Windows Repair and Tech Support Software

Piriform’s Recuva finds and recovers files that were deleted from your computer’s hard drive, digital camera memory cards and MP3 players.

Description: Piriform makes some great software (including ccleaner) and I have used it on many computers. I’ve never had anything from Piriform crash, freeze, or act unreliably. Recuva has an interface that is simple to use. All you have to do is use the wizard that first shows up when you open the program.

Compatibility: Windows 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP and XP 64, 2003, Vista 32 and 64

Necessary Info: Here’s how you use it:

1. Download and install Recuva on your computer.
2. Open the program and at the first screen click “Next”.
3. Choose the type of files you want to recover and click “Next”.
4. Choose where you want to look for the missing files and click “Next”.
5. Click “Next”. It will now start scanning in 2 stages.
6. When it has completed the scan, you will be presented with the files that can be recovered.
7. Click in the check-box of the files that you want to recover and click “Recover”.
8. It will now ask you where you want to recover the file to.You should use another drive to recover the files to because if you write them to the same drive, you could rewrite over some of the files that you want to recover.
9. Choose your location and click “Ok”. Recuva will now restore your files to the location that you specified.

To go backwards just a bit… Once you have the list of files, you can sort the files by name, path (the file’s original location), when it was last modified, the file’s size or it’s state (how likely it is to be fully recovered). This last one, the file’s state, is extremely important. You can easily see how likely you are to get your file back. Recuva has  4 “State” listings, Unrecoverable, Very Poor, Poor, and Excellent. If you only want to see the files with an excellent chance of recovey, click on “State” and scroll towards the top.

Here are some of Recuva’s features as listed on filehippo.com.

• Easy to use filter for results based on file name/type
• Simple Windows like interface with List and Tree view
• Can be run from a USB thumb drive
• Restores all types of files, office documents, images, video, music, email, anything.
• Supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5 , NTFS + EFS file systems
• Restores files from removable media (SmartMedia, Secure Digital, MemoryStick, Digital cameras, Floppy disks, Jaz Disks, Sony Memory Sticks, Compact Flash cards, Smart Media Cards, Secure Digital Cards, etc.)
• Restores files from external ZIP drives , Firewire and USB Hard drives
• It’s fast, tiny and takes seconds to run!

PROs: It recovers your deleted files, is easy to use and does it for free.

CONs: None in my experience.

Rating:

Recuva: Download free software HERE.

Thanks,
Tim

written by Tim \\ tags: 5 Thumbs-Up, Free Software, Hard Drive, Tech Support Software

Piriform’s CCleaner (short for Crap Cleaner, literally.) cleans up your hard drive as well as your registry and keeps your PC clean.

Description: After achieving over 200 million downloads, you would have to think a software is pretty darn good, right? I have used it on many computers and I’ve never had it crash, freeze, or act unreliably. With the features that it has and how well it functions, I have to say that CCleaner is worthy of the highest honor I can give it on this site. To see how many that is though, you’ll have to read (or skip) to the bottom of the post.

Compatibility: Windows 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP and XP 64, 2003, Vista 32 and 64

Necessary Info: CCleaner cleans the junk out of your different programs including:

• Internet Explorer - Temporary files, URL history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat.
• Firefox - Temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history.
• Opera - Temporary files, URL history, cookies.
• Windows - Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files.
• Registry cleaner - Advanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more… also comes with a comprehensive backup feature.
• Third-party applications - Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and many more…

PROs: It cleans all the junk listed above and does it for free.

CONs: I haven’t yet figured out which check-box prevents the software from removing my commonly used Start Menu Items. I should probably be more diligent in my search but up till now, I haven’t been. This is pretty minor!

Rating:

CCleaner: Download free software HERE.

Thanks,
The Free Downloadable Software Fan

written by Tim \\ tags: Computer Repair, Registry, Speed Up, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows XP

CrossLoop is a popular free free program for doing remote computer repair.

Description: CrossLoop is a great way to perform screen sharing for computer training and remote desktop services for computer repair over the internet.

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista and Apple OS X

Necessary Info: CrossLoop is a free software that MAY allow you to get free remote computer repair service. Some of the members do it for fun but others charge for their services. If your friend or neighbor is a computer guru, he will probably do it for free. Just tell him to get the free software. I have been using it for a number of months and I have to say that it really is great free software.

