Tag: Software

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List of 4 Ways to Update All Your Software in Windows

The frequency of software updates have increased day by day, due to which updating software manually has become a hectic task. If you’re a software junkie and have a lot of software installed on your system then, it will become a big headache for you.

This is the reason Update checkers have started gaining popularity. An update checker is a simple piece of software which checks updates for the softwares installed on your PC.

Why should you have a update checker?

  • Update checkers generally have a database of latest software, so when you run an Update checker it checks the version of the software installed on your PC and the latest software version available in its database.
  • If your firewall blocks these Update checkers, then add them to the exceptions list because they need to access internet in order to update your software.
  • Software developers constantly fix bugs and release new versions so in order to stay away from security glitches you need to update software constantly.
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Here are some of the best Update checkers –

#1. FileHippo Update Checker

FileHippo is one the best software hosting websites. Its software detection rate makes it the best Update Checker. It is portable enough. When I scanned my system, it showed me 16 updates of which 3 were Beta updates. As FileHippo doesn’t host commercial/shareware softwares, you won’t be able to see updates for paid softwares installed on your system.

Link: FileHippo Update Checker

#2. TechTracker

TechTracker is developed by the famous software hosting website, Download.com (Cnet). It is portable too but with less software detection rate. It showed me 13 updates. TechTracker has a major advantage over FileHippo Update checker i.e. it checks updates of commercial softwares (as download.com contains shareware too!).

Link: TechTracker

#3. Update Star

Update Star is available in two versions; one is freeware while the other is premium/shareware. The freeware gives you access to only limited number of updates (it showed me only 6 updates). It has a good visual appealing interface (similar to Snagit Image capture utility) but it’s a bit bulky than the other Update Checkers.

Link: UpdateStar

#4. Software Informer

It is developed by informer.com. When I ran it, what amazed me is that it showed updates for not just software, but also for drivers installed on my system! But unfortunately it didn’t give the download links for the updated drivers; instead it gave link to my laptop manufacturer’s site. It showed me a total of 32 updates of which 2-3 were false positives. This makes it my second favorite after FileHippo update checker.

Link: Software Informer

So use these services and make sure that software on your Windows OS is always updated. Do drop in your comments.

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Tips

Get Notified on Your Desktop When Google Docs are Updated

Since over a year I hardly use anything but Google Docs. Also at my work-place, we all use Google Docs, and that means I do end up having a lot of documents to keep track. This is not easy as most documents are collaborative efforts and you can lose track of newer updates carried out by others.

One issue is how to keep track of all the Docs which are shared with my colleagues. Google Docs Notifier is a desktop tool which sends you notifications every time a document is updated.

Google Docs Notifier Features

  • This is a free software which works with Windows XP, Windows Vista and the latest Windows 7.
  • Just log in with your Google credentials into the program and it keeps tracks of the Google Docs being updated.
  • When a document is updated it gives you a desktop notification along with info on the person who made those changes.
  • The Notifier also shows all unread or unviewed documents.

In case you are not using Discussion on Google Docs then I would recommend using Google Docs Notifier. It seems to be quite useful. Do drop in your comments.

Link: Google Docs Notifier

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Tips

ClearLock: Lock Your Computer Without Hiding Active Screen

As the name suggests, ClearLock is pretty much clear about its role, ‘Lock’ your computer with no difference after it’s locked. Let’s see what difference it’s going to bring after all.

ClearLock is an easy way to lock access to your computer (though Geeks may bypass it easily :P) even while your active screen will be visible in a translucent shade. However it’s not a mechanism to protect your computer completely.

My Personal Experience

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My personal experience with ClearLock has been great till now, I have used it for the past few months now and felt no major bugs. Once you leave your computer to rest, the active box (as below) disappears in few seconds but appears immediately you even move your mouse or press a key.

To make ClearLock experience more wonderful, I have assigned a Windows shortcut (F11) after placing the application shortcut on my desktop. This ensures just the press of a button lock my Digital buddy immediately and I can rush anywhere in a second!

 

How to set/change the Password?

The first time you run ClearLock, a window appears which asks you to enter a fresh password and confirm it (like the one given below). Once you are done, the next time the same window would appear only after you delete the .ini (configuration) file from the same location where your ClearLock.exe is kept.

Please note that ClearLock comes as a single executable file and hence you can keep it anywhere on your computer, though a writable location only.

