Did I forget to mention that the ebook folder was really filled with a lot of titles? It must have had almost 120 ebooks. I almost started manually typing the names when I figured that there must be a less laborious way to print out the directory contents.

Printing directory contents seems so mundane an activity that we forget it has very useful applications in our day to day usage. Especially in a professional setting where you might be told to send over a list of so and so files about such and such subject. In a jiffy. If it’s a small bunch of files then manually writing it down is not a problem. But what if it numbers a few dozen?

Instead of searching for a poor flunky to lend a hand, you can just tap a few keys and get it for yourself. All in double quick time with a few methods.

So let’s work on not one but five ways to print folder and directory contents and get that file list.

Command DOS

This is one command line that’s easy to remember and easy to do.

1. Start the command prompt from Run – cmd. Type cd and the directory path of the folder you want to list.
2. Type dir > print.txt
3. Press Enter and exit from the DOS window.
4. Open the folder you wanted the listed file content for and you should see a print.txt file. This is a simple Notepad file that can be copied or printed easily.

Setting A Contextual Menu

A print directory feature can be added to the right-click context menu for a folder. This sends the folder content list directly to the printer. For Windows XP follow these steps:

1. Create a batch file in Notepad by pasting the following text
   

   @echo off
   dir %1 /-p /o:gn > “%temp%\Listing”
   start /w notepad /p “%temp%\Listing”
   del “%temp%\Listing”
   exit

2. Save the file as %windir%\Printdir.bat
   
3. Open Control Panel – Folder Options. Click on the File Types tab. Under the registered file types select the entry for Folder. Click on Advanced.
4. In the Edit File Type box, click on New. In the Action box, type Print Directory Listing. In the Application used to perform action box, type printdir.bat.
5. Click on OK and close all boxes.
6. Right-click on any folder and use the Print Directory Listing command to send the list to the printer.

The above instructions and those for Windows Vista can also be found on the Microsoft Help and Support page.

Software solutions introduce a lot of ease and flexibility to the above process. Here are three freeware apps for the listing job:

Karen’s Power Tool

Karen’s Directory Printer brings with it a GUI and rich features that let you print the name of files on your computer with the file’s size, extension, date and time of last modification, and attributes. Also, the list of files can be sorted by name, size, date created, date last modified, or date of last access. Files can also be selectively listed using a filter. Some limited formatting options and selective highlighting for executable files and macros are available.

Karen’s Directory Printer can be included in the right-click context menu. It also works for networked computers. The file list can be sent to the printer or saved as a text file.

Karen’s Directory Printer (v 5.3.1) is a 1.25MB download compatible with Windows XP and Vista.

Display it with Directory List & Print

Directory List & Print is a simpler and smaller solution to the earlier one. The generated lists can be copied to the clipboard and incorporated in other programs. It can be directly inserted into Word and Excel with a click as the data is separated by tabs allowing error free pasting directly into a program like Excel as a table. Along with the file attributes, the program can control the display of file names with or without file extensions. Sorting of the list and integration into the context menus make this a nice alternative to use.

Directory List & Print (v 1.9) does not need an installation which makes this 603KB software a portable solution. The freeware is compatible with Windows 98/2000/XP/Vista.

More Options with JR Directory Printer

This freeware comes in as an even smaller download of 173KB. Select the folder or directory to list, check the display options and click on start to get the list as a text file. The freeware supports lowercase/DOS style filename, file size in KB/bytes, attributes and custom file length. Though the freeware lacks the data control options of the previous applications, it’s a simple utility for a simple task. The download can be unzipped and used without an installation.

JR Directory Printer (v1.2) is compatible with Windows 95/98/2000/NT/ME/XP.

Windows may not have given us the ability to print out folder contents in a user friendly way. But thanks to the workarounds and the freeware, it’s actually a snap. Do you know any other utility to print the contents of a folder? Let us know your way if it differs from any of the above.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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• The 4 Proven Simple Tips to Organize Your Files on Windows (19)
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• How To Add & Remove Entries from The Windows Right-Click Menu (19)
• Windows Registry Tweaks (Part 2) (8)

That program is called Hard Drive Power Wash. Let’s check it out.

I started by downloading the free version of Hard Drive Power Wash from here. Using this application, I can schedule the clean up so it can be totally automated. You know set it and forget it.

Once you get this 2.05 MB file you will need to install it. Then you will see a screen that looks like this.

You can either run or analyze everything or hit the menu on the left for your options:

Let’s start running the Analyze process by hitting the analyze button at the bottom of the user interface. That will get the ball rolling. The program advises not to just start the Run process willy nilly because you should see what it is going to delete before it actually does it. It will look for and annihilate the following file types (per their website)

*._tm / *.1st / *.bak / *.nav / *.log / *.$$$ / *.old / *.prv / *.??~ / *.gid / *.tmp / *.syd / *.~* / *.~mp / *~.* / *.bk! / *.bk$ / *.bk4 / *.bk5 / *.bk6 / *.bk7 / *.bk8 / *.bk9 / *.bkp / *.$a / *.$db / *.&&& / *.— / *._dd / *._mp / *.chk / *.xlk / *.db$ / *.diz / *.dmp / *.err / *.ftg / *.fts / *.ilk / *.ncb / *.pch / *.sik / *.temp / chklist.* / mscreate.dir / pspbrwse.jbf / Thumbs.db

The process took some time to run and you will see its progress as it goes like so:

It continued to run for about another 7 minutes and then spat back this report at me:

Wow, I was surprised and impressed in the same breathe. It found a crap-load of files that after clicking through, seemed to be nothing that I needed. Look through each tab and scroll through the files before giving it the OK to kill them. They are all selected by default. You have buttons to select all or none at the bottom of your screen.

You will get your confirmation box alerting you that these files will really be deleted.

Hit Yes and watch as it deletes them. It runs through each segment like log files, images etc. and deletes each file. My internet files took almost 10 minutes to delete on their own. Can you imagine how much crap was in there? When its done you will see a the first screen again now populated with your results. I got rid of a whopping 636 Megabytes!

I am super happy and off to schedule it from the program’s settings:

Do you have a favorite program that will clean a hard drive like Hard Drive Power Wash? We would love to hear about it in the comments!

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My desktop has only the documents that I am working on today, plus the shortcuts I use each and every day. If I don’t use it within 48 hours, I create a folder and file it. Much like the situation with my desk, keeping my computer organized improves productivity. It also helps my less organized co-workers. The moment they can’t find an important email or paper, they ask me for it. I find it – quickly.

Let’s look at some simple and basic tips to organize Windows that you may be overlooking and won’t cost you a nickel.

Folder Structure

Many people go through their day to day computing work not even realizing they can create a new folder practically anywhere by right-clicking and then selecting New –> Folder. You can then rename the folder to whatever you would like. Your desktop, in Outlook Mail, within My Documents, within My Music, and in your browser’s “Favorites” or “Bookmarks” are all places you can create new folders.

If you have all your pictures grouped into one huge folder labeled “Pictures” and you have to spend an inordinate amount of time hunting a specific picture taken on the beach in 2007, you may need to organize your Windows folders a bit. Having a folder within the Picture folder that is labeled “Beach pics 2007” might save you time.

The key to organize Windows folders is to do a little planning first with pencil and paper. I have a strong preference for the “drill down” method when it comes to organizing. For example, you may use a folder that is generically named “Music” or “MP3s”. Inside are 857 different songs from various artists and albums. I like it much more organized. Inside my “Music” folder, I have different folders for different genres of music – say “Alternative”, “Hard Rock”, “Classic Rock”, “Country”, and well, you get the drift. Inside the genre folders, I have individual folders for each band. Within the band folders, I have individual folders for the albums. Finally, inside these folders are the actual MP3 files. This seems like a lot of work, and it can be, but doing the background work of building the framework secures your organization for a long time to come.

When it comes to free applications out there to help you get organized, there are very few. Fortunately, Windows builds many of these functions right into your operating system. There are plenty of free resources for icons and color templates to organize Windows and dress up your folders, but when I fill up my screen with neat icons and pictures on my folders I find them distracting.

Program Launcher

Enhancements that you don’t want to miss for organization, convenience and productivity include Launchy, which allows you to have files, folders, shortcuts, etc. at your fingertips with a simple Alt+Spacebar hotkey combo. This free utility has previously been reviewed on MUO (See Launchy).

Bulk File Renaming

You may also want to consider any one of many bulk renaming utilities available. These allow you to seek and destroy those nutty “DCIM002354” file names faster than right-clicking and renaming each one manually. They also give you various capabilities such as changing file names to all caps, all lowercase, capitalize words and many other nifty things. Check out MUO reviews of D-FileMU and Renamer.

File Comparator

Finally, if you do use a lot of folders to keep organized, you need to make use of a file comparator. These normally lightweight utilities allow you to basically replace Windows Explorer with a program that has added functionality of comparing files, swapping directories, and oftentimes renaming. You can find multiple copies of your files that have been hidden away in numerous different directories and consolidate your files, deleting unneeded multiples. I used to love the old Windows File Manager, but now that I am using Commander, it feels like File Manager on steroids.

How do you keep your computer organized? How do you find files fast? What free utilities do you use to organize Windows? Share your ideas.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Tagging is commonplace around blogs and websites, MakeUseOf too has its own tagcloud. We all agree that it’s a speedy way to scour out a web resource; nearly single click in its utility. We are so used to it that we perhaps miss it as a feature in Windows.

Windows XP was born much before Web 2.0 came about. So, there’s the easy explanation. Vista of course has file tagging and Vista Quick Search as a feature but with a leaning towards only Office docs and a few limitations for certain file types like TXT, RTF, and PNG etc. Even then with all ifs and buts, Vista’s search is better for it. Windows XP meanwhile lags behind, huffing and puffing in its file search.

