January 16, 2013
Edit your partitions from outside your operating system. The GParted Live CD is a simple Linux distro you can use to change the size of your partitions – or wipe a drive entirely. Built around GParted, the ultimate partitioning software, the GParted Live CD is probably the simplest way to use GParted on any computer – regardless of what operating system it runs.
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November 22, 2012
Today's anti-virus solutions are pretty reliable, protecting you from most of the common threats out there in the world. With safe browsing habits, there's a rare chance that you'd ever get infected with malware. However, there's never a guarantee that you'll be completely safe if you are simply careful and run your anti-virus software. Especially when it comes to zero-day threats, sometimes things just happen to you that you can't blame on yourself.
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October 3, 2012
Take control of your hard drives. Whether you want to edit your partitions, clone an entire drive, check SMART data or otherwise manage the way your computer's data is organized, Parted Magic is the tool you've been looking for. It's a live CD with lots of tools baked in. Whether you're an IT professional constantly in need of ways to manage machines or just some guy looking for a simple way to re-partition a hard drive, Parted Magic is simple to use and heavy on features.
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July 13, 2011
Can't boot your computer, and think the problem is malware? Boot a live CD made specifically for scanning your computer without starting Windows. A live CD is a tool that boots completely from a CD or a flash drive, meaning you can use these tools whether Windows is working or not. A variety of live CDs exist that make it possible to scan your computer for viruses.
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July 7, 2011
Put multiple bootable tools onto one USB drive, then pick which one you want to boot when your computer starts up. Whether you want to try out various Linux environments at once or put together the ultimate Windows repair kit, YUMI (Your Universal Multiboot Installer) can help you build a bootable disk with a menu. It even supports Windows Vista and 7 installation disks.
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July 4, 2011
Kdenlive is a free and cross-platform video editor that will probably mean more to your average Linux user than Windows or Mac types. If you're searching for a decent, all-in-one solution for editing video on your Linux system then Kdenlive might just be the program you're looking for.
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March 14, 2011
In my experience Windows tends to have a habit of going wrong when you least expect, and at crucial moments. If you dread that sinking feeling as your system screws the pooch on startup, maybe it’s time to make a Linux live CD. There are plenty of reasons the average Windows user may want to [...]
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October 23, 2010
Kaspersky is known for providing quality malware protection, typically leading rankings of AV software. The Kaspersky rescue disk gives you access to that even when a nasty bit of software leaves you without access to Windows, and it’s a free download. Some viruses are better than others. Particularly evil ones will prevent you from installing [...]
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August 16, 2010
Here at MakeUseOf, we’ve recently needed to test for the Android platform but we don’t all have the necessary Google-friendly smartphones. If you don’t own a fancy new Android device, and would like to give Google’s latest mobile OS a go then you’ll be delighted to know you’re not completely out of luck. We’ve previously [...]
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July 22, 2010
Every operating system has its own strengths. Windows is ubiquitous, and offers access to a wide range of software. OSX is rock-solid, and typically behaves exactly as the user expects. Linux gives you access to millions of open source programs that can’t always be found elsewhere. Many of these free applications are amazingly useful, even [...]
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July 21, 2010
Think Ubuntu is useless? Think again. Ubuntu can be an extremely effective tool for repairing and working on computers, even if you consider yourself a Windows purist. This is because Ubuntu is capable of loading completely from a Ubuntu Live CD, giving you access to your computer in ways Windows can’t – or when Windows [...]
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May 13, 2010
Ever wanted Ubuntu to include your favorite software on the CD by default? Or perhaps you are not too overwhelmed by the design choices? A foolproof way to get around such issues is to customize and create your own Ubuntu CD. The traditional ways as documented on the Ubuntu Wiki are at best cumbersome and [...]
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March 25, 2010
A few days back one of my computers decided to act up. Sometimes Windows would boot and function well for some time after which applications would fail to start or crash. Other times Windows would not boot without resetting multiple times. Obviously, almost instinctively I attributed the trouble to Windows. Ran a couple of scans [...]
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February 25, 2010
Hiren’s Boot CD is an all-in-one bootable CD solution that contains a load of useful tools you can make use of in a variety of situations. I am talking about hard drive failure, virus infections, partitioning, password recovery and data recovery. HBCD (as Hiren’s Boot CD is called) is a God-send in situations like these. [...]
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January 7, 2010
Recently I have been on a spree of fixing unbootable OS’s for friends and family. A surprising fact that I discovered was that many of them were ready to reformat and perform a fresh Windows install, if only they could just backup their music, photos and the likes. So here I am with a piece [...]
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