I hope this article helps you in the same way as I have always tried for before. Do post your thoughts, comments and suggestions using the white-box below. 🙂

Link: Download ClearLock

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Reviews

iPhone gets Facebook Friendly app-Skyfire 3.0

Skyfire Labs has introduced a Facebook friendly application for iPhone.

The latest Skyfire 3.0 includes the Facebook Like button with which the user can simply ‘like’ or ‘unlike’ the page. Moreover, this new version will also support more videos based on Flash across different websites.

Credit

Skyfire 3.0 offers like the iPhone users can view what their Facebook friends and contacts view mostly at any website. One can also see the recommendations from friends. The app has an option called ‘Skyfire OneTouch Search’ where the user just needs to enter a single search term and choose between Google, Video or Wikipedia with a single touch with no need of navigating to different websites.

The iPhone users can easily download the app from the App Store. This application seems promising. 🙂 Wow, I wish I had iPhone and enjoy it. What do you think ? Share your views with me here.

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[Software] Backup And Restore Bookmarks in IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera

Recently, I bought a new netbook and wanted my old Bookmarks transfered to my new netbook’s browsers. I generally use Google Chrome for normal browsing, Internet Explorer for Social Networking and Opera when something goes wrong with the other browsers.

So, here’s a free application which will help you backup all your bookmarks and then restore it to another computer’s browser easily with a click of a button.

Backup Bookmarks is a free application which allows you to backup bookmarks from Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, Opera and Firefox. Just download Bookmarks_backup.zip and extract it into a new folder. Now open the application inside the extracted folder and a new window will show up (see screenshot):

 

 

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Now, You have to choose the Browsers from where you want to backup bookmarks and also select a folder to where the bookmark backup(s) will be saved for later use. Now click on the Backup Button. You can also restore previous bookmarks by following the same steps under the Restore Options and click on Restore Button to restore the bookmarks.

To know more about how this works and how to Backup/restore bookmarks, you can watch this video:

Link: Backup Bookmarks

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Reviews

Free Desktop Application for Making To-Do Lists

A couple of months ago I wrote about Fish Memory, which allows creating and managing multiple ‘To Do” lists. There is a problem with such to-do list websites. The problem is you always need to be connected to the internet and also access them through a browser.

Most times desktop applications to make ‘to-do lists’ are a litte complicated and usually not free. Thankfully I came across Doominow, which is a simple desktop application to make to-do lists.

Doominow To-Do List Features

  • Just download the application from the website and start adding to-do tasks.
  • The software is simple and light and does not have too many complexities.
  • It is an Adobe air application which obviously makes it compatible with all platforms including Linux.

Why I recommend Doominow?

I like using this application because it is lightweight and uncomplicated. Most To-Do applications try to have complicated features and that takes the simplicity out of it.

I wish that the software had a way to sync on the cloud, that would be useful for people using two different computers.

Try out Doomi – To Do Lists and drop in your comments.

Link: Doominow

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Reviews

[Tested] Software to download complete YouTube playlist

I don’t doubt if you already know a Firefox add-on to download all videos of a user or a playlist to your PC, however I am sharing 3 software tools which works independent of any browser.

JDownloader

(+) I am not sure if the “J” was inspired by Java which is even its development platform, I am atleast sure that it will help you to download videos on any Operating system from not just YouTube but even public file hosts like Rapidshare and Megaupload even you not subscribed to their premium services. It even bypasses the need to enter a captcha manually. It also supports download Resume function.

(-) The interface seems to be somewhat “not instantaneous” and heavy on CPU. This is probably because of it’s built platform is Java, and this is typical of Java-built software.

LINK: JDownloader

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Free YouTube Download

(+) This looks neat and simple. No menus, no add-ons to shuffle with. Directly paste your video, playlist or channel url and it fetches the complete list for you to start downloading in any of the major formats.

(-) Only MP4, AVI and FLV formats are available. Many other important formats are not covered.

LINK: Free YouTube Download

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aTube Catcher

(+) This one is fantastic, though you must go to Tools menu –> YouTube to download multiple videos from a user or channel. It is not just for YouTube, but it lets you download from a wide range of services, mentioned here. However what other software cannot compete is its Turbo Download which offers upto 600% faster speeds. Also, it lets you search & directly download MP3 or Videos directly within the software. Offers almost all formats for videos and music.

(-) Found few bugs which even you may experience while using it.