To plug the want, there is always one or the other software. You might have tried out the previously mentioned TaggedFrog. Another of its type is Tag2Find.

There was a brief mention of it some time back. So, let’s take a closer look at how Tag2Find saves us XP users (why not Vista’s too?) some grunt work.

Tag2Find (ver. 0.10.2.5) is a 2.23 MB freeware that allows us to tag Windows files and make our search less tedious. According to the site, it’s still in the technical preview stage and the developers are looking to make further improvements.

The First Steps to Tag Windows Files

There are three pre-requisites for installing Tag2Find on your machine –

• Windows XP (Home, Professional) or Vista (32-bit)
• NET Runtime 2.0
• NTFS-formatted file system

For installation, you need administer privileges on your system. The installation runs through a few configuration screens for setting up the location of the internal tag database which stores all the tag info.

Another sequence of steps is for selecting the files/folders and the extensions you want to tag during the initial setup (The Intial Tagging Wizard). That done the installer shows a brief video clip revealing how tag2find should be used. Don’t worry, it’s a cinch.

Tag2find covers all locations that make it easy to tag Windows files – desktop, explorer toolbar, system tray and the right click context menu.

Quickie tagging…

During installation, the Initial Tagging Wizard helps out by letting you select the files, folders and extensions which you want to include in your tags. The wizard can be opened later on too.

You can tag your Windows files by a selection or a drag and drop using three different approaches –

• By a drag and drop on the Tag2Find explorer toolbar icon.
• By right-clicking on the selected file and using the context menu.
• By using the Floating Tag Box manually.

Going for any of these three processes opens up a Tag2Find window. The window displays the entire tag list, some suggested tags and info on the file that is to be tagged. Clicking on Details gives you additional file information and a preview if available.

Tag2Find also makes it simple for new files by actively monitoring selected file locations (watched folders). The New File Monitor pops up like an alert box and gives you a quick way to tag the file.

Find them out using tags

Tags wouldn’t be of much help if we don’t have an equally easy way of using tags to shortlist the files we want. Fill in the tag search term in the Tag2Find field box to display the files labeled by the tag in the Results Preview. Open the files from within the preview window or drag and drop it elsewhere. You can also view related tags by entering a comma after the first one. A plus is the graphical bar which is color coded to indicate the relative usage of the file in terms of the tag.

Get the big picture using the TagBrowser

The TagBrowser is like the centerpiece for all your tags. Browse, sort or filter your tags from the explorer like browser window. TagBrowser is also the tool for mass management of all  tags. Edit tags or set new ones for a bunch of files for rapid organization. One click filters easily set apart documents from other file types like movies and music.

What’s a tag without a tag cloud? The TagBrowser has the option of displaying all your tags either as a tag cloud (with the relative sizes for importance) or as a list.

This is not all there is to it the free software. Some little extras can be found within the settings for TagBrowser. Decide on the color of the tags, set the transparency of the Floating Tag Box, import export tags, auto-play and preview media files in TagBrowser or the tag detail pop-up make it quite a rounded application.

First impressions…

On first install and use, some users might just stop short, just because we are so used to web tags. The initial pause done away with, Tag2Find provides lots of flexible ways to tag all your files. Searching by tag is also snappy. It’s almost like an Explorer replacement… addition of an Explorer-like directory structure might just make it one. The PDF help file provided on the site makes the learning curve less acute. The beginning looks and feels good.

If you are an old XP hand (or even a Vista user), give file tagging with Tag2Find a shot. Who knows it might be the ticket for a better organized computer. Are you familiar with any other tool to tag Windows files? Let us know in comments!

Image Credit: rooneyjohn

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• TaggedFrog – Cool File Tagging App for Windows (9)
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A small download, Default Programs Editor is portable and doesn’t need any installation. It can be used for doing things like editing context menus for a file type or to set default programs or managing Autoplay handlers. Default Programs Editor works in a wizard-like mode making it super easy to make such changes.

You can edit File Type Settings which include editing the default program used to open a file type, changing the context menu entries for a file type and changing the description and icon. As an example when I used 7-Zip to extract a RAR file for the first time on my computer, the RAR file automatically got an ugly white 7-Zip icon. So how can I change the default icon for RAR files?

You can suggest I use the built in Windows tools and spend the next 15 minutes trying to figure out how to do it or perhaps edit the registry. Here is how it is down with Default Programs Editor:

• I went to IconFinder, searched for a suitable icon and downloaded it.
• Next I clicked on File type settings in Default Programs Editor, then clicked on Icon.
• In the search box I typed .rar, chose RAR file and clicked next.

• Clicked browse and chose the icon file I wanted to use and then clicked Save Icon and it was done already.

Similarly you can change the context menu entries and description easily.

Another important function you can use Default Programs Editor in addition to being able to set default programs is  for managing the AutoPlay Handler. AutoPlay handlers appear on the list when you plus in a USB drive, or insert a Blank CD, or connect your iPod. You can change which options appear when you insert a certain media, as well as create your own AutoPlay Handlers.

• Click on the type of media you want to edit the handlers for
• In the next screen, you can edit the existing handlers, delete the ones you don’t want or add new ones

• Clicking on Add will give you a list of handlers that already exist but may not be used for the type of media you are editing for.

• If you don’t find what you want in here, you can also create your own handlers. Just click on Add a new handler, specify the action name, program and icon and you are done.

Lastly you can change program associations with the minimum of fuss. Choose the third option (Default Programs Settings). You can now see a list of all registered programs and the file types they handle. Click on the one you want to assign to/revoke from a file type, click next and check/uncheck the file type under question. For example if you want iTunes to handle all .mp3 files, click on iTunes, click next and place a check against .mp3.

All these settings are of course stored in the registry. Default Programs Editor allows you to create reg files for the changes you just made so that you can just double click the reg file to apply the settings in future or apply them on another computer (provided the software and/or files are available).

To create a reg file just click on the downward pointing arrow in the final step and choose the appropriate option.

Default Programs Editor is a great, light wieght portable application that you can use for tasks like above without requiring full on tweaking utilities. If you know of other similar programs let us know in the comments.

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We have discussed the usage of tags in file management, but it would be nicer if all of those files are automatically sorted and placed in a specific folder pre-configured for them. MP3s will go into music folder, images into pictures folders, PDFs into document folders, and so on.

I figured that there should be a few apps that I could offer as tips for organizing electronic files. After a quick search, I found three alternatives: Hazel (powerful, but not free: US$21.95 with 14-day trial), File Actions (not as powerful as Hazel, but free) and Apple’s Automator (powerful and free). Since MakeUseOf prioritizes on free applications, let’s dig a little deeper into File Actions and Automator.

Monitor and Move
The basic function of File Actions is simply to monitor certain folders and automatically move files based on a set of rules.

The first time you open this application, you’ll have a blank window. What you have to do now is set the time intervals between checks. After that click on the plus (+) button to add new rules.

There are three factors that will determine the rules:

• The locations to be monitored –> there are several location that you can choose by ticking the box next to it, such as: desktop, documents, downloads, and other. Ticking ‘other’ will make this app check all other locations on the hard drive. You can choose multiple locations to be monitored.
  
• The destination – where the files should be moved –> just like the first item, you have several options to choose. But here, you can only choose one location as the destination.
  
• And of course, the rule itself –> you set some rules by deciding what string should be matched to activate the process. There are four options: file extensions should match the strings (File Suffix is equal), file extensions should not match the strings (File Suffix is not equal), name should match the strings (File Prefix is equal) and name should not match the strings (File Prefix is not equal). Then you can write the strings. Use comma to separate multiple strings.
  

For example, if you want to move all of your downloaded MP3s to the music folder, you can choose the Downloads folder to be monitored, choose the music folder as the destination, choose “File Suffix is equal” and add MP3 as the string. Click OK to save and you can rename the rule from the main window by clicking it.

Automate with Automator
But File Actions is an old application dated back to 2007. Even though I can use it just fine in Snow Leopard, I found some glitches like the inability to choose a specific folder to be used as “Other” in the destination. So let’s try the second option: Automator.

For the purpose of moving files automatically to their destined location, you’ll need a very simple workflow. Open Automator (Applications –> Automator) and choose Folder Action. This is an action which will be activated everytime there’s a new activity happened to a specific folder.

Suppose we want to achieve the same thing as before: automatically move all the downloaded MP3s to the music folder, the first thing to do is to choose which folder to monitor. We’ll just set this to Downloads folder.

Then we’ll choose “Actions” tab, and “Files and Folders” from the library and we can start building our own Automator Workflow.

We can build the workflow by dragging and arranging the actions into the main window. We only need two action items here: “Filter Finder Items” and “Move Finder Items”.

Set the file extension to be filtered to MP3 on the first action, and Music folder as the location to move Finder items.

Then we save the file and let Automator takes care everything else.

Repeat the process for other folders and other types of files.

The example I provided here for organizing electronic files is just a very simple one. But we can create far more sophisticated automations using Automator by tinkering with all the filters and rules. The limit is your imagination. What have you used Automator for?

File Actions

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Most of us are pack rats of the digital age. Hoarding downloads, never to see them again. For instance, I had a habit of downloading e-books by the dozen – with each came a promise that I would read them all. Of course, I never got around to it. And soon, I came to realize that I had stacked up quite a few duplicate files.

It is only when we reach the brim of our hard disk capacity, we start to look for ways and means to shed some of the junk. An audit of our system will throw up at least a handful of files saved twice over. Image files and wallpapers spread across multiple folders. Duplicate songs, documents, outdated installation files, each contributing to sucking up space. Giving our systems regular spring cleanings not only frees up space, but also optimizes file organization, disk defragmentation and system scans.

Manually going through all our files with a fine toothcomb would be an absolute waste of time. Let’s find a smart software to do the job for us. Let’s get chummy with Auslogics Duplicate File Finder.