PROs:

• The CrossLoop software is extremely intuitive. The person receiving help gives the person providing help a 12 digit access code and they both click connect. Then after a few confirmations by the person receiving help and they are sharing their screen.
• The features are here and there are still more coming. You can easily transfer files from 1 PC to the other, chat with the other person, and it keeps track of how long your session was.
• The CrossLoop team is constantly working to make CrossLoop better and better. The updates are often on the server side and therefore you don’t have to upgrade your software every time there is a change. But when an upgrade is necessary, they will let you know.
• If you don’t have your own computer Guru, their Marketplace can point you to one that as the skills to solve your specific issue.

CONs:

• On occasion I have had the service become extremely slow and even crash. It is kind of like a cell phone, you are at the mercy of the service provider (the ISP, not CrossLoop) for your connection quality.

Rating:

Conclusion: I have used CrossLoop many times and I highly recommend it to everyone.

CrossLoop: Download free software HERE.

Thanks,
The Free Downloadable Software Fan

written by Tim \\ tags: Computer Repair, Free Software, OS X, Remote Desktop, Speed Up, Tech Support Software, Windows Repair Software, Windows XP

Daily Cup Of Tech’s DCoT Menu System is a computer repair kit on a flash drive.

Free Computer Repair Software

Description: The DCoT Menu System is a free menu system that enables you to use multiple free software applications. It was created to all you to carry them on your flash drive. It contains applications such as AutoRuns, TweakUI, CCleaner, Process Explorer and many more.

Compatibility: Many of these programs will work with Windows 2000, all will work with Windows XP and some will work with Windows Vista.

Necessary Info: This is a necessity for any computer tech and highly recommended for anyone who considers themselves a computer enthusiast. To use it, just follow these simple instructions.

1. Download it.
2. Unzip the files to a folder on your flash drive.
3. Click on the coffee-bean icon.
4. Choose which app to start with and click on it.

Included Programs: Active@ ISO Burner, AutoCompress, Brute Benchmark, CCleaner, CDmage, DriveImage XML, Double Killer, DTaskManager, encopy, Eraser, ERUNT, explore2fs, File Assassin, Filemon, Hash, HDDScan, ICE ECC, LC ISO Creator, LSASecretsView, NTREGOPT, Patcher, PMMon, ProcessExplorer, ProduKey, Regmon, Restoration, Roadkil’s CommTest, Roadkil’s Disk Image, Rootkit Revealer, SequoiaView, System Information for Windows, TweakUI, Universal Extract, Virtual CD Control Panel, What Changed?, Why Reboot?, WirelessKeyView.

PROs: With this portable software on your flash drive, you can speed up computers, free up extra hard drive space, burn CDs and DVDs, find rootkits, undelete files… The list goes on and on. I think you can see why I always keep this on my flash drive.

CONs: The software is out-dated. The last revision was done in 2006 but most of the programs are still as valid as they were 2 years ago…. Unless you have Vista. Then some of them  (Tweak UI) won’t work.

Rating:

Conclusion: Daily Cup Of Tech’s DCoT Menu System is a must-have software package because it combines a host of great portable computer repair utilities. If only it was updated more often (more than once), it would be perfect!

DCoT Menu System: Download free software HERE.

Thanks,
The Free Downloadable Software Fan

written by Tim \\ tags: 4 Thumbs-Up, Computer Repair, Portable, Speed Up, Tech Support Software, Windows Repair Software

EASEUS Partition Manager V2.1 is a very cool, free computer repair tool. It is difficult to find good, free partition software. Well, here it is.

Description: EASEUS Partition Manager allows you to resize and move your Hard Drive partitions which isn’t a huge deal. The fact that Partition Manager is free and it can resize and move partitions from within Windows. That is a big deal..

Free Partition Software

Compatibility - Free version: Windows 2000 and XP
Compatibility - Pay versions: Windows 2000, XP, XP 64, Vista 32 and 64, Server 2003

Necessary Info: This program is only free to home users running Windows XP Home or Pro. If you are a business or run Windows Vista, user you must pay for the program. Sorry but those are the license details.

This program has a nice user interface that is easy to navigate. You click on the partition that you want to resize and click the “Resize/Move” button. In the next window you choose how you want to resize or move the partition.

*Note: If you want to enlarge your C: drive, you will have to reduce the size of your D: drive partition. And be certain to move the D: drive partition to the end of the drive so you don’t have to do that in another action. This program takes some time!

Rating:

Conclusion: It resizes your partitions from within windows and does it well. That is almost unheard of! It worked so well that I actually bought the professional version to use with my Onsite Computer Repair company.

EASEUS Partition Manager: Download free software HERE.

Thanks,
The Free Downloadable Software Fan

written by Tim \\ tags: 5 Thumbs-Up, Computer Repair, Hard Drive, Tech Support Software, Windows 2000, Windows Repair Software, Windows XP