Do post your comments if you have used any software you feel is better.

LINK: aTube Catcher

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Reviews

Shufflr – Browse and Play Videos Shared by Your Friends

When it comes to finding something, I Google it. This is true for tutorials, manuals and even just looking up the news.
When it comes to videos, we often end up watching what our friends do. This is thanks to Facebook and Twitter. Videos when they go viral are usually spread through social networking sites.

Shufflr is a video player which shows you videos according to your interests and also taps into your social sphere.

About Shufflr.Tv

  • First I had to download the software on my computer. A good this is that it is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux systems.
  • We also have to register on Shufflr and create an account. This will prompt for atleast 4 tags you like.
  • Based on what you put out there as categories you are interested in, it will stream you videos.
  • Another great feature is that I could link up Shufflr with my Twitter and Facebook account. This makes my video list very social. 🙂

Here is video that covers some basics of Shufflr.

If you are interested in having a desktop application to view online videos, then Shufflr seems like a great option. Do try it out and let me know your views through your comments.
Thank you @pryankaa for the tip.

Link: Shufflr TV

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Hooeey Webprint: Keep track of every web-page you visit!

Feels like you are shouting “Hoeey”, the word itself is an interesting product though. Hooeey is basically a web-tracking software which automatically keeps a track of all your activities on the browsers – Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Hooeey Webprint basically is enhanced to automatically capture real-time screenshots along with a small thumbnail of the webpages you open while browsing. These are not just screenshots but the recorded websites are completely text-searchable. It even saves the entire HTML of the pages captured. The only thing which disappoints me is no support for Chrome is available.

Hooeey Webprint provides support for the following two browsers:

  • Mozilla Firefox 2.0 and above
  • Internet Explorer 7 and above

Few of the features of Hooeey Webprint are:

  • Privacy is under your control, you decide where to save the recorded data on your computer.
  • You can even stop recording at any instant by just pressing a button on your browser.
  • To use their basic service you do not even have to register to their website.
  • Typically a captured web-page should take up 100 KB to 800 KB on your computer. However for me, it took almost 1 MB for a page, however that entirely depends on an individual page.
  • You can even tag and comment on various pages to classify them in accordance to your preferences.
  • You must note that even Google History is a similar service however it will save your browsing footsteps only when you are logged into Google.

For a better understanding of how Hooeey Webprint work, I would suggest you should try it once. However if you are not happy with the way it works, do not forget to delete the saved pages using the option available in the application itself. Let me know what you feel about this application.

Link: Hooeey Webprint

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Reviews

JDownloader – All in one download manager for Linux

I have been using Ubuntu for few years and was searching for a feature-rich download manager for years. Recently, I came across the best platform independent, all-in-one open source download manager named JDownloader which has attractive features, which substitutes the popular Internet Download (Manager for Windows) in most of it’s features.

  • Platform independent. (Windows, Linux, Mac, ..)
  • Runs on Java 1.5 or higher
  • Completely Open-Source (GPL)
  • 24-hour support
  • Add-ons
  • Download several files parellel
  • Download with multiple connections
  • JD has an own powerful OCR module (JAntiCaptcha)
  • Decrypt RSDF, CCF and DLC Containerfiles
  • Decryptplugins for many services. e.g. sj.org, UCMS, WordPress, RLSLog….
  • Youtube, Vimeo, clipfish video and Mp3 Download
  • Automatic extractor (including password list search) (Rar archives)
  • Theme Support
  • Multilingual
  • About 110 hoster and over 300 decrypt plug-ins
  • Reconnect with JDLiveHeaderScripts: (1400 router supported)
  • Webupdate
  • Integrated package manager for additional modules (eg. Webinterface, Shutdown)

Installing JDownloaded is pretty simple.

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Please follow the steps for direct bundle.

Method 1 : Download the file; unzip it and you can start using it as shown in the screenshot below

Method 2: Download the script and make it executable by the following ways

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  1. Right click “jd.sh” -> Properties -> Permissions (tab) -> check “Allow executing file as program” -> Ok
  2. double click on jd.sh -> Run in Terminal — will download all necessary files and you are done with installation.

For beginners, the former method is pretty simple.

NOTE : JDownloader requires Java Runtime Enviroment (jre/jdk) 1.5 or higher. If possible, you should use the latest Java version.

Please share your views on this downloader let me know if there are any other alternative downloaders which you use.