How does Auslogics Duplicate File Finder work?

The ‘identical’ file finder software relies on several reference points like the elementary matching by name, size and date. Apart from these (and more importantly), it also relies on matching by content. Matching by content of the file types is achieved using the MD5 algorithm.  This algorithm is like a precise rule which can be used to find identical files by comparing their checksums. MD5 checksum is like a digital fingerprint of a file, unique and identifiable. Checksum match means that the files are identical.

Taking Auslogics Duplicate File Finder out for a hunt.

The freeware has a very simple intuitive interface. The process begins by selecting the drives and folders one wants to include in the search. The program also can scan all removable media like USB drives for duplicate content.

After specifying the where, in the next screen we have to specify the how. Three simple criteria cover all the options. With Matching Criteria, you can set it to search by file name, date and time of creation, file size and finally, match by content. Match by content is the most accurate as the first three can give differing results, but matching files by content improves accuracy. The only offshoot is that a search for checksum matches is considerably slower.  The Advanced Criteria allows you to keep out files under a specific size. File Type further lets you narrow down the search to specific files.

Scan times depend on the search criteria selected. But my subjective opinion says that it’s quite fast. The results indicate the duplicate files and the potential space you can recover if you delete the duplicates. The duplicates are clustered together in groups and are marked out in alternating bands of color. File actions can be performed using a right click or from the Action menu. Actions like Select One in Each Group, Open With (the default file handler), and Explore Folder lets you better manage the clean-up. With a Delete, the duplicate files are moved to the Recycle Bin.

Note: Before deletion, use Action – Open to visually check the files as a precautionary step.

Rounding it all up

To list the pros – The 1.69MB download is free, uncomplicated and light on system resources (memory footprint isn’t more than a typical browser). Scanning is fast even with Match Content enabled.

To list the cons – The program could have done with more selections for file filters. The final action is limited to deletion; a move option from within the interface would have been a plus. The vanilla interface might put off users who are more hands on with their optimization tools.

As a typical no-cost, no-loss program, the Duplicate File Finder is worth a try. Auslogics Duplicate File Finder (ver. 1.5.2.55) runs on Windows (XP/2003/Vista/2008/7).

Which is your software of choice? Let us know how you purge the copies.

Image credit: where are the joneses

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I’ve been using both Vista and the Windows 7 RC, and the official recommendation for those platforms for raw copy tools is to use Robocopy, rather than the rather dated XCopy.

Robocopy has a GUI that leaves a lot to be desired, and Microsoft have been quietly pushing a free tool called RichCopy, so you would think there were plenty of options, but I’ve had an awful time with everything except for the barbaric option of running Robocopy from the command line, so I was really on the hunt for something less official.

FreeFileSync (FFS) takes the sting out of synchronising local backups. I’d still go some other places for Internet backups, and this isn’t the tool for scripted synchronisation either, if you’re headed down that path. Robocopy is great for that.

There isn’t much information available about FFS, so it’s just as well that it largely seems not to need it. Download, install, start, and get things done. It’s that easy.

I have an ongoing need to ensure that I have my photographs saved in at least two places. I have another copy that leaves the building with me as well, but we’re just looking at the locations I can see on the network for this.

When FFS is started, you can see a fairly straightforward interface.

The idea is to put the source location in the left column, and the destination in the right, but the terms are less than distinct, because at least by default, FFS is going synchronise the files in both locations, and will happily update both ways.

In my case I have files in M:\pics that I would like to backup to K:\backups\pic. Just browse to both of those locations, as shown above.

The big compare button does exactly what you might think. It doesn’t move anything anywhere, just takes a look and reports back.

FFS lists the folders and files that need to be copied across,and would also list any that needed to go the other way. This set is pretty straightforward though.

Click the options button to sort out the way you want the synchronisation to happen. You’ll be presented with a list of options which are mostly self-explanatory.

Warning! Take some care in here. If you get these, or the folders you’ve listed in FFS the wrong way around, you could end up deleting files by mistake. Measure twice, cut once!

You can select a main option from the left, and then make minor (but important) adjustments to it on the right.

For instance, if you choose Mirror on the left, you’ll get this list on the right.

What this says is that if you have files that exist only on the left, they will be copied to the right. If you have files only on the right, they will be deleted. If you have newer files on the left they will be copied. If you have newer files on the right, they will be overwritten.

You can also adjust each of these actions, by clicking the green buttons, if none of the major options is what you want.

Spend some time and get familiar with this. Really.

Mostly, though, the requirement is to mirror folders, as in the larger image above.

Once you’ve chosen the option you want, click the Apply button to return to the main screen.

The settings you’ve chosen for this session are displayed above the Synchronize button. Check things are as you want them to be, and then click the button.

You’ll get one last chance… A preview screen is displayed that shows you what is going to happen.

At about this point I’m getting tired of symbols, and wish the application would just put things in English.

The star is the number of files that will be created. The bin shows the number to be deleted. The arrow shows the number to be overwritten, and the pie chart shows the total amount of data that is going to be transferred.

Click Start.

Depending on the amount of data involved, you may or may not see much happen before you are eventually presented with a completion screen.

Click OK to return to the main screen. You’re all finished. Congratulations!

Most folk would like to perform the same sync activity over and over, and FFS has the ability to save and open setups so you can run them again any time.

Click the button with the red arrow to save the config you’ve just been working with, and you’ll be prompted to supply a (would you believe) .ffs_gui file name. Take the offered name or change it to something more useful, and then click Save.

Opening a session is just the same in reverse. Click the button with the green arrow, etc.

That’s it. Now you have one less excuse for not doing backups…

I’d be most interested in any experiences you’ve had with this or other similar products. Do you use any sort of sync tools? let me know in the comments.

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• Pure Sync: Free Backup and File Synchronization Tool (16)
• Windows Live Mesh: Get your Data on any PC from any Device (16)
• The Best free Backup Software for your PC (28)
• Sync Yourself with Syncplicity… With a Gift For MakeUseOf Readers! (8)
• Sugarsync vs Dropbox: The Battle Of The Cloud Storage Titans (60)

Sure you could use Group Policy to monitor files for changes, but how many of you out there know how to do that? Instead, a small portable application called HDD Profiler rocks hard core. It can tell you who has modified, accessed or created a new file/folder inside the folder you are monitoring….that’s a mouth full! Long story short – you can tell what was accessed or changed by a simple snapshot method.

I have a directory in mind. One that I want to monitor, but I also don’t want anyone to know that I am watching this folder and with HDD Profiler that is exactly what you get.

When you run it, you will see a screen that looks like this:

You can see that there are tabs for each of these: New Files, Removed Files, Created Files, Modified Files, Resized Files, New Folders and Removed Folders. There will be nothing in any of the tabs initially. We need to take a snap shot of the folder we want to monitor first. I choose my desktop by hitting either F8 or go to the Menu – Task – Snapshot.

Choose a folder you want to monitor for changes and a folder to store the snapshot file. If you are working locally check the Local Snapshot button. Leave it un-checked if you are using a remote machine’s folder. Then simply hit SnapIt.

It will save the snapshot file to your specified directory. These snapshot files all will have a .hps extension. I save mine to My Documents. Next go ahead and make some changes to that folder. I created some new sub-folders, renamed a file, deleted a file and opened a document. HDD Profiler recorded all of that for me. Let’s take a look.

To compare the current version of the folder against your snapshot you hit Menu – Task – Profile or F9. After you do that you should be able to see all the changes you made to the folders contents. There is no user information associated with it but you will know that someone messed with something!

This is an awesome way to manually monitor files for changes that no one will know is in place. The only downside of this application is that you need to manually snapshot the folder in question and you need to know about the problem before it happens….hey some of us Admins stay ahead of the game!

For me I will be using this to watch some of the executive folders on a local server to see who has been accessing what. You can put this to use when you think someone is spying on you or maybe someone is randomly deleting files. This will help you become Sherlock Holmes!

How do you track folder usage or audit your file system? Maybe someone out there has an easier way or something a little more automated?

We would love to hear about your ways in the comments!

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• Hide & Protect Your Files with Easy File Locker [Windows] (18)
• How To Lock Windows Folders With MyLockbox (17)
• Hide Your Drives From Prying Eyes with No Drives Manager [Windows] (6)
• Your Computer, Your World – How to Keep Out the Mindless (51)
• What To Do When You Get A Copyright Infringement Notice from ISP (3)

It’s nice to at least have the image files named like image1, image2, image3, etc so that you can at least order them. Luckily for us Mac OS X users, we have a nice little tool that Apple has developed called Automator which makes such a batch rename task  a breeze.

Open up Automator by going to your Applications folder and then double click Automator to open it up. Alternatively you could use Spotlight or Quicksilver to open up the Application.

When Automator has loaded up you will be presented with a window similar to the one pictured below.

From here, select Custom and ht the Choose button to begin creating your workflow.

First, search for Get Specified Finder Items or click Files & Folders under Library and then select the action from there. When you have found it, drag and drop it to the right to add it to the workflow. Leave the field empty for now.

Next, search for rename in the search field at the top of the Application.

When you have found it, drag and drop it to the workflow. An alert box will pop up asking you if you would like to add a ‘Copy Finder Items‘ action to the workflow. Click on Add to add the action. All it does is duplicate the items to be batch renamed, serving as a backup in case things go wrong and leaving the original files intact. Choose a suitable destination for it — a new folder on the desktop should be perfect.

Your workflow should look like the one below.

There is one last thing I am going to change and that is within Rename Finder Items. I am going to change Add Date or Time to Make Sequential. Also change Add number to to new name, set this to whatever you like, I have named it image. Make sure that you tick Make all number 2 digits long so that when you reorder the images the ones that are image_2 will come before image_11.

We are all done.

