work at that. Update Notifer helps: When a new version of a third-party program you’re running becomes available, it makes it easy for you to download and install it. Free uninStAllerS PC Decrapifer www.pcdecrapifer.com If you got a new PC at retail, chances are it came preinstalled (read: bogged down) with extra unwanted and unneeded soft- ware. PC Decrapifier should be the first item you install, as it knows what to look for on those PCs and deletes them, en masse. Free remove Empty Directories www.jonasjohn.de/lab/red.htm Afraid you’ve got a bunch of empty folders on your Windows system? You won’t have them after this utility has its way. (Just don’t delete any temp directories needed by your other programs.) Free Revo Uninstaller Maybe the perfect replacement for Win- dows’ own uninstaller list, Revo chucks programs with the usual built-in uninstall routine, but follows up with a check of the hard drive and the Registry for anything left behind. It comes in a portable version for USB fash drives. Free Virtual PCs Portable Ubuntu portableubuntu.demonccc.com.ar Want to try Ubuntu? Install a full-blown ver- sion of the popular Linux distro as an applica- tion within Windows. It can even be installed on a USB fash drive, so it can be your porta- ble OS—any changes you make to Portable Ubuntu stick with it. Windows will just treat it like any other application. Free Returnil Virtual System 2008 Personal www.returnilvirtualsystem.com/returnil-virtual-sys- tem-personal If you have a system with XP, Vista, or 2003 server, you can mirror it completely on the same system, entirely in system mem- ory. Why do that? So your software runs entirely on the virtualized side. If some- thing goes wrong, your primary installation is still okay. It’s a great way to experiment with software you might otherwise be ner- vous about. Free for personal use VirtualBox www.virtualbox.org Install open-source VirtualBox on just about any OS that runs on x86 chips (even Mac, Linux, and OpenSolaris) and you can run a “guest” OS inside it—including those above plus Windows NT, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7. It’ll even load a 64-bit OS inside a 32-bit host OS. Free for personal use Source: PC Magazine, July 2009

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The Economist Series 2

See latest
The Economist - 16 July 2011
The Economist - 9 July 2011
The Economist - 2 July 2011
The Economist - 25 June 2011
The Economist - 18 June 2011
The Economist - 11 June 2011
The Economist - 4 June 2011
The Economist - 30 April 2011
The Economist - 23 April 2011
The Economist - 9 April 2011
The Economist - 2 April 2011
The Economist - 19 March 2011
The Economist - 12 March 2011
The Economist - 26 February 2011
The Economist - 12 February 2011
The Economist - 05 February 2011
The Economist - 29 January 2011
The Economist - 22 January 2011
The Economist - 15 January 2011
The Economist - 08 January 2011
The Economist - 01 January 2011- at external link.

* Latest Entry updated at 31 Oct-09
for The Economist Print edition August 1 to October 31st. The Economist is a weekly news and international affairs publication owned by “The Economist Newspaper Ltd” and edited in London, UK. It has been in continuous publication since September 1843. Although printed in London, in the USA (where it is largely sold) this publication is reputed to be the best in its field.


If you have ZoneAlarm Security Suite & download links access problem, see here.



*Print edition October 31st
Mirror 1
Mirror 2
Falling Fertility
How the population problem is solving itself


*Print edition October 24th
Mirror 1
Mirror 2
The Odd Couple
A 14-page special report on China and America

*Print edition October 17th 2009
Mirror 1
Mirror 2
Obama's War
Why Afghanistan needs more troops

*Print edition October 10th 2009
Mirror 1
Mirror 2
Eight wasted years. Two useless treaties. Three no votes.
Ignored by China and America. But still the world's biggest economy.
Will somebody please.....
Wake Europe Up!!

*Print editionOctober 3rd 2009
After the storm
The new economic landscape
will be grim unless
policymakers act to foster
growth.

*Print edition September 26th 2009
The power of mobile money
Mobile phones have
transformed lives in the poor
world. Mobile money could
have just as big an impact.

*Print edition September 19th 2009
Vandalism
A protectionist move that is
bad politics, bad economics,
bad diplomacy and hurts
America. Did we miss
anything?.


*Print edition September 12th 2009
Wall Street
Wall Street and the City of
London survived thanks to
state support. Now they need
to be weaned off it.


*Print edition 5th September 2009
The vote that changed
Japan
The electorate has thrown
out not just a party but a
whole system.

*Print edition August 29th 2009
Big is back
Corporate giants were on the
defensive for decades. Now
they have the advantage
again.

*Print edition August 22nd 2009
Afghanistan
To stop the country sliding out
of control, the West needs
more men and a better
strategy: leader.

*Print edition August 15th 2009
Asia's astonishing rebound
Asia's emerging economies are
leading the way out of
recession; now they must
make their recovery last.

*Print edition August 8th 2009
America's unjust sex laws
An ever harsher approach is
doing more harm than good,
but it is being copied around
the world.


*Print edition August 1st 2009
Crunch time
The next few weeks could
determine the fate of Barack
Obama's presidency.

*Print edition July 25th 2009
Waking from its sleep
A quiet revolution has begun
in the Arab world; it will be
complete only when the last
failed dictatorship is voted out

*Print edition July 18th 2009
What went wrong with economics
And how the discipline should
change to avoid the mistakes
of the past

* Print edition July 11th 2009
America's future
An intriguing, much more
equal rivalry out West. But
both California and Texas can
learn from each other


* Print edition July 4th 2009
Welcome to Moscow
Paranoid, mischievous and
heading in the wrong direction,
Russia is an awkward prospect
for Barack Obama.

* Print edition June 27th 2009
This is going to hurt
Barack Obama was elected in
part to fix America's health-
care system. Now is the time
for him to keep his word.

* Print edition June 20th 2009
Iran rises up
It looks increasingly as though
the government will have to
crack down or back down.

* Print edition June 13th 2009
Debt
The right and wrong ways to
deal with the rich world's fiscal
mess.


* Print edition June 6th 2009
The lessons for America and the car industry from the biggest industrial collaspe ever.
The sorry tale of General Motors. The plight of blue-collar America.


* Print edition May 30th 2009
Business in America
In his zeal to fix capitalism,
Barack Obama must not stifle
America's dynamism.

Related article The Economist Series 1

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How to Import Firefox Bookmarks into Safari 4 Beta in Windows

Safari 4 beta has no option to import bookmarks from IE or Firefox during the installation process.


Easy way to import Firefox bookmarks into the Safari 4 beta:

In Firefox:

Click on Bookmarks
Click on ‘Organize Bookmarks’ (Ctrl-Shift-B)
Click on ‘Export HTML…’ under the ‘Import and Backup’ pull-down menu



Firefox will generate a ‘bookmarks.html’ file and ask you where to save it
Save it to the Desktop
In Safari 4 Beta:

If your menu bar is hidden, click on the ‘preferences cog’ on the top right and select ‘Show Menu Bar’
Click File
Click ‘Import Bookmarks…’
Select the ‘bookmarks.html’ file from your Desktop
The Firefox bookmarks will then import into Safari
Click on the ‘Bookmarks’ icon on the top left of Safari to see the imported bookmarks. They will listed under the heading called ‘imported [date]’ where date is the date you imported them on. You can rename this as you see fit.

The Firefox bookmark toolbar imported is however at the bottom of your imported bookmarks list under the heading ‘Bookmarks Toolbar’. You can drag and drop each item in the ‘Bookmarks Toolbar’ heading to Safari’s bookmark toolbar. This works for individual links as well as bookmark folders. This import process will be static & manual until xmarks comes out with a Safari 4 plugin for Windows for the imported bookmarks.

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