By Bob LaFave, Tampa PC Users Group
boblala@ij.net

If there is anything I like it’s FREE programs that actually help me enjoy the computer and the Internet. Each of these programs is simple but provides needed information or a task that saves me frustration at times and makes using my computer easier. The most you may have to pay for any of these is to register with your email and name. The first program stops the frustration of remembering the order of the Icons on the Desktop after Windows decides to rearrange them all. Have you ever had that happen? You start the computer, or restart it, and all the Icons have moved. Restore Desktop will solve this problem. Go to http://www.softwarium.com and download this small, 78 KB, program and you can now save your desktop positions and return to them if ever mixed up. This program gives you the choice to “Save Desktop” or “Restore Desktop” from the desktop Properties menu. Right click your desktop and those two choices now appear. Set the desktop and click “Save Desktop” and you now are one click away from always having that desktop.

Next is CD Tray Control, which can be found at http://www.janw.de/software/cdtray and allows you to Eject or Insert your CD-ROM drives with keystrokes from your keyboard. This program is loaded on Windows start, from the Start folder and sits in your SysTray and lets lazy people like me open and close each of their 3 CD-ROM drives without bending over by using the keystroke combinations.

Folder Size Shell Extension allows you see the size of each folder and subfolder of your hard drive. You can go to http://space.dolphin.free.fr and download this program and a couple others. This program gives you an extra Tab when you look at the Properties of a folder in Windows Explorer; the new Tab is labeled “Size”. When you click the “Size” tab you will now see the size of space that the folder and each of its subfolders take in KB or MB on your hard drive. This is much easier than looking at the properties for each subfolder one at a time. This will also work for a hard drive, just click the “Size” tab, and each directory size will be given. This will take some time for larger drives with more data and folders but it is much faster than looking at each separately.

AIDA32 provides system information on your computer that is easy to use and provides complete information on your computer hardware and operating system. You can download the program at http://www.aida32.hu/aida32-shots.php?type=l and find screenshots of the various task. There are also PlugIns that can do benchmarks on the CPU, hard disks, monitor and network. Using this can save you time in finding out the specific hardware installed in your computer. It will identify most brands and models, from the motherboard, video adapter, memory type, operating systems and much more. You can even get an alphabetical listing of all programs by looking under “Software,” then clicking the “Installed Program” icon.

Fresh Devices at http://www.freshdevices.com has three programs, but I will mention just “FreshDownload.” This download utility is as effective as any I have looked at and is not ad supported. I have a dial-up connection and I have used this program on many downloads where I needed a resume feature. If the sight supports the resume feature, you can save yourself from restarting a download if the connection is cut. I have downloaded files as big as 700MB using this program. For those with cable or DSL you can have up to eight simultaneous connections at a time. It interfaces easily with IE such that you can turn it on and off easily. It allows you to schedule downloads at a time convenient to you and much more. Be warned that this site does send you email notifications almost weekly. Before you can download you do have to give them a valid email address on which they send the download link back to you.

Belarc Advisor at http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html is a PC auditor. Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, including Microsoft Hotfixes, and displays the results in your Web browser. You can then save the results so that you can keep track of your system and installed software, or you can also print the results from within IE. The software audit will supply you with the software versions and licenses when possible.

WCPUID stands for Windows CPU ID and can be found at http://www.h-oda.com for downloading. WCPUID is a program that displays the CPU information of your personal computer and also shows Frequency, Multiplier, Chipset Info and more. You can use this program to determine the CPU for almost any computer.

For anyone who does not have the installation CD’s or diskettes for the hardware on your computer, you can use WinDriversBackup to create that information in case of emergencies. You can download it at http://www.jermar.com. “WinDriversBackup” can identify all of your Windows driver files and save them to a secure location in two simple mouse clicks. Backing up your Windows driver files means they will be available to you the next time you need to reinstall the driver or the whole operating system. WinDriversBackup places the driver files in one organized location of your choosing. WinDriversBackup is especially helpful in situations where you have a computer in your possession and its internal hardware is unknown. WinDriversBackup can identify the hardware on the system and the associated drivers, then back them up to a specified location. WinDriversBackup is even network compatible -- you can just as easily connect to a remote computer on your network and backup driver files. There is both a FREE and a paid version, but the FREE version will be sufficient for most.

Next is a site that you can download 1,000’s of programs from different categories. Go to http://www.webattack.com/freeware. What I have done is just pick a category and then surf to see what programs are there. If you see an interesting program, you can find out more specific information both from a review there or by linking to the author’s site for more complete information. They give a rating on the program and supply when a program was updated and screenshots when available. There are so many places to find programs that it would be impossible to name even a small number of them. I have tried to give a few that I have found very useful and have not presented any problems for me. When I do find an interesting program and I am deciding if I want to risk it, I always go to Google and run a search on the program name to see if there is any additional information on the web about the program. This way I have luckily found programs that I can actually use that I feel safe installing up to this time. Good luck in your travels. u