Save the workflow as a batch rename application by going to the File menu and choose ‘Save As…’ Enter a name for it, like “Rename to Sequential” and select ‘Application’ for the file format and save it somewhere obvious, the Desktop, perhaps. To rename your images, simpley drag them over the icon and release. Automator will spring into life, copy and bulk rename your images, and save them to the destination you specified in the workflow.

If it is successful it should have copied all the images and renamed them image-1, image-2, image-3 and so on in the folder that you chose.

I went from this :

to this with a nice, simple workflow.

The advantage of saving the workflow as a batch rename application is you can use it over and over again. If you need to change the settings in the workflow, open the “application” in Automator.

There is a bulk rename utility for Mac OS X called NameChanger that is similar to what we have just done. But its nice to know that there are alternatives, for example if you don’t have an internet connection and can’t download NameChanger.

This has been a workflow that has came in useful for me on a number of occasions. Share your workflows with us and our readers in the comments below.

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• Identify Unknown Files with TrID [Windows/Linux] (6)
• How To Automatically Batch Rename Photos With Dates They Were Shot (12)
• D-FileMU – A Small But Powerful File Renamer (Windows) (5)
• Batch Rename Your Files Easily – Mac Style (Mac Only) (9)
• 2 Useful Tips For Organizing Electronic Files [Mac Only] (19)

Easy File Locker is a pretty small file at 224KB and will do exactly what it says. It will let you protect a file or folder from being seen or accessed by anyone on your system. This is a light-weight program that does not slow down your system and even continues working if the machine is booted in safe mode. It does not require the application to be running for the security to work and it can be password-protected as well.

Let’s take a look at how it works.

On first start, you will see a user interface like the one below:

Now to protect a file or folder, the method is almost the same. All you have to do is hit Edit – Add File or Add Folder to either protect a file or folder. Talk about straightforward!

Next up, you will have to pick your file or folder as well as choose from the following options. You can:

• Make the file or folder accessible
• Make the file or folder writable
• Make the file or folder erasable
• Make the file or folder invisible

Click the Browse button represented by the box with three dots next to the path to select your target file/folder like so:

You will see a window like this when you are done.

Next, you can set a password for the application by hitting System – Set password

My favorite ability is making a folder visible and not accessible.

When the user tries to open the folder whamo – Access is denied!

Also see:

- 2 Ways to Hide “Important” Files and Folders in Windows
- How To Hide Files Like a Super Villain

Do you have another easy solution to keep unwanted grubby little fingers off of your stuff? Let’s hear about it in the comments!

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• How To Lock Windows Folders With MyLockbox (17)
• Protect And Track Your Laptop In Case Of Theft (18)
• Keeping Under the Radar and Securing Your PC Files (21)
• How to Easily Protect & Encrypt Files with Conceal (Windows) (6)
• Ophcrack – A Password Hack Tool to Crack Almost Any Windows Password (24)

Well, I am not getting into the criminal underbelly, but just jabbering about a long existing software that makes it possible to recover deleted files from a memory card used on digital cameras. PC Inspector Smart Recovery (v4.5) is a free, Windows only software that does one job (actually two… as we shall see) and does it well.

Primary job: PC Inspector Smart Recovery is a freeware data recovery program from CONVAR for Flash Card/USB Flash Drive, Smart Media, SONY Memory Stick, IBM Micro Drive, Multimedia Card, Secure Digital Card or any other data carrier for digital cameras.

Secondary job: While it goes about its first job, it also offers a way to check the memory type for any errors.

I call PC Inspector Smart Recovery a ‘doomsday’ software. This one and others of its ilk help us to recover from our errors or those committed by our digital devices. If you think that the chances of losing some precious photo or video among the thousands we shoot with our digital cameras is one in thousands then give this software a miss. Otherwise, let’s give it a rip…

The download size of PC Inspector Smart Recovery is fairly compact at 6.1MB. The software is compatible with Windows XP (not tested for Vista).

These are the formats and digital camera types supported by PC Inspector Smart Recovery:

JPG, AMR, TIF, BMP, GIF, AVI, MOV, WAV, DSS, MP4, Canon (.crw) , Fuji (.raf) , RICOH (.raw), Olympus E-XX (.orf), Olympus C5050 (.orf), Nokia (3gp), Kodak (.dcr), Minolta (.mrw), Nikon D1H/D1X (.nef), Nikon D2H/D2X (.nef), Nikon E5000/E5700 (.nef), Konica Minolta, Sigma – Foveon (.x3f).

Installation is a no-brainer. And so is the use – in five simple steps.

1. Connect your memory card through your computer’s memory card reader or connect the digital camera/mobile phone with the provided data cable.
2. Start PC Inspector Smart Recovery. Select the drive letter (Select Device) used by the memory device from the first dropdown.
3. Select the file type (Select Format Type) that is to be recovered from the second dropdown. The Enhanced Options is for JPG format only. The default Automatic setting recognizes the format on its own. The With Thumbnails option assumes that your picture format includes thumbnails; the Without Thumbnails option assumes that your picture format does not include thumbnails.
4. Select the destination folder (Select where the images are to be recovered). Create a specific folder as opposed tp recovering them to an area like the desktop because the sheer number of images might create a mess.
5. Click on Start and the software indicates the progress through the progress bar.

   

Change the search mode…

The Settings menu lets you change the way the recovery is done. The Fast Mode is the default mode. The Intensive Mode scans more thoroughly and takes longer to complete. The recoverable file size can be limited optionally.

Check Media found under Menu – Function is a way to check the memory device for errors. Once started, the progress is reported by the software under the Media Check section. Any read errors like a ‘Not Available’ alert could indicate problems in the memory device, the card reader or the driver.

So has it helped me avert my doomsdays?

On my 4GB memory card with a sample of 160 pictures, I recovered all but six. Yes, the process was slow – about 160 minutes for an intensive scan. But the success ratio was great so I guess I can live with the slow speeds. Getting the lost pictures back at no cost is a definite deal maker for me.

There are a few others which fall under the broad category of file recovery software. Check these out. They might save your day –

3 Remarkable File Recovery Tools
Recover Lost Computer Files with Undelete Plus
How To securely Retrieve and Delete PC files

So, what do you do when you unintentionally lose your Kodak moments (minus the teeth gnashing of course)? How do you recover deleted picture files from a memory card? Do you have your toolkit of ‘doomsday’ software?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Recover Lost Computer Files with Undelete Plus (10)
• 3 Remarkable File Recovery Tools (8)
• Tips For Taking Digital Photography Using Live View (24)
• Technology Explained: How Does A Digital Camera Work? (32)
• Restore Deleted Files Easily With Recuva (12)

Meiga is one of the best file sharing programs to share files across your network or over the Internet. Meiga is available for Linux (you can access files from other operating systems as well). Download the deb packages for Meiga from here. If you use other non-debian based distributions, you would have to compile from source.

Once installed, fire up the GUI. (Applications > Internet > Meiga in Ubuntu). You would be greeted by a minimalist window like this.

Click on add and browse to the directory you want to share, choose the share name, you should remove any spaces and make the name as simple as possible.

That is it, you have shared the folder successfully. Was it easy or what?

The person on the other side doesn’t need to install anything as long as a web browser or an http download manager is available. She would have to know your IP address and the share name to be able to access the files. Meiga makes it easy by showing you the URL in the statusbar as you click on each share. This is the URL other person would have to visit to access the files.

If you are on a network (like your home network) chances are you would be knowing the IP addresses on your machines, so getting a file simply means browsing to http://[ip address]:8001/[share name] and you would see a list of all the files and folders within the shared folder.

If you are sharing files across the Internet, then of course, you would have to communicate the share’s URL to the other end via email or chat.

If you have a dynamic IP and want to make your shares available for a longer period of time over the Internet, you might want to look into dynamic DNS which we discussed briefly. dyndns would map your current IP to a domain name, so that it points to your computer, irrespective of IP address changes.

While the ability to share files with ease is the stronghold of Meiga, it can certainly do with some basic features like password protection the ability to view all shares on a particular computer. All in all Meiga is great for easy, no fuss file sharing with minimal effort.

Do you know of any similar application that’s also a great file sharing program? Share with us in comments.

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• Top Free File Hosts To Store Your Files Online (157)
• Split Big Files into Smaller Ones with GSplit (6)
• How To Transfer Files Easily Between Linux Machines (8)
• How To Easily Share Files Between Mac & Windows Computers (18)
• ZumoDrive – Cloud Storage Service With A Twist (12)

Your automated backups can go to multiple destinations, including other computers you use, or even friends’ computers. Backing up to locations other than CrashPlan’s servers is free, and you can be notified of completed backups by either email or Twitter.

In order to have a friend backup to your PC, you must give that friend a short authorization code. You can do this with multiple friends, as you’re only limited by your available disk space. Your backups are stored securely and must be unlocked with your CrashPlan password (you may also use a different password for added security).

By default, your My Documents folder is selected for the backup. You may wish to add or remove folders from the backup if you have a size concern. I like how there is an option to show hidden files which may otherwise get left out of the backup.

This program is fast. On a high-speed connection, it only took an hour to backup 23GB. Keep in mind that this is between two PCs on the same home network, but moving that much data in such a short time is still impressive.

Restoring files from a backup to any computer is as simple as backing them up in the first place. Restored files and folders will be moved to the appropriate place on the file system you’re currently using.

I found CrashPlan simple, quick, and easy to use, and highly recommend it to anyone needing a backup solution. For extra features or business use, a paid upgrade is available, although the free solution will work just fine for most. I intend on convincing my brother to trade disk space with me for a backup arrangement. How will you use CrashPlan, or can you share any alternative solution on how to backup computer files? Let’s see ‘em in the comments.

