My Life In the Tech World

Seeing that I am heavily involved in the computer world as of late..I've decided to post a short review of each of the apps I have been using recently. (all of which are free)



Teamviewer
This one has been awesome. Perfectly fulfilling the needs to access my computer remotely from home, or phone...for FREE. Very useful. Allows file transfer, multiple screen support, and a fairly simple interface.

Waterfox
Apparently, a 64-bit version of Firefox does not exist. This isn't a big deal, but once I read an internet article saying my browser isn't using my comps memory to its full potential, I'm a sucker to immediately fix it. Enter Waterfox, the 64-bit version of Firefox that claims to be slightly faster. An exact clone of Firefox that even ports settings/bookmarks over. (except for the odd fact that I had to reinstall all Adobe plugins) Have I noticed the massive speed increase? Nope. But still, my mind is at ease that it's ever so slightly faster then Firefox (no...I'm not switching to Chrome)

Lastpass
This is an interesting browser extension that I didn't trust upon first hearing about it. It stores all your passwords. Sketch right?! Their webpage (and outside praises) convinced me enough to give it a shot. The convenience factor is pretty awesome. Stores every password for any website you visit and syncs them across multiple comps.

You can go on their website and read their security claims. One of the things I really like is the extra authentication you can add to your account. For instance, You have a master password to access it, but, you can add a feature where if your account is accessed from an unauthorized computer (aka any computer that is not your own) the program then requires you to use a Google authenticator code (app on phone with a constantly changing numeric password) to access.

So far so good, I'll report if anything happens! Heh...

Xmarks
This one syncs all of your bookmarks, for all browsers, across multiple machines. I like having all of my bookmarks at hand, but dislike that it syncs the bookmarks toolbar near the top of the browser. I'm sure this is an easy fix though.

AutoHotkey
My work sometimes consists of doing the same computer tasks over and over again. I am currently working on automating a lot of it with this program. Hasn't been too successful but I'm not giving up! This program, with a little knowledge of script writing, can automate keyboard and mouse inputs. Sadly, this little knowledge is hard to come by for me.

7-Zip
This program can compress a file down to 73% of its original size! Awesome, but does so at the expense of speed (took me about an hour to compress a file of about 12 gig)

FastCopy
This program is especially useful for transferring large files on a windows XP machine to an external. Turns out that OS can't really copy large files (10+ gig) very fast. Took an hour long copy job down to about 20 minutes. I tested this program on windows 7 and Vista and it's not that much faster then when what those systems can do on their own.

John's Background Switcher
This program pulls images from Google, your computer, or various other sources and automatically makes them a wallpaper. I like coming into work everyday to a different Wallpaper....Combined with windows scheduler, adds some sweet variety.

Revo Uninstaller
Use this to not only run a programs uninstaller, but then goes and searches for leftover files/folders and registry entries left behind...Very thorough uninstaller.

Mozy
I use this to remotely back up my work comp every day. Yet to use for a restore, but it faithfully backs up what I set it to on a daily basis, and is very simple to use. Kind of wish you can tell it what files to back up specifically, but for now you can tell it what kind of file types, and folders.

Microsoft Security Essentials
A highly praised anti-virus software from what I have read...Surprising. (or at least I was) and the comp has been clean for the past 2 weeks. I switched out AVG for this bad boy and all is good thus far.

Spybot
An oldie but a goodie...Catching those tracking cookies in real-time.

CCleaner
I cleaned out like 20 gig of junk when I ran this the other day! A program specializing in getting rid of unused temp files, browser stuff, and general upkeep...pretty good I'd say.