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• The Best free Backup Software for your PC (28)
• MUO Polls: Do you Backup Important Files? How? (45)
• 5 Ways To Clone & Copy Your Hard Drive (89)
• Using Keepass to Secure Your Online Accounts (19)
• The Cut Out and Keep Guide to Essential Software Programs (25)

And then, I got that fun-filed message saying,”You have less than 200MB available space on your hard drive. Please free some space, or your computer will begin to die a slow, painful, bitter death.” I paraphrase, but it’s not a fun message to read. And it was a shock to me because I wasn’t downloading tens of gigabytes of stuff – so where did my space go?

One quick download later, I figured it out. TreeSize, a great and simple application that helps you find those bulky folders and recover hard drive space. There’s a free version and a paid version, but for the basic purposes of getting rid of all the cra… I mean junk, on your computer, the free version is great.

Once you download the app, run it. It automatically scans your whole hard drive (and any other attached drive you choose), and then sorts the folders by how much space they’re taking up. It searches through hidden folders, system folders, literally everything on your hard drive, to give you a complete look at the size of every folder there is — much like WinDirStat, which was covered by Jimmy a while ago.

TreeSize tells you how much space is being taken up by each folder, and which subfolder is the largest one. It doesn’t isolate a particular file, as the tree in the free version just doesn’t go down that far. But once you get to the offending folder, it’s usually pretty easy to figure out.

TreeSize can open a folder for you, or even delete it for you right from within the application. This is where the warning comes in: don’t delete things just because they take up tons of space. A quick Google for most folder names, particularly ones you don’t recognize, usually provides information on what a folder holds and whether or not you can afford to delete it.

The reason I love applications like this is because most of the space on my hard drive isn’t devoted to music, or movies; it’s devoted to old system restores, leftover logs from applications that I don’t use anymore, and more useless files that happen to make their way onto my system. I don’t need them, I don’t notice they’re gone, and about ten minutes ago, I freed up over 16GB of space by deleting a few of them.

The paid version, which costs $23 for a single license, provides even more detailed and visual information about how your hard drive is set up and filled, as well as a few useful features like a duplicate file search (though DoubleKiller can do this as well and free). But for finding and deleting those black holes on your hard drive, the functionality and usefulness are essentially the same.

TreeSize can make your computer run faster, free up space for more music, documents, and fun things, and avoid the disastrous slow-down and crash of your hard drive as it constantly spins, looking for massive files you don’t need anyway.

Am I the only one with this problem of random, huge files taking up all the space on my computer? What do you use to fix (or better yet, avoid) this problem? I would love to find out if there any better tools out there to recover hard drive space, so let me know in the comments!

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• Visualize your Hard Drive Usage with WinDirStat (16)
• Trash Your Duplicate Files with Auslogics Duplicate File Finder (15)
• Find Lost Space On Your Hard Disk With Space Sniffer (9)
• Clean Up Your PC Safely with Hard Drive PowerWash (Windows) (18)
• 8 Best Defragmenters To Keep Your PC Running Like New (28)

Unlike Mozy, Carbonite or Jungle Disk, Pure Sync is aimed more at local backups and operations. It’s a useful tool if, for example, you use an external hard drive or a NAS (Network Attached Storage) for backup. Using Pure Sync, you can backup just the files that have changed, instead of manually copying everything over. Windows Vista and 7 have a built-in backup (Windows Backup) and synchronization function (Sync Center) but they’re not as easy to use and have a more limited feature set. Pure Sync is a timesaver and replaces two separate programs.

Pure Sync is a versatile tool – supporting local drives, server volumes such as MyServerfolder, MTP devices and WebDAV. If you are willing to fork out 14,90 € for the Pro version, you’ll get some additional features like copying open/locked files, backing up to a FTP server and synchronization/backup with another user.

Using the wizard, virtually any user, no matter how tech-savvy they are, can set up either a backup, synchronize a folder or automatically download photos from a camera. All the settings are presented in the wizard and are easy to understand.

How to use Pure Sync

1. The first step in setting up a profile is choosing a name for the profile.
2. The second step requires you to select an operation mode for the profile: Synchronization, Backup or Photo mode.
3. The third step is selecting the folders of the origin and destination.
4. You can select criteria for discriminating between files: date, size, file type.
5. Set up synchronization based on a schedule, when a connection is found, when a file is modified or manually.

Pure Sync is available for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and also works with Windows 7. During testing, I did not encounter any bugs.

As always, I’d like to hear what you have to say. What backup or file synchronization tool do you use? Have you tried Pure Sync? You can also check out other articles related to backup here.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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• How to Keep your Backups Current with FreeFileSync (Win) (11)
• Windows Live Mesh: Get your Data on any PC from any Device (16)
• The Best free Backup Software for your PC (28)
• Sync Yourself with Syncplicity… With a Gift For MakeUseOf Readers! (8)
• Sugarsync vs Dropbox: The Battle Of The Cloud Storage Titans (60)

So, what do you do? How can you identify unknown files? Spend the next 10 minutes trying to open it in Word, PowerPoint, Open Office or maybe it is a PDF? Or perhaps you Google for some information. What if the extension is wrong?

TrID is a nice little utility to have on your computer for situations like this. Linux users have something similar in the “file” command. TrID identifies file types based on their signatures. What distinguishes TrID is the fact that it uses database of definitions to identify file types. This database is ever expanding (somewhat like definitions for Antivirus programs) and allows TrID to identify a wider range of file types.

You can use TrID in 3 flavors. The TrID – File Identifier is inherently a command line utility. You can pass the file to be identified as an argument and use the various switches to view additional information about the file in question. You don’t need to worry about typing long paths and filenames. You can use the -v switch for additional information, -w to wait for key press after showing results and -d to specify a different definitions package.

TrIDNet is the GUI version of TrID. Browse to the file you want to analyze and allow TrIDNet to enlighten you! Double-clicking on an item would show extra information about it.

You can also use TrID Online. Just visit here, upload the file you want to identify, hit Analyze and wait for the results to show up. You can also run through the various file extension definitions if you just want to look up a particular file extension and what it does.

TrID is a great utility to help you identify unknown filetypes with ease. You can then search the web if you are unsure of the software you should use to open the identified file. Try Openwith for the same result.

If you encounter a file type that is not (or wrongly) identified by TrID, you can help create definitions using TrIDScan and other TrID users will be able to benefit from your created definitions.

Do you know of any similar utilities that can be used to identify unknown files? Which sites do you refer for information on file extensions? Share with us in the comments.

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• Trash Your Duplicate Files with Auslogics Duplicate File Finder (15)
• The 5 Good Free Windows File Managers (51)
• The 4 Proven Simple Tips to Organize Your Files on Windows (19)
• One Network Admin’s Tool to Rule Them All (13)
• IrfanView Blows Windows Viewer Out of the Water (26)

But which software is the way to go? In the sea of (free) software, which tool does its job best?

We decided to check it out, and present you the best free archiving applications on the market. Read on to see the best extraction program, the application with the tightest compression and the multi-platform topper.

Universal Extractor – Best Extraction Program

With over 50 supported file formats, Universal Extractor, or UniExtract, is the obvious winner when looking for extraction software. Whether you want to view the contents of a RAR file, an EXE, or even a dbx-file.

Universal Extractor uses an algorithm to determine the given filetype. Only if this does not yield any results does it resort to the filename, so you shouldn’t have any problems with wrongly named files.

You can use the File/Destination GUI as depicted in the first screenshot, or the right-click context menu to quickly extract all your files. Universal Extracter has a simple, superficial interface, and that’s good thing.

If you want to read more about Universal Extractor, Mark wrote a more extended article about it late 2007.

Universal Extractor is available for Windows 2000/XP/Vista

KGB Archiver – Tightest Compression

KGB Archiver is an application with an insane, perhaps even the all-time highest compression rate. To achieve this, KGB Archiver deploys its PAQ6, or more recently PAQ7 compression algorithm.

Tested with Calgary Corpus, a 6MB package famous for compression algorithm testing, KGB Archiver manages to reach a stunning compress ratio of 19.8%. Compare this to the maximum RAR compression (24.0%) and 7zip ultra compression (26.1%), and I think we’ve got ourselves a winner. More test results can be found here.

Although KGB Archiver is mostly just a compression tool (it can make KGB and ZIP files), it’s the perfect companion for Universal Extractor. Get the tightest compressions out of KGB Archiver, and decompress everything using Universal Extractor, even the previously made KGB files!

KGB Archiver is currently available for Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista

7-Zip – Multi Platform Topper

If this one were to be missing from the list, I’d probably get lynched. And for a good reason that is. Over the years 7-Zip has made quite a name for itself across, and although it doesn’t support as many files as Universal Extractor, or has a compression rate as high as KGB Archiver, it gets the job done.

This open-source application works under a simple interface, but hides a very advanced toolbox. It runs light on memory and, well, just feels clean.

7-Zip File Manager is available on Windows/Mac/Linux.

So what do you think? Perhaps you prefer IZArc, or TugZIP. Tell us which applications are on top of your list, and why.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Quick Zip File Compressor & Extractor (Free WinZip Alternative) (21)
• 7Zip – A Free Program to Unzip Uncommon Archive Formats (13)
• Open any compressed file with Universal Extractor (7)
• Trash Your Duplicate Files with Auslogics Duplicate File Finder (15)
• Top Free File Hosts To Store Your Files Online (157)

Cannot delete file: It is being used by another person or program.

D’oh!

This is likely the most frustrating thing I’ve ever dealt with during my tenure as a computer nerd. I know for a fact that I haven’t opened this file in years, let alone in the last few minutes. Yet, Windows still acts as if it’s behind a thick pane of glass. You can’t open, edit, delete, or otherwise change it. It’s untouchable. Until now.

The free File & Folder Unlocker does exactly as advertised. You can use this portable application (no installation needed) to unlock any locked file or folder. With it, you may search all loaded system drivers and processes, and all files opened, whether locally or remotely. Searches can be complex or simple, i.e. “*.txt”, or the offending file can just be dragged and dropped into the program. You’ll be able to see which process, if any, has the offending file open. This program lists all open processes, so that you may check each one for locked files.

In this example from the program’s download site, the file Myletter.txt is being held captive by a hex-editor program. With a right-click, the file can be made unlocked and free. From the File menu, you may list all open objects, but be ready to wade through a long list if you do so.

I recommend File and Folder Unlocker not because of its advanced features, but because of its portability. Honorable mention goes to Unlocker, which isn’t portable, but installs in the Windows right-click menu, and has less advanced features. We’d love to hear how you deal with these problems, so give your favorite tool a shout-out in the comments.

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I’ve got just the mate for you to help you recover from your loss. Welcome to the Data Game! 

Let’s meet contestant number one!

Recuva

Yo peeps! This is Recuva representin’ Piriform. I know ya seen me around. You know my homies – CCleaner for your optimizing needs and Defraggler regulating yo fragments in yo disk! Check this out…I Recuva da files from your bin, ain’t no sin, that’s just the world we’s livin’ in. Bringin’ back yo files in style, that’s how I profile, now ya go on and make yo boss smile! Check it!

Fo’ real, I work on all Windows boxes, MP3 players, memory cards and I can work on bringing back more than one file at a time. Beat that!

And now for contestant number two!

FreeUndelete

Dude, I’m like free and I undelete. Simple is like, how I am. No frills, just focused on the zen of recovery, y’know. Like, when I need to bring back a file that got some bad karma, I just say, “Whoa, stop! Reflect for a moment. To move is to erase.”

I don’t really think about it or clutter my mind with icons and pop-ups. I’m just, like, free, y’know. I’ll catch the wave on your 2000, XP or Vista, I’ll ride where I’m needed, bro! But I don’t do the corporate sell-out. You can only use me for yourself. I’m all about the interpersonal, bro. And I like to play the bongos naked.

Last but not least, let’s give a big Data Game welcome to contestant number three!

ADRC Data Recovery Software Tools

Good evening, I am ADRC Data Recovery Software Tools, but you may call me ADRC. On the surface, I’m a simple program with functionality and ease of use always in mind. I’m thinking of you. But deep down I’m very well rounded, somewhat complex even. One could say that I’m the Renaissance Man of free data recovery.

When you undelete with me, I give you so much more than your lost files back. I bring to the table the ability to back up a disk image and restore it. I can copy files from your hard disk with bad sectors, perform disk cloning, as well as backup, edit and restore your boot parameters. Really, is there anything I can’t do? That’s a rhetorical question, my dear.

There you have it, contestant One, Two and Three. So which one will win the Data Game? Well, that’s up to you, our lucky Data Batchelor or Batchlorette!  Tell me, which one will it be? Or do you have a special someone else in mind?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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This is a multi-step process, so please read carefully, lest you end up skipping a step. You’ll need to download and install TrueCrypt, which is free, and then dive in deep for some command-line action. Ready? Here goes.

Once you’ve got TrueCrypt installed, run the program and select the Create Volume button to start the Volume Creation Wizard.

Keep the default options on the next two screens (Create an encrypted file container, then Standard TrueCrypt volume) and click Next at each screen, on to Volume Location.

This is where you’ll create your TrueCrypt container file, which will contain the encrypted virtual drive. When this drive is mounted (we’ll get there later), you can move files in and out of it like any other drive. Hit the Select File button and name your file. For simplicity’s sake, you may want to name it “hidden.tc” and stash the file in either your My Documents folder, the root of your C-drive, or onto a USB thumb-drive. In my example, the file will reside at C:\Documents and Settings\Tim\My Documents\hidden.tc .

Click Next to select the Encryption Options. The defaults should be just fine for anybody, but feel free to play with the options and feel like a 1337 haX0r.

Click Next again to set the size of the virtual drive. I’ve set mine at 1GB.

Click Next to input your password. I suggest using a site like PassPub or Password Chart to create a strong one. Write it down, or even better, commit it to memory. Super villains don’t generally leave passwords laying around on Post-Its.

At the next screen, you’re instructed to move your mouse around within the window. This generates a random encryption key. Wave it around for a minute, or even try writing your name with your mouse. Click Format and TrueCrypt does its thing. You’ll be prompted when it’s finished, at which time you may exit the wizard.

It’s time for some command-line ninja tactics. You’ll need the complete file path and name. Ready?

Open up a command window (Start > Run> “cmd” > OK).

Type “attrib”, followed by a space. Type your file’s name and path, within quotes, like this: “C:\Documents and Settings\Tim\My Documents\hidden.tc”, followed by another space. Type “+s +h”.

This marks the file as both a “system” file and a “hidden” file. The file still exists, but will not appear in Explorer, even if you have “Show hidden files and folders” enabled. To undo this, enter the same command, instead with “-s –h”. You can do this with just about any file or folder.

Time to fire up TrueCrypt again. Now, we’re going to mount the file as a virtual drive. Select a free drive letter, “X” in my example. Type the full file name and path in the Volume field, and then click Mount and type your password. Now open Explorer (Windows Key + E) and browse to My Computer.

Your previously-invisible virtual drive is now mounted, and can be used just like any other drive on the system.

When you’re done, go back to TrueCrypt and Dismount the drive. Prying eyes won’t see the virtual-drive file, and even if somebody scours your drive for hidden files, they’ll run into military-grade encryption. Your plans are safe. Please be a benevolent ruler, OK?

For variety, here are some more tools to hide data. Let us know in the comments about your favorite methods.

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We believe we’ve found a completely free file compressor extractor app (alternative to WinZip) called ZipItFree.

Why ZipItFree?

Besides the fact that (as it states it in its name) this app is free there are no annoying and irritating registrations or fees to pay. As soon as you unzip a file you have full control of functions through a modern and stylish graphical user interface while also being able to enjoy the benefits of its speed as well.

Decompressing files is even easier (as it should be) then zipping them up. All you have to do is open your ZipItFree file and locate the extraction button and click it. Your extraction should instantly begin.

The method of file compression this app uses is many times referred to as the “Black Hole” by developers because of its extremely high compression ratios and mega-fast decompression.

Another reason this desktop app (compatible with Windows versions NT-Vista) can be placed at the top of fellow similar software is its ability to utilize ZipV2 encryption algorithms to archive contents within a zipped file. This has been classified as over 100 times more secure than AES encryption algorithms (used by several un-zipping apps).

Our Journey Ends

ZipItFree handles several different formats with ease and allows you to leave comments on your archives describing what that specific archive contains so that you don’t have to unzip every file every single time you may be searching for something.

A few things that could be fixed on this fairly new app would be the support of additional formats, for now ZipItFree can support a wide variation of files; however, it still does not support all formats. The only other con I came across is that although the encryption method is substantially strong, it still may not be enough for everyone. It would be a much stronger app if it were able to somehow allow app users to choose stronger and better encryption methods totally dependent on their needs.

Here are a few files that ZipItFree easily supports: ACE, ARC, BH, BZip, CAB, GZIP, JAR, LHA, RAR, TAR, UUE, XXE, ZIP, and Zoo.

What file compressor/extractor do you use? Let us know in comments.

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That famous quote from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” tells us that the quality of an entity – such as a rose or a person – will not change even if the name is changed. But if Shakespeare were born in this modern era, he might rethink the statement carefully.

Name does matter. “Summer Holiday 2007 – 01.jpg” would make a better sense for us compared to “c0081503_8445631.jpg”. And I bet modern-age Romeo would cram his Mac hard drive with lots of files with non-sensible names. Unless he does something about it, he is going to spend most of his valuable time just trying to find the cutest picture of Juliet.

Change The Names With NameChanger

But fret not, Romeo, there are ways out of the naming problem. Use a free batch-renaming application called NameChanger from MRRSoftware. This app does only one thing, but does it good. Maybe it’s better than the paid apps.

The first thing you would see after launching the app is the simple interface. There are several icons that will help you access the commands quickly.

The first thing to do would be clicking the “Options” icon in the middle. There are checkboxes to Hide Extension, Ignore Case and Force Unique Names.

Then click “Add” to put files into the renaming list. You can also drag and drop files from Finder.

There’s also the list of choices of rules in the middle that will let you do advanced renaming to the files, including the usage of Wildcard, the ability to Remove Characters,

using Sequence,

and also adding Dates.

When you are done meddling with the choices and have the result you desired, click the “Rename” icon.

Image Browser & Other Useful Features

For image files, there’s an additional feature that you can use called the “Image Browser” that can be accessed from the toolbar. This browser will provide you with a quick peek of what images are being renamed.

You can also select/deselect individual files from the list by checking/unchecking the box in front of the file name.

Another useful feature that this little app could do is to save the “renaming session” by going to the Renames → Save Current Rename menu or by pressing the Command + S on the keyboard. This way you will be able to save the rules you’ve set in the sessions.

If you have several saved renaming sessions, you can access the session quickly from the Renames menu. You could also erase the saved sessions by going to the Renames → Manage Renames menu, select the one you want to delete and click the minus (-) button below.

I personally found this app to be very useful as I have literary thousands of image files with inhumane names given by the camera. What about you? Have you tried NameChanger or do you have other favorite renaming apps for your Mac? Share your opinions using the comments below.

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Thanks to the luxury of virtually unlimited storage space that we have today, computer users have developed the “save everything now, think about them later” attitude. The problem is, for some “too many things to do” people – like me (and maybe most of you) – “later” might never come.

Then one day, the hundredth time you find yourself rummaging your hard drive(s) for that one specific file that you really need without a clue about the file identity, you’ll wish you’d done something earlier in the file-organizing department.

The Grouping & The Searching

The most common solution to file organization problems is to group the similar files into folders. For examples: all the files related to Project X would go into folder “Project X”, while all the MP3 files will go into the “Music” folder.

Problems arise when you have to decide where to put files from Project X that are also a MP3. And most of the time, it is far more complicated than that.

To help you increase the effectiveness of using folders as a means of organizing files, you can try Smart Folder.

• Go to Finder then to File → New Smart Folder menu (or Command + Option + N)

You can also create a smart folder by doing a search in the Finder window.

• Set the rules of the folder by choosing the options available there.
• Click the plus button (+) to add more rules.
• Click the minus button (-) to delete a rule.

A few things that you can set for example: the location of the file, the kind of file, last opened date, last modified date, name, etc.

Don’t forget to hit the “Save” button after all the rules have been customized and tick the “Add To Sidebar” box to put the smart folder to the sidebar so that you can access them easily.

This way, you can set the contents of the smart folder to be PDF files which were created within a week and have the word “billing” in the name. Once a PDF file is more than one week old, it will automatically be out of the smart folder.

If you no longer need the smart folder, just right click and choose “Remove from Sidebar” from the pop-up menu.

The Tagging

Mac users can improve the usability of Smart Folder and Spotlight searching by adding tags to the files. You can assign multiple tags to a file or folder and go beyond the grouping files inside folders.

The traditional way of doing tagging is by adding Spotlight comments from the file info window. You can access the file info windows by right clicking on the item and choose “Get Info” from the pop-up menu, or select the item and press Command + I.

But doing the tagging one file or folder at a time is a tedious and time-consuming activity. Not to mention boring. The simpler way is by using TagIt.

It is a small application that will help you to tag multiple files easily. TagIt also makes the process of searching files based on their tags easier. And as a bonus, you can also assign ratings to the file(s) or folder(s).

You can search tags directly from Spotlight by using the search string “tag:the_name_of_the_tag” sans quote.

Few possible scenarios of using tags to files and folders are:

• Assign “Ongoing” tag to something that you are currently working on and change the tag to “Done” after finishing the project.
• Assign the client’s names as tags to the file.
• Use the ratings as the “Importance” level.
• Add the team member’s names.
• Add the revision number.

And by adding tags to the Smart Folder’s rules, you can organize your files and folders so much better.

What about you? What method do you use to organise files? Share using the comment section below.

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• Portable Everything Makes File Searching Instant On Your PC (20)

But today, searching through hundreds of thousands of files for a specific word in the files’ name took forever. I decided to see if there was a better way to do this so I would not have to wait for my computer to finish the search before I could have a complete list.

I once again ran into Everything on Google. This time I downloaded it. It was a portable 272KB file located here. I have tried good old Microsoft’s indexing tool once or twice in the past decade and long story short it blows big time!

I was hoping Everything was going to be a totally different story. According to what I read Everything ONLY searches through file names and that makes it very fast. But let’s actually put it through the tests.

I extracted a 589KB file from the zip file and ran it. This is what I saw:

Hmm…..everything looks pretty empty!

So I am going to try and find a group of images from my latest eBook on Photoshop. I think all the images start with Photoshop. I simply typed Photoshop and watched as my search results populated as I typed. I scrolled down a little bit past my program files from Photoshop and sure enough there were my images on my desktop in a folder called photoshop. Very nice and very fast.

How can this little app work so quickly and efficiently? I have no idea! So I opened up my task manager and looked for Everything. After the full search Everything was using around 20MB of memory. Not bad at all!  So far I am loving it. I decided to poke around their website and see what else Everything can do. I found this interesting tidbit under their FAQ’s:

How long will it take to index my files?

“Everything” only uses file and folder names and generally takes a few seconds to build its database. A fresh install of Windows XP SP2 (about 20,000 files) will take about 1 second to index. 1,000,000 files will take about 1 minute.

Everything uses RegEx (Regular Expressions) in its search bar to help you pinpoint exactly what you are looking for. Once you get the hang of it you will find it exceptionally useful in lots of places. From the program’s help file here is all the expressions that are supported and what they do:

| - A vertical bar separates alternatives. For example, gray|grey can match “gray” or “grey“.

()- Parentheses are used to define the scope and precedence of the operators (among other uses). For example, gray|grey and gr(a|e)y are equivalent patterns which both describe the set of “gray” and “grey“.

? - The question mark indicates there is zero or one of the preceding element. For example, colou?r matches both “color” and “colour“.

* - The asterisk indicates there are zero or more of the preceding element. For example, ab*c matches “ac“, “abc“, “abbc“, “abbbc“, and so on.

+ - The plus sign indicates that there is one or more of the preceding element. For example, ab+c matches “abc“, “abbc“, “abbbc“, and so on, but not “ac“.

. - Matches any single character except newlines (exactly which characters are considered newlines is flavor, character encoding, and platform specific, but it is safe to assume that the line feed character is included). Within POSIX bracket expressions, the dot character matches a literal dot. For example, a.c matches “abc“, etc., but [a.c] matches only “a“, “.“, or “c“.

[ ] - A bracket expression. Matches a single character that is contained within the brackets. For example, [abc] matches “a“, “b“, or “c“. [a-z] specifies a range which matches any lowercase letter from “a” to “z“. These forms can be mixed: [abcx-z] matches “a“, “b“, “c“, “x“, “y“, and “z“, as does [a-cx-z]

[^ ]- Matches a single character that is not contained within the brackets. For example, [^abc] matches any character other than “a“, “b“, or “c“. [^a-z] matches any single character that is not a lowercase letter from “a” to “z“. As above, literal characters and ranges can be mixed.

^ - Matches the starting position within the string. In line-based tools, it matches the starting position of any line.

$ - Matches the ending position of the string or the position just before a string-ending newline. In line-based tools, it matches the ending position of any line.

{m,n} - Matches the preceding element at least m and not more than n times. For example, a{3,5} matches only “aaa“, “aaaa“, and “aaaaa“. This is not found in a few, older instances of regular expressions.

Using these expressions I tried the following search to look for any items with AskTheAdmin in the jpg’s file name or Karl in the jpg’s file name. I am sure you can already imagine how powerful this is!

Let’s take a look at the program’s options.

On the General screen you will find the usual startup options along with some cool features like being able to run multiple instances of Everything or multiple windows of the same instance as well as hot-keys.

Everything only works on NTFS volumes so if you check the volumes tab and nothing shows up – your drives are probably not NTFS and will need to be upgraded.

The exclude option tab allows you to specify folders or files to be excluded including hidden or system files.

ETP is a feature that allows for remote searching of your local database. More information on this topic can be found here.

And HTTP offers you the ability to open up a web server on your local machine and allow queries against your local database like so:

You can open this up to the outside as well and search your PC from home without having to remote desktop in. And with some crafty FTP’ing you might be able to hand roll yourself a nice file solution.

Anyone using Everything or something similar? We would love to hear about it in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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You can either:

• Use a USB drive
• Use Dropbox
• Use SSH (Secure Shell)

What if there is a small application that is simple, fast and allows you to send files easily without any configuration or technical knowledge, wouldn’t it be great?

Giver is a simple desktop file sharing application. It is a zero configuration software that anyone can use quickly and easily. Other people running Giver on your network are automatically discovered and you can send files to them by simply dragging the files to their respective entries in Giver.

If you are using Ubuntu 8.10, you can easily install Giver by clicking here or type in the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install giver

Once you have finished the installation, you can access Giver via Applications -> Internet -> Giver.

Alll the computers that have Giver installed and running will instantly show up on the Giver window. To send files to another computer, you just need to drag and drop the files to the respective row.

Upon receiving a sent request, a notification will appear on the other computer and the user on the other end can decide if he/she wants to accept the file.

When the transfer is completed, a notification will appear on both computers stating that the files have been sent/received successfully.

A good thing about Giver is that it only creates the connection so that you can transfer files easily. It doesn’t set a limit on the number of files or the size of the files that you can send; so if you have a bunch of files or folders, you will have no problem getting them across to another computer.

One software that integrates well with Giver is the popular Tomboy notes. You can easily drag and drop any of the notes to get it sent over to another computer. On the other side, it will automatically add itself to the Tomboy notes and saving you the effort of re-importing the notes.

In a situation where there are many computers in the network and it is difficult to identify which computer entry belongs to who, Giver allows you to change your computer name and use your photos/web link/gravatar as the icon.

Using Giver is almost a no-brainer. There is zero-configuration and anyone can use it immediately, even if you have no technical knowledge.

One thing though, it only works between Linux machines. It would be great if it can also send files to a Windows or Mac computer.

What other software do you use to transfer files between different computers?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Most often they are used on blogs but they are also used in various ways on social networking sites such as Delicious, news sites like Newsvine or even online stores like Amazon. Any site that generates regular or changing content will usually have some sort of tag system in place. So why just the web? Why can’t we have it on our PCs as well?

TaggedFrog is a simple and free file tagging app for Windows XP or Vista that allows for the easy addition of files to be tagged with as many descriptive keywords (tags) as you can possibly think of. You can then visualize them in a cloud display which looks very similar to your everyday cloud display you see on many websites today.

You first begin tagging the files by adding and managing the keywords you’d like to create for your files.

An easy drag and drop interface allows for the easy addition of any type of file, document or web link from your computer. Once they are added, you can simply add any of your created tags to that file.

So now, instead of renaming and changing files as they are created, you can quickly and easily add tags to them. This allows for easy filtering and searching of your hundreds of thousands of files.

Along with the tag cloud, you can also set up “favorites” for locating some of the more popular files and tags. If you’d prefer not to go through and tag all of your files manually, you can also set up options to go through your entire hard drive with the nice “Auto Scan and Tag” feature.

The simple and clean interface, and fast search capability of tags, makes TaggedFrog a great alternative to the Windows Vista launch bar, and MUCH better search alternative than on Windows XP. Adding tags in Vista can be very tedious and having a separate application to keep them organized can become very handy when files begin to pile up on your PC.

There are plenty of other search alternatives (Windows Desktop Search, Google Desktop, etc…) than a tagging application like this. But if you simply want better organization of files, instead of creating hundreds of directories, and you don’t want to bog down your computer with search indexing, then TaggedFrog is likely the right application for you.

What do you think of tagging files instead of simply searching? Are there any other file tagging applications for Windows that you use?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Which is unfortunate, because Windows Explorer is a terrible application. It’s bad at tracking where you’ve been, it makes it hard to copy, move or even find files, and loves to fail me and close everything on my screen.

Thankfully, there’s no shortage of Explorer replacements that do Explorer’s job much better than Explorer itself. They have better features, better reliability, and better usability as a whole. Out of the many I looked at, here are the best five free windows file managers (alternative to windows explorer).

Xplorer2

Xplorer2 is the program of my choice, and is an awesomely feature-packed free windows file manager. First of all, it opens with two independent panes – great for moving and organizing files. It keeps a trail for you, so you can go back to the last folder (or three folders ago) easily. You can save bookmarks as your favorite spots, see tons of information about all of your files, and customize nearly everything about Xplorer2.

One of my favorite features is the “Preview” ability- Xplorer2 can take files of almost any type (more in the paid version), and preview them for you right in the window – great for making sure you don’t open the wrong file. And that’s all in the free version!

For $20, you can upgrade and get features you never knew you needed, but suddenly won’t be able to live without. The free version’s what I used for a long time, though, and it’s always served me well.

Kyle wrote a more detailed review of Xplorer2 last year here.

ExplorerXP

ExplorerXP’s nicest feature, in my opinion, is the tabbed interface – have as many tabs open as you want, and move things around in them just by dragging a file or folder to a tab. You can also merge or split files in .zip format, a la WinZip or WinRAR.

ExplorerXP can be set to show or not show certain files or file types, has tons of great keyboard shortcuts, and is arguably the easiest to use of the bunch. Not too many bells and whistles can be found in ExplorerXP, but if all you want is an improvement on the Windows Explorer shell, ExplorerXP’s pretty hard to beat.

FreeCommander

I like FreeCommander mostly because it makes me feel like a Jedi leader – The Free Commander. Maybe that’s just me. It’s also, however, a great application – particularly for those with large multimedia libraries.

Built on the same Norton Commander model as Xplorer2 and others, It features a dual-pane interface similar to Xplorer2, and has a similar file previewer as well. FreeCommander can also deal with your .zip, .cab, and .rar files, and even comes with a built-in FTP client.

The standout feature of FreeCommander is the endless customizability, giving you total access to every setting possible. Everything you want and don’t want to see or manage can be edited, and FreeCommander teaches you how with their guide.

A43

A43, as best as I can tell, is Windows 2000/XP only. If you’re using either of those, though, give it a shot. It’s a portable application that’s totally self-contained, and can do a lot more than manage files (though it does that quite well, with the dual-pane and tree views we’ve come to love).

A43 has an integrated text editor, image viewer, powerful search, and a quick launch tab to let you see your most-used applications. It’s almost a replacement for Explorer, the taskbar and a number of your applications all in one.

A43’s not under current support (hence no Vista version), but does what it does incredibly well for XP and 2000 users.

UltraExplorer

UltraExplorer has a customizable interface that can get too complicated if you let it – but can be really useful if you use it right.

One thing I loved about it is the “Drop Stack,” a place to drag files you use the most for quick access. If you don’t want all the tabs in one window, you can pull them out for quick access individually. For command line junkies, there’s access to a built-in command line window.  The Breadcrumb Bar is a great way to navigate through the folder path- a feature glaringly absent from Windows Explorer.

Windows Explorer, I’m convinced, was created to drive you slowly, surely insane – another step into crazy with every lost file and botched cut and paste between windows. With any of these five free apps, you can avoid the irritating, difficult-to-use Windows Explorer, and manage your files in an interface that actually makes sense.

What file-manager do you use? One of these, or something else?

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D-FileMU is a small, lightweight free software that belies its pocket-size with its punch. The 125 KB size download does not tax even a dial-up connection nor does it take a chunk out of your system resources. It is a relatively uncomplicated piece of software and in the same mold as another batch file renamer called ‘Renamer’ that was covered on MakeUseOf earlier.

The first thing I liked about the software was that it didn’t require any installation. I could run the program from any location and yes, even from my USB drive.

The file renaming operation is divided into three steps.

Step One lists the 17 different ways you can rename a file. Some of the common tasks which the software covers include everrything from renaming files to lowercase to adding ‘n’ characters to file names.

• Changing the case of the filenames.
• Changing file extensions of filenames.
• Adding strings to the beginning and end of the filenames.
• Adding numbers in sequence to the beginning or end of the filenames.
• Changing the file attributes i.e. read only (+r) or hidden (+h) or archive (+a).
• Completely renaming the files.
• Renaming files to lowercase.

…and so on.

Step Two takes you a bit further into the selection of the files you want to rename. You can choose files individually, or by file extension or apply both the choices. Thus, files can be selected from disparate locations spread out on your hard drive or can be worked upon as a collection.

Step Three lists the files that are to be worked upon. A ‘Preview’ function to see the changes that will take place is very helpful. A click of the ‘Perform Changes’ button and the operation is complete.

With the operation complete, a box will prompt you to inform that the program has made the changes to the files. If there were any errors encountered during the process, the program will also display another box notifying you that there were errors and ask if you wish to view them or not.

A button which says ‘View Process File’ opens up a file which contains a detailed step by step account of what changes were made to which files. Similarly, a button that says ‘View Error File’ opens up a file which displays the list of errors (if any) that occurred during the renaming operation.

The user might have to take this file rename tool through a few runs to get the perfect file names with all the correct attributes in place.

Therefore, following a three step process your entire gamut of files gets new names. The program can also be used from the command line, but I guess that would be more for expert hands.

D-FileMU has all the attributes of a good freeware program – fast, light and accurate. What it slightly suffers from is a non-functioning developer website and lack of updates. But the mirror download sites allow us to get the software.

D-FileMU Version 1.7.4 is compatible with WinXP and Win2000.

So, do you have your own favourite file renaming utility? Give us your opinion about this time and type-saving software.

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There are better ways than combing though every folder on your hard drive. Simply search for it using a desktop search tool. But if you simply search for “desktop search” you’ll come up with dozens of different apps. These are some of the best.

Windows Search

Windows Vista actually has a decent desktop search software built in. Unlike previous built in search programs in Windows, Vista will automatically index your computer (XP can index, however you have to turn it on manually and it won’t remind you to start indexing until after your search, to turn it on simply open my computer, right click on your hard dive, usually C:, click properties and at the bottom, check the box that says Allow Indexing Service to…) and give you close to instant results.

However, it will not index what is inside the files like other desktop search programs but does consider folder names and other data.

You can also narrow it down by type of file, author, location, and date. From there, you can navigate the search results like a regular folder. To get to it, simply hit Start then start typing.

MakeUseOf had mentioned some tips on how to make most of new Windows Search in the past. Check them out.

Google Desktop Search

It’s probably a safe guess that most of you have heard of Google Desktop Search. It is a standard desktop search software with a few extra features. First, it has a side bar where you can put widgets (namely ones that connect with other Google services.) Second, it can integrate with Google’s standard web results, (i.e) you search for cheese and you wrote a report on cheese, both will show up when you Google “cheese”. And third, it can integrate with (and search) your other Google services (like GMail, Google Talk, etc).

The search interface is the exact same as Google’s web results, because you search inside your browser. The downside to this is that 1. it won’t give you real time results and 2. the preview “what’s inside the file” is limited.

However, Google Desktop Search’s biggest flaw (that I’ve found) is that it is not 64-bit compatible. To install it on a 64-bit system, you have to run a special command in the command line, and some features do not work.

Yahoo! Desktop Search

This product is now defunct and not provided by Yahoo! any more. So then why is it here? Because Yahoo! licensed X1’s search program to do this (X1 is an enterprise level desktop search developer and because from my experience, YDS indexes and searches the fastest. It indexes relatively quickly and also what’s inside of the files. The interface is excellent, you can search email, files, documents, music, etc. via tabs at the top of the screen.

When you start searching, it will instantly start showing results with your search phrase highlighted. Click on a file and you will see (to the side or at the bottom) a preview of the file, be a picture or document, with your search phrase highlighted in the document. And all of this is almost real time.

Though the last update was way back in 2005, Yahoo! Desktop Search is still a solid desktop search tool. How can one get a hold it since Yahoo doesn’t support it? Softpedia still has a link to it on their servers and at Yahoo!’s.

Locate32

The next two programs have a different approach to searching. Instead of taking 45 minutes to index what’s inside of all of your files, they take usually less than a few minutes indexing the names. Locate32 looks like the search app in Windows 95-2000, only it is much faster. Once you install it and run the database updater, the interface is fairly basic.

You can search by name, extension, or location. Clicking on one of the other two tabs will get you more advanced options such as minimum and maximum sizes, date modified (this is good for finding stuff that you’ve made or edited recently), match whole phrase, etc.

Locate32 might not be the best choice for the average user, but is great for the power searcher.

You can read more about it and check out additional screenshots in MakeUseOf’s Locate 32 review.

Everything

The name says it all – it searches everything. The indexing is fast, and I mean you blink and it’s done. Instead of the the GUI options that Locate has, things must be done with tags like a search engine, but for the most part works exactly like Locate. Except Everything will give you real time results as you type, like Yahoo! Desktop Search tool.

I’ve used Everything several times, not for full blown desktop search, but in a crisis where I need that file and I need it now!

Everything also has a portable version, for searching on the go.

That is how I find my missing files, how do you? Is there one that blows all of these away?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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